WCN supports dedicated individuals who have demonstrated exceptional promise for lifelong leadership as wildlife conservationists. The Sidney Byers Scholarship, Pat J. Miller Scholarship, and Handsel Scholarship provide grants for graduate education and applied training to students from Africa, Asia, Eastern Europe and Latin America who are committed to working on wildlife conservation in their home countries. Scholarship candidates are nominated by WCN’s Partner conservationists and affiliates. They expand upon the ground-breaking work of our Partners, while gaining the skills they will need to pioneer projects of their own in the future. To date, WCN has awarded 28 scholarships to women and men working in Argentina, Bolivia, Botswana, Chile, China, Ethiopia, Indonesia, Kenya, Laos, Mongolia, Mozambique, Namibia, Russia, and Uganda.
The wildlife conservation community in sub-Saharan Africa has been hard-hit by the HIV/AIDS pandemic. Individuals dedicated to saving wildlife are fighting for their own lives, and the conservation effort faces the enormous loss of their professional skills and innovative contributions. The Wildlife Conservation Network is creating an integrated intervention model addressing the needs of prevention, testing, counseling and treatment for the field-based staff of conservation programs. Our model will be refined through a series of field-tested pilot programs and rolled out to over half of the 400 conservation programs in sub-Saharan Africa by the end of 2012. Learn more at: www.wild4life.org
When a crisis hits, the impact on endangered species can be devastating. WCN’s Emergency Response Fund was established to immediately channel resources to areas of the world where wildlife is in imminent danger. WCN’s Partner field-based projects run on very lean budgets and sometimes do not have extra funds at hand for unexpected emergencies. The Emergency Response Fund gives donors a unique way to support conservation and provides a critical source of funds that can be readily accessed and deployed to help in a crisis. In 2009, WCN and our donors responded with timely support to elephants suffering from severe drought in Mali and a deadly rabies outbreak among the Ethiopian wolves.
In 2006, WCN supporter Stephen Gold initiated a project to provide solar energy to conservation projects around the world. Meeting the great need for electricity in remote field stations, this innovative endeavor combines cutting-edge technology with wildlife conservation and sustainable environmental practices. With generous donations from corporations and individuals, Stephen designs and assembles new solar electricity systems and ships the equipment to the field. We have provided solar electricity to those protecting African wild dogs, cheetahs, elephants, lions, Ethiopian wolves and snow leopards. WCN is now launching a new program to supply conservationists with a complete “sustainability package,” which includes solar hot water, solar cookers, solar water pumps, water purification systems and super high efficiency lighting. Learn more at: www.wcnsolarproject.org
The Humanitarian Side of Solar and Renewables
Eric Wesoff, Greentech Media
March 22, 2011
Conservation Stations Get Solar Power
Nicole Wallace, The Chronicle of Philanthropy
October 15, 2009
Solar power for wildlife research
David R. Baker, San Francisco Chronicle
October 4, 2009
Solar for Elephants, Cheetahs and Lions
Eric Wesoff, Greentech Media
September 28, 2009
Solar powered conservation
Bhalin Singh, Mongabay
August 25, 2009
