With the financial support of the Government of Sweden and in the frames of the „Keep Georgia Tidy“ Project, Georgian Society of Nature Explorers “Orchis” announces an Essay Competition on the theme of Biodiversity

With the financial support of the Government of Sweden and in the frames of the „Keep Georgia Tidy“ Project, Georgian Society of Nature Explorers “Orchis” announces an Essay Competition on the theme of Biodiversity, which aims to promote environmental protection and the Sustainable Development Goals as they are perceived by the youth and to increase their engagement.

The Competition is open to students of high schools.

The deadline for the submission of essays is August 20, 2020, 18:00. Essays should comprise 5-7 pages.

Only 1 winner will be identified in the frames of the Competition, who will be given a monetary award of 500 GEL.

The headlines of the essays are:

1. “Protection of Biodiversity, Identification of and Coping with Respective Threats”

or

2. “Importance of Ecosystem Services Provided by Biodiversity, Preservation and Enhancement of These Services to Ensure Well-being of People and Address Their Needs”

The essay “Protection of Biodiversity, Identification of and Coping with Respective Threats” shall describe:

Threats posed on any component(s) of biodiversity (e.g. any species or population of the plant or animal; habitats; ecosystem); outcomes of this; actions/ processes that should be/ have been carried out or have naturally occurred to improve the situation; positive/ negative outcomes, analysis of these outcomes and respective conclusions.

The essay “Importance of Ecosystem Services Provided by Biodiversity, Preservation and Enhancement of These Services to Ensure Well-being of People and Address Their Needs” shall describe:

Results of losing or enhancing ecosystem service(s) for people and their activities, including economic activities, health, poverty combating, etc.; actions and processes leading to such outcomes; what should be/ should not be done to achieve optimal positive result.

The theme covers the following context:

Brief information about biodiversity and its importance: Biological diversity – “the variability among living organisms from all sources including, inter alia, terrestrial, marine and other aquatic ecosystems and the ecological complexes of which they are part” (the Convention on Biological Diversity).

Significance of biodiversity: Biodiversity ensures services that are essential for human being and life in overall.

Currently the world faces many environmental challenges and problems that should be solved. Often their scale is global, and common efforts and commitments are required to address them. In this regards, processes linked to biodiversity loss, including climate change, desertification and other negative trends not to speak about economic development should be paid attention. These processes are tightly interconnected so that represent a serious factor that hinders robust and full value functioning of ecosystem. As a result, proper and unrestricted delivery of ecosystem services is disrupted. The above-mentioned negatively affects overall well being of people and sustainable development, which imply a balanced linkage between ecologic, economic and social factors.

Biodiversity has a tremendous role for our existence and life in general. Besides the fact that individual features of biodiversity such are animals, plants and mushrooms, as natural resources, represent the source of our food, biodiversity components (e.g. pastures) also ensure the occurrence of domestic animals that are used for the same purpose. It should be mentioned that biodiversity is very beneficiary in terms of medicine – for instance, it provides medicinal plants that are used in pharmaceutical production. Biodiversity components also ensure biological purification of water.

Besides, biodiversity ensures natural regulation and control of processes such are: erosion, avalanche, climate change, purification of water and air, regulation of hydrological regime, decomposition of waste, etc.

Extremely important is the role of biodiversity as a source for the development of sectors needed for human being such are: production of resources, cultural tourism, recreation, etc.

Ecosystem services of biodiversity, i.e. benefits they gift us can be grouped as follows:

– Supporting services (soil formation, photosynthesis, nutrient cycling, etc.)

– Regulating services (regulation of climate, purification of water and air, protection against erosion and natural hazards, pollination, etc.)

– Provisioning services (timber, cereal crops, domestic animals, sea products, potable water, abiotic energy sources, etc.)

– Cultural services (recreation, supporting of physical and mental health, tourism, aesthetic appreciation, etc.)

Main threats identified for biodiversity include:

– Reduction, fragmentation and degradation of natural habitats;

– Overuse/ over-extraction;

– Introduction of invasive species;

– Environmental pollution;

– Climate change, etc.

Please send your essays on the following e-mail address: orchisge@yahoo.com indicating your contact information as well as the name of your high school.

Good luck!

Keep Georgia Tidy Project is being implemented by the NGO Consortium: Georgian Society of Nature Explorers Orchis, Keep Georgia Tidy and Greens Movement of Georgia/Friends of the Earth Georgia through funding of the Government of Sweden, with support of Georgian Ministries of Environmental Protection & Agriculture, Regional Development & Infrastructure, and Education, Science, Culture & Sport, and in cooperation with the Solid Waste Management Company of Georgia and Environmental information & Education Centre.