Thousands of species throughout the world are currently facing the real threat of extinction due to heavy poaching, illegal trade of wildlife, especially regarding bushmeat and ivory, human-wildlife conflict, disease, and disappearing habitats. Many of these species, like the Andean cat, the African Penguin, the white-backed vulture, and the Antiguan racer, belong to populations so small and narrowly distributed that they require immediate assistance.
The US Fish and Wildlife Service created the Critically Endangered Animals Conservation Fund (CEACF) to provide funding for projects that work to protect critically endangered species in Africa, Asia, South America, and Oceania.
The goal of the CEACF is to provide support to projects that have a high likelihood of creating long-lasting benefits to species facing the immediate threat of global extinction. The Critically Endangered Animals Conservation fund has funded 104 projects, since 2009, in 40 countries. The Service’s support often acts as a catalyst to leverage additional funding from other sources for these projects. From 2009-2014, the Critically Endangered Animals Conservation Fund has awarded $2,697,391 that was leveraged with $4,887,620 in matching funds. Project highlights include:
Critically Endangered Animal Conservation Funding 2015 | |
| Total Number of Grants Awarded | 14 |
| Total Funds Distributed Through Grants | $376,169 |
| Total Partner Contributions Leveraged by Grants | $931,042 |
| Total Number of Countries that Received Program Support *Not including regional projects |
10* |
- Cambodia: Increasing the effectiveness of patrols to discover new Batagur Affinis nests using the SMART (Spatial Monitoring and Reporting Tool) method originally developed by WCS and USFWS for tiger conservation. All nests found will be incubated and guarded by wardens and then transferred from the field to head-starting facilities for subsequent release and monitoring of at least 25 turtles.
- Pakistan: Initiating a village-managed livestock insurance program to compensate families for loss of livestock due to snow leopard predation.
- Tanzania:Collaborating with local authorities to employ forest guards to support conservation efforts aimed at protecting the Kipunji. Guards will reduce threats by reducing human wildlife conflict by developing effective crop raiding mitigation methods that will reduce retribution hunting.
