WORLD ENVIRONMENT DAY 2016 one that benefitted some local residents.
However, it soon became clear that a lack of buy-in by the local community would put the future of the project at risk. Neighbors had to see the wildlife conservation next door as something that could change their lives in positive ways. By making them partners, they would be more likely to assist in the protection of the conservancy.
To accomplish this, the conservancy offered much needed education and health care services and ensured that they saw some of the economic benefits like protection of their livestock by the anti-poaching teams.
Inspired by conservation benefits reaped by their neighbours bordering private conservancies, local communities offered their land for settling up of community conservancies with support from the Northern Rangelands Trust – founded by Lewa. Their socio-economic status has improved, with previously unavailable social services like water, security and healthcare now available. The community conservancies have also created many employment opportunities for the locals.
This approach has paid dividends, with a decline in poaching cases as community members, who view wildlife as a source of livelihood, provide intelligence to the conservancy’ s rangers, the Kenya Wildlife Service and Kenya police regarding suspected poachers.
“ Lewa is the only conservancy in Kenya to have not lost a rhino to poaching since 2013,” said John Pameri, Head of Security at the conservancy.“ Community members have helped identify people involved in poaching including two of our former rangers resulting in arrests.”
Stand with the United Nations and Angola, Global Host for World Environment Day 2016, by pledging your support and joining the global fight against the illegal trade in wildlife
On 5 June 2016, people from across the globe will celebrate World Environment Day( WED) by taking part in environmental action and becoming agents of change for positive impacts on the planet.
This year’ s theme is on the illegal trade in wildlife, which is eroding Earth’ s precious biodiversity, robbing us of our natural heritage and driving species to the brink of extinction.
Wildlife crime endangers iconic species such as elephants, rhinos, tigers, gorillas and sea turtles. In 2011, a subspecies of Javan rhino was declared extinct in Vietnam, while the last western black rhinos vanished from Cameroon in the same year. Great apes have disappeared from Gambia, Burkina Faso, Benin and Togo, and other countries could quickly follow. Lesserknown victims include helmeted hornbills and pangolins as well as wild orchids and timbers like rosewood – yes, flowers and timber are also considered wildlife! The illegal trade is also undermining economies and ecosystems, fuelling organized crime, and feeding corruption and insecurity across the globe.
In a worldwide call to action to Make Wildlife Personal and to support the global effort against the illegal trade in wildlife, people all over the world are joined by star studded ambassadors in the UN’ s unprecedented
# WildforLife campaign that aims to mobilize millions of people to make commitments and take action.
As celebrations take place all over the world, celebrities are giving their name to change the game for these threatened species. Campaign Leaders include: UNEP Goodwill Ambassadors, Lebanese singer song-writer Ragheb Alama for helmeted hornbills; Chinese actress Li Bingbing and four-time African Footballer of the Year Yaya Touré( Manchester City, Ivory Coast) for elephants; Brazilian supermodel Gisele Bündchen for sea turtles; GRASP Ambassador and Indonesian model Nadya Hutagalung for orangutans; and actor Ian Somerhalder( Vampire Diaries, Lost) for pangolins.
They are being joined by major celebrities including, Bollywood star Jacqueline Fernandez for tigers, Vietnamese singer Thu Minh for rhinos and North American actress Nikki Reed for Rosewood.
Brazilian footballer Neymar Jr. has also thrown his weight behind the campaign to support Gisele and has garnered over half a million likes for the campaign in 48 hours. All are calling for citizen support to end the demand that is driving the illegal trade.
There are many activities you can take part in to celebrate WED 2016, whether this be through arts and
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