The majority of DSWF funding for conservation projects on the ground is dedicated to long-term interventions which is the best way of tackling systemic and complicated issues that can take decades to address. Sometimes, however, rapid, short-term funding is required to deal with emergency wildlife situations. We work with all our conservation partners on the ground to deal with such situations when they arise, and we are nimble enough to respond rapidly when the situation demands it.
In addition, we support conservation partners on the ground in India whose specific remit is to deal with emergency wildlife situations. Wildlife is India is plagued by plagued by innumerable threats – both human induced and natural – that require an immediate response, and require funding, technical expertise and logistical support. Our partners on the ground work with local organisations and stakeholders to ensure local dynamics are understood and that the community needs are addressed.
The short-term projects we support are often targeted at addressing human-wildlife conflict, for example providing warning systems, deterrents and patrolling equipment to villages that are dealing with crop-raiding elephants and in some cases rescuing the elephants themselves and moving them on to safer areas. A number of the projects also provide compensation and/or predator proof enclosures for communities dealing with tigers and other predators killing livestock, ensuring that the cats aren’t killed in retaliation.
In recent years we have supported projects that have protected fishing cats, jungle cats, and wolves.
We have also been able to bolster anti-poaching and law enforcement efforts in areas which are suffering from poaching spikes or increases in wildlife trafficking and have funded projects that have been aimed at increasing community support for conservation and awareness raising, and to protect vital wildlife habitats. The projects we fund usually last for less than one year.
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Research and monitoring of endangered species is crucial in order to understand their behaviour and to therefore design the best strategies for protecting Find out more about this work here.
DSWF has been supporting the Wildlife Programme in Zambia (previously known as the Elephant Orphanage Project) since 2007. The programme rescues elephants from the wild who have been orphaned, rehabilitates them, and then gradually releases them back into the wild. Find out more.
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.
