Save Giraffes Now
Save Giraffes Now works with partners across Africa on conservation programs that make a difference for giraffe in the wild now. In the last three decades, giraffe populations have declined by 40%. More than 50% of giraffe infants won't make it to adulthood. Nearly four million square miles of historic giraffe habitat has been lost. Because of all this Save Giraffes Now was founded to help save giraffes from extinction.
SGN invests in projects that help preserve giraffe from extinction in ten African countries. All SGN projects on-the-ground are community-led by local people to the maximum extent possible. Though a giraffe-centric organization, their work also supports local communities in Africa by helping them develop careers and income streams that better their lives. Their new careers help support the long-term survival of wildlife in their homelands.
The mission of Save Giraffes Now is to save giraffes from extinction so they can live freely and safely in the woodlands and savannas of their native Africa.
Save Giraffes Now's Work
The following are a couple highlights of the impactful work of Save Giraffes Now.
Rewilding
Credit Klein Ongaki (The Safari Collection)
West African giraffe are a unique type of giraffe, currently found only in Niger, nowhere else. They are also the most endangered of all the giraffe. Twenty-five years ago there were only 49 of these giraffe left, but thanks to the incredible efforts of the Niger government and people, today there are 600! But that is still too few, and they are all in one population in the Koure region, where they are increasingly losing habitat and facing conflict. Giving hope to these giraffe in 2018, West African giraffe were reintroduced to Gadabedji Reserve, 500 miles from Koure. This successfully created a second population of these beautiful giraffe, helping ensure that this type of giraffe will not be lost to the world forever.
Save Giraffes Now supports the continued return of giraffe to Gadabedji with future giraffe reintroductions to create a larger, sustainable population, and to help support the local teams and people who protect these giraffe everyday! They help the giraffe and the people living alongside these incredible, gentle survivors, and ensure their survival in Niger.
Only 5% of the endangered reticulated giraffe’s range is found inside government National Parks. Therefore, the vast majority of these giraffe share their home landscape across the northern Kenyan savanna with people and livestock. SGN funds elite Mobile Anti-Poaching Teams who are operating in an area of these giraffe’s range that is facing severe political insecurity and poaching pressure. These small mobile teams’ rangers are specially trained and fully mobile in uniquely equipped 4x4s. The teams are constantly on the move, working with communities and surprising insurgents and poachers through carefully planned and effective tactical missions, increasing peace and security for the people, and protecting reticulated giraffe.
Anti-Poaching
Coexistence
Credit Gary Hopcraft
In order to protect and conserve giraffe, we need to know three basic things: How many giraffe there are, where they are, and how they move and occupy places in different seasons! This information is vital to on-the-ground conservation efforts, including anti-poaching activities and community-led population surveys. Without this information, such efforts operate in the blind and are less effective.
Currently, to count the number of giraffe in the wild and determine where these animals are located, expensive and often inefficient aerial or ground-based surveys are conducted. Because of these factors, surveys are only conducted once every several years, with analyses taking months or even years before they can be provided to conservation managers.
To solve this problem, Save Giraffes Now has partnered with researchers at the Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute (SCBI), the University of Glasgow, Microsoft AI for Good, and others on an exciting and innovative conservation research project. If it works, results have the potential to be available to conservationists and anti-poaching units in days or weeks, instead of months or years!
Join us in supporting Save Giraffes Now
75% of this month's donations will go towards this month's partner
This month and every month, Wild Boyz Photography will be partnering with one nonprofit. 75% of any donations that we receive during the month will go to the nonprofit. Help Save Giraffes Now to protect and conserve this wonderful species of animal.