A welcome update on the Disney Worldwide Conservation Fund (DWCF) from Beth Stevens, Ph.D., Senior Vice President, Corporate Citizenship, Environment and Conservation and former Disney’s Animal Kingdom Vice President. The DWCF has officially issued more than 1000 grants since it first started in 1995. 150 new projects were added just this week.
Here are a few of the highlights:
- Engaging youth in Shanghai and nearby communities in field monitoring to help protect the Chinese alligator.
- Supporting the David Suzuki Foundation get the word out about their Sustainable Seafood & Aquaculture program.
- Protecting chimpanzees in Uganda, some of which were featured in the Disneynature film “Chimpanzee.”
- Learning more about sharks using satellite transmitters to understand their behavior.
- Working with communities in Argentina to conserve the Andean cat and other local carnivores.
- Reintroducing whooping cranes back to the wild using an ultralight aircraft to teach the birds to migrate from Wisconsin to Florida.
Disney’s Animal Kingdom has even updated the conservation station recently with a giant ultralight aircraft leading a flock of cranes across the sky. It’s impressive in person.
Since its founding, the DWCF has granted over $24 million to programs with operations covering more than half the globe’s nations.
To see a complete list of 2013 DWCF grant recipients, this year’s Conservation Heroes, as well as other information on Disney’s commitment to conservation, please visit www.disney.com/conservation.