‘Location, location, location” is the real estate agent’s mantra when advising potential house-buyers about purchasing a property. It should also be the first, intermediate and final thought passing through the minds of designers of renewable energy projects. This is especially true of the Middle East — an area where the renewable energy sector is booming with unprecedented levels of investment.

With World Wildlife Day this year being celebrated under the theme Big Cats - Predators Under Threat, Bradnee Chambers, executive secretary of the UN Convention on Migratory Species, examines some of the difficulties involved in reconciling the interests of wild animals and the people who have to live alongside them.

The effects of climate change are being felt with extreme weather events such as the wildfires in British Columbia, floods in Eastern Canada and hurricanes of unprecedented severity battering North America and the Caribbean. Wildlife is also suffering the consequences, and migratory animals already at greater risk because of their dependence on a fragile chain of sites to sustain them are more vulnerable than sedentary species.

Excerpts from the keynote address of Dr. Bradnee Chambers at the side event on 17 May in the margins of the UN Climate Change Conference in Bonn.