Empowering Whale Conservation and Marine Communities

A new grant to the World Cetacean Alliance will help protect whales and empower global marine conservation community

1 in 4 cetacean species are now threatened with extinction. Overfishing, entanglement, vessel collisions, plastic pollution, unsustainable tourism, and whaling are just some of the threats faced. The loss of these species significantly impacts biodiversity, deprives us of crucial allies in combating climate change, and threatens coastal communities' livelihoods and cultural heritage.

Many of the world’s cetaceans live close to shore and the threats they face are often co-located with tourism, fishing, shipping, resource exploitation activities and so on. But protecting cetaceans is a complex task. The multitude of threats, their migratory nature, and the global scale mean that effective solutions require effective, cross- boundary collaboration to drive impact. A lack of cohesion and collaboration among those making a positive difference remains, hindering effective solutions. 

World Cetacean Alliance received a grant through ATCF’s “Adopt a Project” programme, an initiative that empowers the ATCF members and partners to directly support specific conservation projects around the world, providing meaningful contributions toward environmental and cultural preservation. 

This impactful funding was made possible by the generosity of ATCF member Toad&Co, and will help to expand World Cetacean Alliance’s Whale Heritage Areas network, as well as launch a new online community platform to connect and empower their Partners and Whale Heritage Areas globally.

“We are truly grateful to the Adventure Travel Conservation Fund (ATCF) and Toad&Co for their support of the World Cetacean Alliance’s Whale Heritage Programme and our global marine conservation community. It is even more rewarding knowing that this comes from organizations that so deeply share our values and commitment to community conservation and responsible tourism. This generous contribution will enable us to empower local communities to celebrate, respect, and protect whales, dolphins and porpoises and their critical habitats. It also allows us to strengthen global collaboration by building an online platform that connects grassroots partners, amplifying our shared conservation efforts. By recognising the importance of both local and global collaboration in safeguarding cetaceans, ATCF is helping us amplify individual impact and create lasting change in marine conservation worldwide.”

— Sophie Lewis Interim CEO, World Cetacean Alliance

To learn more about this grant, check out this post.

Empowering Communities and Conservation Through Sustainable Beekeeping at Mugie Conservancy

A new grant provided by the Adventure Travel Conservation Fund will help create a robust beekeeping enterprise that will empower local women while protecting wildlife

Photo credit Silverless Photography

The Mugie Conservancy spans 49,457 acres (200.1 km²) on Kenya’s Laikipia plateau at the edge of the Great Rift Valley, and serves as a vital wildlife corridor linking West Laikipia and the Rift Valley with the Mt. Kenya highlands. Home to 60 mammal species, 350 bird species, and over 500 known plant species—including several endangered ones—Mugie is a biodiverse sanctuary critical to conservation efforts in the region.

As our community and wildlife share the same landscapes, human-wildlife conflicts often arise. These conflicts threaten local wildlife populations and endanger community safety and livelihoods. Incidents such as crop raiding and livestock predation create tension and economic losses for our residents. Simultaneously, the expansion of roads, fences, and other infrastructure fragments natural habitats, disrupts wildlife movement, and exacerbates the conservation challenges we face. These disruptions hinder the ability of species to migrate, find food, and reproduce, further stressing our local biodiversity.

To help alleviate these conflicts and improve the livelihoods of people and wildlife, The Mugie conservancy has started to engage in innovative, sustainable initiatives, such as beekeeping, recognizing the importance of bees to ecosystem health. 

Through the collaborative efforts of the Moyo Foundation and Ekorian, Mugie is piloting a sustainable honey production project, featuring 20 beehives that also serve as natural barriers to deter elephants from crop areas, reducing human-wildlife conflict. This project aims to produce honey sustainably while supporting local livelihoods and promoting biodiversity.

“Mugie Conservancy’s beekeeping project seeks to empower local women and promote biodiversity while reducing human-wildlife conflict. By supporting this initiative, WildLandscapes International aims to demonstrate how conservation can drive sustainable development, fostering resilience in both the community and the landscape”

— Élodie A. Sampéré, Deputy Director, WildLandscapes International

The ATCF granted $15,000 to Wildlife Landscapes on behalf of the Mugie Conservatory to purchase beehives and construct a honey extraction facility to empower local Pokot women by producing high-quality hone. This grant will increase community income, enhance biodiversity through improved pollination, and reduce human-wildlife conflicts. Additionally, the facility will serve as a tourism attraction, offering visitors the chance to learn about local honey production and the culture of the Pokot community, further supporting sustainable economic development and conservation of local flora and fauna. This project is intended as a model that can be adapted and replicated in other regions, contributing to the long-term resilience and prosperity of communities similar to Mugie.

To learn more about this grant, check out this post.

Watering Hope: Conservation and Community Resilience in Hwange National Park, Zimbabwe

A new grant will protect thousands of wild elephants within the Hwange National Park while also helping local communities thrive

Hwange National Park, located in western Zimbabwe near the border with Botswana, is the country's largest national park and one of Africa’s premier wildlife destinations. Known for its diverse ecosystems and abundant wildlife, the park spans around 14,600 square kilometers and offers habitats ranging from dense woodlands to open grasslands and seasonal wetlands.

Hwange is particularly famous for its large elephant population—one of the largest in Africa, estimated to include tens of thousands of elephants. It's also home to a rich variety of other wildlife, including lions, leopards, cheetahs, African wild dogs, and various antelope species. 

Given the park's abundance in wildlife and close proximity to people, there is immense competition for food and water which results in intense human-wildlife conflict. People living along Hwange National Park’s southern boundary are predominantly subsistence farmers who inhabit a geographically and socially isolated area of poor soil fertility and erratic rainfall. In hard times, desperate people have turned to bushmeat poaching in the park to feed their families.

The recent drought has made matters worse. With very limited natural surface water, Hwange National Park relies on NGOs to pump groundwater to the surface for animals to drink. There are over 25 pumps both inside and around the Park that sustain thousands of animals. These units need constant maintenance and require services and repairs.

The Adventure Travel Conservation Fund granted $15,000 to help provide water for wild animals in the southern part of Zimbabwe’s Hwange National Park while also supporting the communities in establishing irrigated and fenced communal food gardens.  The grant will help cover the salaries and food packs for pump attendants at remote watering holes, ensure repairs for solar hybrid units that pump water for wildlife, and provide a solar pump and irrigation system for a communal food garden. These efforts will empower local communities to become self-sufficient despite drought conditions, reduce human-wildlife conflicts, and sustain the area's iconic wildlife, including large herds of elephants, enhancing both conservation and cultural harmony in the region.

“This project focuses on two parallel elements: First, keeping wild animals, including thousands of elephants, inside Hwange National Park and providing them with plentiful water by pumping at several watering holes along the southern stretch of the park and second, empowering local communities to grow their own food by improving access to water and facilitating irrigation schemes. During a drought year like the one we are currently enduring, these sorts of activities have never been more important and more impactful and we are incredibly grateful for support for these projects.”

— Hannah Tranter, Water4Wildlife Trust

To learn more about this grant, check out this post.

Saving Sea Turtles while reducing plastic waste in the oceans

An innovative program will help save sea turtles while reducing plastic waste found in the ocean

Did you know that there is an estimated 75 million tons of plastic waste found in the ocean? This is a conservative number and unfortunately, the level of plastic found in our oceans is growing every day. Without being properly removed, plastic can take anywhere from 20 to 500 years to decompose, wreaking havoc on humans and our planet alike.  

In coastal communities in developing countries, plastic waste is often burned which is bad for human health and the planet, and is rarely recycled. These coastal communities also face conservation challenges including plastic pollution, climate change, and illegal hunting and collection of wildlife including sea turtles. 

“From leatherbacks to loggerheads, six of the seven species of sea turtles are threatened or endangered at the hand of humans. Sadly, the fact is that they face many dangers as they travel the seas — including accidental capture and entanglement in fishing gear, the loss of nesting and feeding sites to coastal development, poaching, and ocean pollution including plastic.”

— Sea Turtle Facts, SEE Turtles

An innovative program led by SEE Turtles and their partners is working to provide coastal communities in the Philippines, Ghana, and Colombia the resources they need to clean their beaches, reduce plastic pollution, and turn that waste into useful products that support local economies and conservation efforts.

In 2024, the ATCF granted $15,000 to three coastal communities in the Philippines, Ghana, and Columbia. This grant will fund recycling infrastructure, educational workshops, and cleanup activities that will protect sea turtles and benefit local communities economically.  

“Plastic pollution is a growing problem for ocean wildlife and coastal communities. This funding from the Adventure Travel Conservation Fund will support our partner’s efforts to clean up this waste and turn it into useful products that will support local economies and sea turtles, among other animals. This grant will be a huge help to reversing the tide of plastic waste in communities in Colombia, Ghana, and the Philippines.” -

Brad Nahill, President, SEE Turtles

To learn more about this grant, check out this post.

Saving Queen Elizabeth National Park’s Rare Tree-Climbing Lions

In Queen Elizabeth National Park in Uganda, conservation efforts are underway to monitor and protect the remaining 39 tree-climbing lions

One of 39 remaining tree-climbing lions in The Queen Elizabeth National Park in Uganda. Scientists aren’t exactly sure why these lions started to climb trees but believe it could be to escape the heat or to get away from bothersome insects. If these lions disappear, the culture of tree-climbing cannot be reintroduced into the wild and will be lost. 

The Queen Elizabeth Conservation Area (QECA), located in western Uganda, is a large and complex protected area encompassing Queen Elizabeth National Park (QENP), Kyambura and Kigezi Wildlife Reserves.

The park spans approximately 1,978 square kilometers and is renowned for its diverse ecosystems, including savannas, forests, lakes, and wetlands. It is blessed with some of the highest biodiversity in the region with around 100 mammal species and 612 bird species. QENP is most known for its rare tree-climbing lions, which are one of only three remaining populations of these unique lions remaining in the world.

There are only 39 tree-climbing lions remaining in the park today. If they disappear, they will not come back. 

Over the last 40 years, Queen Elizabeth National Park’s (QENP) lion population has plummeted by over 90%, dropping from more than 400 in the 1980s to just 39 lions in 2022 and faces extinction. As the human population around QECA grows, human-wildlife conflict is expected to increase, further endangering the already vulnerable lion population, which also faces challenges from habitat loss, invasive species, and prey decline. The surrounding area, one of Africa's most densely populated, faces economic hardship and limited educational opportunities, hindering local youth's ability to participate in conservation and ecotourism. Poaching fueled by both bushmeat hunting and retaliatory killings poses a severe threat to the already vulnerable lion populations. 

The grant will train rangers to monitor the lions and protect them. 

In 2024, the ATCF awarded a $15,000 grant to Volcanoes Safaris Partnership Trust to support the Kyambura Lion Monitoring Project (KLMP). KLMP conducts an annual large carnivore census and collects data for African lions, leopards, and spotted hyenas using a network of vehicles and remote camera traps. The project aims to establish a science-based conservation program that supports the Uganda Wildlife Authority (UWA) in the scientific monitoring and protection of large carnivores, respond to injured animals and human/wildlife conflict incidents, helps to assess the impact of conservation work currently being done, and trains young Ugandans from the Kyambura community in scientific conservation techniques.

To learn more about this grant, check out this post.

Empowering women in ocean science and coral reef conservation in Raja Ampat

In the remote islands of Raja Ampat, Indonesia Women in Ocean Science is empowering a group of local women to conserve their unique marine habitat for generations to come

A local woman from Raja Ampat gets ready to dive into the water. Photo credit: Women in Ocean Science

Raja Ampat, situated in West Papua, Indonesia, is renowned for its breathtaking biodiversity and immaculate coral reefs, making it a top destination for travelers seeking unparalleled diving and snorkeling experiences. The archipelago, comprising 612 islands, boasts an astonishing array of marine life, including over 540 coral species—representing more than 75% of all known coral types—and over 1,000 fish species. This exceptional concentration makes Raja Ampat the richest coral reef ecosystem on the planet, fostering some of the most diverse fish communities in the world and solidifying its status as a vital marine habitat. 

However, a surge in tourism has created significant conservation challenges, threatening this unique ecosystem. Environmental degradation increased plastic pollution, and the proliferation of cyanobacteria are impacting marine life, including iconic species like manta rays. Although the local community is deeply committed to environmental protection, gender inequality has limited women's participation in conservation efforts. Cultural norms and restricted access to education and resources have kept women underrepresented in ocean-based industries, hindering their involvement in crucial conservation work.

In 2024, the ATCF awarded a $15,000 grant to Women in Ocean Science, a registered charity and global network dedicated to addressing gender inequality in marine science and conservation. This grant aims to empower women to excel in ocean-focused careers. The grant will be used to train local women in Raja Ampat in marine conservation, diving, and ecosystem monitoring, while actively restoring degraded coral reefs in vital manta ray habitats.

This initiative is set to cultivate female conservation leaders, rejuvenate coral reef ecosystems, enhance sustainable marine resource management, and bolster community resilience in the face of environmental challenges. Additionally, the project will promote sustainable eco-tourism, foster long-term community ownership of conservation programs, and inspire worldwide action through compelling storytelling.

Iconic Manta Rays like these glide gracefully within the crystal clear waters of Raja Ampat

“We are so honoured to be selected as one of the recipients of this year’s Adventure Travel Conservation Fund grant. The support and recognition of our the programme means a great deal and we have just informed our local partners too who are over the moon!”

-Madeline St Clair - Founder & Managing Director |Women in Ocean Science Charity

To learn more about this grant, check out this post.