Conservation Influencers

Endangered Wildlife Trust

South Africa

Founded in South Africa in 1973, the Endangered Wildlife Trust (EWT) is active throughout Southern Africa, as well as East Africa. The Endangered Wildlife Trust says that it exists to conserve threatened species and ecosystems. It does this, it says, by initiating research and conservation action programmes and projects. As a large regional NGO, it is active in many different arenas to defend wildlife, including protecting habitats and reducing trade related threats posed to birds of prey, big cats, pangolin, elephants, rhino and wild dogs.

The Endangered Wildlife Trust supports trophy hunting of elephants, big cats and other wildlife. Its official position states:

‘Trophy hunting is practiced in South Africa and many other countries through Africa where we work. It can be defined as the practice of selectively hunting wildlife based on the size of an individual or its physical attributes, such as horn size. By definition, trophy hunting rewards the hunter primarily with a physical trophy or photographs, and the experience of the hunt (here we do not consider so-called biltong or meat hunting). The practice is usually applied to large mammal and fish species. The EWT acknowledges the substantial financial contribution that the hunting industry makes to the South African economy.’

When it comes to protecting biodiversity, EWT runs four projects that are designed to help business and society achieve sustainable development that generate business and supporting services which help to develop society. Namely, Biodiversity Disclosure Project; Biodiversity Measurement Protocol; Mainstreaming Biodiversity into Business Toolkit National Business and Biodiversity Network (see: National Biodiversity and Business Network).

Leaders

Yolan Friedmann CEO

Governance

Board of Directors led by its chairman Dirk Ackerman.

Finances

According to page 65 of its annual report, its audited accounts for the year ending 30 June 2020 its revenue was Rand 68, 695, 081 and its expenses Rand 65, 944, 515.

About the directory

Conservation Influencers is a searchable directory of the animal activist, environmental and ecological lobby. It examines the history, mission, methodology and reputation of NGOs to assess their impact on the global conservation cause.

Featured

Franz Weber Foundation

From 1990 until 2015, Franz Weber Foundation (FFW) managed the Fazao-Malfakassa National Park in Togo, which was, according to an in-depth investigation by Duke University, ‘established by forcing the local communities off their land and without taking into consideration their point of view’. That same study cited convincing evidence from reports published in 1990, confirming that competition for land use was already ‘creating conflict between the local communities and park managers’. In 2015 Togo refused to renew FFW’s contract because, the report says, ‘local communities were still excluded from the management of the natural resources of their land’ and FFW had ‘failed to fulfil its contract’. Franz Weber Foundation plays a major role within CITES because it funds and manages from Switzerland the African Elephant Coalition (AEC), which represents 32 African range states, some of which have barely any elephants and others none at all. Contrary to the wishes of the range states in Southern Africa, which manage most of the world’s wild elephant populations, the AEC at CITES’ CoPs repeatedly tables proposals to put all of the world’s elephants in appendix I. And the AEC uses its voting power to keep in place prohibitions on ivory sales and all other trade in elephant-related derivatives, including skins and hair, which Southern African nations wish to legalise.

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