Time running out for endangered species
A new exhibition highlighting the plight of endangered species opened at Shanghai Natural History Museum on Thursday.
UN agencies estimate that the global trade in wildlife is worth US$5 to 20 billion annually, behind only drugs, arms and human trafficking. From 2010 and 2012, up to 100,000 African elephants were killed.
“As a natural history museum, we have to use our resources to make our visitors understand the importance of protecting species and saving the planet,” said Wang Xiaoming, director of the museum.
Shanghai has worked hard to protect endangered species. The country’s first and only education center to promote CITES, the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species, has its home in the city’s free trade zone. Shanghai’s two airports, Hongqiao and Pudong, are among five airports in the country with display cabinets of specimens of endangered species.
Also, the museum had a temporary exhibition on protecting elephants, and hosted the “Extinction” exhibition from the UK Natural History Museum.
The new permanent exhibition is on floor B1.
