Wild Species Declaration
We are the wild species of Earth, great and small, animal, plant, and micro- organism. Our ancestors have inherited the planet for 3.5 billion years. We created the life-sustaining conditions for all beings and the birthplace for humankind.
This we know:
- That humans are part of the family of life, not outside it;
- That humans must live within the laws of nature, not above them;
- That humans continue to over-consume, proliferate and over-run Earth to our detriment;
- That human activities and wastes continue to degrade the air, soil, fresh and marine waters, even in remove places;
- That wild areas continue to shrink under the plough, the saw, the trawl, the factory, the city, the bulldozer and warfare;
- And that, as a consequence, species and ecosystems disappear each day, becoming extinct forever.
As members of the family of life we ask that humans:
- Control their numbers and moderate their consumption;
- Tread lightly upon the Earth, fulfilling human need but not greed;
- Share amongst themselves and live in peace;
- Teach love and respect for wild species;
- Pledge partnership with us and our Earth;
- Grant wild species spokesperson status, with equal voice, at local and global deliberatioins affecting us, and an ombudsperson in each government.
We, the wild species of Earth, solemnly declare and affirm these inalienable rights and responsibilities:
- To survive as species, bear young, to evolve and continue through the eons;
- To share the Earth's surface-air, land, fresh and marine waters-equitably;
- To provide for humankind and all other species the ecological services which sustain local habitats, regional ecosystems and the global Ecosphere, linking us all as one in the web of life.
First transmitted to the human species by Ocean Voice,
Biodiversity Day, 29th December 1994.
