World Wildlife Day, observed on 3 March, is this year dedicated to forest ecosystems and the related species.  

Minister for the Economy and Sustainable Development, Tomislav Coric, said that the survival and well-being of people depend on forests and that everyone is responsible for their preservation.

“In Croatia forests cover around 45 percent of the land territory, and they are natural to a large extent. The species in as many as 95 percent of forests in the country are natural and indigenous, which is rare not only in Europe but globally as well,” the minister said, pointing to the great importance of forests and warning against their unsustainable use.

He recalled that in order to stop global deforestation, the European Commission in 2019 published the communication “Stepping up EU Action to Protect and Restore the World’s Forests”, and that as part of its strategy for the preservation of biodiversity in the period until 2030, the EC had prepared an ambitious plan to restore nature, including a plan to put 10 percent of land areas under strict protection, as part of which all the remaining primeval forests in Europe will be mapped and protected.

In 2021, a special EU strategy for forests will be put forward, in line with the EU’s biodiversity and climate neutrality ambitions, and it will include an action plan for the planting of at least three billion new trees in the EU in the period until 2030, in line with ecological criteria.

Zagreb ZOO: Red list contains more than 15,200 animal species

Zagreb ZOO traditionally marks World Wildlife Day to raise public awareness of the importance of preserving plant and animal species.

It warns that the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List of Threatened Species currently contains more than 15,200 animal species, including 38 species that have become extinct in nature and that survive exclusively thanks to human care.

Two of those species can be seen at Zagreb ZOO – the scimitar oryx and the Socorro dove, the zoo has said.