UN agency highlights youth attitudes in marking World Wildlife Day for 2017

The theme of the UN's 2017 World Wildlife Day will be "Listen to the young voices" on March 3 next year, the Geneva-based UN wildlife conservation agency CITES announced Friday.

The statement issued by CITES showed that concerns have been raised about trends in youth environmental attitudes, beliefs and behavior, suggesting a decline in personal responsibility for wildlife conservation and environment as a whole among the world's young people.

"Given the current rate of poaching and smuggling, will future generations one day speak of elephants, rhinoceros and many other endangered species as we speak of mammoths: magnificent creatures belonging to the past?" CITES Secretary-General John E. Scanlon noted.

"It is the responsibility of each generation to safeguard wildlife for the following generation," Scanlon said, adding that this was the message behind the theme.

According to the United Nations Population Fund, some 1.8 billion people, or nearly one-quarter of the world's population, is aged between 10 and 24, the age range defined by the United Nations as youth.

The UN General Assembly requested the CITES Secretariat, in collaboration with relevant organizations of the United Nations system, to facilitate the implementation of UN World Wildlife Day.

Among all the events to mark World Wildlife Day 2017, the CITES Secretariat will work with the president of the UN General Assembly to organize a high-level thematic discussion at UN Headquarters on the global observance of the day, including on the protection of wild fauna and flora and on tackling illicit trafficking in wildlife. Endit