UN Holidays - World Wildlife Day

“The future of wildlife is in everyone’s hands” is the motto of World Wildlife Day, celebrated annually on March 3. This is a relatively young holiday, which was created by the United Nations in 2013 to raise public awareness of the dangers facing the fauna and flora of the planet. The selected date coincides with the signing of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora. CITES is an international document regulating the illegal trade of animals and plants. Habitat loss and agricultural intensity are some of nature's real and tangible problems. Thousands of flora and fauna are considered endangered and require our attention, according to the IUCN Red List. Today, aspects such as urbanization, poaching, pollution and destruction of animal habitats are very acute. Everywhere forums, conferences and conventions are looking for all sorts of ways in which people can prevent the destruction of wild environments. Elephants, pangolins, rhinoceroses, sharks and tigers are most susceptible to illegal trade. According to the UN, the main cause of extinction of wild animals is habitat loss, which accounts for 80% of biodiversity loss. At current extinction rates, about 20% of the world's species could become extinct forever within the next 30 years. On this day, many people enjoy the planet's biodiversity by visiting animals in zoos or on safari, going to nature museums, botanical gardens or national parks to see the wide variety of flora and fauna with their own eyes. Volunteers clean up litter from areas along the beach, park or road sections . This garbage pollutes the aquatic and terrestrial environment. In addition, this waste can poison animals or become traps for them. To widely inform the population about environmental problems, documentaries are shown. Most international forums end with donations to protect the planet's biodiversity. International Wildlife Day is a global event, but countries do not provide an additional day off. The announced day reminds the world's population of the negative economic and social disasters that are provoked by the thoughtless extermination of wildlife.