The World Wildlife Day in countless forms, beautiful and diverse, of the wild fauna and flora, will be celebrated this Thursday, March 3, under the theme “the future of wildlife is in our hands.” The celebration of this day in 2016 that puts the emphasis on elephants in Africa and Asia aims to emphasize the need to intensify the fight against predators who prey on wildlife by providing opportunity to reflect on economic, environmental, and social impacts they generate.
It will also be an opportunity to raise awareness about the benefits that conservation and protecting animal species provide to humans. All signatories to the cites (CITES), United Nations agencies, other global organizations, and civil society, non-governmental organizations, and individuals are invited to celebrate and join in this worldwide celebration of wildlife. Local communities can play a positive role in helping to reduce illegal wildlife trade.
In Congo, the preservation of nature including wildlife is ensured by several organizations such as the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS), the World Wide Fund for Nature, English World Wildlife Fund (WWF), the proposed “Support law on wildlife (PALF), and the Odzala-Kokoua National Park (Pnok).
A reliable source says that worldwide, the Secretariat of the Convention on International Trade in Wild Fauna and Flora Endangered Species (CITES), in collaboration with relevant agencies of the UN system, is responsible for helping to support the initiatives of the World Day of Wildlife.
For years, CITES is among the conservation agreements of the wider membership, as it currently has one hundred eighty-two parties. Recall that the theme for this year puts special emphasis on the protection of the elephant. And Congo has recently joined the elephant protection initiative (EPI), a conservation program led by Africa, to eradicate the trade in ivory and stop the rampant killing of elephants by poachers across the continent.
It now occupies the eleventh position in Africa. The commitment of Congo was announced on 14 January 2016 by the Congolese delegation to the sixty-sixth session of the Standing Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species and Endangered Wild Fauna and Flora Committee (CITES).