The United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) on the 20 December 2013 established March 3 as World Wildlife Day to commemorate and increase awareness of world citizens of wild animals and plants. March 3 was chosen as World Wildlife Day to coincide with the signing day of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Plants and Wildlife or CITES (Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora). World Wildlife Day is the most important annual global event dedicated to wildlife.
In the Living Planet Report 2018 by WWF, the Food and Agriculture Organization estimates that fisheries and aquaculture are a source of livelihood for 10-12% of the world community and 4.3 billion people depend on fish for 15% of total protein consumption them (FAO 2014). Three key habitats for marine wildlife that are currently experiencing the worst degradation are growing coral, mangrove forests, and seagrass beds. As a result of the worst coral bleaching in history in 2016 was the mass death of fast-growing and complex coral reef species that provide habitat for many marine animals. This coral reef is replaced by a type of coral reef that grows slowly and is only able to become a habitat for fewer marine animals. This event drastically changed the species composition of 29% of the 3863 coral species that live in the Great Barrier Reef (Hughes et al. 2018). Other threats to coral reefs are overfishing, selective and destructive fishing practices, and pollution that pollutes the waters of coral reefs that threaten the health of coral reefs (Hughes et al. 2003).
Mangrove forests are an important asset for people living on the seafront as natural barriers from storms and abrasion (Spalding et al. 2010; Cummings and Shah 2017). Mangrove forests are also very important in global carbon sequestration with the ability to store carbon five times greater than tropical forests (Donato et al. 2011) and are a breeding ground for many fish species. Seagrass beds are one of the most threatened ecosystems in the world. Seagrass beds are a collection of flowering plants that live in intertidal sea waters to a depth of 90 m that exist on all continents in the world except Antarctica (Short et al. 2016). Seagrass beds provide many benefits to humans including as a habitat that supports commercial and subsistence fisheries, nutrient recycling, sediment stabilization, and a significant global carbon sequestration (Waycott et al. 2009). Life on land greatly influences life on the oceans, especially in terms of pollution and our rubbish flowing into the ocean. Therefore, we can also play a role in the preservation of wild life at sea by disposing of trash in the space provided and reducing global warming by reducing electricity and motor vehicle use. Come on, save the earth from small things!