World Wildlife Day

On 20 December 2013, the Sixty-eighth session of the United Nations General Assembly decided to proclaim 3 March as World Wildlife Day to celebrate and raise awareness of the world’s wild fauna and flora.

The date is the day of the adoption of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) in 1973, which plays an important role in ensuring that international trade does not threaten the species’ survival. With 183 Member States, CITES remains one of the world's most powerful tools for biodiversity conservation through the regulation of trade in wild fauna and flora.

Theme for 2024 - Connecting People and Planet: Exploring Digital Innovation in Wildlife Conservation

World Wildlife Day 2024 focuses on digital innovation and emphasizes how digital conservation technologies and services can drive wildlife conservation, sustainable and legal wildlife trade, and human-wildlife coexistence. The 2024 theme, “Connecting People and Planet: Exploring Digital Innovation in Wildlife Conservation”, recognizes the impact of digital interventions on ecosystems and communities in an increasingly connected world.

We find ourselves amidst a global digital revolution that is dismantling barriers to people-centered digital governance and equal opportunities. The ‘digital divide’ is gradually shrinking, with improved connectivity and Internet access now reaching 66 percent of our global population. However, approximately 2.7 billion people worldwide remain offline. In the least developed countries and landlocked developing nations, only an average of 36 percent of the population has online access. Furthermore, women and young individuals are disproportionately affected by gaps in Internet access and job-ready digital skills.

While technological advancements have significantly improved various aspects of wildlife conservation, including research, communication, tracking, and DNA analysis, challenges such as uneven access, environmental pollution, and unsustainable technology use impede achieving universal digital inclusion by 2030.

World Wildlife Day 2024 serves as a platform for cross-generational exchange and youth empowerment. Through art, presentations, and discussions, it focuses on the opportunities for sustainable digital wildlife conservation. It encourages exploration of existing digital innovations, addresses intersectional discrepancies, and envisions inclusive digital connectivity for all people and the planet.

Did you know

• 50,000 Wild Species Meet Needs of Billions Worldwide.
• 1 in 5 people around the world rely on wild species for income and food, while 2.4 billion people depend on wood fuel for cooking.
• It seems surprising, but cacti, seaweeds, giraffes, parrots, and oak trees are groups of species endangered. Currently there are one million species under threat.

CITES

The Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) is an international agreement between governments. Its aim is to ensure that international trade in specimens of wild animals and plants does not threaten the survival of the species. 

CITES was drafted as a result of a resolution adopted in 1963 at a meeting of members of IUCN (The World Conservation Union). The text of the Convention was finally agreed at a meeting of representatives of 80 countries in Washington, D.C., United States of America, on 3 March 1973, and on 1 July 1975 CITES entered in force. For  many years CITES has been among the conservation agreements with the largest membership, with now 184 Parties. 

Today, it accords varying degrees of protection to more than 40,000 species of animals and plants, whether they are traded as live specimens, fur coats or dried herbs.

In accordance with this convention, UN agencies, private sector organizations, philanthropies and non-governmental organizations must keep working for conservation, the sustainable use of wildlife and in the fight against illegal trade and the depletion of wildlife.

The incalculable value of wildlife

Billions of people, in developed and developing nations, benefit daily from the use of wild species for food, energy, materials, medicine, recreation, inspiration and many other vital contributions to human well-being. The animals and plants that live in the wild have an intrinsic value and contribute to the ecological, genetic, social, economic, scientific, educational, cultural, recreational and aesthetic aspects of human well-being and to sustainable development.

The accelerating global biodiversity crisis, with a million species of plants and animals facing extinction, threatens these contributions to people.

World Wildlife Day is an opportunity to celebrate the many beautiful and varied forms of wild fauna and flora and to raise awareness of the multitude of benefits that their conservation provides to people. At the same time, the Day reminds us of the urgent need to step up the fight against wildlife crime and human-induced reduction of species, which have wide-ranging economic, environmental and social impacts. Given these various negative effects, Sustainable Development Goal 15 focuses on halting biodiversity loss.

Source : UN