This week, Panthera CEO and President Dr. Frederic Launay participated in a panel discussion at Dubai Expo 2020 discussing the subject of "Protecting Life and the Planet" as part of an event celebrating World Wildlife Day. We gathered his thoughts on this day and more below:
Dr. Launay: I believe that the intention in creating World Wildlife Day was to focus the attention of the global community on an often-neglected subject — the current state and future of our planet’s extraordinary wildlife species. One reason we celebrate World Wildlife Day is because an increasing majority of people do not live in daily contact with wildlife (or nature for that matter), and have a limited understanding or acknowledgement that we coexist with other species on Earth. While it should be daily, we all need a reminder at least one day out of the year that coexistence with wildlife is essential to the future of all living beings.
Dr. Launay: It is important to protect all species of living organisms, not just the endangered or threatened ones, as I outlined in this Mongabay op-ed. Virtually all species on Earth are conservation dependents, which the IUCN defines as species dependent on conservation efforts to prevent them from becoming endangered. This dependence is created by human encroachment on all wildlife habitats, whether they be on land or sea, and our impact on all of the planet’s ecological processes.
All species require a degree of attention from mankind to survive, from monitoring of their numbers at a bare minimum to globally supported intensive protection efforts at a maximum. And this is irrespective of the “usefulness” of apex predators like wild cats that alone warrant protection for their role in maintaining healthy ecosystems and food chains benefitting human communities.
But more importantly, there is a moral and ethical duty for all of us to protect, respect and nurture the species with which we share our planet. Earth is no more our planet than theirs — we are only more destructive.
Dr. Launay: The most common threats to species today are those that have threatened wildlife for decades, with habitat loss and fragmentation, poaching for the illegal wildlife trade, overhunting of prey species by people and conflict with local communities representing the greatest. Climate change, too, is an aggravating factor for some species. But the underlying source — the root cause — of these threats is our ever-burgeoning human population that leads to competition for space and resources, overexploitation of wildlife and more.
Dr. Launay: Science and technology can help and facilitate designing better methods of studies, interventions and conservation actions on nearly all species and all habitats. However, science and technology are tools (and methods), like our PoacherCam and partnership with EarthRanger, that make the work of conservationists easier, faster and more accurate. Science and technology cannot “save” species on their own.
Instead, a change of human beings’ mindsets about their relationship with wildlife and the planet (and following through on this change with measurable actions) is one of the greatest ways our species can save other species sharing our Earth.
On this World Wildlife Day, consider heeding Dr. Launay’s message by making a donation to Panthera to help ensure a future for wild cats. It takes all of us to preserve the world’s wildlife.
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© Sebastian Kennerknecht
