Atelopus zeteki,
Panamanian Golden Frog
Photo by Tim Vickers

The Wildlife Without Borders - Critically Endangered Animals Conservation Fund is a global funding opportunity developed by International Affairs as part of its Wildlife Without Borders - Species and Regional grant programs. In Summer 2009, the program awarded $643,592 in grants for 24 projects aimed at protecting critically endangered species in 15 countries in Africa, Asia, and Latin America and the Caribbean, leveraging $1,167,323 in matching funds. These projects target over 30 critically endangered species of birds, mammals, amphibians, and reptiles.

Project Highlights

The goal of the Wildlife Without Borders - Critically Endangered Animals Conservation Fund is to provide funding for specific conservation actions that have a high likelihood of creating durable benefits to specific species facing immediate threat of extinction.

Three of the funded projects aim to combat the spread of a deadly fungus, Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis (Bd), which is wiping out entire populations of amphibians in the Americas. One of these is an effort to use anti-fungal bacteria to confer resistance to the fungus on affected species. These experiments may lead to a cure for the disease that has caused the extinction of nearly one-third of amphibian species in the areas where it has spread.

The program will also support efforts to conserve the last remaining populations of Ethiopian wolves, only 450 individuals. The project will develop methods to inoculate free-ranging Ethiopian wolves with oral rabies vaccine (ORV), assess impact of vaccinations on wolf and non-target species populations, and develop a reliable cost-benefit analysis of wolf and domestic dog vaccinations.

For more information on this grant program, contact the Division of International Conservation at 703-358-1754.