14 October 2012 | News story
For SOS - Save Our Species this was a perfect opportunity to bring together its Secretariat and the grantees present in Jeju to discuss and showcase some of the conservation achievements from the SOS supported projects in the field.
At one of SOS’s several events, “Saving wildlife: Yes we can!”, held on the 11th of September at the Species Pavilion, about 100 participants had the opportunity to witness seven first-hand accounts of the work funded by SOS from some of the project implementers themselves.
The event was introduced by some representatives of the SOS partners. Yoko Watanabe for the Global Environment Facility (GEF) explained why the GEF and the World Bank, founding partners of the initiative, invested in the conservation of species. Jacques Trouvilliez from the the Fonds Français pour l’Environnement Mondial (FFEM) also explained why his institution deemed it important to join the coalition. Dr. Jean-Christophe Vié, SOS Director, recounted the history of SOS and provided further background on the initiative.
Meeting in the Species Pavilion, representatives from seven SOS-funded projects attended to speak about their experiences and accomplishments in the field to date.
A series of seven project presentations and two videos followed, highlighting some of the successes of these projects including the first ever community-led return of a stray tiger to the wild in the Sundarbans of Bangladesh, progress with frog conservation after securing a new protected area in the Sierra Caral of Guatemala, important support for the Bazaruto Archipelago National Park in Mozambique in protecting their dugong population from anthropogenic threats and the early successes with “headstarting” for the Spoon-billed Sandpiper in the Siberian Tundra of eastern Russia.
Addressing a full room from the dais, Jean-Christophe Vié emphasized, “this was a special moment because SOS was announced at the previous World Conservation Congress and, for the first time, after a long preparation period we could see real results. We focused on concrete conservation actions and featured those making a difference on the ground; that is really what we would like SOS to be about. With the right funding in place, imagine how many more good results can come out of SOS-funded projects”.
In order of appearance, representatives who presented on their project included:
Dr. Jonathan Baillie, Director of Programmes at the Zoological Society of London presented on the EDGE programme, a global conservation initiative focusing specifically on threatened species that represent a disproportionate amount of unique evolutionary history - Evolutionarily Distinct and Globally Endangered (EDGE) species including the Bactrian Camel (Camelus ferus), Chinese Giant Salamander (Andrias davidianus), Pygmy Hippopotamus (Choeropsis liberiensis) and the Sagalla caecilian (Boulengerula niedeni).
Marco Cerezo, Director General of FUNDAECO presented on Saving the Habitat of Endemic and Endangered Amphibians in the Sierra Caral of Guatemala.
Dr. Anwar Islam, Chief Executive of the Wildlife Trust of Bangladesh and Professor of Zoology at Dhaka University, and Iqbal Hussain, Programme Manager for WTB, both presented on a holistic approach to promoting coexistence between human and tiger populations in the Sundarbans of Bangladesh.
Dr. Harriet Davies-Mostert, Head of Science and Research at the Endangered Wildlife Trust (EWT) presented the Dugong Emergency Protection Project taking place in the Bazaruto National Park of Mozambique.