By Heather Wilcox | Director of Annual Giving & Planned Giving
Thanks to the generosity of friends like you, Earthwatch continues to recover from the lasting impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic. Twenty expeditions returned in 2022, and our dedicated scientists welcomed back 640 volunteers throughout the year. This is marked progress over last year, when just 260 volunteers participated on a handful of teams, but still far short of our pre-pandemic levels of 39 expeditions and over 2,100 volunteers. The road ahead to a full recovery is long, but with ongoing support from our global community of donors, volunteers, corporate partners, foundations, scientists, teachers, students, and concerned individuals, we are confident that Earthwatch will get there in the next few years.
While the world was on hold during the height of the pandemic, Dr. Alison Leslie concluded her broad, multi-species research on ecosystem dynamics in Malawi, and began preparations for a new long-term study of one of the world's most endangered species – the African wild dog. As a result, Earthwatch has officially retired our Protecting Elephants and Rhinos in Malawi expedition after seven long and wonderful years. Unfortunately, lingering challenges caused by the pandemic then delayed our ability to secure the necessary research permits and suitable volunteer accommodations for Dr. Leslie’s new wild dog expedition, and as a result, it has been postponed until further notice.
That said, we are thrilled to announce that we will be launching one new expedition in Africa, entitled Searching for Fossils and Fauna in Zambia, led by Dr. Amy Rector, next June. Dr. Rector’s study was originally scheduled to debut in 2020, but was postponed indefinitely when Earthwatch stopped all programs during the global shutdown. We look forward to adding Dr. Rector’s exciting new project to our current portfolio of six other efforts to conserve threatened wildlife in Africa:
- Walking with African Wildlife in South Africa
- Conserving Threatened Rhinos in South Africa
- South African Penguins
- Lions and Their Prey in Kenya’s Maasai Mara
- Elephants and Sustainable Agriculture in Kenya
- Investigating Threats to Chimps in Uganda
As the health of these precious ecosystems remains under threat from unsustainable resource management, poaching, human-wildlife conflicts, and climate change, every year’s worth of data collected is vital to our complete understanding of the challenges at hand, and our ability to identify the most effective protection and remediation strategies. Although Earthwatch volunteers do contribute financially to the expeditions they participate on, the cost of scientific equipment, permits and licenses, group accommodations, and 24/7 support staff quickly exceeds what we can reasonably ask volunteers to contribute beyond their significant donations of time and labor. Earthwatch must raise over $500,000 annually in order to fully fund our year-round conservation efforts. This is why donors like YOU are so critical to Earthwatch’s success. Thank you for your steadfast commitment to protecting endangered wildlife and ecosystems around the world.
Gratefully,
Your Friends at Earthwatch
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By Heather Wilcox | Director of Annual Giving & Planned Giving
By Heather Wilcox | Director of Annual Giving & Planned Giving
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