3 March 2025 marks United Nations World Wildlife Day, focusing on Wildlife Conservation Finance
The 3rd of March marks United Nations World Wildlife Day.
The date commemorates the conclusion of the Convention on the International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (‘CITES’) in 1973 – a crucial multilateral agreement for wildlife aiming to ensure that international trade in specimens of wild animals and plants does not threaten wild species survival.
2025 is a major ‘50th’ milestone for the Convention, as the treaty entered into force on 1st July 1975 and this year, the WWD theme is ‘Wildlife Conservation Finance: Investing in People in Planet’.
What is Wildlife Conservation Finance?
It means securing long-term funding to support biodiversity conservation efforts. This involves collaboration between governments, private sectors, communities, and non-governmental organisations to develop financial mechanisms that ensure the protection and sustainable management of natural ecosystems. Key approaches include debt-for-nature swaps, conservation trust funds, carbon finance and financing protected areas. Source: UN WWD / WWF
Investing in People and Planet
With the Jane Goodall Institute maintaining national offices in 27 countries and our Roots & Shoots youth program in 75+ countries (and counting), our staff and volunteers around the world see first-hand how transformative investment in community-led conservation can be for animals, people, and our shared environment.
Sustainable investment in people and programs has seen success like our TACARE initiative which now works with over 100 village communities in Africa. How we choose to approach conservation requires an understanding of ethics and values, and TACARE emphasises the importance of engaging communities around what they value first and foremost.
Watch Dr.Lilian Pintea talking about TACARE or read about an example of its impact.
JGIG Policy and Advocacy
At the international level, the Jane Goodall Institute Global advocates for economic initiatives and finance to be tied consciously to biodiversity conservation. For example, our 2024 Wildlife Tourism Policy explains how we believe conservation tourism can benefit communities, wildlife and our shared future.
The ForeverWild Team are using WWD 2025’s emphasis on conservation finance to have an important parallel conversation. ForeverWild is the Institute’s international programme to end wildlife trafficking. Resident expert Dr Zara Bending shares her thoughts below:
“Wildlife crime threatens the social, cultural and economic benefits human communities derive from nature and undermines the rule of law and good governance due to the ubiquity of corruption, money (and specimen) laundering, and illicit financial flows. Trafficking in wildlife can even converge with other forms of organised crime such as the trafficking of arms and drugs. All of this paints a dire picture of the human costs.
‘Follow the money’ is a phrase we see used more often in this space than decades previous, and it emphasises how tracing financial flows can underpin targeted law enforcement interventions. The Financial Action Task Force (FATF) estimates that environmental crime generates approximately USD 110 to 281 billion in criminal profits each year. However, less than one percent of these profits are recovered.
We need States to enhance anti-money laundering frameworks and upscale engagement with regulators and stakeholders in the financial crime space. In Australia, we’ve seen progress such as the publication of the AUSTRAC Fintel Alliance financial crime guide on illegal wildlife trafficking (in partnership with the then Department of Agriculture, Water and the Environment).
Returning to this year’s WWD theme, it would accomplish a world of good if more States could also better operationalise recovery of proceeds of crime in prosecuting environmental crime and re-invest those ill-gotten gains into conservation. JGI Canada implements an Indigenous-led project using Canada’s Environmental Damages Fund, so we see the benefits of these sorts of approaches within our own network. There is certainly a place for remediation and restoration in an otherwise dark conversation around organised crime. As Dr Goodall would say, it’s about finding hope in action.”
The most recent United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime World Wildlife Crime report indicated the ubiquity of damaging illegal trade – officials in 162 countries and territories seized around 4,000 species of trafficked animals and plants between 2015-2021. With wildlife trafficking, and crimes affecting the environment more broadly, continuing unabated for many species, the Institute supports efforts to ensure trade under CITES is legal, sustainable and traceable while championing initiatives to prevent and combat wildlife crime as a serious form of organised crime.
The Jane Goodall Institute Global is a proud International Champion of the Global Initiative to End Wildlife Crime. Read more here.
Today, on this World Wildlife Day, we are taking up the call of Ivonne Higuero, CITES Secretary-General to talk about conservation financing.
Her statement is below. We hope you will also join the conversation.
Together we can create the future we hope for.
“For World Wildlife Day 2025, we’re exploring Wildlife Conservation Finance: Investing in People and Planet.
Our planet’s magnificent biodiversity is priceless, but conserving it comes at a cost. Each year, hundreds of billions of dollars are needed to close the global wildlife conservation finance gap—a gap we must bridge to ensure the survival of species and the ecosystems that sustain us all.
Just as digital innovation has transformed the way we conserve wildlife, innovative financing is revolutionizing conservation efforts. Wildlife credits, conservation bonds, debt-for-nature swaps, and other solutions show that it’s not just about numbers– it’s about funding conservationists, communities, and species in ways that align with our sustainable development goals, and in peace with nature.
This year, we invite you to join the conversation. What do you think is working well in financing conservation? What is not? How can we better fund and finance wildlife conservation? Let’s explore together, connect with fellow wildlife stakeholders, and share ideas for closing the gap.
Wildlife conservation finance is more than a tool – it is a commitment. A commitment to the planet, to its wild animals and plants, and to a shared future where nature and humanity thrive together.”
Ivonne Higuero, CITES Secretary-General
Image credits: Marc Petrelis (poster, top), JGI/Brenda Mirembe (above right), JGI/Fernando Turmo (above left)
