UN World Wildlife Day

By Ian Redmond, OBE,Head of Conservation of Ecofix, Senior Wildlife Consultant for Born Free Foundation, UN Ambassador for CMS and expert advisor to Gree TERRE Foundation

Happy UN World Wildlife Day . Celebrated on 3 rd  March every year.

The theme for #WWD2024 is 'connecting people and planet:  exploring digital innovation in wildlife conservation.   It is true that digital connectivity is increasingly important to those who study, protect, and strive to conserve wildlife.  

For the courageous rangers, police and customs officers who tackle the organised criminal gangs involved in poaching and the illegal wildlife trade, every day is world wildlife day.  But their work is now made more effective by use of digital tools. Improved global communications and artificial intelligence can now , for example, recognise and help to reveal tiger skins or chimpanzee faces concealed by the wild life criminals . Sadly same digital connectivity facilitates the criminals too. Social media platforms are also used to sell endangered species as status symbol pets. Encrypted messaging apps allow criminals to coordinate crimes or warn poachers ahead of of impending enforcement action.  It is hard for the good guys on limited budgets to stay ahead of the well- resourced crime syndicates. Its like Good digital vs bad digitals. Indeed the technology is double edged sword! 

Coincidentally, connectivity was also the theme of discussions at the UN Convention on Migratory Species CoP14 last month, in Samarkand, Uzbekistan.  Species that travel halfway round the globe help in connecting the ecosystems, agriculture and fisheries in the global north with developing countries in the tropics.  They can only do so if their flyways, swim-ways or land routes are not blocked by human activity or infrastructure.   Those routes are better understood today because of digital connectivity, with tiny satellite tags or geolocators being fitted to sharks, elephants and even birds as small as swifts.  Such techniques at least enable us to know where to focus protection of their seasonal habitat – which in turn helps in making informed the decisions adopted at #CMSCoP14  Visit: https://www.cms.int/en/meeting/fourteenth-meeting-conference-parties-cms. 

The beauty of wild animals is seen by many as a reason to ensure their survival, so that our children and grandchildren will be able to enjoy and be inspired by species such as gorillas, falcons and sharks long into the future.  But this appreciation of their physical form often seems to ignore the importance of their contribution to the ecosystems and their ' natural' function.   Animals are not just rather interesting ornaments dotted about the forests, savannah or coral reefs – as the urban people may have been thinking after visiting museums , they are an essential component of these ecosystems.  

They pollinate the flowers, disperse the seeds, fertilize the soils, prune the trees, cut the grass, and generally stabilise the flow of energy through their respective and distinctive functions. Without them, we face ecosystem collapse and the loss of ecosystem services that provide us with the air we breathe, the water we drink and the food we eat. Unfortunately, many of our politicians and corporate leaders still seem to think technology will solve all our problems and nature is a nice 'optional extra' in life like a topping on pizza , or an 'externality' in economic affairs, rather than the foundation of everything we humans do! We are a part of nature, not apart from nature.

So, what should we do for wildlife on World Wildlife Day? We are all economically connected to nature, so we can wield this power carefully – be an ethical shopper! Whether we are buying a bar of chocolate or a new car we want to be sure that our money is not paying for deforestation, over- fishing or destructive mining of raw materials. Digital connectivity can help you here too – if the product you are thinking of buying doesn't show it is made of independently certified ingredients. For example, try tweeting (now X-ing) by mentioning the company or its CEO , "I was going to buy your product but where is the proof it is deforestation-free and free of threats to wild life? " How many of us tweet such messages ? And how many such messages does a CEO have to see before they act on their products or even to clean up their supply chain? Can governments make such labelling mandatory?

There are, however, encouraging moves in the right direction, such as the Task Force for Nature- related Financial Disclosures https://tnfd.global/ and certification schemes such as the Forest Stewardship Council https://fsc.org/enfor paper and wood, Aluminium Stewardship Initiative https://aluminium-stewardship.org/, Round Table of Sustainable Palm Oil https://rspo.org/, Marine Stewardship Council https://www.msc.org/uk for fish, and Rainforest Alliance https://www.rainforest-alliance.org/ for coffee, bananas and other rainforest products.

We can also tell our elected representatives that we want better legislation and better enforcement to protect ecosystems, such as making ecocide a crime https://www.stopecocide.earth/ and we can support those NGOs that help wildlife, such as www.bornfree.org.uk and www.ecoflix.com and the members of www.ssn.org

More effective method is to skill the youth in universities in understanding the role of wild life and how digital tools can facilitate their protection and benefit from their distinct abilities. Even youth have ' wild ideas' that can develop ' criminal proof ' digital tools! That's the reason I provide expert advise to Green TERRE Foundation for their Smart Campus Cloud Network http://sccnhub.com to canalize and catalyse the youth-energy for eco-inventing the digital tools. They can also be the agents of change to deflect digital technology for protecting and balancing ecosystems.

So, what are you waiting for…?END