Scientists from all over the world are set to begin an unprecedented study to map the health of the planet and provide possible remedies to cure its ills, the United Nations announced today.
"If we are to rescue the Earth's ecosystem we need facts," Mr Klaus Toepfer, executive director of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), told a news conference in Turin as he unveiled the $21 million study ahead of World Environment Day on June 5.
UN Secretary-General Mr Kofi Annan will officially launch the four-year study, called the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment, in New York on Tuesday.
The study, to assess the condition of the world's wildlife habitats and ecosystems, will involve around 1,500 scientists.
The study should improve not only our understanding of the impact that humans are having on the fragile planet, but also provide remedies and chart ways in which the Earth's ecosystems can be saved and restored, UNEP said in a statement.
We want to produce instruments and construct scenarios that help those who make decisions in their choices, said Mr Delmar Blasco, secretary-general of the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands.
The study will also make use of 16,000 satellite images donated by NASA which contain important information on environmental damage in coastal, rural, mountainous and wetland areas.
Mr Toepfer said last week that a study had revealed some 90 percent of Mesopotamian marshlands, the largest wetland in the Middle East and one of the world's most important freshwater ecosystems, had been lost as a result of drainage and damming.