Big Cat Conservation: A Global Alliance

Dear Wonderful Donors, 

Thank you for your support of the Global Big Cat Alliance these past few years. It means so much to us and to the partners we serve. Your generosity has helped purchase boats for our partners in the Amazon who are battling the effects on the ground of deforestation and poaching every day. You’ve helped support school programs in Kyrgyzstan that are teaching the youth about their cultural identity and how it links to the Snow Leopard. You’ve helped provide emergency support so critically needed for a jaguar sanctuary in Oaxaca, Mexico, affected by the pandemic. And so much more.

We have reached our $10,000 goal and it was only possible through you and your generosity! We've attached photos frrom some of the projects you've helped support throughout the years. 

We give great thanks to each of you, to the Ancestors, to the guardians of these lands and sacred big cats, and to the big cats themselves for all they hold for the Earth during these times. 

Thank you again and blessings to you and your loved ones during this holiday season. 

Dear Donor,

Thank you for your ongoing support of the Global Big Cat Alliance. It means so much to us and to the partners we serve.

Most of our partners around the globe have been contending with Covid-related issues, either personally suffering from the illness, dealing with community issues related to the virus, or dealing with income stresses from the lack of visitors, which often drives their income stream.

Much of our support this quarter went to one of our jaguar shamans and artist (who works closely with Jaguar conservation facility we have been supporting in Oaxaca about which we reported previously). During his travels through Oaxaca, he unfortunately contracted and became very ill with Covid. He wasn’t hospitalized but was unable to travel back to his home for several months and needed emergency support, which thanks to your generous support, we were able to offer to him.

During this lockdown, there was one piece of happy news to report with one of our partners in South Africa – the Global White Lion Protection Trust was able to rescue two female white lionesses, and  several more cubs were born on the white lion lands, both a reminder of the continuity of life on our planet!

The two lionesses who were rescued from a cub petting facility have a new lease on life after serving for years as “human playthings” through the cub petting industry. This is an industry through which cubs are taken away from their mother at a young age and tourists pay for an opportunity to cuddle and feed them. Once they become too large, they are then either used for “walking with lions” tours with paying guests, or they are hunted in the trophy hunting industry.

Within the past two years, the two sisters escaped and killed a local farmworker and then one of their owners and were at risk of being euthanized. The Global White Lion Protection Trust was contacted within hours of the tragedy by conservation officials and were asked for assistance. They accepted lifelong responsibility for the animals to avoid them being either turned over to another tourist facility or euthanized. The sisters will be able for the first time in their lives to have the space and freedom to act as the animals they are.

The Global White Lion Protection Trust is one of WISN’s partner organizations whose focus is on protecting and expanding the limited white lion population left in the world. They are committed—like all of our Big Cat Alliance members—to perpetuating life on earth. Conserving our apex predators, which ultimately saves the biodiversity of the planet, is a big part of that. 

If you feel moved to make more contributions to support these sacred big cats, please do. Help us get to our $10,000 goal. We are so close! And thank you again for your ongoing support over the years, including sharing this project with others. Keep well! 

Dear Donor,

Thank you for your ongoing support of the Global Big Cat Alliance. I just got off the phone with one of our jaguar partners in Mexico – there should be some exciting news to share with you on the jaguar front during the next reporting cycle! Stay tuned!

Today, I will be reporting on Snow Leopard work in Kyrgyzstan in partnership with Kyrgyz Elders who have been working to raise the awareness among school aged children of traditional knowledge, conservation of snow leopards, and how to live in harmony with nature. The project has been ongoing for the past year and a half, and though COVID has stifled some of their initial plans, they have been able to do smaller gatherings at which the Elders have been able to speak to the school children, have given public talks online and have also given talks to the press.

One exciting development in this time period has been a partnership developing with 8-10 young people who have been selected to work with these Elders to achieve the project’s goals. These young people have been collecting tales, folklore and legends related to snow leopards and are diving into the oral history tradition of Kyrgyz people, all of which will help ensure the transmission of this important knowledge and that will ultimately shine a light on why conservation of these sacred big cats is not only relevant to their culture and traditional, but critical to the delicate ecosystems on earth.

A local youth theater has also expressed interest in developing and putting onperformances about the snow leopard. This was initiated as a way to address the fact that the project leaders haven’t been able to reach out to as many children as they had initially hoped to due to the pandemic. Through theater performances that would be recorded and later shared, they will be able to reach a much broader audience than they otherwise would due to COVID.  

As with many throughout this pandemic, our partners are having to think creatively to be able to do this important work in these times of great uncertainty we all face. And all of this is possible through generous donations like yours.

Knowing there are many worthwhile causes, your support means that much more to us during these times we are in. Thank you for believing in our work and for spreading the word about the Global Alliance for Big Cat Conservation project.

We wish you and your loved good health and well being during these difficult times.  

Dear Donor, 

Thank you for your ongoing support of the Global Big Cat Alliance. As we reported in previous updates, much of our 2020 funding shifted from direct project support to emergency support for our partners around the globe – either to big cat conservation organizations with whom we partner or to indigenous cultural practitioners (ICPs) in our network who support these sacred big cats. This trajectory has continued into early 2021. 

In 2020 we provided support for some of our Snow Leopard (educational programs for children) and Jaguar partners, including a Jaguar conservation facility in Oaxaca, Mexico, which directly works with rehabilitating injured jaguars. This last quarter, we learned that one of our ICPs who works with and supports various conservation facilities throughout Mexico, including Xaguar Xoo, has landed on challenging times himself due to the pandemic. 

Through your generous support, we have been able to provide some support to this ICP for him and his amazing work, which ultimately serves the jaguars of his homelands (he is a Mixteca artist, musician and jaguar shaman). We will also continue to support Xaguar Xoo in whatever ways we can (see report from May 2020) in the months ahead. 

Thank you for your support and for spreading the word about the Global Alliance for Big Cat Conservation project. We wish you and your loved ones a healthy, happy and safe New Year and extend our hopes and wishes for renewed life and balance on Earth.  

Dear Donor,

As always, we are immensely grateful for your support during these challenging times. Especially in these times, we know there are so many ways you can choose to share and that you’ve chosen to share with us means a lot. As in the previous months, much of the work of our partners has either ceased or has slowed due to the pandemic. However, one partner in Kyrgyzstan has been able to move forward with his plans to implement a program to teach school – age children about the Snow Leopard and its importance in not only their ecosystem, but also in their cosmology.  

This Elder and traditional cultural practitioner has developed a program through which he will travel to schools to educate children in fun and innovative ways about the Snow Leopard. Understanding that much of the cultural significance of the Snow Leopard to his people has disappeared, his motive is to bring the Snow Leopard and Snow Leopard consciousness back into the minds and hearts of children. As children learn and grow their understanding of the importance of this sacred species, the hope and desire is they will carry this knowledge and wisdom with them and will help in the conservation efforts of these sacred beings. Also, it gives them a firmer grounding in who they are and the importance of their cultural traditions. 

Though unable to travel to as many schools as he might like, he is modifying plans as he goes and as Covid-19 plans continue to evolve and be implemented in Kyrgyzstan and in his community. Some of this may move to an online forum, and where possible, he intends to travel to the communities to meet with the children and share his wisdom.

We thank you for your ongoing support of this work and other work in our alliance. And as always, we appreciate you sharing our work with others.

We hope that you and your loved ones and communities continue to be safe and well, and that balance be restored to the earth.