Mother Earth Day 2019 - Remarks by General Assembly President

Opening remarks by General Assembly President, H.E. María Fernanda Espinosa, at the Interactive dialogue of the General Assembly on Harmony with Nature during the commemoration of International Mother Earth Day.
Marking the International Mother Earth Day, the President of the General Assembly Maria Fernanda Espinosa said, “our mother earth is in serious danger,” and “it is time to take care of it.”
At the opening, Espinosa reiterated that human beings have endangered the earth and it is time to “repair the damage, to protect and restore its vital cycle to make sure that we protect life and that the natural can reproduce.”
She also reiterated, “a sustainable world which we are part to achieve with the Agenda 2030 requires us to rethink how we interact with natural.”
Espinosa continued, “finding a balance between the needs of the human beings and the resources that mother earth provides us doesn’t mean we do not use them, but it means we should set aside the irrational exploitation of these resources, and build a model of development in which we respect the thresholds established by nature, its capacity to regenerate as well as its right to exists and maintain itself.”
Also speaking at the meeting, Cynthia Silva Maturana, Bolivian Deputy Minister of Environment said, “it is also a time to appeal to the civil societies, to its organizations, to its peoples, to building proposals, to permit ourselves to build for a common future, to contribute common solutions to many questions.”
She added, “to appeal to building models which will go beyond individuality and build process for community, like a way to encourage and recognize each other, respecting and working with our natural systems in inclusive development processes.”