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International Species Conservation

All around the world natural habitats are being destroyed and degraded by deforestation, the expansion of agriculture, human settlements and environmental pollution. Human activity has caused the plants and animals that are an integral part of these ecosystems to be put under pressure and to disappear from their natural habitats, many of them even becoming extinct; scientists have estimated that every year around 26,000 species are lost forever. Mankind is still a long way away from understanding the roles each species plays in its ecosystem and the potential consequences extinction will have.

NABU campaigns, particularly on an international level, for the protection of birds and the survival of key species because protecting wild plants and animals in all of their natural diversity is a vital part of nature conservation and therefore part of our global responsibility – that’s why it’s a core issue for NABU.

What we do?

NABU actively supports the implementation of international species conservation conventions such as the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) and the Convention on Migratory Species (CMS).
Placing valuable habitats under protected status ensures that the habitat of endangered species is safeguarded. In cooperation with the local population, new alternative and environmentally sustainable sources of income are established with the aim of reducing poverty. Environmental education programmes are also being introduced. We carry out direct, hands-on conservation too to protect endangered species from extinction, for example implementing anti-poaching squads.

The aims of these conventions are at the heart of our model conservation projects in our focus areas

Since the end of the Soviet Union, NABU has been working in Central Asia to ensure the survival of highly endangered species such as the snow leopard, the Marco-Polo sheep and the Himalayan brown bear. The local population has direct access to environmental education at the NABU Wildlife Centre. Our aim is that after visiting the centre, they will be motivated to protect their own local wildlife. Educational materials and films are used to raise public awareness to the endangered status of the rare and remarkable species, the Saiga antelope.

In the Caucasus, NABU is campaigning for the survival of the Caucasian bison and the Transcaucasian mouflon that have been made highly endangered through poaching and loss of habitat. The population of the endangered species is followed through a regular species-monitoring programme and is actively protected by an anti-poaching squad.

The establishment of a protected area in Africa in the forests of south-west Ethiopia should help to preserve wild coffee in its natural habitat.
NABU is working together with TeaGeschwender to protect the tigers living in the last remaining undisturbed areas of rainforest in the south of India as they are under threat of becoming extinct.

Overseas NABU is supporting research projects to protect the white shark. By adopting a shark (www.shark-tracker.com), sponsors can help to protect this threatened animal and can follow the movements of “their” very own white shark through the seas of the world.

Contact
Svane Bender-Kaphengst
Officer for International Species Protection
Email: Svane.Bender@NABU.de