The United Nations’ #WildforLife campaign has won a top Chinese social media award, recognizing its role in the increasing awareness of wildlife crime that culminated in China's landmark decision to ban domestic trading of elephant ivory.
Microblogging platform Weibo, one of the biggest social media tools in China, named #WildforLife among its “Top 10 Most Influential Advocacy Campaigns” for 2016. Weibo presented the award to movie star and UN Environment Goodwill Ambassador Li Bingbing, who launched the campaign in China last year and recruited a host of other celebrities with a combined social media reach of over 200 million.
Weibo is a huge player in social media in China, with 261 million active users. Recognizing how certain messages capture the imagination of its customers, Weibo created an index to identify individuals and institutions that were having a significant positive impact on society, and included #WildforLife in its 2016 roll of honour.
A photo posted by Li Bingbing 李冰冰 (@real_libingbing) on Sep 11, 2016 at 12:36am PDT
The illegal trade in wildlife is a global problem that threatens species great and small, such as elephants, rhinos, tigers, pangolins, sea turtles and rosewood trees. Including illegal fishing, wildlife crime is putting an estimated $15-20 billion annually into the pockets of criminals, comparable to the trafficking of drugs, arms and humans.
#WildforLife, which calls on the public to find their kindred species, has already inspired millions of people to learn about and take action against wildlife crime. UN Environment’s largest ever digital campaign, it has made innovative use of celebrity engagement and digital channels including social media to get its messages across. The Beijing Capital International Airport showed its support by plastering its Terminal 3 with #WildforLife posters.
Internationally, the campaign is supported by Brazilian supermodel Gisele Bündchen, soccer greats Yaya Touré and Neymar, star pianist Lang Lang, American actor Ian Somerhalder, Bollywood star Jacqueline Fernandez and others.
Thousands of elephants are killed every year to supply the international market for ivory, a lot of it bound for China. Chinese consumers use ivory and other products made from endangered species for home decor, fashion, exotic foods, traditional medicine and even financial speculation.
#Wildforlife has launched in #China! @ErikSolheim & @libingbinglove kicked off the campaign: https://t.co/HANo8ASPcI pic.twitter.com/UptvZVigYV
— UN Environment (@UNEP) September 9, 2016
But the country has also been among the most active in tackling the issue and has taken on a leadership role in areas from policy to enforcement to awareness raising.
In its boldest move yet, the government said in December that it would outlaw all domestic ivory trade and processing by the end of 2017. In March, it had already widened a ban on the import of ivory and ivory products acquired before 1975.
A joint initiative with United Nations Development Programme, UN Office on Drugs and Crime and the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Fauna and Flora (CITES), #WildforLife went public on World Environment Day, 5 June, and has since reached over 1 billion people around the world, garnered 3.7 million social media reactions, and generated 12,000 pledges of action. Some 40,000 people have chosen a kindred species and shared their images.
