UNDP partners with advertising group to raise funds for wildlife conservation

NAIROBI, March 14 (Xinhua) -- The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) on Thursday inked a partnership agreement with global outdoor advertising firm JCDecaux Group aimed at raising funds to support wildlife conservation across the globe.

Abdoulaye Mar Dieye, director of UNDP's bureau for policy and program support, said the partnership dubbed Lion's Share Fund is aimed at reversing the deaths of wildlife species globally.

"We intend to raise the amount from advertisers whom we expect to contribute 0.5 percent of their media spend every time an animal is featured in an advertisement," Dieye told journalists on the sidelines of the fourth session of the United Nations Environment Assembly (UNEA) in Nairobi.

He noted that animals appear in approximately 20 percent of all advertisements in the world, yet despite this, they do not always receive the support they deserve.

JCDecaux, which operates in 4,031 cities in more than 80 countries and reaches a daily audience of over 410 million people, will play a key role in the initiative, running campaigns of the Lion's Share across the year.