Coexistence of humans and wildlife

The coexistence of humans and wild animals in the same habitat is as old as humanity itself and has worked for thousands of decades. It is only in modern times that the idea of deserted protected areas has emerged with the argument that a sustainable coexistence of humans and wild animals is not possible. This often led, particularly in countries in the Global South, to forced relocations or displacement of local populations to make room for national parks and other protected areas. This leads to numerous human rights violations, but also to the "isolation" of intact ecosystems within human-used areas and the associated genetic impoverishment of wild animal populations. New solutions for species protection and coexistence must be created. That's what we're dealing with.

We believe that there is another way and that bringing people and wild animals together is certainly possible, even with a growing population, if appropriate conditions are created, the local population is involved in nature conservation measures or they even develop them themselves. We see it as our job to provide advice and support in such processes.

We work on the development of solutions and transferable models for the sustainable coexistence of people, wild animals and ecosystems, support and advise on the development and implementation of community-based nature conservation projects for the local population and promote nature and species protection projects as well as education and humanitarian aid projects, especially on a smaller scale local NGOs. We see improving the living situation of the people in our project regions as an important prerequisite for the implementation of successful nature conservation measures.

In our work we use wild animals as indicators for the condition of ecosystems and to assess the implementation of natural protection measures. If possible, our focus here is primarily on big cats and elephants, as they are probably most often involved in conflicts with humans where they occur. We are currently working and promoting primarily in some forest regions of Africa, Southeast Asia and Central Europe.

This resulted in four programs:

Forests, Elephants and People

Wild Cats Program

Widlife Guardians Program

The return of lynx, wolves and other wild animals in southern Hessen

The website is under construction, more pages are coming soon!