Animals on the Edge

What we do - our aims

The greatest threat to wildlife isn’t poaching, illegal trade, illegal logging or even habitat destruction. Collectively these problems are symptoms of a much greater threat – human poverty. Impoverished people make for poor conservationists. When you are starving, your children dying, the fate of animals and habitats is low on your list of priorities. And if those same animals and habitats provide a means of income that is the difference between life and death, we shouldn’t be surprised when people use them.

There is a parable that states, “Give a man a fish and you’ll feed him for a day. However, teach a man to fish and you feed him for life”. This is our approach to wildlife conservation. We believe that by providing those people on the front line of co-existing with wildlife an alternative means of earning a sustainable living, by working with governments and agencies to help countries develop non-destructive, green economies, by making wildlife more valuable alive than dead and trees worth more standing than felled, we can reduce the threat to wildlife.

Animals on the Edge is engaged in researching new and innovative methods of conserving wildlife and proposing to corporate and governmental decision makers sustainable real-world solutions to conservation challenges. Such solutions may involve:

• Providing new or additional income streams for impoverished communities
• Helping governments to reduce their dependency on unsustainable industries
• Creating new habitats for wildlife

Additionally, on a limited basis, we provide emergency funding to rescue wildlife affected by political, economic, social or environmental crises.