The United Nations General Assembly designated 3 March as World Wildlife Day. This day is aligned with the signature of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) on 3 March 1973.
For CITES, digital innovation and collaboration go hand-in-hand. In their work to ensure international trade in wildlife is legal, traceable, and sustainable, Connecting People and Planet involves strengthening connections to nature with the help of technology.
This year’s theme is “Connecting People and Planet: “Exploring Digital Innovation in Wildlife Conservation.” Under this theme, World Wildlife Day 2024 will aim to raise awareness about the latest applications of digital technologies in wildlife conservation.
Digital technologies are being incorporated into many facets of wildlife conservation and trade, everyday lives and have become an integral part of achieving the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals.
Technology has become an essential component of modern biodiversity conservation, enabling more effective data collection, enhanced management decision-making, and targeted monitoring for global and local agreements and goals. No singular technology can solve the current global ecological crisis. Devices such as camera traps, acoustic sensors, drones, biologgers, and satellites, as well as increasingly powerful genomic and artificial intelligence applications, hold the potential to empower conservationists to better understand and manage the socioecological systems in which they work.
Groundbreaking apps enable us to tell different tiger species apart in seconds. Drones can roam large areas to locate sea turtle nesting sites. Advanced tracking systems, real-time data analytics, and artificial intelligence-driven solutions are empowering conservationists across the globe with unprecedented tools to help identify, monitor, track and ultimately preserve wildlife.
Many whale species are found in remote regions where intense cold and rough seas present unique challenges that technology increasingly helps to overcome. Instead of relying exclusively on censuses carried out from ships or planes, we now have the technology that allows us to do them from offices via satellites, and carry out population estimates in which whales are literally counted from space. Mapping instruments track the presence of chemical pollutants in the oceans and identify collision risk hotspots where busy shipping lanes meet vulnerable whale populations. There are applications to alert ships of the presence of whales in certain regions. Vessels can be equipped with thermal cameras or acoustic monitors to detect individual specimens, and ultrasound emitters are being used to keep cetaceans away from fishing nets to avoid accidental capture.
“We find ourselves navigating an evolving landscape of digital connectivity in wildlife conservation. Now is our chance to harness the benefits that emerging technologies bring, both to the natural world and to humanity. Now is the time to build the sustainable future where planet and all people flourish.” Ivonne Higuero, CITES Secretary-General.
The United Nations (high-level) event will take place on 4 March 2024 at the United Nations Headquarters in New York, NY, United States of America and will be livestreamed on United Nations WebTV.
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World Wildlife Day Poster 1 2024 (861 KB)
