An African male lion in the Ugandan wilderness. Photo WCS /Julie Larsen Maher
"On World Wildlife Day, I call on people around the world to help raise awareness and to take personal action to help ensure the survival of the world’s big cats and all its precious and fragile biological diversity." — UN Secretary-General António Guterres
The incalculable value of wildlife
The animals and plants that live in the wild have an intrinsic value and contributes to the ecological, genetic, social, economic, scientific, educational, cultural, recreational and aesthetic aspects of human well-being and sustainable development.
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 conservation provides to people. At the same time, the Day 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. Given these various negative effects, Sustainable Development Goal #15 focuses on halting biodiversity loss.
“Big cats: predators under threat”
World Wildlife Day is celebrated in 2018 under the theme “Big cats: predators under threat".
Big cats are among the most widely recognized and admired animals across the globe. However, today these charismatic predators are facing many and varied threats, which are mostly caused by human activities. Overall, their populations are declining at a disturbing rate due to loss of habitat and prey, conflicts with people, poaching and illegal trade. For example, tiger populations plummeted by 95% over the past 100 years and African lion populations dropped by 40% in just 20 years. But a range of measures are underway to arrest this decline.
In an effort to reach as wide an audience as possible, the expanded definition of big cats is being used, which includes not only lion, tiger, leopard and jaguar -- the 4 largest wild cats that can roar - but also cheetah, snow leopard, puma, clouded leopard, etc. Big cat species are found in Africa, Asia, and North, Central and South America, representing a virtually global distribution.
Over the past century we have been losing big cats, the planet’s most majestic predators, at an alarming rate. World Wildlife Day 2018 gives us the opportunity to raise awareness about their plight and to galvanize support for the many global and national actions that are underway to save these iconic species.
Film festival
The Secretariat of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) and the Jackson Hole Wildlife Film Festival teamed up to organize an international film festival for the world’s big cats, to raise global awareness of the critical challenges facing these iconic species.
These are the winning stories about jaguars, leopards, lions, pumas, tigers and more that will hit the big screen and your mobile devices when the world celebrates World Wildlife Day 2018.
Get involved
Get to know the big cats and learn about the challenges they are facing and how you can help. Share what you've learned with your friends and family.
Spread the word, especially to children and youth. They are the future leaders of wildlife conservation and they deserve a future where we humans live in harmony with wildlife that share the planet with us. Here you have some outreach materials.
Post on social media and spread the word. Have a look at our Social Media Kit if you need some inspirations. Or take a photo with the action cards and say something about the day. Remember to use the hashtags #WorldWildlifeDay, #BigCats, #PredatorsUnderThreat, #WWD2018, #DoOneThingToday, #iProtectBigCats
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