Sir David Attenborough has launched a crowdfunding campaign to help save the mountain gorillas and he is doing it on Indiegogo. Launched just this past week, Attenborough is looking to raise £110,000 to enable them to work with their partners to help ensure the gorilla’s habitat is protected, support responsible gorilla tourism plus aid in the research directed towards their work with the gorilla’s.
Attenborough is Vice President of Fauna and Flora International. Attenborough, along with others, established the International Gorilla Conservation Program in 1978 (then called the Mountain Gorilla Project).
Attenborough is also a naturalist and very high profile BBC broadcaster. He is probably best known for writing and presenting the Life Series in conjunction with BBC. He is considered among the 100 greatest Britons. He is also the younger brother of actor, director and producer Richard Attenborough.
His reputation became the mark of quality and trust and in the 1970’s he gained the confidence of noted American Zoologist Dian Fossey to film a documentary about her work with the mountain gorilla’s of Rwanda. Fossey studied mountain gorilla’s for 18 years until she was murdered in 1985.
In a letter to potential backers of the Indiegogo campaign, Attenborough expressed their objective:
A message from Sir David Attenborough
“I first went to film mountain gorillas in Rwanda in 1978 for the BBC’s Life on Earth television series. Spending time with these gentle creatures in their natural habitat was a profoundly moving experience. It was abundantly clear, however, that a lethal cocktail of threats including poaching, human encroachment and habitat loss was driving these magnificent, gentle creatures to the very brink of extinction.
I was so deeply concerned by the plight of the mountain gorillas that I came to Fauna & Flora International (FFI) for urgent discussions about how we could prevent them from disappearing for ever. With only around 250 mountain gorillas remaining in the Virungas Massif at this time, we knew we had to move fast.
FFI brought together a group of conservation partners who,alongside the communities that live closest to the gorillas, have worked tirelessly to protect them and the forests they inhabit ever since.
Thanks to this collaborative approach their population is steadily rising and today there are around 880 mountain gorillas in the wild. But these extraordinary animals are still Critically Endangered and there is much left to do if we are to ensure their long-term survival.
By supporting this campaign and promoting it through your networks, you will not only be helping to secure a future for mountain gorillas, but also the tens of thousands of Rwandan, Ugandan and Congolese people who have come to depend upon them for their livelihoods and wellbeing.”
Sir David Attenborough, Fauna & Flora International vice-president
Pledges to the campaign start at £10 and go up to £12,000 which includes a bespoke gorilla trekking trip to the Bwindi Impenetrable National Park, Uganda in August 2014. Guests will stay at the Clouds Mountain Gorilla Lodge.
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