Across the planet, wild animals are losing the battle for territory through rampant habitat loss.

Destruction of habitat is one of the greatest threats to the world’s wildlife. As human development encroaches on natural areas, wildlife is squeezed into smaller and smaller areas, reducing movement and affecting natural migrations, reproduction and behavior. This in turn leads to human-wildlife conflict with devastating consequences for wildlife survival.

Creating and protecting habitats for wildlife is essential for their survival… and ours.

Habitat destruction is driving mass extinction. Over one million species have been declared at risk of extinction, of which habitat loss is the major cause.

Habitat loss devastates human lives too. We cannot live without healthy ecosystems that provide our basic necessities: clean air, clean water and food. Protecting habitats is vital to saving animals and preserving biodiversity, which in turn sustains all life on Earth.

Our lakes, swamps, forests, plains, and other natural habitats are disappearing as we use them for our own consumption, making way for agriculture, housing, roads, pipelines and other industrial development. Without a commitment to create and extend protected areas, vital ecological habitats will be gone forever.

Today, half the world’s original forests have disappeared, yet they are still being removed at a rate 10 times higher than the rate of regrowth.

Nearly half of humanity lives within 60kms (77 miles) of coastal areas. Human dependence on marine coastlines is contributing to the degradation of marine habitats and the destruction of the species that rely on them to survive.

What we are doing to help preserve and safeguard habitats from destruction.

At ASI, we are committed to helping mitigate the effects of habitat destruction and fragmentation.

Kenya 

In wildlife areas, farmers illegally chop down forest trees and burn them for charcoal, leaving behind a destroyed habitat and resulting in hunger and death for wild animals. The effect on elephants is particularly disturbing. Once the forests are gone, and their food with it, the elephants go closer to human settlements. This results in increased human-wildlife conflict and increases the possibility of poaching for the illegal ivory trade.

An effective long-term solution is “Operation Seedballs”, a reforestation project in partnership with Nairobi’s Tamfeeds. Seedballs are made using modified charcoal dust to create a protective layer around a seed. The seedballs are then dropped from helicopters in deforested areas, mimicking the way seeds are naturally distributed by birds. When the annual rains come, the dust dissolves and hopefully, a tree grows. This project is already successful, and with your ongoing support, we will continue to seed a better future for countless threatened and endangered animals.

South Africa 

In 2021, we relocated several giraffes, zebras and 50 wildebeest in the Eastern Cape who risked being killed by trophy hunters when their game sanctuary was turned into a commercial farming concern. Through the support of our donors, we were able to undertake this delicate, large-scale translocation and successfully transfer the animals to a lush, sprawling nature reserve in the Western Cape.  

Last year we raised funds to relocate a group of giraffes living on a totally unsuitable piece of land in the Eastern Cape, South Africa. Our plan was to move the giraffes to a sanctuary with sufficient space and vegetation. As we prepared to move them, a giraffe calf was born. The birth led to the postponement of the relocation until the calf is old enough to receive light sedation, and all four animals be safely moved as a family. The giraffes are almost ready to be moved to their new home where they can live and thrive among their own in open grasslands stretching over rolling hills. In the meantime, until they can be carefully moved, we need your continued support to provide these animals with essential food and veterinary care in their present location.

We also supported the rehabilitation of seven barn owl chicks found alone and starving in a nest in South Africa’s St Helena Bay. Barn owls do not desert their young so the breeding pair most likely met their demise as a direct or indirect result of human encroachment.

This year, we have raised money to relocate another group of giraffes living on a totally unsuitable piece of land. They will be transferred to a sanctuary with sufficient space and vegetation to support their continued survival and reproduction.

We also helped to fund two tracking collars for a critical cheetah breeding pair at the Mountain Zebra National Park (MZNP). Cheetahs are currently listed as ‘Threatened’ and face multiple, and mounting, threats to their survival every year: being poached for their skins; sold into the exotic pet market as cubs; being killed by trophy hunters and losing their habitats due to human encroachment. The collars enable the cheetahs to be tracked and their health carefully monitored, so that they can have the best chance of procreating.

Madagascar

The island country of Madagascar is the native home of the critically endangered indri lemur – a uniquely evolved mammal closely related to the primate. Deforestation has destroyed a staggering 80% of lemurs’ natural habitat and a significant portion of their population. These animals are found nowhere else in the world, except small neighboring islands near Madagascar.

This year, we joined forced with local partners to help protect a critical lemur breeding pair, who have been relocated to a protected area after slash-and-burn farming (cutting and burning plants in a forest or woodland) destroyed their home. They are monitored and protected by a forest guard unit that patrols for illegal activity and protects the forest against slash-and-burn farming. We also continue to work with partners on long-term deforestation solutions and to help mitigate the effects of widespread habitat loss.

Globally

Over and above our efforts on the ground, we work to defend and expand existing habitats to help wildlife populations. Through sound information, fundraising and networking, we raise awareness about habitat destruction around the world so that we can instil change before it’s too late.

Changing the way we live on the planet is the only way we can stop destroying natural habitats and preserve wildlife.

This means putting pressure on the authorities to pass and enforce environmental legislation; reclaiming habitat areas and returning them to the wild so that biodiversity can thrive; safeguarding the existing wild areas and making conscious choices about what we eat and consume.