GREAT AFRICAN
WILDERNESS FOUNDATION
Preserving Wilderness. Conserving Wildlife.
The Great African Wilderness Foundation is a 501 c 3 nonprofit, NGO, that was founded in the USA in 2023 to preserve, sustain and enhance the wild places of Africa and all the things that are found within.
Our mission is to collaborate with key stakeholders to develop and strengthen the concept and value of Wilderness throughout Africa and work to achieve designation of lands throughout the continent as “African Wilderness Areas”. A critical component of this process is the conservation of wildlife, especially endangered and threatened species, for Wilderness and wildlife and inextricably linked.
The Uganda Cheetah Project
There are only 7,000 Cheetahs remaining in the wild, with an estimated 91% of their original population gone. They are currently classified as “Vulnerable”, while recommendations have been made to change their status to Endangered. In Uganda, Cheetahs are very rare, perhaps numbering less than 30.
Great African Wilderness Foundation is working to save the Cheetah from extinction in Uganda.
Chimps & Children Project
Preserving Chimps & Saving Children’s Lives
Chimpanzees are an endangered species. In Western Uganda, there is a troupe of chimps surviving on ancestral land, clinging to remnant forests, ever more encroached by surrounding villages. Because of the dwindling habitat, human-chimp conflict has grown alarmingly. Chimps look for food, eating families’ fruits and crops. Some villagers chase the chimps, sometimes hurting or even killing them. The chimps, in human-like anger, retaliate. Tragically, 7 children have been killed by this troupe of chimps since 2012. These chimps, and this village, were featured in the August 2020 Nat Geo: Chimpanzees and people are clashing in rural Uganda (nationalgeographic.com).
Great African Wilderness Foundation is saving children’s lives by creating a Chimp Reserve near this village.