World Wildlife Day 2019 focusing on marine species for the first time

The Secretariat of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), working in partnership to facilitate the global celebration of the United Nations World Wildlife Day 2019 (March 3), announced the theme of the day as- ‘Life below water: for people and planet’.

The World Wildlife Day 2019 aligns closely with the Sustainable Development Goal 14 – Life below water, which focuses on marine species, and will be an opportunity to highlight the critical issues and values of marine wildlife to our everyday lives. The occasion will also celebrate successful initiatives to conserve and sustainably manage these species and to scale up support for future initiatives.

Abdoulaye Mar Dieye, UN Assistant Secretary-General and Director of UNDP’s Bureau for Policy and Programme notes, “Oceans regulate our climate, produce half the oxygen we breathe, provide nourishment for 3+ billion people, and absorb 30% of carbon dioxide released into the atmosphere and fully 90% of the heat from climate change. To ensure that oceans and marine species are preserved and protected, nature-based solutions that bring together public, private and civil society partners need to be replicated and scaled-up.”

World Wildlife Day 2019 will be marked by a series of events and media activities around the world, including a high-level event at UN Headquarters in New York on 1 March.

UNDP’s Ocean Governance Programme is strongly aligned with and supports a majority of targets for Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 14 on oceans – to conserve and sustainably use the oceans, seas and marine resources for sustainable development.

In line with the UN General Assembly Resolution proclaiming World Wildlife Day, the CITES Secretariat and UNDP call on all the Member States and organizations of the United Nations system and other global, regional and sub-regional organizations, non-governmental organizations and all interested individuals, to:

• observe and raise awareness of the theme for World Wildlife Day 2019;
• associate the celebrations with major national and international conservation events;
• build collaborative partnerships;
• organize campaigns to support the conservation and sustainable use of marine living resources and their products using targeted strategies in order to influence consumer behavior; and
• make use of the World Wildlife Day logo as widely as possible.

Original source: UNDP
Published on 19 November 2018