ISLAMABAD: International wildlife day will be observed on 3 March (tomorrow) across the world to highlight the developing partnerships for conservation.
Since its inception in 1973, the convention had focused on preventing illicit trade and conservation of wildlife. It has tried to build partnerships and reconcile differences between the groups that are guided and governed by its regulations.
World Wildlife Day 2023 acknowledges the significant contribution CITES has made to sustainability, wildlife, and biodiversity conservation and how this contribution has been enhanced by the bridge-building and partnership work done within the CITES framework.
It also recognized the efforts made by the CITES to partner and collaborate with other conventions, UN agencies, and other organizations to achieve UN goals, such as the Sustainable Development Goals and the Post-2020 Framework on Biodiversity.
The UN agencies, private sector, philanthropic organizations, and non-governmental organizations were mobilized, working on the subject to ensure the sustainable use of wildlife, conservation, and struggle against illegal trade and the depletion of wildlife.
Pakistan is also a signatory to the CITES convention on flora and fauna. The Wildlife Department of various universities, colleges, schools, non-governmental organizations, and public departments will hold awareness walks, symposiums, seminars, and outdoor activities to create awareness among the masses on the importance of wildlife in the human ecosystem.
Wildlife in Pakistan
The country, especially its federal capital and northern areas along with others, is thriving with indigenous species of wild animals, especially markhor, leopards, ibex, and deer, that have become endangered in various parts of the world.
The country also hosts a thriving habitat of snow leopards, an elusive wildcat that is very important to control the environment and wild habitat population in the glaciated mountain ecosystems. –APP
