WILD ANIMALS KEEP OUR WORLD ALIVE

Without plants and animals, our lives would not be possible. Oxygen, clean water and soil, and our earliest tools, food, and clothing came from flora and fauna. Even our fossil fuels are the result of Paleozoic Era ecosystems that captured the sun's energy-the same energy that we are now using billions of years later. Yet increasingly, we fail to acknowledge the tens of thousands of creatures with whom we cohabitate, the wildlife upon whom our very existence is contingent. Throughout our development, Oceans and Rivers have provided us with fish; grasslands and forests have provided us with bush meat; plants that we cultivated became staple fruits and vegetables; ecosystems ensured reliable weather and clean water , development of tourism sector which has led to increased government tax through tracking gorillas with travel hemispheres limited. We domesticated some wild animals to become our livestock, providing milk, meat, and clothing. Wild canines developed over the years to become dogs, our hunting partners and bodyguards, our most effective alarm system in the night. Throughout those early ages, just like today, our world's fruiting trees and forests were pollinated by bats and birds, squirrels and bees. And from these forests we built houses for shelter, fires to keep us warm, ships that would take us across oceans, books that carried our hard-earned knowledge. We over-fish our oceans, depleting our forests, and hunting many species into annihilation. The Amazon rainforest alone produces about 20 percent of our planet's oxygen, and yet it is constantly under siege from soy and beef farming, hunting, mining, and the building of dams which has increased tourist attractions and roads. Many other rainforests are in even more dire stages of destruction from a complex matrix of human-market demands. In Africa and Asia some of our largest and most awe-inspiring creatures -- tigers, rhinos, elephants -- are on the brink of extinction along with lesser-known species, some of which have already disappeared entirely. In 2014 poachers killed as many as 35,000 elephants so that they could sell their tusks for trinkets. Demand for shark fins for luxury dining costs the lives of roughly 100 million sharks each year. The Sumatran forests -- the only place on earth where rhinos, tigers, elephants, and orangutans all co-exist -- is being destroyed at a rapid pace. The trade in endangered species has become a billion-dollar global market, ranking with guns and drugs as among the most insidious black markets. We forget that by protecting these wildlife and promote them for tourism to promote safaris to visist parks will really help the world. Many species that are not deliberately hunted and traded are vanishing because of habitat destruction and development. The problem is so vast and urgent that many consider the loss of biodiversity to be the defining issue of our time. We are the generation at the crux, saddled with the responsibility to decide whether the creatures we share this world with will continue to survive or not. It is a question that will ultimately determine the course of our own story as a species. What would we do without fish in our oceans? Without forests? Without clean water and air? Despite the dizzying number of species headed toward extinction, however, there is still hope. The past has shown us that protecting wildlife is possible. Just decades ago the whaling industry brought the global number of humpback whales down by 90 percent, putting the species on the brink of extinction. Today, because of continued conservation efforts, they are bouncing back and nearing pre-whaling numbers. Similarly, the bald eagle -- national bird of the United States -- came dangerously close to extinction a few decades back, but is now recovering. Against all odds, the gorillas of virunga NationalPark continue to thrive, because people are committed to saving them which has led to gorilla safaris to virunga National park and Bwindi National park.Gorilla safaris to rwanda have contributed alotthe Rwanda ddevelopment and its people. The list could go on at great length, but the simple fact is that many of the species on earth today wouldn't be here if scientists, students, rangers, naturalists, artists, politicians, and so many other dedicated people like forest guards work day and night to guard them from poachers, petitioned, and taken action to protect them. But it will only continue to be so if we can change the way we treat our wildlife. We owe so much to them. It's only fair that we allow them their own space and freedom, so that they may continue to thrive.