Held on March 3 every year since 2013, World Wildlife Day is a major occasion for all friends of nature to raise awareness of the great diversity and vast economic, scientific and aesthetic value of wild flora and fauna.
March 3 marks a crucial anniversary as CITES, short for Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora), was opened for signature on March 3, 1973. Hungary signed this treaty 12 years later and, with a significant portion of its territory protected by conservation law, is now home to some 2250 protected animal, plant, fungus and lichen species – a relatively high number in the region due to the country’s remarkable variety of habitats.
Species protected by CITES, 58 of which you can also meet in our zoo after we reopen, are listed in one of three appendices:
Appendix I includes species put on the verge of extinction by international trade, some with mere tens or hundreds of individuals left in the wild. These are the most protected taxa, meaning all related commercial activities are banned under CITES; permits for capturing or hunting specimens or trading live individuals, parts or their products can only be granted for conservation purposes. Examples include Amur tigers, lar gibbons and red pandas.
Appendix II lists species that are also threatened by international trade, albeit not yet to a critical degree. In order to ensure their survival in the long term, their trade is strictly regulated by CITES, with trade permits only granted for a maximum number of specimens a year as determined by scientific population assessments. Such species include blue-and-yellow macaws, Hermann’s tortoises and green-and-black poison dart frogs.
Appendix III includes species that have a particular regional population in danger of extinction, with international help needed by range countries in their fight against the harmful effects of trade. For instance, blue peafowls are fairly common in India but are now only found in a fraction of their historical range in Pakistan due to massive poaching and illegal captures.
For further information, visit www.wildlifeday.org.
Debrecen Zoo and Amusement Park
