The EAZA Year of the Frog Campaign is part of a worldwide campaign by zoos and aquariums to raise funds to support the Amphibian Ark initiative. Money raised by EAZA (and BIAZA) zoos will go into the EAZA Amphibian Conservation Fund.
Previous EAZA conservation campaigns mostly aimed to raise funds for in situ conservation projects. The EAZA Year of the Frog campaign is different as only a few in situ projects for amphibians exist and the European activities are mostly focussed on ex situ breeding programmes. It is thus decided not to raise funds for specific projects but rather for an “EAZA Amphibian Conservation Fund” that can fund future projects as they are developed.
EAZA Amphibian Conservation Fund
The Amphibian Conservation Fund will mainly focus on ex situ projects as these have been identified as the most efficient way to save amphibian species from direct extinction in the present situation. But, this does not exclude the possibility for the fund to support in situ projects when feasible. Furthermore funds will be made available in accordance with the overall global priorities as set by IUCN, the Global Amphibian Ark, and the EAZA Amphibian Ark. If enough funds are raised (€500,000 or more) it can be turned into an Endowment Fund, which can provide a long-term guarantee for the amphibian conservation activities. This also means that the fund will remain active after the campaign has ended (September 2008). i.e. funds can continue to come in many years after the campaign is closed, and projects will be funded through the fund accordingly.
Since the present campaign is in support of the Amphibian Ark “Year of the Frog” global campaign, and since many of the prioritised conservation activities are global in nature it has been decided that 40% of the funds raised in Europe will go to the globally prioritised activities and that 60% of the funds will be used for activities prioritised by EAZA – this could be in Europe or outside Europe.
Sample projects (type of project that could be funded with the campaign funds):
Training and capacity building
Setting up of amphibian ex situ programmes, including “Amphib containers” in range countries
Local in situ projects
International in situ projects
Selection of projects for funding
Projects will be selected for funding in accordance with the global and regional priorities. Global priorities will be based on IUCN priorities and will be defined by the global Amphibian Ark group. The regional priorities will this case be defined by the EAZA Amphibian Ark group and will be in support of the global priorities. In practice the EAZA Amphibian Conservation Fund steering group will do the selection based on applications from projects on the Amphibian Ark proposals.
