Every year on the third Friday in May the International Endangered species Day is celebrated by thousands of people all around the world. This year is held on May 21st, 2021. This day is celebrated by holding a special programme, educating, gathering knowledge, taking action to protect and conserve worldwide threatened and endangered species.

Planet earth is full of plants, animals, insects, and many more various types of creatures. From that enormous number of creatures, many species can be at risk of extinction or soon will be endangered. This means that they need help immediately.

When a species is defined as endangered, it means in the last few ten, hundred or thousand years their numbers have become low and when their last one is one the species will be gone forever. Keeping this in mind, The International endangered day has been started. This day was created to make people aware that it's really important to protect the endangered species before they are gone forever.

Endangered Species

An endangered species is an animal or plant that is considered at risk of extinction. However different country's t government and local organizations have their criteria for deciding for species are endangered or not. The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) maintains the most comprehensive list of endangered species around the world. The Red List of Threatened Species judges each species on five different standards.

According to IUCN, an endangered species meets any one of the following criteria as given below:

- A 50-70% population decrease over 10 years.

- A total geographic area less than 5,000 square kilometer or a local population area less thare00 square kilometers.

- A population size of fewer than 2,500 adults.

-A restricted population of 250 adults or a statistical prediction that it will go extinct within the next 20 years.

According to IUCN, recent research, there are now 41,415 species on the IUCN Red List, and 16,306 of them are endangered species threatened with extinction. This is up from 16,118 last year. This includes both endangered animals and endangered plants.

I.e.  10 most endangered animals in 2021.

Javan Rhinoceros, Vaquita, Mountain Gorilla, Tiger, Asian Elephant, Orangutans, Leatherback turtles, Snow Leopards, Irrawaddy Dolphins, Bluefin Tuna.

Since life began on Earth, there are innumerable creatures that have come and extinct by changing natural climate or physical and biological conditions of nature. Perhaps one of the earliest and most learned about extinctions in history is that of the dinosaurs. And there is a rising amount of scientific evidence, the rate of natural extinction is much higher now than the rate of the past. Scientists have suggested that the growing current rate of extinct or endangered species is because of human activities.

Matters such as climate change,  global warming, an abundance of invasive species, overfishing, and overhunting are the leading cause behind the current crisis. So all around the world, there’s an enormous need for conservation to protect many of the species which may be very important for our ecosystem and to prevent them from extinction.

And the International endangered species Day is that one good initiative towards that. We can do many things to celebrate this day and play a role in the conservation act.

Such as.

·         Not buying illegal wildlife products, such as ivory

·         Avoid unsustainable food products, such as palm oil.

·         Donate to a conservation group or wildlife organization.

·         Educate yourself on endangered species.

·         Learn more about the Endangered Species Act.

The more we take care of our earth, take care of all the species of our environment the healthier earth it will become and that is why the International Endangered species Day is very important for us.

About the Author: Ms. Farjana Yeasmin Nishita is a Youth Advocate, Research Student, Climate activist and an Eco Club Bangladesh Member (The Earth Needs Love)