- Website: https://giraffeconservation.org/
The Giraffe Conservation Foundation (GCF) is the only NGO in the world that concentrates solely on the conservation and management of giraffe in the wild throughout Africa.
With its headquarters in Windhoek, GCF operates in over 16 African countries, impacting over 400,000 sq km (100 million acres) of giraffe habitat and concerning all four species of giraffe. GCF aims to:
*Support the conservation of viable and existing habitat for giraffe.
*Identify key threats to giraffe in Africa and develop innovative ways to mitigate them.
*Raise awareness of and promote the value of giraffe conservation in African Range States as well as internationally. *Plan, develop, implement and administer projects and programmes – including the appointment of project staff – in support of its primary aim, in co-operation with local communities and partner institutions, as appropriate.
*Collaborate with local, national and international partners on giraffe conservation efforts in the interests of giraffe conservation in African Range States.
*Raise funds for giraffe conservation and management throughout Africa.
As an international science-based conservation organisation, GCF leads the way, learning more and more about giraffe to ensure that conservation methods continue to be adapted to the new scientific findings. GCF has initiated a vast number of programmes from research, translocations, de-snaring, anti-poaching and environmental education all across Africa.
In Namibia, GCF's northwest Namibia conservation programme is the first long-term ecological monitoring effort, not just of the desert-dwelling Angolan giraffe, but of all giraffe in Africa. As part of GCF's larger Namibian countrywide programme, GCF worked closely with communal conservancies in order to develop the first-ever Giraffe Conservation Status Assessment (Country Profile) in Namibia. This document provides an important baseline to inform the development of the first-ever National Giraffe Conservation Strategy for Namibia, a potential future initiative of the Namibian Ministry of Environment, Forestry & Tourism (MEFT).
In addition to the northwest Namibia programme, GCF's Khomas Environmental Education Programme (KEEP), an interactive environmental education programme, aims to inspire young Namibians to care for their environment by allowing them the opportunity to reconnect with nature through a targeted field-based EE programme. During a normal year, between 2,500 and 3,000 Namibian primary school students and their teachers participate in KEEP every year, spending a day in the bush in a fun, interactive and hands-on experience while working through a specially designed EE workbook that is linked to the Namibian national school curriculum.
