The African Wildlife Foundation (AWF) is an international conservation organization created with the intent of preserving Africa's wildlife, wild lands, and natural resources. Founded in 1961, the organization helped establish conservation programs at the College of African Wildlife Management, Mweka in Tanzania, and the Ecole de Faune de Garoua in Cameroon. The Foundation works with governments and businesses to develop conservation efforts as a source of revenue.
Early years
The African Wildlife Leadership Foundation (AWLF) was founded in 1961 by Russell E. Train, a wealthy judge, hunter, and member of the Washington Safari Club. Other founding members of the Safari Club were Nick Arundel, a former United States Marine Corps combat officer and journalist; Kermit Roosevelt Jr. of the Central Intelligence Agency; James S. Bugg, a businessman; and Maurice Stans, an accountant who would later serve as finance chairman of the Richard Nixon administration.
Train was worried that European park managers would be replaced by unqualified Africans in conservation works as African countries gained their independence. Twenty African countries became independent in 1960 and 1961. Train wrote, "In Tanganyika alone, the government recently ordered Hundred percent (100%) Africanization of the game service by 1966! The replacement of European staff by untrained, unqualified men spells disaster for the game."
The first major grant of the AWLF was $47,000 to help found the College of African Wildlife Management at Mweka, Tanzania, in 1963. The college was organized by Bruce Kinloch, Chief Game Warden of Tanganyika, as a pioneer institution for the training of African wildlife managers. Funding for Mweka was also provided by the U.S. Agency for International Development and the Frankfurt Zoological Society, with facilities donated by the government of Tanganyika. By 2010, the college had trained over 4,500 wildlife managers from 28 African countries and 18 non-African countries.
In 1963, AWLF started a scholarship program to bring young Africans to American universities where they could study biology and wildlife management. Later that year, AWLF built a conservation education center at the entrance to Nairobi National Park. In 1967, the AWLF provided $50,000 to finance the construction of a research institute in Tanzania. In 1970, the AWF established a school for wildlife management in Garoua, Cameroon; giving instruction in French. During the 1970s and 1980s, the AWLF continued to finance students, and also assisted conservation projects, often giving supplies such as tents, vehicle spare parts, water pumps, and photographic equipment, rather than cash.
In 1969, the AWLF took the lead in a campaign supported by other conservation groups to protect rhinoceroses. In 1974, the foundation began a program to study cheetahs. In 1983, the AWF dropped "Leadership" from its name. Train was disappointed with the change, believing that the organization had lost sight of its original mandate. In his view, it had become just another conservation organization, giving funding to westerners to conduct research on animals. There is research such as Dian Fossey's work on gorillas and Cynthia Moss's work on elephants, which were both supported by the AWF.
In 1968, the annual budget was less than US$250,000. In 1988, the year of the AWF's campaign launch against elephant poaching, the foundation had a staff of six and an annual budget of $2 million. When the AWF turned 30 in 1991, the board of trustees remained dominated by prominent and wealthy Americans, many of whom served on other non-profit boards. Recent initiatives
The AWF have said their recent programs are modelled around three central objectives: empowering people, conserving wildlife, and protecting land. Empowering people involves conservation enterprises.
The AWF's primary goal is to protect land. Starting in 1998, land protection efforts focused on landscape-level conservation approaches.
Foundation finances include a reported income of US$19,333,998 in the 2009 fiscal year. Of this, $8,582,555 came from public sector support, $5,815,839 from corporate and foundation support, $5,224,931 from gifts from individuals, and $1,360,424 from legacy gifts. $17,395,456 was spent on programs, $1,524,764 on fund raising, and $1,262,056 in administration. Program funding broke down as $14,174,224 on conservation programs, $2,392,989 on public education, and $828,243 on membership programs.
Priority landscapes
The AWF formerly referred to its protected landscapes as its "heartlands"; currently, the organization employs a "priority landscape" approach. These priority landscapes include: Countries Priority landscape Start NotesDemocratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) Congo 2003 Moist tropical forest between the Lopori and Maringa Rivers. Home of the endangered bonoboBotswana, Zambia, and Zimbabwe Kazungula 2001 Woodland-grassland mosaic with important wildlife migration corridors around the Zambezi RiverKenya & Tanzania Kilimanjaro 1999 Wetlands and savanna surrounding Mount KilimanjaroMozambique, South Africa, and Zimbabwe Limpopo 2002 Savannahs, woodlands, rivers and floodplains around the Limpopo RiverTanzania Maasai Steppe 1999 Savannah including Lake Manyara and Tarangire National ParkNiger, Burkina Faso, and Benin Parc W 2010 Protected savanna in West Africa.Kenya Samburu 1999 Acacia grassland near to Mount KenyaCongo, Rwanda and Uganda Virunga 1999 Volcanic highland mountains, home of the last 700 mountain gorillas in the worldMozambique, Zambia and Zimbabwe Zambezi 2000 Zambezi River, tributaries, acacia floodplain and interconnecting wetlandsDemocratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) Bili Uele 2013 Savanna mosaic north of the Uele River and lowland primary forest to the south. Home of the chimpanzee and forest elephantNamibia Etosha-Skeleton Coast 2013 Vast salt pan, woodland, and savanna ecosystemsSouth Africa Great Fish River 2013 A 45,000-hectare reserve in the Great Fish River valley, home to increasingly vulnerable population of critically endangered black rhino Zimbabwe Save Valley Save Valley Conservancy, home to endangered rhinos Cameroon Faro 2012 In addition to hosting the largest population of hippos in Cameroon, Faro National Park is home to elephants, black rhinos, cheetahs, hyenas, and other wildlife Kenya Mau Forest 2011 The Mau Forest Complex sits within Kenya's Rift Valley and is the largest indigenous montane forest in East Africa Tanzania Ruaha 2012 The Ruaha area will intersect with an agriculture corridor that the Tanzanian government wants to develop in southern Tanzania
Bili-Uele The Bili-Uele Protected Area Complex is found in the remote north of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, along the border of the Central African Republic. The region consists of savanna mosaic north of the Uele River and lowland primary forest to the south. Both regions support the remaining undisturbed population of the eastern chimpanzee. An estimated 35,000–65,000 eastern chimpanzees are found in this complex. Few organizations are working there.
Congo
The Maringa-Lopori-Wamba Landscape in the Democratic Republic of the Congo is one of the least developed and most remote parts of the Congo Basin. The inhabitants are among the poorest in Africa. Most people live by slash-and-burn agriculture and rely on bushmeat protein. Cash crops include maize, cassava and groundnuts. The growing population risks a revival of logging.
Since 1973, a Japanese team has been researching the bonobo population near the village of Wamba in 1973. However, research was discontinued after political disorders started in 1991, followed by the civil war in 1997, resuming only in the mid-2000s. The IUCN Red List classifies bonobos as an endangered species, with conservative population estimates ranging from 29,500 to 50,000 individuals. The AWF has partnered with local and international groups to develop a sustainable land use plan for the MLW Landscape. The plan aims to ensure that the economic and cultural needs of the inhabitants are met while conserving the environment. The approach combines AWF's Landscape Conservation Process and the Central African Regional Program for the Environment (CARPE) Program Monitoring Plan. A variety of tools are used, including surveys, interviews with local people, and satellite image interpretation.
Etosha-Skeleton Coast The Etosha-Skeleton Coast landscape, in the northern part of Namibia, is home to Etosha National Park and its vast salt pan, woodland, and savanna ecosystems. The landscape is home to the black-faced impala and the oryx. To the west of the park lies the Skeleton Coast, where herds of elephants live. The African Wildlife Foundation is scaling up social venture capital investments through its subsidiary, African Wildlife Capital (AWC), which invests in the Grootberg Lodge in the Khoadi-Hoas community conservancy.
Faro At the core of the Faro landscape in northern Cameroon is Faro National Park, located close to the Nigerian border. This park hosts the largest population of hippos in Cameroon. AWF is lending support to counter-poaching park rangers in Faro and building a contingent of community scouts on the park's borders to provide a buffer between outsiders and the park.
Great Fish River The Great Fish River Nature Reserve is located in South Africa's Eastern Cape province. The 45,000-hectare reserve, which lies in the Great Fish River valley, is home to critically endangered black rhinos.
Kazungula
The floodplains of the Zambezi River are surrounded by a mosaic of miombo and mopane woodlands and grasslands that include important wildlife migration corridors. Victoria Falls, the largest in the world, are between Mosi-oa-Tunya National Park in Zambia and Victoria Falls National Park in Zimbabwe. The Falls and surrounding area are designated a World Heritage Site. However, the environment is threatened by the development of tourism and a lack of funding.
The AWF has established the Sekute Conservation Area in this region in partnership with the Sekute Chiefdom, holding two elephant corridors' helped wildlife authorities settle four new white rhinos in Mosi-oa-Tunya National Park in Zambia, joining the last surviving white rhino in the country, a bull. On 17 January 2011, it was reported that two of the females white rhinos had given birth to calves, which seemed healthy. The area is also home to endangered black rhinos. In 2011, a cluster of modern new buildings for the Lupani community school were opened in Kazungula, built by the AWF at a cost of US$250,000. The new school has six classrooms, offices and five teachers' houses with three bedrooms each.
Kilimanjaro
Disney released the movie African Cats in April 2011. The Disney Worldwide Conservation Fund gave AWF a portion of the proceeds from the first week's ticket sales for use in protecting the Amboseli Wildlife Corridor. Their "See 'African Cats,' Save the Savanna" program served both to promote the movie and to raise money for conservation.
Limpopo
The Limpopo Landscape includes areas of Mozambique, South Africa and Zimbabwe. It includes savannas, woodlands, rivers and floodplains. Fauna include sable antelope, rhinos, hippos, and many species of birds, insects and aquatic life. The AWF has started the Leopard Conservation Science Project in this landscape. The AWF is particularly involved in the Banhine National Park in Mozambique, which covers . Until recently, this park had little or no infrastructure or staff to ensure that the environment was protected. The AWF has built a conservation research center, which it is marketed internationally. Fees from researchers will pay for staff to run the center and manage the park.