End Wildlife Trade: Prevent Future Pandemics
Dear Friends,
36 years ago, my grandfather established the David Shepherd Wildlife Foundation (DSWF) with the vision of protecting the worlds most endangered species. Today, that vision and our unwavering conservation efforts are under threat.
The global pandemic sweeping the world like wildfire has illustrated just how fragile the health of our planet really is and highlights the urgent need for greater protection and ecological respect.
We find ourselves fighting a wildlife emergency, and without your help, we might not win. DSWF was established to fight wildlife crime and to turn the tide on extinction. 2020 however has brought with it the realisation that by neglecting our relationship with nature and exploiting wildlife in a reckless and irresponsible fashion, everyone and everything suffers.
Over the last few months, we have all watched the havoc being wrought on everyday life around us. Tragically, the devastation raining down on endangered wildlife and vulnerable communities has been drowned out by the global economic and social mayhem caused by the pandemic.
Like other charities, we are witnessing the drying up of financial donations and, alongside the collapse of tourism across Africa and Asia, the financial drought now hitting our ground-based conservation partners is devastating.
Vulnerable communities are being forced to resort to wildlife crime simply to keep poverty at bay – their families are starving.
Rhinos are being slaughtered in previously safe areas, and elephants are being poached as criminal gangs take advantage of global uncertainty and local chaos. Pangolins are being persecuted for their unintended role in the pandemic and rangers are being pushed to exhaustion. It is a sad picture to portray.
We have pledged to maintain full levels of support across our whole conservation portfolio this year despite the challenges we face. Financially, this will stretch us to our limits, but we feel that we have no other option. You have trusted us to conserve the world’s most endangered species for over 35 years, and we need your help now, more than ever to continue my
grandfather’s legacy.
Withdrawing, or reducing our support now could mean the difference between success or failure, survival or extinction, a ranger’s life or death. We can’t take that chance. Will you?
Please consider donating to our emergency appeal to ensure our efforts have not been in vain.
Georgina Lamb
Chief Executive
David Shepherd Wildlife Foundation
Help us save our wildlife and prevent pandemics today.
Donate to our Emergency Appeal
Be it a regular donation from as little as £3 a month, or a larger one-off donation, your support really will help us turn the tide on extinction and ensure that some of the world’s most vulnerable communities are not driven to wildlife crime in order to stay alive.
- £220 could fund a team of wildlife rangers on the frontline of conservation
- £100 could provide emergency rescue supplies for a newly orphaned elephant who lost its mother to poaching
- £25 could provide an education pack for children from vulnerable communities living among wildlife