World Environment Day (WED) is celebrated on 5 June every year, and is the United Nations‘ principal vehicle for encouraging awareness and action for the protection of our environment.
First held in 1974, it has been a flagship campaign for raising awareness on emerging from environmental issues to marine pollution, human overpopulation, and global warming, to sustainable consumption and wildlife crime.
World Environment Day has grown to become a global platform for public outreach, with participation from over 143 countries annually.
Each year, WED has provided a new theme that major corporations, NGOs, communities, governments and all celebrities worldwide adopt to advocate environmental causes.
Annual themes and major initiatives and accomplishments
For almost five decades, World Environment Day has been raising awareness, supporting action, and driving changes for the environment. Here is a timeline of key accomplishments in WEDs’ history:
The theme for 2020 is «Bio Diversity», and will be hosted in Colombia in partnership with Germany.
Colombia is one of the largest “Megadiverse” nations in the world to hold 10% of the planet’s biodiversity. Since it is part of the Amazon rain forest, Colombia ranks first in bird and orchid species diversity and second in plants, butterflies, freshwater fish, and amphibians.
