Happy World Earth Day everyone! This annual celebration is dedicated to raising awareness around environmental issues and promoting actions to protect the earth.
At Wildlife Foundation, we’re dedicated to protecting our amazing planet and over the past few years we have partnered with several leading organisations to reduce the impact of climate change, poaching, and deforestation. With these issues posing a significant risk to endangered animals, it’s vital that we act now to save these creatures before it’s too late.
We want to celebrate today by looking back and highlighting projects we have been involved in to protect endangered animals against environmental issues since our formation in 2010.
Sera Wildlife Conservancy – Grévy’s zebra
Did you know that Grévy’s zebras have suffered more habit loss than any other African animal? With this pretty staggering fact in mind and with only 2,800 of them remaining in the wild, we provided our partner Fauna and Flora International with a three-year grant.
This grant was used at their Sera Wildlife Conservancy in Kenya to take care of the habitat of animals living there, including Grévy’s zebra. As part of their project, they will put in place a strategy to manage conservancy over the next 10 years. They will also look into how they can prevent drought, which is a huge environmental issue impacting Grévy’s zebra, through a water management programme.
Climate Change Specialist Group – Polar bears
With the population of polar bears being at risk of collapse by 2100 due to habitat loss and climate change, we knew we needed to act swiftly to save these endangered animals.
One of our flagship initiatives is Project Polar, which we run in partnership with Yorkshire Wildlife Park and Polar Bear International. This is part of an international centre for conservation, rehabilitation and research to improve the welfare of polar bears in captivity and in the wild. Project Polar helps to educate people about the serious threats that polar bears are facing and contributes to education programmes in Canada, Greenland, Russia and Norway.
Working with Yorkshire Wildlife Park, which is Polar Bear International’s only Artic Ambassador Centre in the UK, we additionally help to direct policy, build partnerships, and engage in public outreach. We also take part in research programs that would be impossible to conduct with polar bears in the wild.
Ol Jogi Conservancy – Black rhino
Even though the population of black rhinos decreased by 96% between 1970 and 1992, poachers continue to kill hundreds of these endangered animals every year.
To prevent their population from shrinking even further, we partnered with a rhino conservancy called Ol Jogi, in Kenya, which is run by Save the Rhino International. As part of this partnership, we funded several projects for Ol Jogi, including one that provides cameras to monitor Black rhinos and make sure they are safe from poachers.
WAPCA – Roloway monkeys
The population of these adorable and fluffy monkeys has dwindled over the last three decades and they are now one of the 25 most endangered primates, with only 200 remaining in the wild. This has largely been the result of hunting and deforestation in their natural habitat of Ghana and Ivory Coast.
We recently provided a grant to WAPCA (West African Primate Conservation Action), for a project in the Kwabwe forest in Ghana. This enabled the organisation to undertake field studies that are invaluable for the conservation of Roloway monkeys and other primates.
If you would like to donate towards our efforts in conserving and protecting some of the world’s most at-risk species, please click here.
