Cheetah Conservation Fund
(Namibia)
Saving the wild cheetah
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WILD was instrumental, for 12 years,
in establishing and growing the Cheetah Conservation into
what it is today, one of the world’s most effective and
respected field-based programs. Working closely as always
with Laurie Marker, CCF’s founder, WILD then helped form an
influential CCF board of directors based in the US, and
created CCF as a distinct non-profit conservation
organization. WILD’s President, Vance Martin, continues to
serve as a Trustee of CCF. Below is a quick summary of our
work together. Full information can be found at
www.cheetah.org
ONE OF OUR FAVORITE WILD CATS AND THE WORLD'S
FASTEST LAND ANIMAL, the sleek and long-legged cheetah is in
a dangerous race for survival. Loss of habitat, competition
with large predators and commercial ranchers, as well as its
own loss of genetic variation, is killing off the remaining
cheetahs. The cheetah needs vast tracts of wild land to
survive , where there is a balance of predator and prey.
 Cheetahs can reach speeds of over 70 mph. But the price they
pay for such speed is a very lithe body, ill-designed for
fighting. The result is that although the cheetahs are the
best hunters in Africa, they lose much of their prey to the
unnaturally high numbers of more aggressive predators such
as lion and hyena.
The cheetah's greatest hope for survival lies in the
relatively pristine countryside of Namibia and a few other
African countries. But even here it is in jeopardy: it is in
direct conflict with ranchers and livestock, and is killed
in high numbers.
This
is our challenge in the Cheetah Conservation Fund. From its
headquarters in central Namibia, CCF's small core staff of
international and Namibian professional and volunteer
conservationists run a multi-faceted program involving
research, education, and habitat protection with an
ecosystem approach. CCF works with local farmers and school
children, the Namibian government, and many other
organizations.
CCF is busy -ecological and genetic research with scientists
from around the world; outreach programs to schools
throughout Namibia; lecture tours in Africa, Europe, and the
United States; and more. One of the most successful of CCF's
initiatives, for example, is supplying farmers with special
guard dogs, Anatolian Shepherds, that successfully protect
the livestock from predators. As a result of CCF's 15 years
of work in Namibia, fewer wild cheetah are now being killed.
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Laurie Marker
 Laurie
Marker, "the Cheetah Lady," founded the Cheetah
Conservation Fund as a result of her lifetime
commitment to researching, breeding, handling,
protecting, living with, and lecturing
about….cheetahs. She is one of the world's most
acknowledged experts on this sensitive and highly
endangered cat. Laurie moved permanently to Namibia,
southwest Africa, in 1989 to start a worldwide
movement to protect, save, and sustain the wild
cheetah and its wilderness habitat. Among her many
honors, she was recently named one of Time
Magazine's "Heroes of the Planet."
WILD and CCF form one of the more unusual,
cooperative, and successful partnerships in
international conservation, based on 20 years of
friend-ship and professional colleagueship between
Laurie and WILD's founder, Ian Player, and its
President, Vance Martin. For CCF's first ten years
of work to save the wild cheetah from extinction,
WILD has provided all of the management and
administrative services in the United States, and
conservation representation around the world.
Not one to be deterred from her mission nor easily
lose her focus, Laurie's favorite saying is "Save
the cheetah, save the world." She and her dedicated
team are well on the way to doing exactly that.
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Angola
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Chad
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India
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Mali
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Namibia
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South Africa
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Uganda
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West Africa
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New Projects
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Training
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In the United States, Canada and the United
Kingdom, fundraising and education are the focus.
"Our Cheetah Conservation Fund USA chapters are run
by volunteers in the Pacific Northwest, Northern
California, New York, Chicago, Phoenix and
elsewhere. Our eyes, ears and expertise are also on
cheetah populations in other countries, and we have
helped reintroduce and research cheetahs out-side of
Namibia. Our work is only just beginning." -Laurie
Marker
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