International Day of the Tropics (29 June), is being observed by the UN Agencies and environmental activists through social media, virtual meets, website postings and print media articles and following the messages on Twitter at: #WeAreTheTropics and #TropicsDay.
The aim of the observation is to ‘celebrate the extraordinary diversity of the tropics while highlighting unique challenges and opportunities nations of the Tropics face, as well as to provide an opportunity to take stock of progress across the tropics, to share tropical stories and expertise and to acknowledge the diversity and potential of the region.’
The UN website while emphasizing the fact that he Tropics account for 40 per cent of the world’s total surface area and are host to approximately 80 per cent of the world’s biodiversity and much of its language and cultural diversity holds that ‘The future belongs to the Tropics’ which consist of ‘areas between the tropic of Cancer and the tropic of Capricorn.’
Some other pertinent points made at UN website are as follows.
-The tropical region faces several challenges such as climate change, deforestation, logging, urbanization and demographic changes.
-Tropical nations have made significant progress but face a variety of challenges that demand focused attention across a range of development indicators and data in order to achieve sustainable development.
-By 2050, the region will host most of the world's people and two-thirds of its children. Consistent with the higher levels of poverty, more people experience undernourishment in the Tropics than in the rest of the world. The proportion of the urban population living in slum conditions is higher in the Tropics than in the rest of the World.
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