Baraza

Category: WildlifeDirect news | Date: Jan 30 2009 | By: Maina

WildlifeDirect News
From the Conservation Front line

No. 7 | SPECIAL PROGRESS REPORT | February 2009

The year has just begun and despite the difficult economic times that ushered in 2009, we are optimistic that we shall be seeing positive changes. After all there is a new dynamic administration in Washington, DC that has a promise of hope and progress for the US and - possibly - influencing positive change throughout the world.

This month’s newsletter is a special report highlighting our work in 2008 and looking forward in 2009. Follow our journey as we bring you a compilation of our high times and low times. Then join hands with us as we march forth into 2009 with hope and the passion to make a change.

The Blogs, Traffic and Donations in 2008
2008 was a growth year for the blogs with their numbers increasing to more than 90 blogs in more than 20 countries in Africa, Asia and South America. This number is expected to increase as we go out to actively seek new blogs from the Albertine Rift of Africa in 2009. This blogger network expansion project - funded by the MacArthur Foundation will seek to reach out to new bloggers in Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi, Tanzania, Zambia and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).

Donations also increased significantly in the year. In general, donations in 2008 were higher than in 2007. In 2008, we raised US$ 293,648.11.

Chart: Donations and traffic trends

Traffic has also been on an upward trend during the past year with the number of visitors to the blogs growing from 32,742 in the month of January and peaking at 72,524 visitors in the month of October. Overall, the total number of visitors to the blogs rose from 197,330 in 2007 to 658,067 in 2008 (representing 233% growth!). We hope that you continue to visit the bogs and interact with our bloggers.

Major Campaigns and Achievements
Looking for MizaThe past year witnessed some very successful campaigns and some major achievements in our work. Our most successful fund raising campaign during the year was for mountain gorilla conservation as we continued our support towards the Virunga National Park and rangers in the midst of the conflict in eastern Congo. We raised $102,289 through 2,283 donations which has gone towards the rangers to help them through the crisis.

To raise global awareness of the situation facing mountain gorillas, we launched the children’s book ‘Looking for Miza’ - together with Clinton Foundation, Desmond Tutu Peace Foundation, Scholastic Publications and Turtle Pond Publications. The launch was the first children’s gorilla summit in New York.

Significant funds were also raised in response to the emergency in the Mara Triangle US$161,746 from 776 donations enabling the Mara conservancy to continue anti poaching efforts despite the collapse of tourism and funding in Kenya.

Last year we conducted our 3 year strategic plan with the support of the Arthur Blank Family Foundation. This plan is being implemented in part as we continue to fundraise for further budgetary support to help us implement it in full.

Other significant supporters who also came on board to help in the development of WildlifeDirect include the John T. and Catherine D. MacArthur Foundation giving US$ 250,000 for the Albertine Rift project, Wallace Global Fund with a grant of US $ 55,000 towards funding the development of WildlifeDirect, and the Arthur Blank Family Foundation and friends with US$ 49,000.

We thank all the donors who have to contributed towards our core costs. This raises between US$ 1,000 and 7,000 per month.

All these funds have been used to further the cause of conserving wildlife. Our bloggers every now and then update you on what they are doing with these donations. Continue visiting their blogs to see the impact of your participation - how your giving is making a difference in conservation.

Hurdles That Required Jumping
Conservation in Africa continues to be severely underfunded and things will get much worse this year due to the global economic down turn, and escalating costs of commodities in developing countries. We have seen how the war in the DRC and the economic collapse of Zimbabwe’s have set conservation back decades.

Our role in keeping conservation organizations alive during this difficult time is more important now than ever before. We hope you will continue supporting us and our bloggers in these difficult times.

Looking Forward in 2009
Despite the economic down turn we will implement our strategic goals as planned. Three major areas of operations will thus be key in this period:

1. New blogs in the Albertine Rift. This is a major project involving recruiting and training new bloggers in 6 African countries.
2. Improve our website for all our bloggers and visitors
3. Raise funds to enable the core team to survive and continue supporting our network of bloggers

With 77 projects receiving funding this year we are convinced that we are helping projects but we still have a long way to go. We hope that you believe in us too and will continue to support us so that we can help save wildlife from extinction.

Sincerely,

WildlifeDirect Inc.

WildlifeDirect ensures that all of your financial support (net of bank transfer fees) reaches our partners doing real conservation work on the ground.