Getting our priorities right

Abstract

We all have an inkling of roughly when the next general election is due (2013), when works to revamp Valletta's main entrance will be completed (2013), when the world is destined, according to the doom-sayers, to end (2012) and when Malta will assume the rotating presidency of the European Union (2017). However, few of us are aware that the year we are currently in - 2010 - has been declared by the United Nations as the International Year for Biodiversity. In fact, while the climate change issue hogs the limelight, biodiversity fails to cause the same kind of stir on the local scene. Few of us are acquainted with three biodiversity-related aspects in particular. Firstly, the population at large is unfamiliar with the actual meaning of the word 'biodiversity'. It incorporates three dimensions - the variety of habitats and ecosystems, the variety of species (the definition most people understand) and the variety of genes within a species (which is being cut down due to the abandonment of traditional farming techniques).