Wildlife SOS Marks Environment Day With Action
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Sloth Bears Celebrate their Day with Sweet As Honey Tribute to Animal Rescue, Resilience and Recovery
International Animal Rescue (IAR) invites you to join us in celebrating World Sloth Bear Day. This day is not just about recognising the beauty and unique charm of sloth bears but also about honouring the incredible resilience of these magnificent creatures. This year, we are thrilled to share the heartwarming story of Mithali, one of our beloved sloth bear, as she enjoys a sweet pot of honey to mark this special occasion. At just 20 weeks old, they were discovered wailing and clinging to their mother’s mammary, overwhelmed and frightened by the tragic events they had experienced. Thanks to the dedicated care provided by our IAR, Wildlife SOS and the Bear Rescue Centre (BBRC) team, they are learning to thrive in a safe environment.
On October 12th, International Animal Rescue (IAR) invites you to join us in celebrating World Sloth Bear Day! This day is not just about recognising the beauty and unique charm of sloth bears but also about honouring the incredible resilience of these magnificent creatures.
This year, we are thrilled to share the heartwarming story of Mithali, one of our beloved sloth bears, as she enjoys a sweet pot of honey to mark this special occasion.
IAR’s partner in India, Wildlife SOS, delivers excellent work in collaboration with local communities and has worked with Mithali and her sibling since they were found trapped in a dry well with their deceased mother for over 48 hours. At just 20 weeks old, they were discovered wailing and clinging to their mother’s mammary, overwhelmed and frightened by the tragic events they had experienced.
Despite their dire circumstances, the two orphaned cubs have emerged victorious, embodying the spirit of their namesakes: Indian cricket legends Mithali Raj and Mahendra Singh Dhoni. While Mithali Raj broke barriers as the captain of India’s women’s cricket team, leading it to a commendable ODI ranking of number 3, Dhoni inspired countless fans as he guided India to victory in the 2011 ICC Cricket World Cup.
Just like their namesakes, Mithali and her sibling have shown remarkable courage in overcoming adversity. Thanks to the dedicated care provided by our IAR, Wildlife SOS and the Bear Rescue Centre (BBRC) team, they are learning to thrive in a safe environment. Under the nurturing guidance of Ankita Bear, Mithali and her sibling have slowly come out of their shells, embracing life with newfound hope.
It is truly heartwarming to witness their progress and see them enjoying the little things, like indulging in honey.
On World Sloth Bear Day, we celebrate and share some unique facts about these bears, who are central to Indian mythology.
Fun Facts About World Sloth Bear Day:
Conservation Status: Sloth bears are classified as vulnerable due to habitat loss and poaching. Awareness days like World Sloth Bear Day help raise awareness for their conservation needs.
Dietary Habits: Sloth bears primarily feed on insects, fruits, and honey, making them crucial for seed dispersal in their habitats.
Unique Characteristics: Known for their shaggy fur and long claws, sloth bears are uniquely adapted to dig for insects and honeycomb, showcasing their essential role in the ecosystem.
As we celebrate World Sloth Bear Day, we invite you to join us in supporting Mithali and Maahi’s journey toward a bright future. Your support is vital in ensuring these incredible bears continue receiving the love and care they deserve.
Native to the Indian Subcontinent, even though sloth bears are legally protected through the Indian Wildlife Protection Act of 1972, the population of this bear is still decreasing, with only around 6-11,000 remaining in the wild they are on the IUCN Red List as vulnerable,
Gavin Bruce, CEO at International Animal Rescue, emphasised, “The risk of extinction faced by sloth bears underscores the urgent need for their protection. Co-existence with these magnificent creatures is imperative, and raising awareness about their plight is a shared responsibility.”
Let’s spread the word about the importance of conserving sloth bears and their habitats. For more information on how you can help, please visit https://www.internationalanimalrescue.org/projects/indian-sloth-bear
To save a million species, World Wildlife Day underscores crucial role of partnerships
This year’s commemoration of World Wildlife Day also marks the 50th anniversary of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) The treaty, signed on 3 March 1973, has helped protect thousands of species of plants and animals. In December governments adopted an agreement known as the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework, aimed at achieving a tenfold reduction in the extinction rate of all species by mid-century. The theme for the Day – ‘Partnerships for Wildlife Conservation’ – highlights the need to work across governments, civil society, and the private sector to turn commitment into action. ‘We need much bolder actions now to cut emissions, accelerate renewables, and build climate resilience,’ said UN Secretary-General António Guterres.
The scores of species of fauna and flora under threat from human activities include some that may come as a surprise – such as giraffes, parrots and seaweeds – but the UN chief also pointed to some good news.
Landmark treaty turns 50
This year’s commemoration of World Wildlife Day also marks the 50th anniversary of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES).
The treaty, signed on 3 March 1973, has helped protect thousands of species of plants and animals.
Furthermore, in December governments adopted an agreement known as the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework, aimed at achieving a tenfold reduction in the extinction rate of all species by mid-century.
‘Bolder actions’ needed
Mr. Guterres noted that the theme for the Day – ‘Partnerships for Wildlife Conservation’ – highlights the need to work across governments, civil society, and the private sector to turn commitment into action.
“And we need much bolder actions now to cut emissions, accelerate renewables, and build climate resilience,” he added. “Throughout, we need to place the voices of local communities and indigenous people – our world’s most effective guardians of biodiversity – front and centre.”
Inger Andersen, Executive Director of the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) echoed this appeal, “because let’s face it, indigenous people know more about conservation than many a scientist does.”
She underscored the crucial importance of immediate action.
“This World Wildlife Day let’s commit to forging a closer partnership with nature. Because our future, and that of all species on this beautiful Earth, depends on it,” she said.
Unsplash/David Troeger A sea turtle swims through the waters of Aruba in the Caribbean.
Unprecedented losses
“Partnerships for conservation are vital, as no organisation, and that includes the UN, can tackle the biodiversity crisis on their own,” added CITES chief Ivonne Higuero.
She said there has never been a greater time for effective wildlife protection as the 50th anniversary year has seen “unprecedented drops” in animal and plant populations.
“The balance of nature is being affected. We rely on wildlife to give us food, shelter, medicines, fuel and fun…but these products aren’t inexhaustible,” she stressed.
Solidarity, hope and funding
For the President of the UN General Assembly, Csaba Kőrösi, the Kunming-Montreal framework shows both a strong sense of solidarity with future generations, the environment and wildlife.
He urged countries to do their utmost in implementing the agreement, underscoring the need for partnerships to rebuild degraded areas and restore healthy environments.
“It is also crucial in curbing wildlife-related crimes to successfully protect biodiversity. Indigenous communities must be included in these partnerships,” he said. “But if we really want to see change, we must boost conservation and protection funding too.”
UK government supports global action to fight illegal wildlife trade
Schemes to combat poaching and protect species like marine turtles and grey parrots from being illegally traded, are among fourteen new projects set to benefit from a UK government fund. The schemes will each receive a share in £4.6 million from the Illegal Wildlife Trade Challenge Fund. New education resources for school children around the globe will also be launched on Earth Day. The online packs aim to teach the next generation about the dangers of fuelling the illegal wildlife trade. The UK government has provided £40,000 to create these packs for children in multiple languages. The first training has been completed and a deployment is underway in Africa. British diplomatic work has been taking place to support the development of the Ivory Alliance 2024 and the British Embassy Bangkok has run a campaign called: ‘Elephants are like us’. The WILDLABS Tech Hub was formed at the London conference to harness the power of technology, data-sharing and machine-learning to combat wildlife crime. The Tech Hub has completed an open-call for conservation technology developers to join the project.
Ministers have today marked Earth Day (22 April) by announcing that the schemes will each receive a share in £4.6 million from the Illegal Wildlife Trade Challenge Fund.
The projects set to benefit include:
Fauna & Flora International’s project for reducing demand for marine turtle products in Nicaragua
ZSL’s work to disrupt the illegal wildlife trade in grey parrots in Cameroon
Cracking wildlife smuggling in Madagascar, a project run by the Durrell Wildlife Conservation Trust
Strengthening anti-poaching techniques and countering wildlife trafficking in Uganda, a project run by WCS
New education resources for school children around the globe will also be launched on Earth Day. The online packs aim to teach the next generation about the dangers of fuelling the illegal wildlife trade. The UK government has provided £40,000 to create these packs for children in multiple languages. The resources can be viewed and downloaded online at WWF-UK’s and Tale2Tail’s websites.
Environment Minister Thérèse Coffey said:
The illegal wildlife trade is an international tragedy. This serious organised criminal networks do more than just damage wildlife – corruption and illegal activities undermine sustainable development and the rule of law, bringing misery to local communities. The Illegal Wildlife Trade Challenge Fund is backing projects that will tackle the criminals at source and in countries that are destinations for items made from illegally traded plants and animals. Through the online education packs, we will make sure that younger generations understand the importance of not fuelling demand for products made from illegally traded wildlife. This will provide a strong legacy from last year’s Illegal Wildlife Trade conference for schoolchildren and teachers around the world. This is real progress to crack down on environmental crime. Working together, we can end this insidious trade.
Six months since the Duke of Cambridge and world leaders gathered in London for the biggest IWT conference in history, progress has been made at a pace around the world to tackle and end this crime.
In recent weeks, the UK has brought together some of the world’s leading specialists to form a consortium which will look at ways of reducing demand and driving behavioural change, to share knowledge and experience and inform further work to dampen demand for illegally traded wildlife and wildlife products.
Defra and the British Embassy in Hanoi, with support from the consortium members, recently held a successful workshop in Vietnam to look at ways to tackle the demand for illegally traded species and products (25 to 26 March 2019).
The workshop brought together local specialists from Vietnam and the wider region, along with Defra’s Demand Reduction consortium members and global academics and practitioners, to consider and share experiences on existing approaches to reducing demand for illegal wildlife trade products.
The outputs of the workshop will help inform the approach and scope of new initiatives and innovative projects to reduce demand for illegally traded wildlife and wildlife products. The discussions and outputs of the workshop will also inform other global work.
Further action
But that’s not all – other actions from the conference are now well underway too.
Among the achievements so far, the UK government has established a new counter-poaching partnership programme. The first training has been completed and a deployment is underway in Africa.
British diplomatic work has been taking place to support the development of the Ivory Alliance 2024 and the British Embassy Bangkok has run a campaign called: ‘Elephants are like us’. This work is promoting the UK as a global leader on the issue of IWT and helping to close ivory markets and reduce pressure on elephant populations.
The WILDLABS Tech Hub was formed at the London conference to harness the power of technology, data-sharing and machine-learning to combat wildlife crime. The Tech Hub has completed an open-call for conservation technology developers and data providers to join the project. An impressive 37 developers applied. Projects selected from these applicants will participate in a three-month programme, receiving support from Digital Catapult, Satellite Applications Catapult, Amazon Web Services, Microsoft, the FCO, the Open Data Institute, as well as seven international conservation organisations.
And next month, a review meeting on how countries are tackling the global illegal wildlife trade will take place at the Convention on the International Trade in Endangered Species Conference of the Parties in Sri Lanka.
Mark Field, Minister of State for Asia and the Pacific, said:
Six months ago we hosted the London Illegal Wildlife Trade Conference and I’m hugely encouraged by the progress that’s been made so far. The UK is committed to finding new ways to combat this illicit trade through a coordinated, global response and stamping out demand for illegal wildlife products is a crucial part of this.
Additional funding
With support from the Department for International Development (DFID), Defra has invested a total of £23 million in the IWT Challenge Fund.
DFID pledged an extra £6 million of UK aid for the Illegal Wildlife Trade Challenge Fund before the start of the IWT conference in 2018 and further rounds for funding applications will be opened shortly for projects to bid.
Harriett Baldwin, Minister for State for International Development, said:
The Illegal Wildlife Trade conference provided renewed impetus for all of the delegates and nations attending last year. This despicable trade in endangered wildlife and plants also destroys the livelihoods of some of the world’s poorest people, robbing communities of the great economic benefits of wildlife, including tourism. UK aid will be giving life to projects whose aim is to protect these species and secure the futures for people living alongside wildlife. This is a win for those communities and a win for animal lovers across the world. None of us want to see these majestic animals dying out.
Reducing demand for illegal wildlife products is critical to stopping the illegal wildlife trade. As long as the demand for these goods persists, criminals will seek new ways to circumvent anti-trafficking and anti-poaching enforcement efforts, and the threat to wildlife populations worldwide will continue.
Promising consortium outcomes
The UK is encouraging a global shift in our approach to demand reduction interventions to ensure that they are properly evidenced, impacts are measured and evaluated, and results and best practice are shared. The UK is also keen to see an increase in interventions that have a strong basis in behaviour change science.
That is why the UK established a consortium of demand reduction and behaviour change specialists to develop recommendations on approach and scope of future illegal wildlife trade demand reduction initiatives.
The consortium helped Defra deliver a workshop that focused on exploring the following existing approaches to reducing demand: environmental education, social marketing, social and behavioural change communication, and behavioural economics.
Attendees considered when these approaches might be best utilised in demand reduction interventions, how interventions using these approaches might be designed, implemented and evaluated to ‘good standards’, and who needs to be involved to ensure interventions are successful.
Naomi Doak, Head of Conservation Programmes for The Royal Foundation, said:
Looking at how the conservation sector approaches behaviour change for illegal wildlife products is crucial if we are to improve our efforts. The workshop provided a crucial space for those discussions and how we build on previous actions.
Dr Vuong Tien Manh, from Vietnam CITES, said:
We appreciate the support from the UK government and international organisations to help tackle the Illegal Wildlife Trade. Although good work has been done in this area, there is still demand in some parts of Vietnam. Interventions need to be based on scientific research. Vietnam is contributing to global action on IWT but there is a need to do more.
The consortium currently consists of Oxford Martin School, TRAFFIC, Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS), United for Wildlife (The Royal Foundation), UN Environment Programme and USAID.
Education packs
WWF-UK has produced two packs aimed at primary (KS2) and secondary (KS3) school students. These will be available from today for schools to register to access from the WWF-UK website.
Tale2Tail has produced a separate and beautifully illustrated pack which is also accessible online and provides teaching notes and lesson plans to help teachers in the classroom. There are illustrations of animals in their pack from Axel Scheffler, the illustrator behind the Gruffalo; and photography from world-renowned photographer David Yarrow. The images bring the story telling alive for young people. Download the pack here: http://www.tale2tail.org.
Background
WWF-UK education pack:
WWF-UK, in partnership with DEFRA, is today launching two new resources for schools focusing on raising awareness of the illegal wildlife trade – what it is, and the part we can play as individuals to tackle it.
Illegal Wildlife Trade Detectives (KS2) and Illegal Wildlife Trade: Investigations (KS3) are now available to teachers and include activities that can be delivered through different subject areas or as part of a themed week on sustainability.
Activities include an interactive quiz, photo cards and a map showing species at risk from the illegal wildlife trade. Together, these activities combine to create an engaging resource to inspire school communities to take action to help protect nature and wildlife, both locally and globally.
Schools are encouraged to register on the WWF-UK website to access this new, free classroom resource.
Tale2Tail education pack:
Tale2Tail, a charity which uses storytelling, art, photography and creative materials to educate children about saving wildlife, has produced this beautiful education pack, with over 20 hours of illustrated lesson plans, including a play, to raise awareness of the trade in Illegal wildlife and build a worldwide child wildlife ambassador network.
The pack includes stunning photography and illustrations by renowned wildlife photographer David Yarrow and the illustrator behind ‘The Gruffalo,’ Axel Scheffler.
By helping children understand and find their voice on this global issue, Tale2tail aims to change behaviour around the buying and selling of elephant ivory, rhino horn, pangolin scales, cheetah cubs and other endangered wildlife. The charity wants today’s children to be the generation that takes the lead to ensure the survival of wildlife.
Kate Studholme, CEO of Tale2Tail said:
We need to ensure elephant and rhino don’t become the 21st century’s unicorn, only to be found on the pages of a book, so we have created an original and beautifully illustrated education pack to raise children’s understanding and awareness of illegal wildlife trade. With over 20 hours of lesson plans, including a play, it will engage children across the UK and international curriculum. By helping children find their voice on this crucial issue, Tale2Tail aims to change behaviour around the buying and selling of endangered wildlife.
The charity is looking for support in both finding channels to further distribute their educational materials in the UK and globally, and to reach influential readers in a number of countries worldwide.
The Tale2Tail education pack can be downloaded on their website.
London Declaration 2018
The London Declaration 2018 committed the UK to investing more than £36 million between 2014 and 2021 to take action to counter IWT, including work to reduce demand, strengthen enforcement, ensure effective legal frameworks and develop sustainable livelihoods.
The full text of the London Declaration 2018 is available online.
Source: https://wildlifesos.org/wildlife-sos-marks-environment-day-with-action/