Today, March 3, 2023 is World Wildlife Day. But what is meant by “Wildlife” ?
To summarize, wild life is a part of biodiversity, which includes all forms of undomesticated free life, whether animal, plant, fungal or other organisms when they are little influenced by human activities or presence and impacts.
This day is so important because we humans are taking more and more place in this system and cause effects that are not always positive.
Indeed, currently, humankind has a rather destructive effect on nature: he cuts down forests, builds roads, uses chemicals that massively kill certain insects, fishes more than our oceans allow. Biodiversity is suffering from these activities and is declining significantly.
Even the smallest touch of an individual can have a huge impact on wildlife.
But today we're going to look at the dangers of the estimated $19 billion global wildlife trade. According to the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) :
The illegal trade in plants and animals from both land and sea is estimated to be worth billions of euros per year to the networks that orchestrate it.
The estimated revenues from wildlife trafficking rank it as the fourth most lucrative transnational criminal activity, after drugs, counterfeit goods and human trafficking.
For protected species, the process is vicious. The rarer they are, the more their by-products can be desired, thus accentuating the probable disappearance of the species.
African elephants are one of the major victims of poaching: between 20,000 and 30,000 individuals are killed annually for their ivory, threatening the disappearance of certain populations in West and Central Africa.
But a multitude of other species, among the best known, such as rhinoceroses, tigers, or even marine turtles, or on the contrary, less publicized, such as precious woods or certain fish for example, suffer the same fate.
In addition, when we talk about trafficking we think mainly of animals but there are also plants. For example.
Indeed, the same is true for cactus: many species are very localized. They are found, for example, only on certain steep limestone cliffs in Mexico, on a single sandy plot of land of less than one square kilometer on the coast of Peru, or in the depths of Texas.
In fact, the cactus are even more threatened than mammals and birds and are on the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) red list. "Currently, 31% of cactus species are threatened with extinction," the IUCN wrote in 2015. "The destruction of its habitat, the horticulture industry and illegal trade in general are named as responsible for the taxon's decline," notes WWF for its part.
In conclusion, it is important to preserve wildlife in any shape or form, there are various actions we can take to reduce our behaviors contributing to plant extinction.
By financially supporting land conservation organizations and voting for protection, we can maintain an environment where plants can flourish.
By reducing our contribution to global warming, we can also limit negative impacts on plant endangerment.
No matter how much, we can all contribute ! ; long live wildlife!
To summarize, wild life is a part of biodiversity, which includes all forms of undomesticated free life, whether animal, plant, fungal or other organisms when they are little influenced by human activities or presence and impacts.
This day is so important because we humans are taking more and more place in this system and cause effects that are not always positive.
Indeed, currently, humankind has a rather destructive effect on nature: he cuts down forests, builds roads, uses chemicals that massively kill certain insects, fishes more than our oceans allow. Biodiversity is suffering from these activities and is declining significantly.
Even the smallest touch of an individual can have a huge impact on wildlife.
But today we're going to look at the dangers of the estimated $19 billion global wildlife trade. According to the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) :
The illegal trade in plants and animals from both land and sea is estimated to be worth billions of euros per year to the networks that orchestrate it.
The estimated revenues from wildlife trafficking rank it as the fourth most lucrative transnational criminal activity, after drugs, counterfeit goods and human trafficking.
For protected species, the process is vicious. The rarer they are, the more their by-products can be desired, thus accentuating the probable disappearance of the species.
African elephants are one of the major victims of poaching: between 20,000 and 30,000 individuals are killed annually for their ivory, threatening the disappearance of certain populations in West and Central Africa.
But a multitude of other species, among the best known, such as rhinoceroses, tigers, or even marine turtles, or on the contrary, less publicized, such as precious woods or certain fish for example, suffer the same fate.
In addition, when we talk about trafficking we think mainly of animals but there are also plants. For example.
Indeed, the same is true for cactus: many species are very localized. They are found, for example, only on certain steep limestone cliffs in Mexico, on a single sandy plot of land of less than one square kilometer on the coast of Peru, or in the depths of Texas.
In fact, the cactus are even more threatened than mammals and birds and are on the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) red list. "Currently, 31% of cactus species are threatened with extinction," the IUCN wrote in 2015. "The destruction of its habitat, the horticulture industry and illegal trade in general are named as responsible for the taxon's decline," notes WWF for its part.
In conclusion, it is important to preserve wildlife in any shape or form, there are various actions we can take to reduce our behaviors contributing to plant extinction.
By financially supporting land conservation organizations and voting for protection, we can maintain an environment where plants can flourish.
By reducing our contribution to global warming, we can also limit negative impacts on plant endangerment.
No matter how much, we can all contribute ! ; long live wildlife!
Maxence Zakarian
Maxence is a French volunteer involved in the International Day of WildLife.
