I hope that for us all, 2017 will be a year full of great things for ourselves and for global wildlife. Although we mustn’t forget about the huge declines in wildlife populations worldwide, we should still celebrate the small successes which we have achieved as a result of hard work and dedication to our causes.
At the end of December it was announced that China announced it will ban all trade in ivory by the end of 2017, the UK committed £13 million to tackling the illegal wildlife trade, pandas were taken off the endangered list and tiger numbers have increased for the first time since conservation efforts began. Nepal noted its second year without poaching of rhinos, CITES countries agreed to end all trade in pangolin products in a bid to prevent the extinction of this curious creature, and the Spanish government announced that it would ban dredging of the Guadalquivir River which would have resulted in the Donana wetlands becoming the EU’s first natural World Heritage Site to be put on the danger list.
I know that it is negligent to not mention any of the numerous disasters for wildlife in the last year, but it’s nice to start the year off positively…
Looking ahead to 2017, there are loads of opportunities for all of us wildlife heads to indulge our passion in the great outdoors and all it has to offer. In the UK the British Trust for Ornithology will be running lots of interesting workshops, the British Bird Watching Fair returns in August, Spurn Migration Festival in September, and the RSPB and Wildlife Trusts are also running various workshops which you must check out. Here are dates and links to things which you may like to put in your calendars to avoid missing them:
▶ https://www.rspb.org.uk/reserves-and-events/events-dates-and-inspiration/events/watching_wildlife.aspx (RSPB events)
▶ https://www.bto.org/news-events/events (BTO events)
▶ http://www.wildlifetrusts.org/whats-on (Wildlife Trusts events)
▶ http://www.birdfair.org.uk (18th-20th August is Bird Fair 2017)
▶ http://www.spurnmigfest.com (8th-10th September is Spurn Migration Festival)
Don’t forget to check out any local reserves to you to see what they are running in 2017, or join groups such as A Focus On Nature which give young conservationists excellent opportunities to network and gain new skills in many aspects of studying wildlife.
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