MUMBAI: On World Environment Day (WED) 2016, Baidu’s India office will launch a new social campaign named “The Last Conversation” to raise awareness of wildlife depletion. The campaign will feature Baidu’s mascot, the “DU bear”, having a final conversation with different endangered animals through a series of posts on Facebook and Twitter, with the goal of urging people to avoid products that cause harm to wildlife.

According to a 2014 report issued by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), India is home to 6.5 percent of the world’s total wildlife species, which includes 7.6 percent of all mammals and 12.6 percent of all bird species. Out of these, 15 species of birds, 12 species of mammals, and 18 species of reptiles and amphibians in India are recognized as critically endangered.

Baidu India will hold its campaign on Twitter and Facebook from June 1st to June 5th, 2016, with the hash tag #TheLastConversation. The animals featured in the conversations will speak their last words to the DU bear before they are turned into consumer products, in a strong message of the harmful impact of our purchases on wildlife.

Baidu has previously advocated other environmental causes in India and worldwide. Since 2014, Baidu’s Android apps DU Battery Saver and DU Speed Booster have partnered with the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) on a yearly basis to raise awareness of Earth Hour, the world’s largest grassroots environmental movement organized by WWF.

WED is a yearly awareness campaign run by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP). The theme of WED 2016 is illegal trade in wildlife, with the slogan ‘Go Wild for Life'.