World Wildlife Day – March 3

World Wildlife Day celebrated every year on 3^rd March is celebrated with the aim of preserve the rich flora and fauna of our World and to protect the endangered species from extinction.

Flash points

• United nations general assembly(UNGA) at its 68^th session decided to proclaim 3^rd March of every year as World Wildlife Day
• It was proposed by Thailand to celebrate and raise awareness of World’s flora and fauna.
• The date is the day of the adoption of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) in 1973
• The General Assembly took note of the outcome of the 16th meeting of the Conference of the Parties to CITES, held in Bangkok from 3 to 14 March 2013 to celebrate it as World Wildlife Day
• It also recognized the importance of role of CITES in ensuring that international trade does not threaten the survival of species
• The General Assembly requested the CITES Secretariat, in collaboration with relevant organizations of the United Nations system, to facilitate the implementation of World Wildlife Day

Themes

• 2015: The 2015 theme is “Wildlife Crime is serious, let’s get serious about wildlife crime”
• 2016 :theme is “The future of wildlife is in our hands”, with African and Asian elephants being the main focus of global campaign