The Royal Family Gets Involved

The royal family has been making waves in the news for a while now, mostly for the lavish wedding of Kate and William, and Kate's new baby. What many people don't know, however, is that the family is also making waves in the field of wildlife conservation. Prince Charles became the president of the UK branch of the World Wildlife Fund in 2011, and gave a speech pleading for humanity to be more steadfast about saving and sustaining the environment.

by Jonathan Huelin via Flickr.com - used under Creative
Commons License

Prince William is deeply involved with the subject as well. He is the president of United For Wildlife, which brings together some of the largest charities for wildlife and environmental conservation. Recently he spoke at a meeting for these charities, saying that his goal, and the goal of his organization, is to outsmart the forces currently destroying endangered animal populations. He and his father also spoke at the London Conference on the Illegal Wildlife Trade in February of 2014. (Another notable attendee at this conference was Jackie Chan, who is also active in animal rights. He is currently a spokesperson for WildAid. He has filmed a number of PSAs for them and has been involved since 2002.)

On May 21st, 2013, William and Charles both spoke at the End Wildlife Crime Conference, an event which they hosted to raise awareness for crimes against wildlife. Specifically, they focused on elephants, tigers, and rhinos. The conference concluded with multiple governments signing a resolution to take a stand about conservation and putting an end to the illegal wildlife trade. 

by Foreign Commonwealth Office - via Flickr.com
used under Creative Commons License

Prince Charles has been an advocate for saving wildlife since 1988 when he became a patron of Friends of Conservation. Prince William has been a member of the Tusk Trust since 2005. They have created the Twitter hashtag #EndWildlifeCrime to spread the word over social media, and to help get the world involved. The End Wildlife Crime Conference was a huge step towards securing the populations of many endangered species, and putting an end to the illegal animal trade.

SOURCES

#EndWildlifeCrime conference. (n.d.). Prince of Wales. Retrieved , from http://www.princeofwales.gov.uk/focus/end-wildlife-crime-conference#na

Foley, J. (n.d.). London Conference on Illegal Wildlife Trade Concluded with Resolution to End Wildlife Crime. Nature World News. Retrieved , from http://www.natureworldnews.com/articles/6021/20140213/london-conference-illegal-wildlife-trade-concluded-resolution-end-crime.htm

Prince of Wales becomes president of WWF-UK. (n.d.). TheGuardian. Retrieved , from http://www.theguardian.com/uk/2011/sep/08/prince-wales-president-wwf-uk

JACKIE CHAN. (n.d.). WildAid. Retrieved , from http://www.wildaid.org/people/jackie-chan

Smith-Spark, L. (n.d.). UK's Prince William: We will fight illegal wildlife trade together.CNN World. Retrieved , from http://www.cnn.com/2014/02/12/world/europe/uk-illegal-wildlife-trade/