WWF AND TURTLE “VITTORIA” THE MASCOTTE OF ACEA RUN ROME THE MARATHON WAS BORN

WWF – It is the biggest world organization for Nature conservation, attending over 100 countries of the world where, thanks to the support of over 5 million people, it pursues more than 2000 projects for the protection of biodiversity. In Italy WWF is operating in every region through a network of volunteers, local organizations and Guards who help managing over 100 Oasis.

WWF will run the solidary relay Run4Rome for Climate and Nature, in order to focus the attention on the urgent needs of defending and protecting nature by building a new relationship with the Planet, that provide us with all the resources that are necessary to life and because climate crisis and biodiversity loss are two sides of the same coin.

Two crisis feeding one another that together have a deep impact on the quality of our lives, on our safety and on the world we are building for the new generations. WWf Italia will participate in the relay race with 25 teams that will run with the panda shaped symbol.

Symbol of the synergy between “Acea Rome Run The Marathon and WWF will be the mascotte of the event, a Caretta caretta sea turtle: endangered species and protagonist of a “marathon” in the Mediterranean Sea that is full of menaces caused by mankind. First of all global warming, that raises the temperature of the seas and compromises the survive rate of sea turtles, altering the gender of the newborns and so the structure of the whole population.

In fact, temperature of sand that are higher than 29°C mostly originate females, with the risk of causing – in the long term – a scarcity of male individuals. Then there is the rubbish: every year, 570 tons of plastic end up in the sea.

Western fishing, bycatch9, is a relevant threat to the species as well: it has been estimated that every year about 150 thousands sea turtles end up being accidentally captured by the fishing tools in the Mediterranean Sea, 40000 of which die.

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