Abu Dhabi, UAE. His Highness Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi, has joined with environmental philanthropists from India and the United States, to together provide funding of $80m to protect wild cats through Panthera, an organization dedicated to ensuring the future of wild cats through science and conservation action.

 

His Highness' personal commitment to the Panthera alliance will be managed through the Mohamed bin Zayed Species Conservation Fund and be disbursed over 10 years. The Crown Prince has nominated Her Excellency Razan Khalifa Al Mubarak, who is Secretary General of the Environment Agency-Abu Dhabi (EAD) and the Managing Director of the Mohammed bin Zayed Species Conservation Fund, to Panthera's Board of Directors as his personal representative. A representative of the Fund will also serve on Panthera’s technical Advisory Committee.

 

Although the Fund will oversee the implementation of this agreement on behalf of the Crown Prince, it will have no impact or bearing on the regular grant giving operations of the Fund. The Fund will continue its strong global support of species conservation efforts for all types of plant and animal species, and continue to operate without discrimination on the basis of region or selected species.

 

Panthera, founded in 2006, is devoted to the conservation of wild cats and their ecosystems. Utilizing the expertise of cat biologists worldwide, Panthera develops and implements global conservation strategies for the most imperiled large cats – tigers, lions, jaguars, snow leopards, cheetahs, cougars and leopards. Representing a comprehensive effort, Panthera works in partnership with local and international NGOs, scientific institutions, local communities and governments around the globe. Visit http://www.panthera.org/.

 

The Mohamed bin Zayed Species Conservation Fund is a significant philanthropic endowment established in 2009 to provide targeted grants to individual species conservation initiatives; recognize leaders in the field of species conservation; and elevate the importance of species in the broader conservation debate. The Fund’s reach in species conservation is global, and its species interest is non-discriminatory. To date the Fund supported nearly 1,100 projects in more than 140 countries. Visit http://www.speciesconservation.org/.