World Wildlife Day; Forests and livelihoods: Sustaining people and planet
All life forms on the Earth's surface trace their origins back to the wild. Wildlife and wildlands have, over centuries,unequivocally played a vital role, not only through the provision of necessary and associated ecosystem services, but also by contributing towards the sustainable development of local communities, nations, regions and our global economy. Among many other roles, healthy wildlife and wildland resources are the cornerstone of maintaining the ecological equilibrium of nature. Presence of wildlife shapes the character of its habitat, continually supporting the evolutionary adaptations of all complex ecological interactions in its environment, and on Earth. The presence of wildlife is an effective way to assess the quality of the environment and health of an ecosystem.
By definition, wildlife refers to species of flora and fauna thriving in their natural habitat with little or no human management. The unique diversity associated with wildlife ranges from the smallest living organisms - think algae or even microbacteria - straying to the bigger beasts of the wilderness like polar bears or pandas, elephants or blue whales. Each plant and animal, no matter it’s size, plays and occupies relevant and key niches in the ecosystem and habitats for which they are adapted. Wildlife are known to naturally thrive in habitats for which they may either be ecologically or physiologically modified to occupy. These habitats may be aquatic or terrestrial in nature. Adaptation or modification of species of flora and fauna to thrive or survive in their predicted habitats and home ranges is highly dependent on a number of factors; which either may be natural or human induced. Quite often, speciation results in natural environments or habitats to which species of wildlife have been faced with serial environmental influences, impacting their behavioral or physiological mechanisms of survival.
The IPBES media release as at 2020 approximates about one million species globally at the verge of imminent extinction. If habitat loss and climate change partly explain the alarming extinction rate, disturbance, illegal taking and illegal killing now represent a significant and growing pressure on wild species of fauna and flora as well. Environmental crime has notably become the fourth largest crime at the global level. It is thus our sole duty to ensure the planet is kept safe for all to not just survive, but thrive.
This year, the World Wildlife Day acknowledges and recognizes the communities adjacent to our forests, our carbon sinks, how they are interacting with them so as to ensure their sustainability.
https://www.wildlifeday.org/
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