Protecting Elephants and Rhinos in Malawi

When news of the coronavirus pandemic first broke, we knew that Earthwatch would be severely impacted, but I doubt that any of us expected to go more than a year without operating any of our conservation programs. Yet, that’s where we are today, with all research expeditions through April 2021 cancelled.

As you can imagine, this was a crippling blow to a medium-sized non-profit like Earthwatch. However, we have fabulous news to share! After many months of planning and preparation, we are thrilled to announce that Earthwatch will begin welcoming volunteers back into the field on three expeditions starting next month! Each expedition will feature new prevention measures put into place in accordance with the latest health and safety recommendations in an effort to reduce the risks of COVID.

Unfortunately, Dr. Leslie's study of endangered African wildlife is not one of the expeditions that we are ready to bring back yet, but we will continue to work with our many scientists and field staff around the world to increase our risk management protocols in hopes of being able to add more expeditions to the re-opening list in the coming weeks and months ahead, just as soon as we can do so safely, not only for our volunteers, scientists and field staff, but also the surrounding community.

Although we still have a very long way to go before we return to full capacity, Earthwatch would not have made it even this far without the amazing outpouring of support we received from our donors and volunteers. Your generosity over the last year helped to save Earthwatch from having to close its doors indefinitely and provided the resources we needed to hunker down and outlast the pandemic.

Thank you again for your thoughtful donation that helped Earthwatch to survive this unprecedented crisis. Earthwatch will get to celebrate our "golden" 50th anniversary later this year only because of caring and committed friends like you!

Links:

• Information on returning Earthwatch expeditions