PEOPLE EVERYWHERE rely on wildlife and biodiversity to meet their needs—food, fuel, medicines, housing, and clothing. World Wildlife Day, which was observed across the world on March 3, serves as a call to action about preserving Earth’s many beautiful and varied forms of endangered flora and fauna and to raise awareness of the multitude of benefits that their conservation provides to mankind. This day is also to step up the fight against wildlife crime and human-induced extinction of species.
The theme 2026, “Medicinal and Aromatic Plants: Conserving Health, Heritage and Livelihoods”, highlights the vital role of these plants in sustaining human health, cultural heritage and local livelihoods, and showcases the growing pressures they face from habitat loss, overharvesting, and climate change putting ecologies at risk. Conserving medicinal and aromatic plants is a tribute to the people who have protected these species for generations, and to the future who will depend on them.
Nature is both fragile and complex, and the reason is to appreciate our interconnectedness with the natural world. The more we can recognize its value, the more we can generate global support from governments, policymakers and other decision-makers for biodiversity conservation, including resources and financial support. This will ensure a future for wildlife and the countless benefits.
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It is no secret that human activity has pushed this living heritage under threat. But we pay far less attention to plants, the planet’s unsung architects. Therapeutic species are vital to both traditional and modern medicine, supporting the livelihoods of millions. Plants boost biodiversity; stabilize soils and represent centuries of knowledge and stewardship by Indigenous Peoples and local communities. Charismatic wildlife also supports tourism-based livelihoods.
By strengthening global environmental governance through pacts like the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework, CITIES and the Agreement on Marine Biological Diversity of Areas Beyond National Jurisdiction, we can make our planet safer for all living things.
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All countries need to become gardeners of the global commons. Together, we can ensure that the ecosystems that have healed humanity for millennia sustain us for generations to come. Around the world, medicinal and aromatic plants are woven into the daily lives of billions. These plants are part of humanity’s oldest relationship with nature. They flavour our foods, anchor our healing traditions, support our well‑being and sustain livelihoods in rural and Indigenous communities.
Long before modern science could explain their properties, communities understood their power. They learned which roots could heal, which leaves could soothe, which resins could protect. This heritage is still alive, carried forward by traditional healers, harvesters, growers and families who rely on these plants for health and cultural identity.
Yet the pressures are growing. Human activities have led to unprecedented wildlife and biodiversity loss, with significant economic, environmental, and social impacts. Along with the triple planetary crisis, unsustainable harvesting and illegal trade threaten the very plants that have supported human health for millennia.
Many of wildlife’s contributions often go unseen but support a wide range of services that our very survival-from seed dispersal, pollination, and pest control to soil maintenance, nutrient cycling, and flood mitigation. We may not realize how much we depend on wildlife for our own wellbeing. Without wildlife, we wouldn’t have access to many of the foods we regularly consume. A world without pollinators would mean 50% fewer fruits and vegetables available to us.
In a world where people and wildlife are increasingly overlapping, so too are the risks of disease and zoonotic spillover into people and our livestock. Amphibians like frogs and salamanders control mosquito-borne illnesses like malaria and dengue fever. And scavengers like vultures and hyenas can help prevent outbreaks of anthrax and other bacterial infections that can spread to humans from rotting carcasses.
Wildlife also helps protect from the risks of disasters. Wild beast and zebra keep grasses low which minimizes the frequency and severity of wildfires in savanna. Beaver dams help prevent flooding during periods of high rainfall by regulating water storage and release. They also provide water access during periods of drought by enabling water flow. And oyster reefs protect coastal areas from erosion and storm surges, which in turn protect the large amount of carbon stored in coastal ecosystems like mangroves and marshes.
Wildlife cannot be manufactured; it’s for thriving the Planet. Their survival wildlife is our survival. Human interference in the world’s natural ecosystem has been ongoing for centuries. In the modern world, as humans traveled and settled in different parts of the world, they cleared forests and continued development.
The animals and plants that live in the wild have an intrinsic value. Wildlife preservation is a management for the human progress. A symbiotic relationship exists between the forest, forest -dwelling wildlife species, ecosystem services and mankind.
Therefore, it is the time to act and work together to preserve and protect wildlife. On the coming World Wildlife Day 2026, let’s stop our wanton invasion of wildlife and their habitats for a beautiful planet.
(The views expressed are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Ukhrul Times. The author is an Environmentalist, presently working as District Forest Officer, Chandel district, Manipur. The author can be reached at nmunall@yahoo.in.)