Under the theme of “Life below water: for people and planet”, the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) celebrates March 3rd as World Wildlife Day. This year the focus is on marine species to raise global awareness of the importance of life below water to our everyday lives and to explore the critical challenges facing marine ecosystems.
The National Whistleblower Center through its Global Wildlife Whistleblower Program strives to educate how incentivizing whistleblowers is essential to increasing the detection of threats to marine species. One goal of NWC’s Global Wildlife Whistleblower Program is to promote the sustainability of oceans and marine life.
Whistleblowers worldwide may be eligible for financial rewards, under applicable U.S. laws, for reporting violations of laws that protect ocean health and sustainability. In an effort to provide an avenue for whistleblowers to safely report these crimes, the NWC created a confidential and secure transnational online reporting platform to help protect our oceans and wildlife. By encouraging insiders to come forward with reports of illegal poaching, illegal, unreported, and unregulated fishing, and other environmental and wildlife crimes, the NWC hopes to leverage the power of whistleblowers to preserve one of nature’s most unique ecosystems.
What can you do on World Wildlife Day to help combat the threat to marine life? Those in the United States can urge Congress and President to support the ground-breaking bipartisan “Anti-Trafficking and Wildlife Conservation Act,” which contains whistleblower incentives to combat trafficking and would enhance the ability of informants worldwide to detect and report environmental and wildlife crimes.
