Happy International Day for Biological Diversity.

On this day we celebrate the planet’s incredible tapestry of life and recognize the importance of biodiversity and its profound impact on us. International Day for Biodiversity encourages us to be aware, appreciate, and preserve the life around us from the microscopic to the gigantic. Conservation is not just about protecting rare species or preserving breathtaking lansdscapes, it’s about safeguarding the foundation of our existence. Biodiversity provides us with nutrition, medicine, leisure and artistic inspiration. Many things that endanger wildlife also threaten us like climate change and pollution. Helping them also helps us. Together, we can make a difference by raising awareness, supporting conservation initiatives, and making sustainable choices in our daily lives to create a brighter future for all living things. Let’s commit to taking action to preserve our planet’s biodiversity for generations to come.

On this first day of the virtual art exhibition, we showcase ‘White Strelitzia’ by Tracey Williams. The Strelitzia flower, also known as the bird of paradise, is native to South Africa. It produces a nectar-rich flower which serves as a valuable food source for pollinators like butterflies, hummingbirds, and bees. By attracting and feeding these animals, the bird of paradise nourishes them and ensures that they are, in turn, pollinated to produce the next generation of plants and flowers to sustain the web of life. The unique structure and vibrant colours of the bird of paradise are an artistic inspiration, its elegance serving as a reminder of the countless wonders of our natural world.

As we celebrate International Day for Biological Diversity, we admire not only this artist’s representation of nature but also recognise the urgent need to protect the biodiversity that inspired it. Life provides such an inspiration for art it is unfathomable to think of a world where we have neither.