Growing since 2016
Ecology Day emerged as a celebration of the 150th anniversary of Ecology in 2016, marked with a roundtable at the European Parliament in Brussels.
The date, 14 September, coincides with the day Ernst Haeckel published his “Ökologie und Chorologie” (Haeckel, 1866, II: 286–289, reprinted in Acot 1998: II, 703-706), where he defined science.
" By ecology we mean the whole science of the organism's relations with the environment, including, broadly, all "conditions of existence". These are partly organic, partly inorganic in Nature; both are of the utmost importance for the form of organisms, because they force us to adapt. Among the inorganic conditions, (...) we consider the physical and chemical properties of their habitat, the climate (light, heat, atmospheric conditions of humidity and electricity), inorganic nutrients, the nature of the water and soil, etc. As organic conditions, we consider all the relations of the organism with all the other organisms with which it comes into contact, and which contribute most to its advantage or to its detriment. Each organism has, among other organisms, its friends and enemies, those that favor its existence and those that harm it. The organisms that serve as organic food for others, or that live on them as parasites, also belong to these groups. this category of organic conditions of existence. In a word, ecology is the study of all the complex interrelationships referred to by Darwin as the conditions of the struggle for existence."
Ecology Day was born in this context.
Since 2017, this day has been promoted by the SPECO - Portuguese Society of Ecology , in association with a European Ecology Federation (EEF) . SPECO has dedicated itself to the annual launch of the initiative that, in Portugal, has the High Sponsorship of the UNESCO National Commission .
In 2019, two years later, Ecology Day took on an international scale, thanks to the celebrations that took place in the United States of America, Russia, India and Mozambique. The official setting of the date depends on the scale of the initiative, which is gradually reinforced.