NEW YORK: World Wildlife Day is being observed on Wednesday to celebrate and raise awareness about the world’s wild fauna and flora.
This year’s theme of the Day is ‘Forests and Livelihoods: Sustaining People and Planet’ to highlight the role of forests, forest species and ecosystems in sustaining the livelihoods of millions of people particularly indigenous and local communities with historic ties to forests.
This aligns with UN Sustainable Development Goals 1, 12, 13 and 15, and their wide-ranging commitments on alleviating poverty, ensuring sustainable use of resources, and on conserving life land.
According to the UN, between 200 and 350 million people live within or adjacent to forested areas around the world, relying on the various ecosystem services provided by forest and forest species for their livelihoods and to cover their most basic needs, including food, shelter, energy and medicines.
Roughly 28% of the world’s land surface is currently managed by indigenous communities including some of the most ecologically intact forests on the planet. These spaces are not only central to their economic and personal well-being but also their cultural identities.
Forests, species and the livelihoods that depend on them currently find themselves at the crossroads of the multiple planetary crises we currently face, from climate change to biodiversity loss and the health, social and economic impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic.
This day will celebrate forest-based livelihoods and seek to promote forest and wildlife management practices that accommodate both human well-being and the long-term conservation of forests and promote the value of traditional practices that contribute to establishing a more sustainable relationship with these crucial natural systems.
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.
It also 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.
