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Celebrating World Wildlife Day
March 3rd is World Wildlife Day.
World Wildlife Day is an annual celebration and appreciation for the abundance of life and diversity around the world: in forests, plains, oceans, deserts, and even in cities.
A 2019 report found that around one million animal and plant species are now threatened with extinction, more than ever before. As biodiversity loss continues at unprecedented rates, it's more important than ever to recognize the inherent value of all life, and the pressing impacts of climate change.
On [December 20th] 2013... the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) proclaimed [March 3rd]... as UN World Wildlife Day to celebrate and raise awareness of the world’s wild animals and plants.
Why is biodiversity important? Biodiversity—the variety in species, genetics, and ecosystems—play crucial roles in our lives and for our planet. The environmental services that ecosystems perform, like cleaning our air and water, rely on other organisms.
Today we're looking at how two professors in SFU's Faculty of Environment are working with wildlife in their research, Rosemary Collard and Anne Salomon. We asked them to tell us a little bit about their work and what wildlife means to them.
Rosemary Collard
Rosemary is a professor in the Geography department. As a human geographer her area of research includes defaunation, extinction, as well as the exotic pet trade.
"Wild vertebrate populations have declined by at least 68 percent over the past 50 years. When people think about the threats facing wildlife they probably don't think about Tiger King or a parrot for sale in the pet store. But the exotic pet trade is a key driver of declining wildlife abundance worldwide.
My research tries to shed light on this shadowy, multibillion dollar trade, following the exotic pet commodity chain from capture in forests in Central America to exchange at exotic animal auctions across the US, to the attempted rehabilitation and release of former exotic pets. But rehabilitation is difficult if not impossible, and there's a huge amount of loss - of life and freedom - for wild animals all the way long the chain. The important thing is to shrink demand for exotic pets in countries like the US and Canada."
Rosemary recently published a book last fall called "Animal Traffic - Lively Capital in the Global Exotic Pet Trade." Learn more and listen to an interview with Rosemary.
Anne Salomon
Anne Salomon is a professor in the Resource and Environmental Management program. For World Wildlife Day, Anne shared what wildlife means to her:
“Discovering the mysteries of BC’s wildlife and ‘wild’ places with my students and learning from the people for which this coast has been their ancestral home for millennia, is by far the best part of my job!
Although ‘wild’ in the eyes of many, these shores have been paddled by people for over 14,000 years. So, when I gaze out through the mist along windswept rocky shores, or through blades of swaying kelp, I see a deep history of ever changing relationships between people, wildlife and their shared ocean home.”
As a marine ecologist, Anne's work has focused on better understanding the relationships between humans and marine ecosystems to better inform conservation policies. Some of her recent research has been on kelp forest tipping points, marine predator recovery, ancestral clam gardens, small scale fisheries and coupled human-ocean systems. Anne is deeply committed to working across disciplines and sectors to catalyze transdisciplinary research that addresses environmental challenges of concern to Canadian and global society.
World Wildlife Day is an opportunity to consider the impact and importance of the plants and animals around us, as well as to appreciate the important research that people like Rosemary and Anne work on every day. Let's celebrate the life around us and keep pushing to protect that life.