Thursday 22 May 2014

Namibia is leading giraffe conservation

The number of giraffes in Africa have decreased considerably to just over 40% over the last 15 years from approximately 140 000 across the continent in the late 1990s, down to approximately 80 000 today.
Giraffes have also become extinct in seven African countries.
Besides Niger, Namibia has the only growing giraffe population in Africa, indicating that the country is excelling in giraffe conservation, a phenomenon conservationists are now probing to tap into.
Stephanie Fennessy of the Giraffe Conservation Foundation (GCF) sayid, “Obviously we (Namibia) are doing something right here - we at GCF are trying to figure out what exactly this is.”
Against this background the GCF will celebrate the first ever World Giraffe Day for the tallest animal in the world on 21 June.
Zoos and other organisations around the world are participating in the initiative in order to raise awareness for giraffe conservation in the wild and to help raise much needed funds to undertake conservation projects on the ground.
All money raised here in Namibia will be used to print and distribute giraffe educational materials for Namibian schools, community conservancies and related organisations.
To celebrate World Giraffe Day (WGD) in Namibia, GCF’s Dr Julian Fennessy will give a talk on giraffe conservation in Africa, with a specific focus on Namibia at a joint event of NEWS and NWG on 19 June 2014.
GCF is also organising a casual Friday on 20 June (the day before WGD) under the motto Jeans4Giraffe. GCF will ask organisations, companies and schools to participate, while individuals will be requested to wear jeans or other casual clothes with giraffe patterns.

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