World Wildlife Day 2025: Investing in People and Planet for a Sustainable Future
- Communication
- Mar 3
- 2 min read
Every year on March 3rd, the world unites to celebrate World Wildlife Day, a moment to reflect on the incredible biodiversity that sustains life on Earth and the urgent need to protect it. This year’s theme, "Wildlife Conservation Finance: Investing in People and Planet," highlights the essential role of funding in securing a future where both wildlife and communities can thrive.
Financing Conservation: Why It Matters
Conserving wildlife is not just about protecting species; it’s about securing ecosystems, livelihoods, and the well-being of people who depend on nature. Sustainable financing for conservation ensures that efforts to combat poaching, habitat destruction, and climate change are not just short-term fixes but long-lasting solutions.
In protected areas like the Upemba National Park, conservation finance is the backbone of our mission. Through investments in anti-poaching operations, research, and community engagement programs, we work to balance ecological integrity with local development. When we invest in nature, we invest in people.
Upemba’s Approach: Preserving Biodiversity, Empowering Communities
At the core of our conservation approach, we understand that conservation efforts must go hand in hand with community development. We align the two by emphasizing on wildlife protection, community involvement, and sustainable funding. How does it really work?
We invest in monitoring and anti-poaching operations to safeguard key species that define our ecosystem. As an illustration, the latest biodiversity survey and our GPS collaring project (on zebras and elephants coming soon) constitute a vital step toward improving wildlife conservation and reducing human-wildlife conflict.
Through conservation-based livelihoods, local communities become direct stakeholders in protecting nature. From our food resilience and sustainable agriculture projects to the upcoming ecotourism opportunities, our initiatives purpose to provide economic alternatives to activities that harm biodiversity.
To sustain such as transformational approach, sustainable financing models are needed. We explore opportunities for effective partnerships to ensure that protecting nature is not just a cost but a long-term investment for our biodiversity and communities within the Upemba Landscape and beyond.
Support our work
This World Wildlife Day, let’s recognize that financing conservation is an investment in our shared future. Governments, organizations, businesses, and individuals all have a role to play. By supporting conservation efforts, we protect the planet while ensuring a future where people and wildlife coexist in harmony.
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