Baraza

Category: Appeals, Emergencies, Emergency appeals, wildlife, wildlifedirect | Date: Mar 28 2009 | By: baraza

Dear friends there is a crisis facing bonobos at Lola ya Bonobo .

In the last six days 6 bonobos have died of flu. Another ten are sick.

Claudine, Vanessa and all the staff have launched an appeal to raise funds to enable them to respond to this emergency. The center which is facing a financial crisis - there is no time to lose. If we can reach 10,000 people each of whom give just $100, we can avert this crisis and save the bonobos.

You can help by doing any or all of the following things

1. Make a donation now
2. Appeal to your friends, networks and family (facebook, myspace,twitter, local news agency, call your )
3. Hold an emergency fund raisier to raise more funds
4. Send Claudine, Vaness and the staff at Lola a message on their blog right now, tell them that you care, and what you are doing to try and help.

Thank you everyone, we really appreciate your support
Paula

2 responses so far

Category: Africa, Trade | Date: Mar 26 2009 | By: admin

When Nimu and Volker reported a dugong caught in a net at the south coast of Kenya, we thought it was a one off occurance. But now the true damage caused by nets has been revealed in this shocking story about how US aid is destroying marine life in Kenya has gone totally viral on the internet

“In 2003, USAID began a four-year project worth $575,000 to improve the lives of coastal communities. It worked on a project with a Kenyan government agency that included providing freezers for the fishermen to store their catch, along with boats and nets.

But the plastic nets are destroying the very ecosystems that the fishermen depend on and the tourists come to see, said Daniel Floren, who runs a local diving school.

Officials, experts and even the fishermen themselves acknowledge the nets are killing wildlife and coral.

“Without the reefs, there will be no diving. If we have nothing to show, I’ll have to shut up shop,” Floren said.

The aim of the U.S. project was to help lift local people out of poverty, said Robert Buzzard, a USAID official involved in the initiative. But there were no studies to show how the kind of equipment supplied might affect the marine life”.

I find this story highly disturbing because US aid disown responsibility for conducting an environmental impact assessment before issuing out these nets. I hope that the relevant government authorities take swift action

If you would like to help us save Kenya’s marine life, support the Whale Shark project.

Tags: dugong, fishing, Kenya, marine, Mombasa, Turtles, whale sharks, wildlifedirect

One response so far

Category: Africa, Ivory, Trade, elephants, enforcement, wildlife trade | Date: Mar 26 2009 | By: admin

Hello friends,

It’s Paula here. Things seem to be getting worse and worse on the ivory and elephant killing front. One ton of ivory has been seized in Bangkok, it’ is said to have come from Uganda. Of course this, like the 6 tons of ivory from Tanzania seized in Vietnam, is unlikely to be of Ugandan (or Tanzanian) origin.

We suspect that this ivory comes from DR Congo where the elephant population has crashed from 100,000 individuals 50 yeas ago to fewer than 20,000 today. That’s death rate of 1,600 elephants per year. Amazing that none of the usual organizations, WWF, AWF, CITES and IUCN seem to be concerned.

The original article is below but is so full of errors that I’ve highlighted them in bold

Ugandan ivory seized in Thailand

New Vision

24th March, 2009

A TONNE of Ugandan ivory has been impounded in Bangkok, Thailand, the

biggest seizure of illegal animal products from the country in recent times.

The Police questioned two Ugandan Entebbe-based clearing officials over

the contraband valued at $300,000 (sh609m). The suspected exporter, Lois

Smith, believed to be a Congolese, is on the run, reports Gerald Tenywa.

Officially ivory is worth between $100 - $150 / kg. On the blackmarket surprisingly it is ten times this value in Vietnam.

Samuel Mukiibi of Palm Agencies, a clearing and forwarding company and

Ronald Sabwe of Entebbe Handling Services (ENHAS) allegedly cleared the

cargo on January 13.

Catherine Kusemererwa, the head of the Entebbe Airport Police, said the

cargo was handled by ENHAS. But the company’s chief, Georges Tytens,

refused to comment.

The last time such a huge consignment of ivory was seized was in 2002 in

China. It was from the DR Congo transited through Uganda and Kenya. In

June 2001, 213kg of ivory was impounded at Entebbe. Nobody was arrested

and the destination of the contraband was not known.

Asked about the Thai contraband, the Civil Aviation Authority denied

responsibility for clearing the shipment. Spokesperson Ignie Igundura

said it was the duty of the Uganda Revenue Authority.

The tax body’s spokesperson Paul Kyeyune expressed ignorance about the

issue. “Do you have any information?” he asked.

Kusemererwa said the case had been under investigation for two months

and that the key suspects were still at large.

Moses Mapesa, the head of the Uganda Wildlife Authority, condemned the

trade in ivory. “We want the Police to address the menace and the

culprits apprehended,” he said.

Amazing how everyone is passing the buck !!!

He said over 10 elephants could have been killed to get the tonne of

ivory, which he suspected came from the DR Congo.

Mapesa is wrong here - the average ivory per elephant is 10 - 20 kg. Therefore, one ton of ivory represents 50 - 100 elephants - we need to know the number of pieces of ivory. Uganda has very few elephants remaining.

He said it was impossible to kill such numbers of elephants in Uganda’s

protected areas without being detected.

Elephants are an endangered species that will become extinct if nothing

is done to control trade in trophies from their bodies.

The trade was banned under the Convention on International Trade in

Endangered Species after poachers reduced elephant population in Africa

from 1.3 million in 1980 to just 600,000 in 1989.

However, the ban was undermined when the convention allowed South Africa

and Zimbabwe to export ivory, citing an elephant population explosion in

the region. Elephants tusks are sold to the wealthy as ornaments.

A kilogramme goes for $300 (sh609,000) in China and the Far East, the

biggest destinations. It goes for $1,800 in Vietnam

Most illegal ivory in Uganda is said to come from Congo and the Sudan,

although the trade is spreading into Uganda.

Regional wildlife agencies and the International Police last November

launched an operation in Central, West and East African countries.

They seized 30kg of ivory in Ishasha, Kampala and Anaka. The Ishasha

ivory is believed to have come from the Congolese Vicuña National Park.

Congo Vicuña National Park???? I think they mean Virunga!

Article at the following link:

http://www.newvision.co.ug/D/8/12/675746

Tags: Bangkok, CITES, illegal trade, INTERPOL, Ivory, LATF, Thailand, Uganda, Virunga, wildlifedirect

No responses yet

Category: Africa, Ivory, Trade, elephants, wildlife trade | Date: Mar 26 2009 | By: admin

We reported on this seizure and the surprising lack of concern by Tanzania that Vietnam was about to auction seized ivory that was smuggled from Tanzania. Now Tanzania seems to have woken up …lets hope we find out what is really going on here

Saga of the elephant tusks smuggled from Tanzania to Vietnam: Govt finally takes action

ThisDay

March 25 2009

TANZANIA has set the ball rolling for a formal investigation into the

recently reported episode whereby just over six tonnes of elephant tusks

said to have been smuggled out of the country, have now been seized by

Vietnamese customs officials and set up for auction in that country.

According to the Director of Wildlife at the Ministry of Tourism and

Natural Resources, Erasmus Tarimo, official feelers have been extended

to determine whether an international poaching network may have been

behind the alleged smuggling of the jumbo tusks.

The international police network (Interpol), Convention on International

Trade in Endangered Species (CITES), and the anti-poaching Lusaka

Agreement Task Force (LATF) office in Nairobi, Kenya have all been

contacted and requested to help, Tarimo said.

This represents a U-turn from the government’s initial stated position

of ’complete unawareness’ about the whole situation, even as authorities

in Vietnam announced their own plans to put the tusks, valued at $29.41m

(approx.40bn/-), up for auction.

If the Vietnamese government should actually go ahead and implement such

a plan at this stage of the saga, Tanzania as a nation would surely

stand to lose billions of shillings.

Customs officials at Vietnam’s Hai Phong Port were earlier this month

reported to have discovered a total of 6,232 kilogrammes of elephant

tusks originating from Tanzania, hidden in hundreds of boxes of plastic

waste inside a container which had been transported from Tanzania

through Malaysia.

There were more than 200 pairs of tusks in the haul, the reports said.

Vietnamese officials are said to have received information about the

consignment when it was initially loaded aboard a ship in Dar es Salaam

in January this year, and had been waiting for the consignee to turn up

at the Hai Phong Port.

The consignee of the shipment was identified through the ship’s waybill

as a local (Vietnamese) company called Phuc Thien Ngan. Hai Phong police

have since been looking for the company’s director Vu Ngoc Tuan, but

reportedly to no avail.

Vietnamese officials described the shipment as ’’the biggest ivory haul

ever in Vietnam,’’ and the Hai Phong customs bureau gave a cash reward

equivalent to $572 to the inspectors who made the discovery.

Early investigations indicated that the container appeared to have been

loaded onto a ship in Dar es Salaam and transported to a port in

Malaysia, before arriving at Hai Phong aboard a Malaysian-flagged vessel.

Vietnamese authorities believe the tusks would have then been

transported to China, either by sea or road.

In a telephone interview with THISDAY yesterday, Tarimo said the

Tanzania chapter of Interpol had since contacted their colleagues in

Vietnam in the wake of the reports.

He said although the Vietnamese Interpol has yet to respond, some

information has started trickling in from CITES, whose representatives

in Vietnam are understood to have seen the container and reported its

markings to indicate that its original point of shipment was indeed the

port of Dar es Salaam.

Tarimo did not disclose the exact date of shipment from Dar es Salaam,

but said further details would be provided in the coming days.

LATF in Nairobi is described as a law enforcement institution which is

also secretariat of the Lusaka Agreement on Cooperative Enforcement

Operations Directed at Illegal Trade in Wild Fauna and Flora. The

parties to the agreement are Tanzania, Uganda, Kenya, Zambia, Lesotho,

and the Republic of Congo, while Ethiopia, Eritrea, Swaziland and the

Republic of South Africa are also about to become signatories.

International agreements like the Lusaka Agreement and CITES aim at

protecting animal species from being poached illegally and traded

without following prescribed procedures.

Tarimo said any local officials found to have been involved in the

shipment of the jumbo tusks to Vietnam would bear the full brunt of the

nation’s laws, regardless of what happens to the foreign collaborators

’’We will not spare any official involved, whether they are from the

wildlife department right here in the ministry, the Tanzania Revenue

Authority (TRA), or any such institutions,’’ he asserted.

According to international wildlife laws, seized animal trophies have to

be destroyed wherever they are seized, in order to discourage the

smugglers involved.

According to Tarimo, the same international wildlife laws also say that

if such animal trophies are captured having been transported illegally,

they become of ’zero value’. Meaning that this consignment seized in

Vietnam valued at approximately 40bn/-, may now be of little or no value

at all.

’’I am deeply concerned about the elephants that were killed in order

for the tusks to be poached. However, as for the consignment in Vietnam,

it has lost its value from the moment it was seized,’’ he remarked.

Article at the following link:

http://www.thisday.co.tz/News/5505.html

Tags: CITES, illegal trade, INTERPOL, Ivory, ivory seisure, KWS, LATF, Tanzania, vietnam, wildlifedirect

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Category: Uncategorized | Date: Mar 25 2009 | By: admin

We all know that the next great challenge in conservation and regarding conflict is over water. This is why the construction of a massive hydro electric dam on the lower Omo River in Ethiopia has sparked such international outrage. On the one hand Ethiopia needs power for development, on the other, communities living down stream will be destroyed, and a lake in Kenya will be severely damaged.

Peter Greste has just completed a three week odyssey following the Omo River down from the Ethiopian highlands into its terminus in Lake Turkana in northern Kenya to assess the impact of the Gibe III hydroelectricity dam. The story is one of development vs environmental and social impact and it is likely to spark some interesting conversations about the Ethiopian Governments decision.

This story aires tomorrow, March 25th. Listen to the argumens of the developers and the prime minister vs those of the affected communities and give us your thoughts.

Here’s a schedule of the stories as they roll out over the next week or so (all times in GMT) on BBC. And if you miss the on-air versions, you can always catch them on the respective BBC program websites.

March 25th: BBC Radio 4, The World Tonight, 2200

BBC World News: Our World, 2330

March 26th BBC World Service, World Today,from 0300

BBC World Service News, from 0500

BBC Radio 4, Crossing Continents, 1100

BBC 1, Ten O’Clock News, 2200

BBC World News: World News America

BBC World News feature throughout the day

BBC Online, News On Demand (look for the interactive map, photo galleries, video and text features)

March 28th BBC News Channel, Our World, 1430, 2130

March 29th BBC News Channel, Our World, 1030, 1430, 2330

Please watch, listen or read, and let us know what you think

Tags: BBC, Cradle of Mankind, ethiopia, Gibe III dam, hydro electicity, Lake Turkana, Omo River, richard leakey

14 responses so far

Category: Climate change | Date: Mar 23 2009 | By: admin

While Tata Motors today rolls out the first of the worlds cheapest car, the Nano, at $1,980 a piece, it will enable poorer citizens in developing countries to move to four wheels for the first time. It will be a  monumental celebration of Indian leadership in innovation- particularly at a time when many Western car manufacturers are facing economic crises

You’ll agree with me, it’s an adorable little car. But the celebration may be dampened if not completely drenched by environmentalists who are crying murder.

The release of Tata Nano has been hyped up so much that it is probably the most anticipated car in world history, after all, it’s the first time in history, the worlds poor will be able to afford a car.

Millions of Indians will fulfil their dreams of car ownership, and most importantly, safe transportation which indeed was one of the main motivations of Tata Motors Chairman Rtan Tata, for making this new safe family car.

But despite Tata Nano being India’s pride and joy in technology and innovation, criticism and controversies abounds about the environmental and social impacts of this car. Greenpeace have released a video criticizing Tata for it’s impacts on turtles.

Because of it’s afordability, this cheap car will lead to a reliance on cars and not mass transport. This will lead to more cars on the road and therefore more pollution and congestion in a nation that is already suffering severely from both. One of India’s most prominent scientists, Sunita Narain of the Center for Science and Environment (CSE), has called for the Tata Nano to be “taxed like crazy”. Another prominent environmentalist, Dr. Rajendra Pachauri, who chairs the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (which won the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize, with Al Gore) claims that he is “having nightmares” about the Tata Nano.

American scientists are also outspoken. “This car promises to be an environmental disaster of substantial proportions,” says Daniel Esty, an environmental expert at Yale.

Tata however responds that the Tata Nano will get about 20 kilometers per liter of gasoline (50 miles per gallon) and will meet stringent European emissions standards that have yet to be adopted in India - check out this table. If this is true, then the Nano will pollute less than the two-wheelers it is intended to replace and get roughly the same gas mileage as the Maruti models. The Nano’s catalytic converter will reduce most pollutants by about 80 percent. Environmentalists predict that Indians will not maintain their cars in tip top shape and therfore the catalytic convertors will fail. When this happens, emmissions of pollutants could shoot up fivefold.  Note that exhaust emissions standards regulate the particles that make up smog, not emissions of the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide which the EU does not currently regulate.

When it comes to carbon the story is worse. CO₂ escapes catalytic converters completely. Since the Nano will replace motor scooters and motorbikes, which get about 54 kilometers to the liter, much more fuel will be burned and therefore increasing carbon emissions. According to Daniel Sperling, director of the Institute of Transportation Studies at the University of California, Davis, “Every new purchase of this vehicle is increasing fuel use per passenger by a factor of two to seven, depending on how many people are in the car,” says Sperling. That doesn’t even account for a decline in fuel efficiency if the cars are not maintained well.

These doomsday predictions bother me deeply. I don’t think that any of us really have the moral standing to criticize Indians for wanting safe family cars, particularly if the vehicles meet the highest Western emissions standards. Some observers feel that the environmental criticisms  smack of hypocrisy.

At the same time, the release of hundreds of thousands of these cars onto  Indian markets will undoubtably affect the climate change - nobody has done the projections yet on the scale of the impac but some environmentalists believe that the consequences will be far reaching if not disastrous.

I would love to consider the argument from both sides by asking you all a question. If you could, would you buy a Nano?

Tags: Climate change, global emissions, green peace, Nano, Tata, Turtles, wildlifedirect

9 responses so far

Category: chimpanzee, enforcement, poaching, wildlife trade | Date: Mar 20 2009 | By: admin

Friends,

I just received this email with good news from Congo Brazzaville that I wanted to share with you.  There are times when we get very depressed about the situation facing wildlife in Africa but then there are times when we realise that there is good reason for hope.

Paula

Deal all,

The Brazzaville court has passed the first sentence against a wildlife
dealer. The dealer (a chimp dealer arrested in December 2008) has to
stay one year in prison (plus three months since December) and pay
1,100,000 Fcfa.

We hope this first case against a wildlife dealer in Republic of Congo
will help us for the several next ones (nine cases since September
plus one in May 2009).

We have to thank the LAGA NGO (and especially its Director Ofir Drori
and one of his assistant Josias Sipehouo) for their help, the great
work they did and the motivation they gave. The PALF (Projet d’Appui à
l’Application de la Loi sur la Faune Sauvage), managed by The Aspinall
Foundation and WCS, have received a support (15,000 US Dollars) from
UNEP and now from USFWS (almost 50,000 US Dollars). The PALF has also
received an official support from the Ministry of Forest Economy and
the partnership is working.

We will progressively have to develop its activities in the whole
Republic of Congo.

Sincerely,
–
Luc Mathot
Coordonnateur

Fondation Aspinall
www.totallywild.net
Projet Protection des Gorilles - Congo
www.ppg-congo.org
13977 Brazzaville

Tags: bushmeat, chimpanzee, Great apes, LAGA, Ofir, poaching, Republic of Congo, wildlife trade, wildlifedirect

One response so far

Category: Albertine Rift Project, Bujumbura, Burundi, Lake Tanganyika, National Parks and protected areas, conservation | Date: Mar 19 2009 | By: baraza

Part of our MacArthur project mission is reach out to countries that fall within the Albertine Rift region. Our next destination was Burundi. Enoch and myself (Masumi), set out for Bujumbura, the capital city.

My first impression of Burundi was defined by the neglected rust covered Air Burundi passenger plane sandwiched amidst UN choppers. Typical Central African scenario right there, I thought to myself. All the websites and news related to Burundi we had were of travel advisory warnings and security issues within the country. We were taking a risk by traveling here. Despite the little knowledge I have about the country it was summed up by the image the plane portrayed. Destroyed, neglected and left to the elements to consume whatever was left.

I feel very differently about it now.

Overall, Burundi is in it’s infancy as far as conservation work is concerned and most of the organisations around are working to alleviate poverty and as a strategy have incorporated some wildlife and environmental protection activities. There has hardly been any previous work carried out on biodiversity surveys or general ecosystem monitoring and thus most environmental organisations are carrying out this baselines research for initiation of conservation projects and activities.

Perhaps in the near future with adequate funding these organisations and others will increase in numbers and implement conservation activities on a wider scale to protect the national parks and reserves in the country. There are a few organisations we did meet that conduct direct conservation but also have a strong social sector involved. Without addressing the poverty of the regions, especially around the 15 protected areas. conservation initiatives would not work and the people are very aware of this.
We had the pleasure of meeting a number of representatives from various Conservation Organisations here in Bujumbura. In general there are groups of concerned individuals who have formed organisations to conserve the remaining natural resources and wildlife this beautiful country has to offer. A major conflict area is deforestation. The population is high, putting immense pressures on the forests for timber for fuel. Many projects have put in place re-afforestation schemes as well as starting tree nurseries to reduce some of the pressure on indigenous forest. Burundi is home to an endemic palm species, I cannot recall the name right now but will make sure I write it in the next post. The most touching part of the conservation work going on here is that all the organisations work together, share information and ideas. This is something I feel most places have lost and it’s what WildlifeDirect aims to promote.

I am very encouraged by the motivation and enthusiasm from everyone we met here. The people of Burundi want change and an opportunity to rebuild their country and protect their wildlife and environment. The media has shed a very harsh and negative light in this region of the world and muffled the peoples voices. I hope that through WildlifeDirect blogs we will be able to help give them a voice and give the rest of the world a platform to support this noble cause.

I promise to post photos as soon as I locate the right USB cable, if not now then in Uganda when Maina and Victor meet me.

Tags: Albertine Rift, Burundi, conservation, Lake Tanganyika, MacArthur Foundation

One response so far

Category: Ivory, elephants, wildlife trade | Date: Mar 17 2009 | By: baraza

Hello readers, it’s Paula here at 5.30 am and I can’t sleep - alarm bells are ringing in my head about ivory trade and elephant killings.

Here’s the time line

Mid 2007 online ivory sales reported to be booming

June 2007 CITES meeting…Kenya porposes a 20 year moratorium on ivory sales, supported by 21 “like-minded parties” including Mali, Ghana, Chad, Democratic Republic of Congo, Niger, Togo, Sierra Leone, Rwanda, Burundi, Nigeria, Liberia, Comoros, Congo Brazzaville and Cote d’Ivoire. Ivory sales  get go ahead at CITES with blessing of major conservation organizations

“This African solution to an African problem marks a great step forward for wildlife conservation,” said CITES Secretary-General Willem Wijnstekers. “It is good news for the elephant, good news for the people who live alongside them and good news for regional cooperation in Africa.”

“We are looking for real conservation achievement on the ground,” said Tom Milliken, of TRAFFIC, director of TRAFFIC South and East Africa. “Let countries now take this spirit of goodwill and tackle the ivory that is being hemorrhaged illegally from West and Central Africa.”

The International Fund for Animal Welfare, IFAW, says that at least 20,000 elephants are killed annually for their ivory and the lives of about 100 rangers are lost each year protecting them.  They warn that the auctions would stimulate Asian markets demand smuggling and poaching.

Nobody listens.

The Elephant Trade Information System (ETIS) analysis reveals that key problem countries for illegal ivory are the Democratic Republic of Congo, Nigeria, Cameroon, Thailand and China.

Nobody takes any notice

October 2008 Namibia opens bidding in controversial ivory auction

Renowned conservationist Richard Leakey expresses concern  and calls it a disservice to conservation

November 2008 Ivory auctions take place in Botswana, Namibia, South Africa and Zimbabwe 100 tons sold raising $15 million. Price? $150 per kg.  

November 2008 57 people arrested and one ton of illegal ivory seized in a sweep of 50 locations in Kenya, Congo Brazaville, Ghana, Uganda and Zambia.  

January 2009 Ebay bans ivory on online auctions

Three months after auctions, Kenya reports alarming increase in elephant poaching  98 killed in 2008 vs 48 the year before. Two poachers are arrested by KWS. Five elephants killed in February. British MP’s raises alarm over increase in poaching.  

Conservation groups blame demand in China for runaway elephant killings

February 2009  Despite fear of reprisals, Cynthia Moss of the Amboseli Elephant Trust reports a surge in elephant killings and decries the lack of government response.

February 2009 Jane Goodall adds her voice to the role of China in plundering Africa’s resources.

February 2009 Legal auctions were supposed to depress illegal prices right? Wrong! TRAFFIC and WWF report ivory prices in Vietnam are highest in the world at $1500 – $1,863/kg more than ten times the value of legal ivory sold in November 2008! The few remaining Asian elephants are now at grave risk.

March 2008 Vietnam seize over 7 tons of ivory from Tanzania and plans to auction it. Why is nobody questioning this?

China deny’s any link or responsibility for increasing poaching and ivory seizure and publish the Chinese official position piece in local newspapers

Report from Therese Hart in DR Congo reveals that elephants down by 80% in last 50 years.

Why can’t I sleep?

My problem with all this is that CITES is supposed to uphold the precautionary principle. Obviously warnings in 2008 were well placed but there seems to be nobody doing anything about the escalating illegal ivory sales, elephant killings and ivory laundering. Where is the voice of TRAFFIC, WWF, AWF, FFI…all the organizations that were born and or grew out of the elephant crisis in the 1980s? They all supported the ivory sales and none of them seem to be willing to admit it was a MASSIVE STUPID MISTAKE and that measures must be taken now to reverse the impact.

How many more elephants do we have to lose before we have the courage to admit that it was a mistake to renew ivory trade? It is obvious that the flood of legal trade has created a wonderful opportunity for illegal ivory to be laundered, and demand and prices are so high in Vietnam that officials are obviously being corrupted, and countries are taking the law in to their own hands (Vietnam is planning to auction ivory seized from Tanzania!)

CITES will claim that the 9 year moratorium on further auctions will prevent further growth in demand or release of ivory onto markets. The truth that nobody is talking about, is that the moratorium only applies to four countries…I predict that at the next CITES conference we will see ivory sale proposals from a number of African countries including Tanzania, DR Congo, Uganda and maybe even Kenya! These countries are not bound by the moratorium.  

Grrr…it makes me so mad. What do you think? How can we get a message out?

Tags: China, CITES, DR Congo, elephant, elephant killings, elephant populations, ETIS, ivory trade, Jane Goodall, richard leakey, wildlifedirect, WWF

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Category: Uncategorized | Date: Mar 17 2009 | By: baraza

Dear readers,

Many of you may not know know much about WildlifeDirect and what we are trying to achieve through this website.

WildlifeDirect, initially known as the African Conservation Fund (ACF), was created in 2004 to help support the significant unmet needs in wildlife conservation, particularly in Africa, but also across the globe. Dr. Richard Leakey, a respected and well-known conservationist, and others interested in conservation conceived of a new way to approach the difficult task of raising funds for on-the-ground conservation efforts, particularly in times of crisis.

Our mission is two-fold: first, we intend to create a means by which on-the-ground conservationists could reach out to the global community for support of their ongoing work, and second, to create a “virtual endowment”, a vast online community of individual donors worldwide who are interested in supporting wildlife conservation and who could be mobilized, in a time of crisis, to offer support and resources.

Unlike actual endowments where funds are collected and deposited into a bank, a “virtual endowment” is money that remains in the hands of their donors until it is needed, and, at that point in time, those individuals who have been educated through interaction with the blogger conservationists would be mobilized to address the crisis.

We believe that creating and empowering a community of a million people who would give five to ten dollars a person, we can create a deep, bottom-up and sustainable ability to respond to an emergency. This will uniquely position us to create an African-based solution to a global problem.

WildlifeDirect’s commitment has been to bring the authentic, uncensored and compelling voices of working field conservationists to individuals anywhere in the world and to promise that 100% of the contributions to the bloggers (less bank fees) go to the intended recipient. Through its powerful Internet platform, WildlifeDirect can communicate, educate, network, and organize conservation stakeholders and ultimately act as a force for change in the conservation world.

To ensure 100% of the donations go to the conservationist of the ground, Wildlifedirect tries to maintain a low cost operation made of only the basic staff and low capital based operation. However, the organization needs to support core costs in order to continue supporting these very worthwhile community based conservation efforts. 

We currently have 84 conservation blogs and these attract over 70,000 unique visitors each month. The global economic crisis is hitting us all hard. We have already heard that some of our partners are unable to pay salaries this month. At Wildilfedirect we are making cutbacks in an effort to survive these tough economic times.  We hope you will consider supporting us through this global crisis.

We thank you for your support to date and invite you to make a further commitment to WildlifeDirect.

With Warm regards

Paula Kahumbu

Executive Director

Tags: conservation, endangered species, fund raising, richard leakey, widlife, wildlife direct, wildlifedirect

3 responses so far