"Only when the last of the animals horns, tusks, skin and bones have been sold, will mankind realize that money can never buy back our wildlife." Paul Oxton

On the eighth of November 2012, Hillary Clinton, the Secretary of State at that time, put out a call to action to raise awareness and engage conservationists and wildlife activists about World Wildlife Conservation Day. She also presented the White House’s strategy to address the global problem of wildlife trafficking. WWF joined the call to action put out by Hilary Clinton to engage everyone who cares about our planet on Wildlife Conservation Day, the fourth of December.

World Wildlife Conservation Day is a great occasion to spread awareness about preserving Earth’s endangered flora and fauna. The most invasive species on Earth is us, humans. A lot of wonderful animals are becoming endangered and being pushed to the brink of extinction by the greedy behaviour of some people, and this is causing irreparable harm to the wildlife ecosystem.

On World Wildlife Conservation Day we can reflect and do something about the issues that are threatening the planet’s wildlife biodiversity balance. Human interference in the world’s natural ecosystem has been ongoing for centuries. We travelled across the globe and settled in different parts of the world, we cleared land for farming and cut forests because we needed wood for building houses and ships. First we hunted just for food but over time we started to hunt and poach for money and wildlife populations started to shrink across the globe.

The illegal trade of endangered species on the black market is rising. Although governments across the world are trying their best and, in some cases, succeeding to stop this act, not all species are safe from poachers and hunters. This influences not only the wildlife but also the lives of millions of people living close to forested areas in different parts of the world. So, it is time we act and work together to preserve and protect the wildlife to ensure their survival.
 

Wildlife crime is a serious crime, not a distant problem in a faraway country. It is a global challenge to deal with it. It is important, and not just because we care about pandas, lions and leopards. Park rangers and wildlife activists are being killed by poachers too. People whose earnings depend on wildlife for tourism are being robbed of their source of livelihood.  As Theodore Roosevelt once said, "The wildlife and its habitat cannot speak, so we must and we will." We need to do everything to preserve the wildlife and to raise awareness about its importance. Our students prepared and played a game on Wildlife Conservation Day. The aim of the game was to make students aware of the importance of wildlife biodiversity. Students were divided into teams of five. They received a map of the world and a route they had to follow.

They had to visit different continents and find their tasks encoded in QR codes. Students played the game at school so each continent was in a different classroom. One of our students painted posters to label the classrooms.

Then students had to carry out the tasks. Some tasks were funny, for example to complete the task found in Asia students had to use the materials prepared for them and dress up one of members of their team as a panda. Then they had to take a selfie of the whole team with the panda. Some tasks were more serious and made students think about the importance of wildlife biodiversity balance. For example to complete a task found in Europe students had to watch a short video  ‘Nature our most precious asset’ made by Cambridge University and answer the question “What happens if we reduce biodiversity?”.

Here's the list of tasks:

Tasks.pdf

The rules of the game:

Wildlife game rules.pdf

Exmple of the route students had to follow:

Task sheet gr. 1.pdf