Abu Dhabi’s Crown Prince has pledged to help protect the world’s wild cats following a private meeting in the capital regarding the future of endangered felines.
HH Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, together with environmental philanthropists from China, India and the US, has pledged $80 million (AED 293 million) to conserve cats through Panthera, the world’s leading organisation committed to the preservation of wild cats through science and conservation.
Sheikh Mohamed’s pledge, which will be disbursed over a ten-year period, will be managed through the Mohamed bin Zayed Species Conservation Fund.
“Panthera is the gold standard in big cat conservation. It has the proven capacity and expertise to implement this all-important global effort to save the most charismatic members of the animal kingdom,” said HE Razan Khalifa Al Mubarak, managing director of the Mohamed bin Zayed Species Conservation Fund.
Panthera works together with cat biologists around the world to implement global conservation strategies for 38 species of large cats including tigers, lions, jaguars, snow leopards, cheetahs, cougars and leopards.
The new million-dollar global alliance will help stabilise Asian tiger and African lion populations, create community-based conservation projects for snow leopards, reduce cheetah and lion poaching, and implement a wide conservation strategy for cougars.
“Today marks a turning point for global cat conservation, and we at Panthera are deeply moved by His Highness’ leadership in this noble cause,” said Panthera founder and chairman of the board, Dr Thomas Kaplan.
“His support is a game changer, opening a path for us to create what has become an unprecedented alliance of philanthropists from Arabia, China, India and America, now united in a common cause. Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed is building upon the legacy of the founder of the UAE, his father, the late Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan, who was a passionate advocate for wildlife conservation many decades before the cause became mainstream.”
The founding members of the new global alliance also include Jho Low, director of Jynwel Charitable Foundation Limited of Hong Kong; Hemendra Kothari, chairman DSP Blackrock India and the Wildlife Conservation Trust; and Dr Kaplan and Daphne Recanati Kaplan, founders of Panthera.
For more information, visit: www.panthera.org
