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UN to partner with TV channel in promoting animal conservation, biodiversity

UN to partner with TV channel in promoting animal conservation, biodiversity

The United Nations today announced that it would partner with the Animal Planet television channel to generate awareness for global conservation and biodiversity.

Focusing on the television channel's annual programming special, World Animal Day, which will air on 7 October, the partnership will use the joint resources, knowledge and efforts of both organizations.

"The United Nations partnership with Animal Planet will help educate millions around the world about the importance of protecting the Earth's precious biodiversity for the benefit of all people," said Shashi Tharoor, Interim Head of the UN Department of Public Information.

According to some estimates, over 100 species are lost every day and about 40,000 species become extinct every year. Many species are increasingly at great risk, as over 25 per cent of the world's approximately 4,630 mammal species and 11 per cent of the 9,675 bird species were at significant risk of total extinction in the late 1990s.

"Collaboration with the United Nations and its subsidiary bodies, including the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), is a natural partnership that exposes millions of viewers to issues such as species conservation, habitat protection, and biodiversity," said Dawn McCall, President of Discovery Networks International, a partner with BBC Worldwide in producing Animal Planet.

UNEP's Global Environment Outlook 2000 highlights the importance of educating people about the Earth's environment, given the problems that now exist in many areas of the world - from land degradation and deforestation to air pollution and global warming, to inadequate water supplies and the loss of untold numbers of plant and animal species.