Statement by David Cooper, Acting Executive Secretary of the Convention on Biological Diversity World Wildlife Day on
3  March, 2023

On World Wildlife Day we celebrate the diversity of the world’s wild plants and animals and the contribution they make to our lives and to the health of the planet. Wildlife provides people with food, medicines, shelter and fuel. They help to regulate the climate and provide us with clean water. They are an
integral part of the culture and identity of many indigenous peoples and local communities. They are source of inspiration and wonder for us all.
But wildlife is under great threat. Over the past fifty years, the abundance of wild animal species has declined on average by around two-thirds. This is driven by deforestation and other land-use change, by overfishing and unsustainable hunting, by pollution, diseases and invasive species, and now, increasingly, by climate change. Without urgent action to address these drivers, around one million species face a high risk of extinction.
A few months ago, in December 2022, governments came together to adopt the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework – with the aim of halting and reversing biodiversity loss by 2030, and cutting the extinction rate for all species by a factor of ten by 2050.

Full statement is here: World Wildlife Day 3 March 2023 Statement