Message from Ms. Audrey Azoulay, Director-General of UNESCO, on the Occasion of the International Day for Biological Diversity
联合国教科文组织总干事奥德蕾·阿祖莱国际生物多样性日致辞
22 May 2018
2018年5月22日
Biodiversity is a common good, an invaluable legacy formed over the course of millions of years, and capital to transmit to future generations. In its definition, it includes the exceptional variety of the forms of life on Earth, as well as the natural environments where these forms developed – the ecosystems. Biodiversity is central to our own existence, offering all nature's resources to our development.
生物多样性事关共同利益，它是历经数百万年形成的宝贵遗产，也是传诸后世的重要资本。生物多样性的定义包括地球上种类极为繁多的生命形式及其生存繁衍的自然环境——生态系统。生物多样性对于我们的生存至关重要，为人类发展提供各种自然资源。
Biodiversity, however, is not inexhaustible. Human interventions – extensive exploitation of resources, unsustainable patterns of consumption, industrial pollution causing climate change – are resulting in irreparable damage to biodiversity.
然而，生物多样性并非用之不竭。人类干预——资源大量开发、不可持续的消费方式、造成气候变化的工业污染——正在对生物多样性造成不可弥补的损害。
This was highlighted by international experts at the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES), which met last March in Medellin, Colombia. The reports produced by these experts confirmed the rapid deterioration in the state of biodiversity and underlined the direct effects of this deterioration, which are already visible, such as the spread of certain diseases to men.
今年三月，在哥伦比亚麦德林参加生物多样性和生态系统服务政府间科学政策平台会议的国际专家对此予以强调。这些专家编写的报告证实生物多样性状况迅速恶化，并指出这种恶化的直接影响已经显现，某些疾病传播到人类即为一例。
UNESCO, a partner agency of IPBES, pledges to work towards halting the loss of biodiversity and fostering the sustainable use of ecosystems. The Programme on Man and the Biosphere (MAB), for example, aims to ensure a harmonious balance between human activities and the natural environment. In the context of the United Nations Decade on Biodiversity (2011-2020), UNESCO is also contributing actively to the implementation of the Convention on Biological Diversity, adopted 25 years ago by 196 parties and aimed at the conservation of biological diversity and a sustainable and equitable sharing of resources. At sites on its World Heritage List, in its World Network of Biosphere Reserves and its Global Geoparks, our Organization develops, with all its partners, innovative solutions by addressing issues of biodiversity and cultural diversity in a complementary manner.
教科文组织作为政府间科学政策平台的伙伴机构，承诺努力遏制生物多样性丧失并促进生态系统的可持续利用。例如，“人与生物圈”计划旨在确保 人类活动与自然环境之间实现和谐的平衡。在联合国生物多样性十年（2011–2020）框架内，教科文组织还积极促进《生物多样性公约》的实施。25年前由196个缔约方通过的这一公约，旨在保护生物多样性并确保生物多样性资源的可持续和公平的分享。在其列入名录的世界遗产地、生物圈保护区以及地质公园，本组织均与所有合作伙伴一道，开发创新的解决办法，以相辅相成的方式处理生物多样性和文化多样性问题。
Beyond the urgent need to preserve biodiversity and restore degraded ecosystems, these programmes are helping to change attitudes and develop economic and social practices. This falls within the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, in particular, Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 15, dedicated to the quality of life on Earth, and requires the sharing of values such as cooperation, respect for diversity, and intergenerational solidarity, values acquired and cultivated through education for sustainable development (ESD).
除了应对保护生物多样性和恢复退化的生态系统的紧迫需要，这些计划 还力图推动观念的转变以及经济和社会习俗的发展。这种发展符合《2030年可持续发展议程》，特别是其关于地球上生活质量的目标15，它需要分享合作、尊重多样性、代际团结等通过可持续发展教育获得和培养的价值观。
This International Day aims to raise awareness of these issues that are crucial to our lives today and in the future. On this Day, a beautiful American Indian proverb is particularly fitting: "We do not inherit the Earth from our ancestors; we borrow it from our children."
今年的国际日力求提高人们对事关我们现在和未来生活的重大问题的认识。在这样一个时刻，印第安人谚语“大地并非从祖先那里继承，而是从子孙手中借用”甚为贴切。