1. SAVE is Launched Publicly on World Children’s Day

In September, during World Children’s Day, we presented SAVE to the public for the very first time. Almost 100 children from Germany drew a huge heart for children in Botswana, who participate in our environmental education programs. The heart is a beautiful symbol of the ties that connect these two countries. Before this, SAVE had largely been working quietly, under the radar screen.

2. SAVE Wins Major Award

On the 13th of September, SAVE’s founder, Lars Gorschlüter received second place for the prestigious German Animal Protection Award for his and SAVE’s commitment to wildlife and habitat conservation.

3. Victory in the Fight Against Clear-cutting Cameroon’s Rainforests

SAVE is supporting local communities in their protest against a palm oil plantation, operated by Herakles Farms. The plantation will demolish over 170,000 acres (about 70,000 hectares) of ancient rainforest in southwestern Cameroon, which is on the west coast of Africa. Forty-five thousand people in the region will lose their livelihoods, primarily subsistence farming. Habitat for some of the earth’s most endangered species, such as chimpanzees and drill monkeys, will be destroyed. SAVE is leading a coalition of international organizations that oppose this ill-conceived project. In June, together with Rettet den Regenwald, we presented Bruce Wrobel, CEO of Sithe Global—the company underwriting the plantation, a petition with the signatures of 18,000 people who demand the halt to the rainforest’s destruction. In September, SAVE funded the local group, SEFE, which filed a lawsuit against the plantation’s parent corporation, SGSOC. A Cameroonian court quickly issued an injunction order to stop the corporation from continuing with its palm oil operations.

4. Laying the Foundations for Children’s Villages in Botswana

SAVE is working with communities around several of Botswana’s national parks to build environmental education centers—Children’s Villages—to benefit local children and wildlife in and around the parks. Botswana is in southern Africa. The Villages will promote knowledge and appreciation for wildlife and teach the children about careers in Botswana’s important wildlife tourism industry. Because some of these children are disadvantaged, SAVE will also help provide food, clothing, and medical care at the Children’s Villages. Kids cannot learn if they are hungry and in poor health. SAVE has employed local staffers to work with community leaders, schoolteachers, social workers, tourist companies, local wildlife researchers, and others. SAVE is collaborating with the tour operator, Abendsonne Africa, and the Central Kalahari and Makgadikgadi Research Group, which conducts wildlife research, on this project. We have plans to build 13 Children’s Villages in the next five years. We are continuing to sponsor educational programs for children in these communities.

5. Expanding Lion and Endangered African Wild Dog Research in Botswana

SAVE now funds 10 researchers and research assistants devoted to studying and helping to protect lions and wild dogs. We partner with the Central Kalahari and Makgadikgadi Research Group, the Denver Zoo in the U.S.A, and other groups such as the Comanis Foundation to build capacity of Botswana researchers who conduct cutting-edge studies that will lead to conservation solutions. For example, SAVE-supported researchers are working with livestock farmers who often kill lions and wild dogs because the farmers believe the predators kill livestock. We are finding new, effective methods to reduce such human-wildlife conflicts to promote the conservation of imperiled species.

6. Gaining Allies for African Wild Dogs

The SAVE team in Botswana is once again partnering with the Central Kalahari and Makgadikgadi Research Group to find new solutions to the problem of farmers killing wild dogs, sometimes whole dog packs. Wild dogs are critically endangered, with only about 2,500 adult individuals remaining throughout all of Africa. Unfortunately, farmers typically see them as pests to be shot or poisoned. We are working with farmers to monitor locations of wild dog packs, finding ways to prevent dogs from preying on livestock, and communicating with farmers to decrease wild dog persecution.

7. Testing Conditioned Taste Aversion to Save Predators

SAVE is supporting Conditioned Taste Aversion (CTA) studies to prevent predators, such as lions and African wild dogs, from preying on livestock and risking being shot by farmers. The CTA method involves treating livestock meat, such as beef from cattle, with a non-lethal but toxic chemical that makes animals that eat the meat temporarily sick. Predators then associate eating livestock with becoming ill and learn to target only their traditional food of wild animals instead of domestic livestock.

8. SAVE-supported Research Leads to Discovery of Rare Black Serval in Gabon

While searching for spotted hyenas in Gabon, the SAVE-supported researcher Torsten Bohm stumbled upon a black serval, a spotted wild cat rare for that region of western Africa. Unfortunately, no hyenas have been found during the study.

9. Finding Hyenas in Congo

Torsten Bohm has expanded his scientific research on spotted hyenas to Congo, in central Africa just east of Gabon. We are concerned that hyenas may be endangered in the country. The initial goal of the research is to get an accurate estimate of the hyena population.

10. Aid to Somalia

With the financial support of companies committed to humanitarian action, we shipped 113 tons of food to Somalia to help avert a famine related disaster. Though not directly wildlife related, SAVE was in a unique position to do the right thing.

Our Plans for 2012

1. Continue fighting against the destruction of tropical rainforest in Cameroon by Herakles Farms by supporting the local protest movement.
2. Open the first Children’s Village in Botswana’s Kalahari region. SAVE’s center will serve 150-200 children who will benefit from environmental education special classroom and in-the-field experiences and will also receive meals and other basics.
3. Recruit sponsors for SAVE’s Children’s Villages.
4. Develop partnerships with schools in Germany and our children’s centers in Botswana to promote cross-cultural understand.
5. Expand hyena research in the Congo Basin. A first step is to find an accurate population estimate for the animals and then determine the best ways to protect this endangered population.
6. Set up SAVE Wildlife Conservation Fund chapters in the United States and India.
7. Launch an indigenous project on owls and owlets in NRW (Northern Westfall) in western Germany.
8. Increase activities to protect endangered African wild dog protection in Botswana..
9. Help reduce farmer conflicts with lions in Botswana by expanding SAVE’s existing lion protection project in the Central Kalahari and Makgadikgadi regions of Botswana.
10. Create an educational film for German schools about the impacts of material consumption on the natural world and the steps students can take to reduce their own damaging impacts to the environment.

We thank you for your support in 2011. We will continue to rely on your generous donations to accomplish our important 2012 goals. Please consider a gift to SAVE Wildlife Conservation Fund now to start the year on a high note.