Art for the Animals Offers A New Way of Giving in the 2001 Holiday Season
Creative gift program launches to support wildlife conservation and cultural preservation
WASHINGTON DC, November 1, 2001 -- AFTA Associates, working with African Wildlife Foundation and Wildlife Trust, today announced the launch of Art For The Animals, a unique giving- program that supports wildlife and nature conservancy through Donation gift packages and premiums of handcrafted folk and tribal art. (www.artfortheanimals.org)
Art For The Animals benefits conservancy organizations, artisans, donors, and gift recipients alike. For the conservancy organizations, it is an appealing education and fundraising program. For artisans, Art for the Animals creates a broad and culturally sensitive market for their art so that local communities can better support themselves. For donors, making a charitable Donation in the name of a friend as a "wildlife gift" simplifies and brings meaning to their holiday gift giving, while also providing a tax deduction. Best of all, the recipient receives a unique piece of hand crafted folk art, learns that the Donation given in his or her name is also helping local artisans to make a living and conservancy organizations to save nature.
"By giving art as donor premiums, we're channeling development funds, that would otherwise be spent on t-shirts and tote bags, to communities that share natural resources with wildlife," says Lori Stewart, President of AFTA Associates. "So while the purpose of the Art For The Animals program is education and raising funds for wildlife and nature conservancy, it has the added benefit of providing income to indigenous artisans -- making the business of saving wildlife a business from which artists and their communities can make a living."
Conservation organizations have long promoted the idea of giving charitable Donations as gifts during the holidays, but the Art For The Animals Program goes a step further. It takes the "gifts of giving" concept and uses the fund raising process to support the development and growth of 'conservation enterprises.'
"Conservation enterprises - economically and ecologically sustainable businesses - are becoming an increasingly important conservation tool," notes Michael Wright, President of African Wildlife Foundation and early proponent of community-based conservation. "They improve the economic well-being of the local communities and promote economic alternatives to development. And that is a tremendous benefit to wildlife and their habitats."
Mary Pearl, Executive Director of Wildlife Trust agrees. "At Wildlife Trust we know that to keep land accessible to wild animals, we must also address human concerns. Local communities need a source of income that comes from something other than land use and resource depletion. Art is particularly appealing - both as a business, and as a way for indigenous groups to preserve their culture and tradition."
While the conservation enterprise concept is widely praised, it is very difficult and expensive to build a market for indigenous art or eco-products. A program like Art For The Animals is a very simple and efficient way to create interest in these products. It's a self-fulfilling model that raises market awareness of, and demand for indigenous art through the organizations that benefit most -- the conservation organizations -- by leveraging their reach to people who care the most about conservation -- their donors.
AFTA Associates, Incorporated (www.aftaassociates.org)
AFTA Associates, Incorporated (AFTA) sponsors the Art For The Animals program. AFTA is a non-profit organization that works in collaboration with existing wildlife and nature conservancy organizations to preserve wildlife and nature through programs that make the business of saving wildlife, a business from which the people who share the region and resources with the animals can make a living.
The African Wildlife Foundation (www.awf.org)
The African Wildlife Foundation (AWF), together with the people of Africa, works to ensure the wildlife and wild lands of Africa will endure forever. AWF has been working with the people of Africa since 1961. AWF focuses on the big picture while achieving concrete results, helping African nations design successful long-term strategies for conserving their magnificent natural treasures. They conduct their work with critical local and global partners through AWF's Heartlands Programs, Conservation Service Centers Program and Critical Species Projects.
Wildlife Trust (www.wildlifetrust.org)
Wildlife Trust (WTI), a top-tier science conservation organization, saves wildlife by working with local scientist-educators worldwide. Wildlife Trust takes on the toughest cases-those in which humans and wildlife are struggling at cross-purposes to live in the same highly diverse or even unique ecosystems. With 30 years of hands-on international experience, Wildlife Trust is working on the ground in 20 countries, sponsoring 60 plus projects around the globe, including the U.S. From Mexico to Madagascar, from India to Indonesia, Wildlife Trust targets the tropics because that's where the greatest diversity of the earth's wildlife lives. Wherever it goes, Wildlife Trust takes the expertise to research, monitor, educate, mediate, propagate, and re-integrate. Equally important, they train and support local conservationists in doing the same.
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