World Wildlife Day was established by the United Nations on December 20th, 2013. A day of recognition of world wildlife was first proposed by Thailand. The goal was to raise awareness that the world’s animals and vegetation are in a poor state. Thailand’s proposal was inspired by a series of articles in a UK newspaper about the destruction of habitat and wildlife in East Africa, written by Sir Julian Huxley. It was a businessman named Victor Stolan who pointed out the urgent need for an international organization to raise funds for conservation. Thailand made the proposal and the UN General Assembly established the commemorative day. We celebrate it on March 3rd.’
We all know our Earth is amazing – the wild animals and wild plants are amazing. We love our Home – the beautiful abundant Earth.
What does the UN say?
Let’s look at some facts from the UN.
50,000 Wild Species Meet Needs of Billions Worldwide
*1 in 5 people around the world rely on wild species for income and food, while 2.4 billion people depend on wood fuel for cooking.
*It seems surprising, but cacti, seaweeds, giraffes, parrots, and oak trees are groups of species endangered. Currently there are one million species under threat.
As the UN website pointed out, billions of people benefit daily from the use of wild species for food, energy, and medicine. While most of us will not be consuming wild plants, we do use wood and some wild plants for health. Many of us turn to nature for recreation and inspiration, and that’s our primary experience with wildlife. Since we do love the wild natural world, we have a desire to protect it and see it continue in good health and balance.
As said, there are approximately one million species under threat of extinction. That’s distressing. Conservation is absolutely vital, and we need to explore and see how the wonderful biodiversity of our world can be conserved.
The UN website states: This 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.
Goal 15
Protect, restore and promote sustainable use of terrestrial ecosystems, sustainably manage forests, combat desertification, and halt and reverse land degradation and halt biodiversity loss.
What can corporations do?
If we ask “what can AMS Fulfillment do,” the answer is “everything possible.”
When we look at the destruction of forests, oceans, and streams we unfortunately find corporations as the major destructive force. The reality of environmental destruction for financial profit is dispiriting, and we have to be willing to look into it and call it out. We the People can have some power in deciding who we’re willing to support with our dollars. Globalwitness.org provides some helpful information, and we can do our own research as well.
The B Corporation Movement
The B Corporation movement is made up of corporations that care about their impact on the environment and are willing to put that care into action. As a B Corporation, AMS invests in making its own impact on the environment as small as possible. We know that plastics and similar waste products in the environment are damaging to wildlife, so in addition to recycling for many years, and using recycled or biodegradable packaging, recently we took another step with regard to recycling plastic.
Out of concern for the forests AMS makes an annual contribution to the Rainforest Trust on behalf of our clients. They are doing some good work. Our desire is to be carbon neutral soon, and have no negative impact on the beautiful world we share.
What else can we do? We can create awareness and talk about the very concerning activities that take place in pursuit of profit. At wildlifeday.org you will find some materials to share, especially with 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.
And one more thing… we can appreciate the wildlife in our own back yard, as well as in the nature preserves and the national parks nearby. In past years AMS volunteers have signed on to help in the local efforts to respect, restore and protect the nature preserves and rivers nearby. Let’s keep it up, AMS!!
Happy World Wildlife Day! Protect, Restore and Promote.
Click HERE to watch an enjoyable UN video on World Wildlife Day.