A grand program marking World Wildlife Day celebration was held yesterday, March 4, 2024 at the Paynesville City Hall, Monrovia.
Under the theme: “Connecting People and Planet, Exploring Digital Innovation in Wildlife Conservation” the event began with a parade from ELWA Junction.
In separate remarks, the partners pledged their unflinching commitments to tightening collaboration to ensure that wildlife species within the territorial confines of Liberia and the sub-region get the deserved legal protection and conservation.
British Ambassador, Neil Bradley, said, “The scale of biodiversity loss across the world is frightening. By the time I’m finished speaking, the world will have lost forever, forest land the size of 150 football pitches,” adding, “As many as one million species of plants are threatened with extinction.”
He said reducing poverty by creating sustainable alternative livelihoods is one of the most important ways in which to protect our biodiversity and end the illegal wildlife trade, adding that “this is why UK funding is helping to sustain your forest and protect your wildlife.”
The French Embassy, through its representative, promised France’s unflinching support to the protection of wildlife, as well as the Wonegizi-Wologizi landscape management project in Lofa County.
He said the project is under appraisal in Paris and would amount to $9 million, aimed at contributing to a sustainable and converted management of the forest.
Making an opening statement, FDA Managing Director, Rudolph J. Merab, thanked the partners for their continued efforts in working as a team with the FDA in preserving and conserving the forest and all its biodiversity contents.
He called for unhindered cooperation and collaboration going forward, because according to him, human survival depends on nature amongst which the forest is key.
In his keynote address, the Director of the Society of Nature of Liberia (SCNL), Michael F. Garbo, called for contemporary metrics, urgent climate action, global cooperation, and what he called Kunming-Montreal framework that will address the cases of bush meat hunting and reduction of emissions, preventing pollution.
He used the occasion to recognize the vital role played over the years by local communities and indigenous people in safeguarding biodiversity.
There were cultural performances by ex-bush meat traders, while students from the Forestry Training Institute (FTI) and African Methodist University held a debate on the relevance of Wildlife.
Each year, March is set aside globally to commemorate this day as a way of raising awareness about the need to protect and preserve wildlife species. Like other countries, Liberia is a signatory to a convention that forbids the hunting and killing of wildlife species for trade.
