UK charity welcomes grants to support its work protecting wildlife
Howard Lake | 25 September 2008 | News
A UK charity has received awards from two grant-making bodies to support its work protecting threatened animals and their habitats in south east Asia. International Animal Rescue (IAR) in East Sussex runs rehabilitation centres in India and Indonesia for wildlife that has been rescued from captivity. Animals that can no longer survive in the wild are given a permanent home in IAR’s sanctuaries, while those that learn to fend for themselves are released back into protected areas of natural habitat.
Earlier this year IAR was awarded a grant of £50,000 by The Rufford Maurice Laing Foundation, a UK-based grant-making trust, to support the charity’s work rescuing and rehabilitating dancing bears in India. It is the second year running that the Foundation has supported a specific aspect of the project – the expansion of IAR’s bear sanctuary in Agra which is home to several hundred bears that have been rescued from the streets of India.
This year’s grant was awarded following IAR’s submission of a comprehensive application proposal for further funding and a visit to the sanctuary in April by Simon Mickleburgh, The Foundation’s Grants Manager.
Carrie Colliss, Development Director at International Animal Rescue, says: “We’re delighted to have received this second grant from The Rufford Maurice Laing Foundation. During his visit Simon was able to see what a difference the Foundation’s money is making to the project. Bear handlers are literally queuing up to surrender their bears to us, but we can only take them in as fast as the sanctuary can be extended to house them. Thanks to the Foundation we can continue with our expansion plans and bring a swifter end to the suffering of all the dancing bears in India.”
The Agra sanctuary is the largest sanctuary for endangered sloth bears in the world. It was created in 2002 on land provided by the Indian government within the Sur Sarovar bird sanctuary, IAR’s purchase of additional land in 2006 means that it now has the capacity to house the 200 or so dancing bears that remain on the streets. Thanks to IAR and partner charity Wildlife SOS of India, nearly 500 bears have been rescued and given a permanent home either in Agra or in a second sanctuary in Bannerghatta in southern India.
Carrie Colliss continues: “The reforestation of the new land in Agra has brought flocks of exotic birds into the area which has been an unexpected bonus of the project: clearly the natural jungle environment we have created for the bears is also the perfect habitat for a wealth of rare species of birds and insects. This gives the project an added conservation value which we are proud to point out to when applying for grants.”
In addition to rescuing the bears, IAR’s project provides retraining for the bears’ handlers who belong to a tribespeople known as the Kalandars. They are some of the poorest people in India, but thanks to assistance from IAR and Wildlife SOS they are able to find alternative employment and create a better life for their families once they have officially undertaken never to get another bear.
The Rufford Maurice Laing Foundation has also awarded £50,000 towards IAR’s primate rescue project in Indonesia. The team there focuses on macaque monkeys and slow lorises that have been caught from the wild to be sold as pets in the notorious animal markets in Jakarta. IAR’s vet clinic and rehabilitation centre opened at the beginning of the year and already the project is proving highly successful. Several troops of macaques have been returned to the wild after rehabilitation at the IAR centre and the team is now also exploring the viability of releasing slow lorises that have had their teeth clipped down by illegal traders to render them defenceless.
The charity’s action to protect the wildlife of Indonesia has prompted the authorities to grant protected status to an area of rainforest in Sumatra where IAR has identified rare and vulnerable species of wildlife. Spanish vet Karmele Llano Sanchez who leads IAR’s team in Indonesia has put together a proposal for a proper survey of the forest in Lampung where the rehabilitated macaques are released. As well as the survey, the proposal includes reforestation, an education and awareness programme, as well as a sustainability programme for the local people. The proposal was extremely well received by the Spanish government which has agreed to sponsor the project with a grant of €140,000.
Carrie concludes: “These generous grants are a very welcome boost to our funds at a time when money has been tight. We rely mainly on donations from the public to fund our projects and everyone has been feeling the pinch recently. I can’t deny that we have had to consider the prospect of cutting back on some areas of our work but it’s more likely now that we can avoid that. Thanks to the generous support of The Rufford Maurice Laing Foundation and the Spanish government, we can plan ahead with a bit more confidence in the future. And we will certainly continue to approach other trusts and funding bodies to seek their support for our work.
Ends.
For further information contact Lis Key at International Animal Rescue on 01825 767688/ mobile 07957 824379.
www.internationalanimalrescue.org
Lis Key, Communications Manager | E:li*@in***********************.org | T: +44 (0)1825 767688
International Animal Rescue
Lime House, Regency Close, Uckfield, East Sussex TN22 1DS UK | Registered charity no 1118277
in**@in***********************.org | www.internationalanimalrescue.org
Dedicated to the rescue and rehabilitation of suffering animals
About Howard Lake
Howard Lake is consultant editor of UK Fundraising. He founded the site in 1994 and successfully sold it in 2022. As director of Giving X Ltd he is exploring growing giving on a massive scale.
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