COULD YOU BE OUR EYES AND EARS THIS SUMMER?

How to Raise the Red Flag

Send your reports to our online platform. Include your photos and video evidence at bornfree.org.uk/raise-the-red-flag

This year we’re delving deeper with our new Selfish Selfies initiative, examining why misguided people desire such a souvenir photo for their mantlepiece or social media post. Determined to bring this exploitation to an end, our campaign highlights the:

• Serious animal welfare implications and immense distress caused to individual animals

• Impact on species in the wild (many animals used in this way are wild-caught)

• Threat to human safety from injury and disease transmission

You can support our campaign:

1. Refuse to pose with a captive wild animal for a photo

2. Help spread the word about Selfish Selfies to your friends and family

3. Voice your concerns directly with captive facilities

Whether you’re lucky enough to be holidaying abroad this year, or choose to stay closer to home, YOU can call out animal suffering and exploitation. We need you to stay on the lookout for wild animals exploited in captivity this summer. You can help ensure tourist excursions and activities don’t negatively impact on individual welfare, or on species in the wild.

The use of animals as ‘living props’ for photo opportunities is one of the most heavily reported issues on our online Raise the Red Flag platform. From orangutans, tigers and snakes exploited at zoos, to lion cubs, monkeys and parrots touted on beaches and busy holiday hotspots, so many animals are suffering for human entertainment and that ‘once in a lifetime photo opp’.

Your Reports

4. Complain to the tour operators promoting the activity

5. Contact relevant country authorities or tourist boards

6. Send your eyewitness reports to bornfree.org.uk/ raise-the-red-flag

Sarah Jefferson Captivity Campaigns Information Coordinator sarahj@bornfree.org.uk

Find Out More

Read our new Selfish Selfies report at bornfree.org.uk/publications/selfish-selfies

To find out more about our Great Debate and all of our Education work please visit bornfree.org.uk/education.

Want to save wildlife, stop conflict and protect natural resources? It’s essential to empower local people, explains Charles Njoroge and Eve Pawsey.

“Education is a critical tool in addressing the climate crisis. It encourages behaviour change and helps people make informed decisions. Local communities, not least young people, have a significant stake in addressing the crises we face. They play a key role in the future of our planet, including its environmental health.”

Laura Gosset Head of Education

Local people are key to securing a safe future for wild animals. Their participation and empowerment are essential to help address the dual crises of climate change and biodiversity loss. Placing responsibility into the hands of locals encourages a sense of ownership, enabling them to become custodians of available resources. Using this approach, Born Free works closely with communities bordering Meru National Park, in Kenya – home to our conservation projects for elephants, lions, giraffe and rhino.

About 15 years ago, Meru had 14 rivers flowing into the park. Today there are just five – likely a result of climate change and human activities, such as diverting waterways and deforestation. Competition for water has led to an increase in human-wildlife conflict incidents in the area. Wild animals move into community areas to look for water, leading to crops being raided and property destroyed, as well as human and animal injuries and even deaths. This is exacerbated by the fact that 70% of Kenya’s wildlife lives outside of protected areas.

Born Free’s Education team in Kenya helps existing community water groups develop humane solutions to conflict. For example, planting trees can rehabilitate local water source areas that have become overrun with livestock. This in turn helps secure clean river water, as well as creating ‘carbon sinks’ (absorbing carbon). We hope this will be one step in helping communities secure water for domestic use and irrigation, playing a role in supporting livelihoods.

The Education team also engages the community by creating awareness of Kenya’s Water Act, including ‘water rights’. We support local water management plans and help people understand the need for equitable sharing, especially in times of drought.

Helping people, of all ages, understand the climate crisis encourages them to become change-makers and work towards a more sustainable future. This is why Born Free’s UK Education team has created free online climate change teaching resources, as part of our Great Debate series. We explain the causes of climate change and how working with nature can reduce its impact. Students are encouraged to debate ‘Is wildlife vital in our fight against climate change?’ and, in doing so, develop essential research and presentation skills. These abilities help equip young people to take action against the climate crisis and encourage others to get involved.

This work goes hand in hand with our projects in South Africa, Ethiopia and Kenya to plant trees with partner schools in their compounds. We increase vegetation cover, explain why trees are so important, and help mitigate climate change by contributing to local carbon storage and the water cycle. What a practical way to encourage young people to make informed decisions and empower them to take action against climate change!

Dreams of the Wild 14th July 2023

Dorking Halls, Surrey, UK

‘Where wildlife and dance meet’ – a professional dance show linked to our new series of school workshops.

See bornfree.org.uk/events for details.

Charles Njoroge Community Coordinator Meru, Kenya

Eve Pawsey Youth Engagement Assistant UK

Super Supporter

There’s no stopping Tom aged 13. Over the years he has raised thousands for Born Free by walking Hadrian’s Wall, taking on the Three Peaks and even making it to Everest Base Camp. He is now planning a Land’s End to John O’Groats trek in 2024. Way to go Tom, we’re in awe!

In memory of Bill Moyle

Emma Logan raised close to £2,000 in honour of her father Bill – a huge supporter of Born Free, and now her partner KB Beaton has done it again. The crowd cheered as he crossed the finish line of South Africa’s gruelling 67-mile Cape Argus Cycle Tour, raising £2,254 in Bill’s name.

Going wild for Born Free!

Pangolin Protectors

To celebrate February’s World Pangolin Day, 11-year-old Jessica, her sister Phoebe and friends Maisie and Bea raised £254 with a six-mile walk in Northamptonshire. They were met by wildlife crime officer PC Chloe Gillies, whose investigation into a local man selling pangolin scales led to a prosecution.

Just keep swimming

California-based Sophie Kriefman swam an extraordinary 600 lengths in aid of Born Free, with just one 15-minute stop. That’s an incredible six hours and 8.4 miles of swimming! “I’d like to raise money for those animals which aren’t free,” she explained.

‘No pressies please…’

Said twins Robbie and Harlowe in their birthday party invite, ‘let’s save animals instead.’ The sevenyear-old pair already adopt several Born Free animals and love wildlife so much they asked for donations this year rather than gifts. You two are so kind and generous!

You Can Help

Inspired? Visit bornfree.org.uk/fundraisers to hold your own event or activity in aid of wild animals, or email carina@bornfree.org.uk