Safeguard the future of species currently threatened with extinction.
This year’s theme recognizes that CITES’s successes – indeed almost all successful conservation actions, depend upon cooperation. It is such an important and complex subject that no one government or organization, including the United Nations, can tackle the issue without collaboration and sharing of experience and expertise. So, the theme this year is ‘Partnerships for Wildlife Conservation’.
The idea of a partnership inevitably means different things to different people. Some will see the most impactful conservation partnerships as taking place at the international level between organizations, while others may see small groups living alongside nature as having the most beneficial partnership for wildlife conservation.
In order to capture as many different partnerships as possible, WWD 2023 will focus on partnerships at three levels: international; regional and national; and local.
‘Partnership stories’, i.e. successful case studies, will be identified for each of these three groupings to illustrate that work needs to be done at all levels in order to safeguard the future of species currently threatened with extinction, and to secure a healthier planet for all.
As a further subset of this conservation work, two specific subject areas have been selected to illustrate partnerships in these specific areas: business & finance; and marine life & oceans.
Indigenous Peoples and Local Communities (IPLC) and Youth representatives will be specifically invited to contribute to the ‘partnership stories’, as two stakeholder groups that CITES has been working towards ensuring meaningful representation.
It is important that this WWD should be inclusive of and should offer hope and direction for a broad audience such that it feels like there are actions they can take that will contribute to conserving nature. It is our intention that the event and the other materials generated for WWD 2023 will be consistent with this aim.
Concept Note for World Wildlife Day 2023 – and celebration of 50 years of CITES Background On 20 December 2013, at its 68th session, the Uni