World Environment Day is a United Nations sponsored annual day of action and awareness of our shared environment and the importance of conservation, environmental protection, and other efforts to sustain our planet for future generations. Celebrated annually on June 5, World Environment Day’s 2021 focus is Ecosystem Restoration and the theme “Reimagine. Recreate. Restore.”. The host country for this year is Pakistan.
The United Nations General Assembly established World Environment Day in 1972 at the Stockholm Conference on the Human Environment. Since then, the annual event has grown to spread awareness globally for the need for human action to protect, preserve and restore our shared environment. Action is needed to combat the effects of the past century in which the world has lost nearly half of its wetlands and coral reefs, among many other environmental tragedies.
Free trees given away at Tree Planting at Calvert Elementary School in Woodland Hills. Los Angeles Conservation Corps works with local community groups to plant trees as part of Mayor’s office One Million Trees LA Initiative. LA Conservation Corps provides job skills training, education and work experience with an emphasis on conservation and service projects that benefit the community. Photo: Citizen of the Planet/ UIG 
Clean up at Venice Beach. Students and volunteers help with the Monthly Clean-up, California, USA. Photo: Citizen of the Planet/ UIG 
Leeward Dutch Antilles, Curacao, Coral researcher documenting dead elkhorn coral (Acropora palmta). Photo: Wild Horizons 
Sensitive Habitat sign in Ballona Wetlands, Playa Vista, Los Angeles, California, USA. Photo: Citizen of the Planet 
Urban community garden. Photo: Kurt Wittman/ UIG 
An insect hotel is a manmade structure created to provide shelter for insects. France. Photo: Pascal Deloche/ Godong 
ISA is a Brazilian NGO which encourages farmers to grow trees. Photo: Ton Koene/ VWPics 
Biosphere Reserve sign along the Biospharenreservat Flusslandschaft Elbe, Elbtalaue, Niedersachsen, Lower Saxony, Germany. Photo: Arterra/UIG 
Tiger shark (Galeocerdo cuvier), tagging. Kaneohe, Oahu, USA. Photo: Andre Seale/VW PICS 
Information sign about dune restoration in sand dunes with marram grass, Walberswick, Suffolk, England, UK. Photo: Geography Photos/UIG 
Release of young common seals (Phoca vitulina) on sand-bank, Netherlands. Photo: Arterra/UIG 
A couple watering plants for Coastal Dune Restoration at Beach View Park. Photo: Jeffrey Greenberg/UIG 
A whale shark (Rhincodon typus) and two researchers taking photo ID and checking the gender in the Bohol Sea, Philippines. Photo: Steve De Neef/ VWPics 
An environmentally sensitive area sign at South Beach Park. Photo: Jeffrey Greenberg/UIG
The loss of ecosystems directly affects the health of our planet and it is for this reason that restoring ecosystems is such an important focus for this World Environment Day, which kicks off the United Nation’s Decade on Ecosystem Restoration (2021-2030).
For more information on World Environment Day, please visit https://www.un.org/en/observances/environment-day
Sources:
United Nations https://www.un.org
World Environment Day https://www.worldenvironmentday.global/