Cheetah Conservation Fund

Founded in 1990, the Cheetah Conservation Fund (CCF) mission is to be the world's resource charged with protecting the cheetah and ultimately ensuring its future on our planet. CCF will work with all stakeholders within the cheetah's ecosystem to develop best practices in research, education and ecology and create a sustainable model from which all other species, including humans, will benefit.

Jeff Corwin introducing the CCF

While CCF's main headquarters is in Namibia, its reach and vision are worldwide. In addition to its own program in Kenya, CCF has close links and assists in training and sharing program successes with other countries where cheetahs live, including Botswana, South Africa, Zimbabwe, Iran and Algeria. CCF's international program includes distributing CCF materials, lending resources and support and providing training through Africa and the rest of the world. Efforts are currently underway in Kenya, South Africa, Zimbabwe and Iran to develop new conservation programs or support existing cheetah conservation efforts.

Science and Research

• CCF performs a range of scientific studies geared towards learning more about cheetahs, with the goal of preserving their habitats and food supply, as well as educating local people. They perform biomedical assessments, census and DNA-based captures among many other techniques in order to learn about cheetahs.
• The CCF Bush Project: The thickening and spreading of endemic bush is a desertification process that poses a major environmental and economic concern for the Namibian government. This project aims to restore cheetah habitat by selectively harvesting invasive bush that is then converted into clean-burning wood fuel. The project also seeks to empower Namibians to help protect cheetahs, and provide political leverage to implement sound conservation strategies.

Education

CCF is committed to providing training and other opportunities for students, teachers and farmers throughout the cheetah's range and aims to expand its education outreach though training courses and increased internships. Specific training includes conservation biology, natural resource management, appropriate land use and livestock and wildlife management.

CCF's Education and Outreach staff take the message "We Can Live Together" to schools and communities throughout Namibia. In addition, our Research and Education Centre has what has been called the best, most comprehensive cheetah educational museum in the world, so that the many daily visitors to CCF's headquarters can go on a self-guided educational exploration of the cheetah's history, range, biology, characteristics, conservation status and issues.

To help build Namibia's institutional capacity, in part, through a partnership with the University of Namibia, CCF hosts Master's degree students in Conservation Biology. CCF also trains a number of University of Namibia and Polytechnic of Namibia undergraduate students each year, some in collaboration with other partner organizations. Capacity building efforts for Namibia represent the best hope for addressing emergent conservation problems.

Conservation

CCF's conservation programs since 1990 have emphasized community-based conservation efforts aimed specifically at livestock farmers. Implementation of farmer outreach programs was intended to reduce cheetah mortality on commercial farms. Associated research programs were designed to allow data collection on individual animals that would have been otherwise destroyed. This approach has been highly successful: CCF has grown dramatically, new facilities constructed, professional collaborations established, research papers written and published. CCF has gained substantial international recognition. More importantly, by several measures, cheetah removals have declined and farmer attitudes improved.

Counting Cheetahs at the CCF:

How You Can Help

Become a member of the CCF by making a donation

: http://www.cheetah.org/?nd=donate_detail&donation_id=1&und=323

CCF Chebakka 2010 Challenge