The World Wildlife Day is observed every year on March 3 to raise awareness about the world’s wild fauna and flora.
Context
The World Wildlife Day is observed every year on March 3 to raise awareness about the world’s wild fauna and flora.
Theme
- World Wildlife Day 2022 is celebrated under the theme “Recovering key species for ecosystem restoration”, as a way to draw attention to the conservation status of some of the most critically endangered species of wild fauna and flora, and to drive discussions towards imagining and implementing solutions to conserve them.
- World Wildlife Day will be celebrated in 2021 under the theme ”Forests and Livelihoods: Sustaining People and Planet”
History
- The United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) passed a resolution at its 68th session on December 20, 2013.
- This proclamation was suggested by Thailand.
- March 3 was chosen because the day marks the “adoption of Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES)”.
- The CITES was adopted on March 3, 1972 to raise awareness and benefit the fauna and flora.
About CITES
- It came into force in July 1975 and currently has 183 signatories.
- It Aims to Ensure that international trade in specimens of wild animals and plants does not threaten their survival.
- The CITES Secretariat is administered by UNEP and is located at Geneva, Switzerland.
- Although CITES is legally binding on the Parties, it does not take the place of national laws.
- Rather, it provides a framework to be respected by each Party, which has to adopt its own domestic legislation to ensure that CITES is implemented at the national level.
- The International Consortium on Combating Wildlife Crime (ICCWC), a consortium of the CITES Secretariat, INTERPOL, UN Office on Drugs and Crime, World Bank and the World Customs Organization has been established to tackle illegal wildlife trade.
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