35th anniversary marks new investment in conservation
Wild Earth Allies is honored to have a longtime collaboration with Newman’s Own Foundation, which is currently celebrating 35 years of giving. The Foundation has been a generous supporter of our conservation work globally for more than fifteen years. For their 35th anniversary, they are contributing an additional $500,000 to help Wild Earth Allies launch The Wild Fund to protect more of the earth’s vital wildlife and habitats, together with partners around the world.
Read the official press release from Newman’s Own Foundation.
“We are a proud supporter of Wild Earth Allies, which has been working for decades to protect the wildlife and habitats that face unprecedented threats from natural and manmade forces,” said Robert Forrester, President and CEO of Newman’s Own Foundation and Executive Chairman of Newman’s Own. “Their innovative initiatives are more critical than ever to protect the planet’s biodiversity, and the Newman’s Own Foundation grant will hopefully catalyze other investments to accelerate their work globally.”
Mr. Forrester joined the Wild Earth Allies team for a field visit this week to see mountain gorillas in Rwanda’s Volcanoes National Park. Their visit included a conservation briefing with Eugène Rutagarama (pictured above with Robert Forrester), Goldman Environmental Prize recipient, CNN Hero, and former mountain gorilla program director.
With steady support from Newman’s Own Foundation, our decades long collaborations to protect great apes have delivered tangible results, such as growing the critically endangered mountain gorilla population – from 620 individuals in 1989 to more than 880 today.
We now look to use lessons from success with mountain gorillas to tackle threats driving the decline of the critically endangered Grauer’s gorilla in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo. We are partnering with internationally-recognized primatologist and founder of the Congolese NGO Primate Expertise, Dr. Augustin Basabose, with whom we worked on mountain gorilla conservation. Together with Dr. Basabose, we are leveraging our combined experience in great ape conservation to increase protection of Grauer’s gorilla while improving local livelihoods.
With your support, we can leverage this incredible investment from Newman’s Own Foundation to reach our first-year goal of $1.5 million for The Wild Fund. At a critical time for the earth’s biodiversity, the Fund will accelerate and extend our work to protect wildlife and habitats at risk.
About Newman’s Own Foundation:
Newman’s Own Foundation is a qualified 501(c)3 charitable organization founded by Paul Newman in 2005 to assure the continuation of his commitment to use 100% of the net profits and royalties from the sale of Newman’s Own food and beverage products for charitable purposes. Since 1982, Paul Newman and Newman’s Own Foundation have donated over $500 million to thousands of charities around the world. For more information, visit www.newmansownfoundation.org.