Those plants and animals that do survive usually reproduce very fast and in great numbers. The single-cell plant, the diatom, can multiply itself into a billion new diatoms in one month.
Activists say every minute counts because at the current rate of poaching, the elephant, the living mammal to walk the earth in the wild could be extinct within a generation.
In addition to cutting our carbon emissions, we must find ways of using land and water that cause the least damage to the environment, leaving enough space for natural habitats to thrive.
Because they're still threatened by poachers, illegal hunters, dozens of these large animals have been flown to another African park, where it's hoped they'll reproduce and thrive for decades to come.