Interview: "Future of all wild animals in our hands" -- UN expert

Even if you don't buy ivory or eat shark fin soup, you can still help save wild animals, Nik Sekhran, director for Sustainable Development at the United Nations Development Program (UNDP), told Xinhua in a recent interview.

The World Wildlife Day, which falls on Thursday, has a special theme this year -- "The future of wildlife is in our hands".

Sekhran, who took part in the official UN event to mark the day, told Xinhua that China's recent efforts to help stop the trade in ivory have helped contribute to a dramatic fall in demand.

"You've seen the price of ivory fall, in fact it fell by over a thousand (U.S.) dollars in 2015," said Sekhran.

Sekhran said the Chinese government's stand against ivory -- as demonstrated for example by public ivory burn -- had helped bring awareness to the frightening impact of the trade in ivory, including on Asian elephants.

According to Sekhran, there has also been "a major change in China" and other Asian countries in the consumption of shark fin, with actions such as the government's decision to ban shark fin soup at official banquets.

However, cutting out products like ivory or shark fin is not the only way to help conserve wildlife, said the UN official.

"For the individual (who) doesn't consume ivory, they should ask themselves what else are they consuming and understand that the choices that they make (have) implications for the environment," he said.

For instance, Sekhran said, the whitening agent used in toothpaste is contributing to the loss of habitat for lemurs in Madagascar. While macaws from central and south America are being endangered by the illegal trade in pets, he said, carbon dioxide accumulations in the atmosphere are contributing to the loss of coral reefs, which provide a vital ecosystem for tropical fish.

Better understanding the inherent and future value of wildlife biodiversity will help us to ensure that it is available for future generations, Sekhran said.

"We're undervaluing the environment and when you undervalue something you tend not to conserve it," he said.

"The value of an elephant in Kenya over its life time is some one million dollars in terms of its contribution to tourism, whereas a poacher might get 600 dollars or something like that for the tusks," he said.

Similar values can also be attributed to other wildlife, he said.

"Around the world many countries depend on wildlife tourism," he said, citing countries which benefit from underwater wildlife through diving and snorkeling-related tourism.

Yet, the illegal trade in wildlife products is still extremely lucrative, and these funds are often being diverted to criminal networks, creating an additional problem.

"The illegal trade today in wildlife products and derivative is in the order of up to 23 billion dollars a year. It's massive and we're seeing it's cataclysmic in terms of the impact on some species," he said.

The UNDP is working with governments and communities to help them better understand and use the inherent values of the environment, for example, through sharing profits from new medical discoveries, he added.

"We've been trying to do that with a view towards giving communities today an incentive for options now," he said. "Otherwise you have a situation where you have future generations that will look back and say look, we've lost something, we've lost something enormous."

"Biodiversity provides the stuff of future development whether its around tourism, whether it's around sustainable fisheries, whether its around sustaining agriculture, by providing vital ecological services such as the protection of pollinators," he said. Enditem