World Wildlife Day 2023 (and 50th Anniversary of first signing of CITES)

When: 3 March 2023

Theme: Partnerships for Wildlife Conservation

Every 3rd of March, wildlife is celebrated all over the world for the UN World Wildlife Day. This date was chosen as it is the birthday of CITES, the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora, signed in 1973.

This World Wildlife Day 2023 falls on the 50th Anniversary of CITES coming into being. Since its inception, CITES has stood at the junction of trade and conservation. It has sought to build partnerships and reconcile differences between the groups that are guided and governed by its regulations.

World Wildlife Day 2023 acknowledges the significant contribution CITES has made to sustainability, wildlife and biodiversity conservation and how this contribution has been enhanced by the bridge-building and partnership work done within the CITES framework. It also recognizes how CITES has partnered and collaborated with other conventions, UN agencies and other organizations in the service of the broader UN goals, such as the Sustainable Development Goals and the Post-2020 Framework on Biodiversity (which has just been adopted at CBD CoP15 in Montreal in December).

UN agencies, private sector organizations, philanthropies and non-governmental organizations have been mobilized, working for conservation, the sustainable use of wildlife and in the fight against illegal trade and the depletion of wildlife.