World Wildlife Day 2022: what is being celebrated?

World Wildlife Day 2022: wildlife and forests

On December 20, 2013, the United Nations General Assembly proclaimed March 3 – the day of the signing of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora in 1973 – as World Wildlife Day of the United Nations – to raise awareness and celebrate the wild animals and plants of the world. This anniversary invites us to reflect on the fragility of wild nature, on all those species, animals and plants, that too often find themselves threatened by human intervention.

The theme of World Wildlife Day 2022 is “Recovering key species for ecosystem restoration”: the aim is to raise awareness of the conservation status of some of the most critically endangered species of wildlife, and to guide discussions towards imagining and implementing solutions to conserve and protect them.

According to data from the International Union for Conservation of Nature’s (IUCN) Red List of Threatened Species, over 8,400 species of wildlife are critically endangered, while another 30,000 are considered endangered or vulnerable. The continued loss of species, biodiversity, habitats and ecosystems also threatens all life on Earth: including us. We all rely on wildlife and biodiversity-based resources to meet all of our needs: millions of people and all of us depend on nature and forests as a source of sustenance, economic opportunity, but also for enjoyment, a place to find ourselves and that ancestral relationship that binds us to nature.