David Shepherd Wildlife Foundation (DSWF)

David Shepherd Wildlife Foundation (DSWF) is a highly effective wildlife conservation charity funding key conservation projects across Africa and Asia. Our mission is to increase awareness around the world about the need to protect and conserve wildlife and their habitats. Supporting ground-based conservation projects Our ground-based conservation partners are dedicated and professional organisations with a deep understanding of the landscapes in which they operate and our relationships are steeped in mutual respect and admiration, nurtured over many years. More than ever before, we face daily news of the devastation that humans inflict on wildlife and on our planet; news of vanishing species and wild spaces. DSWF invests in economically and socially vulnerable communities with programmes that have a real impact on real people in real places. DSWF taking care of communities DSWF invests in economically and socially vulnerable communities with programmes most affected by human-wildlife conflict that have a real impact on real people in real places. DSWF takes a holistic approach to conservation, recognising the essential role that communities and education both play in ensuring conservation successes. We also recognise the need to tackle environmental and wildlife crime from grassroots to the world stage across all forums and platforms available for change. DSWF pushing for greater protectionist policies By engaging in the international policy arena, fighting for greater protectionist policies and legislation, governments become equally important stakeholders in the fight for species protection, alongside those putting their lives on the line daily for the survival of species and the protection of their natural habitats. DSWF works to fight environmental and wildlife crime, protect some of the most vulnerable species and engage with communities. DSWF’s key achievements in Africa DSWF was pivotal at CITES (Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species) 2016, in bringing about decisions to end any future process for the trade in ivory. The same conference saw DSWF playing an instrumental role in bringing together countries to agree on text regarding the closure of domestic ivory markets. DSWF funding established the first ever Pangolin Protection Programme in Zambia to rescue and release pangolins as part of a targeted countrywide anti-trafficking and awareness campaign. Establishing Zambia’s first Elephant Orphanage to rescue, rehabilitate and release the innocent victims of ivory poaching. Helping secure Uganda’s Murchison Falls Conservation Area from poaching. By injecting vital funding we have been able to help elephant populations recover from almost near extinction. Populations now exceed over 1,000 elephants, often seen in large healthy herds roaming wild. Helping to educate over 10,000 children in Zimbabwe through interactive, engaging and intuitive conservation programmes to provide a fuller understanding of the importance of conserving wildlife and its habitat. Providing over 25 years of vital funding and support to ensure the survival of one of the last truly wild black rhino populations in Namibia, enabling populations to emerge from the brink of extinction. DSWF’s key achievements in Asia Working to fund undercover investigations exposing the cross-border trafficking routes and criminal syndicates behind some of the largest and most prolific wildlife crime families in the world. Today, there is a near sustainable population of Amur tiger. As part of an international coalition, DSWF successfully cracked down on uncontrolled poaching and raised awareness among the international community. Today, there is a healthy and sustainable population of more than c.450 wild tigers in the Russian Far East. Helping to establish a hugely successful community defence force in Assam, India. By inspiring and engaging local communities they have volunteered themselves as the first line of defence at the UNESCO World Heritage Site to protect their native wildlife. Building capacity in Tost Nature Reserve, Mongolia, through the use of scientific data on snow leopards, empowering local communities to successfully apply for protected area status creating one of the largest continuous snow leopard habitats in the world. Engaging with the Kyrgyzstan Government and a local NGO to re-wild a former hunting concession allowing for the safe development of the fourth most significant snow leopard habitat in the world as a protected natural area.