How to do our little bit to save the planet’s creatures

In a country like ours, where there is grinding poverty and huge inequality, it is not surprising that Friday’s World Endangered Species Day went by virtually unremarked.

It is a reality that, for many people, just struggling to live from day to day, it is human beings that seem like an endangered species. Yet, there are many animals that are in danger of disappearing from our planet – and we, and our precious ecosystems, will be the worse for it.

According to the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List, 16 118 of the 1.5 million species on Earth need to be saved.

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They are dying off because we are gobbling up their habitats, while we overexploit all the natural resources around us.

Among those are our own iconic black rhino and the lowland gorillas of equatorial Africa. So, what can you, as an ordinary person, do about this?

You can help raise awareness of issues, you can make donations to organisations fighting species extinction, you can symbolically adopt an animal.

But most of all, you can examine closely the ways in your own life where you help encourage habitat destruction. Something as simple as cutting down on plastic consumption can make a difference.