Moonriver and Wild Survivors announce new Conservation Partnership
A young elephant family cross the plains of Serengeti National Park; an are with increasing human-elephant conflict with faming communities living adjacent to the park’s boundaries.
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Saturday 12th July 2023. Wild Survivors announce a new Conservation Partnership to boost critical elephant protection and frontline community empowerment in Tanzania, with film and television production company, Moonriver, based in London, UK. The global production company is no stranger to storytelling and raising awareness of their diverse and compelling content, and upon learning about Wild Survivors co-existence strategy between elephants and people, they were inspired to join their global community to help do the same.
Wild Survivors founder, and ex-journalist Francesca Mahoney and Moonriver CEO, Xavier Marchand, have signed a three-year deal that includes funding, as well as PR and marketing support.
Wild Survivors find workable solutions to the destructive cycle of human elephant conflict (HEC), by installing beehive fences and protecting wildlife corridors with beekeeping livelihoods. The beehive fence not only reduces intensive crop-raiding due to the elephant’s fear of bees, but the project has also empowered women in the community with sustainable revenue and financial independence from the sale of honey and wax.
Francesca Mahoney comments, “We can only do this with the support from people and businesses who understand the need for dynamic funding for both on-the-ground projects at the interface of the conflict, and organisational growth. This means being able to pay our staff, upskill our teams, fuel our cars, and plan effectively. That’s not always the most appetising part of funding a conservation organisation, but it is critical to its survival and the means to expand essential projects in the field. Xavier, and the Moonriver team understood this immediately and were eager to ensure their funding would extend to all key areas of the running of Wild Survivors while also directing support to priority projects. This is what Conservation Partnerships are all about. We are so grateful to the Moonriver team, for their vision, passion, and commitment to Wild Survivors. We are very excited for what we achieve together with the people and wildlife of Tanzania.”
Xavier Marchand says, “We are proud to support Wild Survivors and their initiatives. I was lucky enough to witness first-hand their HEC projects in Tanzania, which borders the Ngorongoro crater and Highlands Forest Reserve, which is home to approximately 1,000 African savanna elephants. I was won over by Francesca and her team and their passion and dedication and their unique hands-on approach, which places community welfare at the heart of wildlife conservation is what makes this such a fulfilling partnership.”
Conservation Partnerships are a core function of Wild Survivors' strategy to build a committed, long-term support network that connects passionate people and businesses directly to our human-elephant co-existence projects, run by rural communities in conflict hotspots. Companies pledge their funding, expertise, and support through their partnership with Wild Survivors, to help implement self-sustainable programmes and ensure the organisation can scale effectively. In return, partners can track and monitor the progress of the projects funded and learn from communities managing the co-existence solutions about the impact of the programmes, while meeting the UN’s sustainable development goals and their own business ambitions for environmental protection.
ENDS/
For more information, please contact
Francesca Mahoney
Wild Survivors Founder
francesca@wildsurvivors.org
Theresa Roberts
Moonriver Publicity
theresa@moonrivercontent.com
About Moonriver
Moonriver is a London-based television and film production company which produces prestigious and ambitious television shows with global appeal. Working with established talent, leading creators and new voices to bring distinctive and extraordinary stories to the screen. Moonriver is set to launch NAUTILUS in the fall on Disney+.
About Wild Survivors
Wild Survivors responds to the most pressing issues affecting elephants, people and habitats in East Africa, with a particular focus on preventing human-elephant conflict, by delivering sustainable initiatives which place community welfare at the heart of wildlife conservation. The team does so by helping recover lost corridors and creating essential route connectivity for elephants, with local community members leading the way as bee guardians; as entrepreneurs in forest-friendly livelihoods; and with a new women’s beekeeping collective producing honey and wax. Since 2018, elephant crop-raiding has decreased by 70% while farming profit has increased by over 300% in the Ngorongoro ecosystem where Wild Survivors operate.