Prints for Wildlife is an inspiring campaign raising funds to ensure protected areas continue to deliver benefits to people and wildlife during the COVID pandemic. More than 70 wildlife photographers, including acclaimed international and local wildlife photographers from around the world, are coming together to mobilise needed support for one cause: to continue the protection of these vital landscapes in Africa.
Mithun Hunugund is a photographer from India
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Thomas Vijayan is a photographer from Canada
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Martin Meyer is a photographer from South Africa
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Willem Bakhuys Roozeboom is a photographer from the Netherlands
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Pie Aerts is a photographer from the Netherlands and initiator of this fundraiser
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For much of Africa, wildlife tourism provides significant income to help maintain parks where vulnerable species such as elephants, lions, rhinos and giraffes live. It is estimated that 24 million Africans depend on tourism for their livelihood. But after the coronavirus struck, the entire international tourism sector closed down overnight in March 2020. Critical revenue which helps ensure people and wildlife benefit from these areas, came to an immediate halt and future revenue is at stake as no one knows when tourism may recover and to what level. This pandemic is having a profound social and economic impact on us all, but especially so for rural communities.
This pandemic is also showing the intricate relationship between wild areas and human health. Data show that the rise in habitat loss and exploitation of wildlife is linked to the increase of these epidemics, from Covid to Sars, Mers, Ebola among others. And so if there was ever a case for protecting nature, if we ever needed a reminder that our mission matters and that nature matters to people’s lives, it is now.
Effectively managed parks serve as a nucleus for stability, in that they become safe places. Where wildlife thrive, people thrive. These well-managed parks deliver a host of ecological, socio-political and economic benefits for people living in and around these landscapes. They create jobs, provide education, and change lives.
Just because we can’t travel to these parks, does not mean we can’t provide meaningful support – and all help in our own way.
That is why an inspired and generous group of acclaimed international wildlife photographers has come together for an extraordinary, limited-edition, print fundraiser to support local communities and wildlife during COVID-19.
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