DSWF works resolutely to fund ground-based conservation projects with our partners across Africa and Asia, working to protect endangered species. By addressing real-world problems with real-world solutions, we have influenced policy, shifted attitudes, and provided an unwavering voice for wildlife conservation from grassroots to the world stage, since 1984.
Recognising the complex issues facing the environment, DSWF adopts a holistic approach to conservation:
By acknowledging the essential role that communities and education play, on the ground and at international policy level, DSWF has created a conservation model built to ensure conservation success and long-term environmental sustainability.
Our approach is a multi-faceted one, encompassing species protection programmes that incorporate anti-poaching work – such as funding and equipping ranger teams. We also know the importance of community support in conservation – which is why we provide employment through bush camps, dedicated women’s groups, and alternative livelihoods such as honey collecting and forestry management.
At the same time, our education programmes bring the wildlife on the doorsteps of these communities into the classroom, making conservation relevant by revealing how important these core species are to both them and the planet. Doing so is equipping the next generation of wildlife warriors with the passion and knowledge to usher in change at local level, with global impact. This work is also crucial in reducing demand in consumer countries, embedding the viewpoint of wildlife having more value alive and abundant than as a commodity.
By funding ground-breaking research, we can confidently enter the international political arena and influence policy forums and vital change with the correct guidance and advice.
Most importantly, our work on the frontline of conservation enables us to continue to expose, investigate, and fight the devastating impact of the multi-billion-dollar illegal wildlife trade on vulnerable people, communities, and species being pushed to the brink of extinction.
DSWF is dedicated to maintaining our rich art heritage, which was started by our late founder, David Shepherd CBE, and which remains an essential part of the Foundation’s DNA.
Wildlife crime, an illegal $19 billion industry, has become one of the major drivers of species extinction in the last several decades. Find out more about what DSWF is doing to tackle these abhorrent issues.
DSWF believes in the conservation of all wildlife and wild spaces and does not condone the consumptive use of wildlife and natural resources for the benefit of human greed and curiosity. DSWF’s conservation portfolio primarily focusses on eight core species of endangered and threatened mammals across Africa and Asia. Find out more about these species here.
All DSWF funded projects provide vital support to communities who live alongside wildlife. It is crucial that they have a stake in protecting wildlife and benefit from it. Our projects provide education programs, community benefits and jobs, help improve gender equality, and restore eco-systems, all of which make life better for the people living in the communities we work in. Find out more.
