Context:
About World Wildlife Day 2025, Significance, Theme, History and Importance.
Significance
- The United Nations reports that over a million wildlife species are at risk of extinction due to increasing environmental problems.
- It raises awareness about the benefits that wildlife provides to ecosystems and human well-being.
- The day highlights the urgent need to address wildlife crime, including trafficking and poaching.
- The day promotes action against wildlife exploitation, illegal wildlife trading, and habitat destruction.
- Human-induced activities, such as habitat destruction and climate change, are contributing to the decline of species.
- The loss of biodiversity has significant economic, environmental, and social consequences.
- Benefits of Wildlife conservation:
- Stable ecosystems: The loss of a single species can disrupt food chains, and nutrient cycles, and destabilize ecosystems. Conserving wildlife preserves ecosystem integrity, promoting resilience and biodiversity.
- Benefits to the climate: It supports the functioning of the planet as a whole and can even mitigate the effects of climate change.
- Benefits to people: Wildlife conservation offers economic benefits through ecosystem services like pollination, water purification, and carbon sequestration. Wildlife-based tourism also generates significant revenue, supporting local economies. Conservation protects both wildlife and these vital economic benefits for the future.
- Theme: “Wildlife Conservation Finance: Investing in People and Planet”
History
- On 20 December 2013, the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) declared March 3 as World Wildlife Day.
- The date was chosen to commemorate the signing of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) in 1973.
- The UNGA Resolution designated the CITES Secretariat as the facilitator for the global observance of World Wildlife Day.
- The first World Wildlife Day was commemorated in 2014.
This Day has become a global annual event dedicated to celebrating and protecting wildlife.