World Wildlife Day

We can't survive in a #WorldWithoutNature. On 3 March 2024 brands, sports teams, charities, schools and more united to remove nature from our logos and raise awareness of the nature crisis.

A mother Eastern grey Kangaroo in the burnt trees

Why is World Wildlife Day so important?

World Wildlife Day should be a day to celebrate life on our amazing planet. But in the UK and around the world, nature is in crisis:

Global wildlife population sizes have plummeted by an average of 69% since 1970.
Here in the UK, we’ve lost 70% of our ancient woodlands, our rivers are polluted and our wildflower meadows are almost gone.

We know that most of us in the UK care about our environment, and together, we can turn things around.

Ways to help our world

You'll miss me when I'm gone

Here are just a handful of species that are integral to keeping the balance of our natural world in check:

© naturepl.com / Phil Savoie / WWF

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Bees

There are 270 species of bee in the UK, including 24 different species of bumblebee alone. Each plays their part in keeping our meadows, heathlands, woodlands and hedgerows alive, with forager bees flying remarkable distances, pollinating wildflowers as they go. Globally, around a third of our different crop types depend on bees and other pollinators, including wasps, ants, butterflies, beetles, and moths.
With the widespread destruction of our natural world, bees are facing challenges. Since the 1930s, the UK has lost 97% of its lowland wildflower meadows – a vital resource for bees. Heavy use of pesticides in food production and the intensification of farming, together with a rapidly changing climate, are causing a global decline in wild bee species. In the UK, we’ve already lost 13 species of bees, 35 species are at risk of extinction, and all the 270 UK species face serious threats.

Bee Facts
© Chris J Ratcliffe / WWF-UK

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Orangutans

Orangutans are known as gardeners of the forest, because they play an important role as seed dispersers. Like birds, orangutans eat a variety of fruit and seeds, and spread them throughout the forest when the seeds come out the other end. Orangutans are particularly good at spreading the larger seeds that don’t get eaten and spread by smaller animals. Without that seed distribution, the rainforests of Borneo and Sumatra would be drastically different, as seed distribution helps to regenerate and maintain the forest ecosystem.  
It is estimated that over 100,000 Bornean orangutans were lost between 1999 and 2015. Today, all three orangutan species - Bornean, Sumatran and the Tapanuli - are critically endangered. The primary threat to these great apes is the extensive loss of their natural habitat due to infrastructure development, unsustainable logging practices and agricultural expansion - particularly for palm oil production. Deforestation fragments orangutan habitats, isolating populations and limiting their ability to find food and mates. Hunting and illegal wildlife trade also poses significant threats.

Orangutan facts
© naturepl.com / Andy Rouse / WWF

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Snow leopards

The snow leopard is at home in high, rugged mountain landscapes at heights of over 3,000 metres. This elegant and elusive big cat is sparsely distributed across 12 countries in Central and South Asia, including Mongolia, China, Afghanistan, Pakistan, India and Nepal. 
Snow leopards are top predators in their environment, and their prey include ibex, blue sheep and marmots. Their presence indicates a healthy ecosystem; without the snow leopard, the ecological balance within their home environment would be disrupted. For example, herbivore populations would increase, resulting in changes to the vegetation, affecting other wildlife that lives in the area.
Snow leopards face many threats, including habitat loss and degradation poaching and Illegal wildlife trade, retaliatory killing: and climate change. The wild prey snow leopards reply on such as ibex, blue sheep and marmots are declining in some parts of the big cat’s range, due to overhunting, habitat loss and competition with domestic livestock. Snow leopards sometimes prey on domestic livestock, leading to conflicts with herders who may retaliate by killing them to protect their livestock and livelihoods.

Snow leopards facts
© Cat Holloway / WWF

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Marine Turtles

Marine turtles have been in our oceans for over 100 million years. Today, there are seven species of these ancient mariners: hawksbill, loggerhead, leatherback, olive ridley, green, flatback and Kemps’ ridley. Found in most of the world’s oceans, apart from cold polar seas, they play important roles in their ecosystems. These roles range from maintaining productive coral reef ecosystems, keeping ecosystems in balance as predators, to transporting essential nutrients from the oceans to beaches and coastal dunes.
Marine turtles are facing multiple challenges, with some species’ populations close to the edge of collapse. Turtle’s beach nesting habitats are being lost to and degraded by coastal development, sea level rise and increasing frequency and severity of storms. Fisheries are the primary threat to marine turtles, in particular ‘bycatch’ - becoming accidentally caught in fishing gear - either from nets in active use, or abandoned fishing gear. Unsustainable fishing can also damage turtle feeding grounds and disrupt their food supply. Turtles are also impacted by the illegal wildlife trade, targeted for their meat, eggs and shells (hawksbill turtles are targeted for ‘tortoiseshell’). In addition to these threats, as turtle sex is determined by nest temperature, more females are being produced in our warming world, potentially impacting the long-term viability of some populations.

Turtle facts
© Elisabeth Kruger

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Polar Bears

Polar bears, the planet’s largest land-based carnivores, live in the frozen Arctic landscape, ranging across the Arctic Ocean, in parts of Canada, U.S (Alaska), Russia, Greenland and Norway (Svalbard). Polar bears are at the top of the food chain here, and have an important role in the overall health of the marine environment. Over thousands of years, polar bears have also been an important part of the cultures and economies of Arctic peoples.
Polar bears rely heavily on sea ice for traveling, hunting, resting, and mating. Due to climate change, these iconic bears face ongoing loss of their sea ice habitat. As the sea ice recedes earlier in the spring and forms later in the autumn, polar bears are increasingly spending longer periods on land. A recent study in Manitoba, Canada, found that bears foraging on land during ice-free summer months got just enough calories from small meals (such as berries) to replenish the energy they spent finding them, but not enough to maintain their body mass. Limited natural food availability can also attract the bears to areas where humans live, increasing the risk of human-polar bear conflict. With the Arctic warming nearly four times faster than the rest of the planet, the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) says there is a high probability that the global polar bear population will decline by more than 30% by 2050.

Polar bear facts

How to get involved in #WorldWithoutNature

You can join next year’s global activation. Mark your calendar for World Wildlife Day, 3 March 2025, and check this page for more information on how you can take part.