World Wildlife Day 2022

It is World Wildlife Day today, and one of the things I am often asked when talking about the need to protect wildlife, is why?

The truth is there is no one answer as to why - do we go down the route of because it is the 'right' thing to do? After all, we are in most cases the ones who have put these species at risk, so shouldn't we be responsible for saving them? Or do we protect it out of respect for nature? Or perhaps because of animal rights?

Another argument is that we need wildlife far more than wildlife needs us. Without humans, wildlife will thrive, it will fight back and reshape the landscape. However, humans without wildlife, wouldn't be able to cope - without frogs to eat insects, insect borne diseases such as malaria would rise, without ocean phytoplankton we would lose 2/3 of our oxygen, without bees pollination would drop and we would lose about 70% of the crops we eat. I could go on and on. So you see, we need wildlife far more than it needs us, so on this International Wildlife Day I want to give wildlife the appreciation it deserves, because now more than ever wildlife needs us to protect it.