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SeaWorld & Busch Gardens Conservation Fund |
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Rescue and Rehabilitation: 5 Grants
- Juvenile Raptor Restoration Project: The Wildlife Center
- Care for Confiscated Wildlife: WildAid
- Raptor Rescue and Rehabilitation: Audubon Center for Birds of Prey
- Continued Care of Wildlife: Noah's Ark Wildlife Rescue
- Protecting Threatened Species in Southwest Cambodia: Conservation International
The Cardamom Conservation Program (CCP) began in March 2001 when Conservation International began working with the Cambodian government to establish a team of 45 rangers to patrol critical biodiversity areas in the central Cardamom Mountains. The ranger teams protect the area's key wildlife species, including the Asian elephant, tiger, Asiatic black bear, and pileated gibbon. The goal of the CCP is to secure the 100,000-acre Central Cardamom's forest and key buffer zones as a safe haven for these and other globally threatened species. The SWBGCF grant will support this goal by strengthening data collection on professional wildlife hunters, traders and trade routes, and by establishing a ranger team to confiscate injured wildlife from the hunters and traders and transport them back to WildAid, a rescue and rehabilitation center.
Habitat Protection: 2 Grants
- California Native Grasslands Restoration Project in San Diego: San Diego State University
- Evaluation of Human-Elephant Conflict in Amboseli, Kenya: University of Florida
Conflict between humans and elephants can result in injury and death to both and is a growing problem across Africa. This interdisciplinary study seeks to provide an understanding of the human dimensions of human-elephant conflict around Amboseli National Park, Kenya, by examining attitudes, factors that influence attitudes, and behavior toward elephants on private lands surrounding the park. In Amboseli, several intervention projects have been put in place to mitigate the increasing level of conflict. The SWBGCF grant will aid the study's goals of evaluating the effects of the programs and other variables such as values, perceived risk, and previous experience on residents' attitudes and behaviors toward elephants.
Conservation Education: 1 Grant
- Youth Education Program, Masai Mara, Kenya: Friends of Conservation
The greater Mara region comprises a total of approximately 2,671 square miles, of which 25 percent represents the Masai Mara National Reserve and 75 percent is unprotected land. Much of the wildlife in this region exists outside the reserve on surrounding group ranches. In less than 20 years more than half of the wildlife on group ranches has been lost. The major long-term threats to the continued use of the group ranches for wildlife conservation are the changing cultural practices that lead to population growth, unplanned sprawling settlements and permanent agricultural activity. The SWBGCF grant will help fund Friends of Conservation's existing conservation education programs targeted to local ranchers and children. The grant specifically targets the children who, in the next 10 years, will be responsible for taking care of the Mara region and the vast biodiversity that exists there. Many of them will become landowners in the next decade; their experiences and education as children will influence the decisions they make as landowners and junior elders of their tribe. These programs teach about the value of wildlife, habitats and environmental governance. The goal of these programs is to instill a sense of ownership and pride for the land that the Masai people have been living on for hundreds of years. It also gives them the skills to practice sustainable natural resource management of their land.
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