This update is for US citizens only as the Congress' recent budget compromise spared critical international conservation programs from sweeping cuts thanks to the stand taken by many animal rights activists and groups.
That means that the U.S. will continue to be a leader in protecting gorillas in Gabon, tigers in India, elephants in Cambodia and countless other species... at least for the rest of this year.
But Congress is already working on next year's budget and many members are promising drastic cuts. Now is the time to remind them of how important these programs are.
These are tough fiscal times for the nation, but conservation programs represent a miniscule part of overall federal spending, yet the impact on wildlife is priceless.
Here are just a few examples of successful efforts that US government supports:
- The Great Ape Conservation Fund protects gorillas in the wild in Africa through support to anti-poaching, monitoring and collaboration between conservation organizations, governments and timber companies to stop illegal hunting and bushmeat sales.
- The U.S. supported organization, the Global Environmental Facility, co-authored the WCS report that identified 43 "source sites" as the key to saving tigers in the wild.
- In Myanmar, efforts backed by the Asian Elephant Conservation Fund have been able to reduce the threat of illegal captures of wild elephants.
