The International Day of the Tropics celebrates the extraordinary diversity of the tropics while highlighting unique challenges and opportunities nations of the Tropics face. It provides an opportunity to take stock of progress across the tropics, to share tropical stories and expertise and to acknowledge the diversity and potential of the region.
- The Tropics host nearly 95% of the world’s mangrove forests by area and 99% of mangrove species.
- The Tropics have just over half of the world’s renewable water resources (54%), yet almost half their population is considered vulnerable to water stress.
- By 2050, the region will host most of the world’s people and two-thirds of its children.
- Consistent with the higher levels of poverty, more people experience undernourishment in the Tropics than in the rest of the world.
- The proportion of the urban population living in slum conditions is higher in the Tropics than in the rest of the World.
Biodiversity is greater in the Tropics – however, loss of biodiversity is also greater in the Tropics than in the rest of the world.
