LA HOR E: The World Wide Fund for Nature-Pakistan celebrated Endangered Species Day with a call to properly manage the protected areas to help these species thrive within their natural habitats, says a press release.

It says the organisation`s conservation milestones this year include the birth of chicks of endangered oriental white-bacl(ed vultures and the positive results coming out from the recently concluded Indus river dolphin survey.

While these efforts bode well to save these species from extinction, the organisation still believes that a lot is yet to be achieved.

Living in a time when the impact of human activity is contributing to, if not causing, climate change, species around the world are in peril. The WWF International`s Living Planet Report 2016, which measures biodiversity abundance levels based on 14,152 monitored populations of 3,706 vertebrate species, showed a persistent downward trend.

On average, the population of the species monitored showed a decline by 58pc between 1970 and 2012.

Monitored species are increasingly affected by the pressures from unsustainable agriculture, fisheries, mining and other human activities that contribute to habitat loss and degradation, overexploitation, climate change and pollution.

Hammad Nagi Khan, director general WWF-Pakistan, in his message for the day called for an all-out ef fort-what he termed as a last-ditch effortto not only save all endangered species but also conserve their habitat.

`The risk faced by many species in Pakistan is growing in urgency and it is about time we start valuing the importance of each species to the sustainability of local ecosystems and ultimately the global ecosystem.

He also addressed the youth and encouraged them to get involved in this global effort and add renewed vigour to the cause.

Pakistan is home to a number of endangered species including the Indian pangolin, snow leopard, the Indus river dolphin and the green turtle. The facts and figures in Pakistan tend to paint a challenging picture, yet there is still plenty of room for optimism.