UN World Wildlife Day 2018

Uganda is joining the rest of the world to celebrate the UN World Wildlife Day today,3^rd March 2018. The annual event under the national theme “Creating a safe environment for the survival of Uganda’s big cats” rhyming with the global theme “Big cats: Predators under threat”. The main celebrations are going to take place at Uganda Wildlife Research and Training Institute campus in Katwe-Kabatooro,Kasese district and will be presided over by the president of Uganda H.E. Yoweri Kaguta Museveni.

Over the past century we have been losing big cats, the planet’s most majestic predators, at an alarming rate. World Wildlife Day 2018 gives us the opportunity to raise awareness about their plight and to galvanize support for the many global and national actions that are underway to save our big cats. The big cats include not only lions, tigers, leopards and jaguars,the 4 largest wild cats that can roar,but also cheetahs, snow leopards, pumas, clouded leopard, etc.

The UN Secretary-General António Guterres says in his official message says that big cats “are collectively under threat from habitat loss, climate change, poaching, illicit trafficking, and human-wildlife conflict.We are the cause of their decline, so we can also be their salvation”

World Wildlife Day is an opportunity to celebrate the many beautiful and varied forms of wild fauna and flora and to raise awareness of the multitude of benefits that conservation provides to people. From WWF to the World Bank; from Interpol to the Born Free Foundation, there is a real groundswell of support to protect big cats from the many increased dangers they face in the modern world.