The world as a heart symbolizes our love of life.

Dear SavingSpecies Supporter,

February, and especially Valentine’s Day, tends to be a time when we focus on those we love and cherish. And after more than 20 years of marriage to my lovely wife Julia, I include myself in this category!

But at SavingSpecies, we believe we have an additional responsibility this month, and every month for that matter, and that is to Love Life. We show our commitment to “love life” by our work to limit global warming and to protect life’s biodiversity.

Today we are launching a new campaign to promote conservation, the Love Life Campaign. Though timed to coincide with Valentine’s Day 2013, the campaign will be a consistent and persistent theme in our efforts to promote conservation and environmental awareness.

All of us at SavingSpecies love life — all of the immense biodiversity across the planet. Indeed, fellow SavingSpecies Science Board member and Harvard professor, E. O. Wilson, coined the term “biophilia” which means love of life. In his book of the same title, Wilson argues that humans have a natural and instinctive affinity with nature.

As Professor Wilson points out, we are drawn to nature’s wonder and beauty. Our new campaign is built on this premise. We want to remind people to love life, in both senses of the term. By loving the life of our natural world, we trust that folks will bring the joy of nature into their daily lives and so love their own lives too. Recognizing the role of nature as enriching our lives in so many ways will, we believe, motivate and inspire people to support programs such as ours.

Because SavingSpecies is focused on restoring the world’s most vulnerable and biodiverse habitats, people’s love of nature will translate into support for our good and necessary work. Although we have flagship species in our project areas, such as the golden lion tamarin in Brazil’s Atlantic forest, our aim is conservation of as many species as possible. Indeed, in that project area, scientists have found evidence of the return of pumas, which are vital to maintain a healthy ecosystem. In our Colombia project to protect rare orchids and hummingbirds, we discovered nine new species of frogs—all of which are now protected because we purchased land with funds from generous donors.

We conceived the Love Life campaign as a way to remind people that all species have their place in the world. By supporting SavingSpecies, we give people the chance to save the things they love, whether it is a beautiful creature or flower, or just the wildness of nature.

So while doting on your sweetheart this Valentine’s season, think about your love of the natural world, of all of life, and of the earth. And, of course, please remember that SavingSpecies is here to help you demonstrate that love.

Cheers!

Stuart Pimm – Founder, SavingSpecies

PS If you share our positive message of hope and love for life and our beautiful world, please spread the love! Click one of the buttons below to Like or Tweet this post. Thank you!