Leading the charge against illegal wildlife trade

2018 must be the year we mark the beginning of the end of the illegal wildlife trade.

Some might ask why this matters more than other global issues. It does not. There is much still to be done on poverty alleviation, ensuring education for all, promoting gender equality or addressing climate change, for example, and I could write on all of this and more. But the Illegal Wildlife Trade (IWT) issue deserves attention in its own right, that's why we mark March 3 as World Wildlife Day.

Can you imagine a future where wild pangolins,  and the Malayan tiger are no longer to be found in their natural habitat? In Malaysia, we have already seen the loss of the Sumatran rhino in the wild due to the loss of habitat and illegal poaching. Will they and other species simply become a curiosity at a zoo? What if your grandchild or great grandchild in years to come asks you why, what are you going to say? We did not care and we did nothing? That would be a poor response.

In my view this is a future we must avoid, just as we aspire to a future where every child has access to education, where wealth is more equitably shared, women are equally represented and paid, no one is hungry and where climate change has been arrested and our planet, the only home we have, is stable and peaceful and our people prosper. But in such a world we also value our natural world and the richness of its biodiversity and we see a value in how it enriches us in other ways. In that world IWT would not exist as we would know better.

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