Manila (AFP) - fascination of young people with television, Internet, video games and other electronic entertainment is making it more difficult to protect the world's biodiversity, a UN official warned Tuesday.
Because many young people is urbanized and alienated nature, they may not realize the value of protecting natural ecosystems and species, said Ahmed Djoghlaf, Executive Secretary of the United Nations on biological diversity.
"Our children are behind their computers, their SMS, video games, watching TV. "They live in a virtual world, and we have reconnect them with nature," Djoghlaf said biodiversity forum in Manila a Southeast Asia.
"They do not see how a potato is cultivated." "They just see potatoes to a shelf in the supermarket."
He cited polls showing children in developed countries spend 95 percent of their free time watching television or on the computer and only 5% on the outside. Another survey said 20 percent of American children had never exceeded a tree, said Djoghlaf.
Arguing that lack of education is one of the greatest threats to the preservation of natural heritage, Djoghlaf cited a study of Europe in 2009 which found that 60 percent of the population did not know the meaning of the word "biodiversity".
"How can protect you something that you do not know." He asked how can protect you something you've never seen? "."
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