We believe that the protection of the world's wildlife and wild places is both feasible and essential to ensuring that human communities and wild fauna and flora survive into the coming millennia. In developing strategies to conserve wildlife and habitats, we look at the entire picture.

It's not enough to develop initiatives to protect a single species or piece of land outside of the surrounding economic or social context. We take the entire area in which we are working (Thailand, Cambodia, Russia) into account, including economics and the needs of local people, and work to develop strategies to help communities and wildlife live together peacefully.

Wildlife Alliance then empowers the locals to change their situation by providing alternatives to wildlife poaching and habitat destruction (mushroom farming, vegetable farming) to end illegal trading, and to enable locals to preserve their homeland. Wildlife Alliance also believes that conservation education of local children is an essential component to fostering positive conservation attitudes now and in the future.

Protecting the Wild

Stopping the Illegal Trade

Raising Awareness & Reducing Demand

Livelihoods

Protecting the Wild

Problem: Protected parks and natural areas require protection from wildlife poachers and illegal plant harvesting.

Wildlife Alliance's ranger teams provide direct protection "on the ground" to wildlife and their habitats. These teams patrol protected areas and defend the animal and plant species from illegal wildlife traders. Wild places require protection from wildlife poaching, illegal logging and plant harvesting. Using local people to protect their own land, Wildlife Alliance trains and equips ranger teams (SWEC, WRRT), some of who have been poachers in the past, due to lack of other options.  Now, as rangers, they work to track down and prosecute nature criminals. For the animals that are rescued from the illegal wildlife trade, our Care For Rescued Wildlife project, at the Cambodia Wildlife Rescue Center, provides rehabilitation (and hopefully release) with skilled veterinary care, natural diet, and humane enclosures.  

Wildlife Alliance's partner in the Russian Far East – The Phoenix Fund – conducts a variety of anti-poaching activities including "Inspection Tiger" anti-poaching teams which protect Amur tiger and leopard habitat, and a livestock reimbursement program for farmers to prevent tiger killings.

Stopping the Illegal Trade

Problem: Wildlife trafficking is a multi-billion dollar black market trade, and is dramatically reducing the world's wildlife year after year.

We believe that reducing consumption of wildlife is imperative to saving the world's wildlife and wild places. However, we feel that doing this is futile unless we protect the wildlife at its source. In the future, when attitudes towards wildlife consumption have changed, protection of wildlife will be less necessary. But today, we need to enforce that wildlife trafficking is an illegal criminal activity. Therefore, to stop these nature criminals, we provide park and natural area protection, support Wildlife Rapid Rescue Teams that rescue live wildlife, confiscate wildlife products, and prosecute nature crimes.

In addition, we are working with local governments and communities to implement the ASEAN – Wildlife Enforcement Network, which brings together Southeast Asian Nations to discuss strategies and train special wildlife crime task forces to enforce the new wildlife policies. We also participate in the Coalition Against Wildlife Trafficking (CAWT) to bring wildlife trafficking issues to the highest levels of international diplomacy, bringing a sorely needed enforcement component to international wildlife treaties (CITES), and allowing NGOs, the private sector, and governments to collaborate to stop wildlife trafficking and other crimes against wildlife.

Raising Awareness, Reducing Demand

Problem: Communities in rural areas surrounding protected areas lack sufficient education or understanding of the importance of wildlife and habitat conservation.

Wildlife Alliance knows that to reach local communities about wildlife conservation issues, lessons must be interactive and fun. To expand on this idea, we created the Kouprey Express Mobile Education Unit, a well-equipped bus that travels to rural schools to spread awareness about themed conservation issues in Cambodia. Recently, Cambodian schoolchildren painted a mural on the wall of their school depicting a peaceful nature scene.

Wildlife Alliance does a variety of anti-wildlife trading advertising in Thailand and Cambodia. Our SOLD OUT National Awareness Campaign works to reduce demand for wildlife and wildlife products in Thailand, and our National Outreach Campaign in Cambodia also targets consumer demand for wildlife and wildlife products through media campaigns, urging the public to stop buying wildlife and wildlife products.

Wildlife Alliance's partner organization, the Phoenix Fund, does environmental education activities in the Russian Far East to directly teach schoolchildren (and indirectly their parents) the importance of conservation issues.

Livelihoods

Problem: Rural communities surrounding protected areas need to generate income for themselves and their families, but there are few legal alternatives to poaching and illegal plant harvesting . 

Wildlife Alliance provides alternatives to natural resources destruction through agricultural development projects that involve subsistence farming for locals who need income generating alternatives to poaching and illegal plant harvesting. In Cambodia, our Community Agriculture Development Program at the Sovanna Baitonga commune empowers a formerly landless slash-and-burn farmers to create a new village and begin new growing techniques to provide income generating alternatives to poaching and illegal plant harvesting. In Thailand the Surviving Together program balances the needs of habitat protection with community outreach and agriculture and livelihood support outside Khao Yai National Park and other protected areas.