The Big Give’s Green Match Fund 2024 campaign is almost here!

We have an amazing £10,000 of funding available to match online donations between 12 noon on Thursday 18^th of April and 12 noon on Thursday 25^th April. Please help us unlock it!

Raising our overall target of £20,000 will give vets working on the conservation frontline the best chance of saving endangered species and protecting biodiversity. Find out more

Saving animals from extinction in today’s world is complex and successful conservation requires a multidisciplinary approach. By partnering local conservation organisations with specialist vets, we can make sure that those working in biodiverse but economically disadvantaged regions, where there is often a lack of wildlife health training, can develop the skills they need to save threatened species.

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What difference will funds raised through the Big GiveGreen Match Fund campaign make?‍

This year, the partnerships we hope to be able to develop further include looking at the health of sea turtles in Ghana, building a disease surveillance programme for big cats in Belize, and taking the next steps in developing a dedicated network of vets working with vultures in India. As well as working in partnership with the relevant conservation organisations on the ground, we are also reaching out to up and coming wildlife vets, to help make sure that the most promising can access vital training that will help them develop their skills so that they can have a greater impact on the species with which they work. As well as facilitating training opportunities, we always look to support trainees in their day to day jobs, helping them implement what they have learned. We’re also continuing to fund research into wildlife health, including the continued impact and spread of diseases like canine distemper virus in carnivores, and the development of quick, accurate and convenient bench-side diagnostic tests.

Jaguars in Belize

We are in the initial stages of establishing a new and very exciting partnership with Corozal Sustainable Future Initiative (CSFI) in Belize, where the country’s jaguars are threatened by deforestation and change of land use. CSFI and the Belize government want to build a picture of how the cats, as apex predators, are moving through the landscape in order to understand what further measures might be necessary for their long-term protection and how their movements reflect the needs and habits of the country’s wildlife more generally. While the CSFI rangers are highly experienced in tracking and camera trapping, there are no dedicated wildlife vets in the country. WVI Veterinary Partner, Dr Elliott Simpson-Brown, has begun working with CSFI not just on immobilisation techniques for radio-collaring, but also on the initial stages of setting up a disease surveillance programme. This will involve collecting biomedical samples from immobilised cats in order to establish base line health data. While we know an increasing amount about how disease affects big cats in the rest of the world, this will extend that knowledge to anew country and continent. Building this kind of database can be a game changer if future health issues emerge.

Vultures in India

We are gradually building a country-wide network of vets with expertise in avian medicine and vulture health specifically, to bolster the steady recovery of India’s vulture population, following the catastrophic collapse in numbers as a result of unintentional poisoning with Diclofenac in the 1990s (READ MORE). A key element in the creation of a dedicated vulture vet network is the continuation of our Operation Avian initiative, with the 2025 conference and hands-on avian first aid workshop due to take place next January. Each year, we strive to extend the involvement of vets and rehabbers from around India’s vulture captive breeding sites, and of others likely to come into contact with vultures, to make sure they have the skills and knowledge they need to give any rescued vultures the best possible chance of thriving when they are released back to the wild. Essentially, Operation Avian is an opportunity to focus on how caring for an individual bird has a role to play in the wider One Health framework, given the vital role vultures are now understood to play in the efficient disposal of carrion and control of disease. (READ MORE)

Sea Turtles in Ghana

When we started work in Ghana four years ago, the focus wason the Endangered primates in the care of West African Primate ConservationAction (WAPCA). However, as a direct result of the relationships Vet NurseMatthew Rendle has been able to establish with both WAPCA’s vets and with the government forestry department, this has led to a second project in Ghana, which will look into why a worrying number of sea turtles are washing up dead and dying on beaches near the capital. Work on this project will dovetail with next year’s International Sea Turtle Symposium, which will happen in Ghana in the spring.Matt attended the annual symposium, held in Thailand, for the first time this year, and we’re looking at developing several further partnerships as a result.The project to investigate turtle deaths in Ghana is still in its early stages but promises to contribute valuable information to our existing knowledge of sea turtle health and strandings. Plans include the establishment of a small rescue centre which will eventually have the equipment and expertise to rehabilitate sick turtles, giving them a chance to recover and return to the wild.

What next?

WVI has a reputation for providing world-class expertise, but also for being able to help organisations absorb information and embed practices at a pace that is effective but not overwhelming. By encouraging change which may sometimes be more gradual, we can ensure that new ideas and techniques are properly understood and mastered. Our partnerships are long term and tailored to the unique circumstances of a project, promoting the concept of contextualised care, which takes full account of local resources – e.g. which drugs are easily available - and restrictions.

After almost two decades, we are receiving more and more requests for new partnerships or research funding. Consequently, for the first time in a Big Give campaign, this month we are raising ‘unrestricted’ funds through the Green Match Fund initiative. That means that if we need to act quickly to respond to an urgent need for help, or because a research opportunity suddenly comes through which could make a significant contribution to the field of wildlife health, we can have funds available which are not ring-fenced for a specific project or species. As a small organisation, we can be very flexible and responsive, but without unrestricted funds there is a limit to how quickly we can respond to urgent or unexpected requests, however inspirational or deserving.

Please help us raise our Green Match Fund target of£20,000 between the 18^th and 25^th of April 2024. This isa unique opportunity to ensure resources are available to get veterinary expertiseto the conservation frontline whenever and wherever it might next be needed.

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