History

Since its inception in 1994 as the Global Survival Network, the organization now known as Wildlife Alliance has worked with local governments, communities and other like-minded non-governmental organizations to implement cutting edge programs in Southeast Asia, Russia, South America, and the Western Pacific. These programs aim to conserve the environment and stop the illegal wildlife trade by directly protecting wildlife in the field, reducing consumer demand for wildlife, and providing alternative livelihoods for local communities.

1994: A group of conservationists establishes the environmental and human rights group Global Survival Network (GSN).

1996: The Barbara Delano Foundation provides field program design for the Wildlife Conservation Society of India to protect the Olive Ridley turtle populations and nests, which had plummeted to an all-time low, from being destroyed by industrial trawlers. Following this results-oriented field program, turtle nestings increased to 683,900 in 1999 and to over 1,008,683 in 2000.

1997: GSN and the Barbara Delano Foundation help partner with local conservation leader Sergei Bereznuk to establish an independent Russian conservation NGO, Phoenix Fund, which supports anti-poaching and environmental education work in an effort to save the Amur tiger and Amur leopard.

1999: GSN merges with partners to become WildAid.

2000: WildAid begins the Care for Rescued Wildlife program at Phnom Tamao Wildlife Rescue Center in Cambodia, providing humane enclosures and skilled veterinary care to more than 1000 victims of the illegal wildlife trade, including elephants, tigers, great apes and many other species.

2001: WildAid launches the Cambodia Conservation Program (CCP), a systematic attempt to protect Cambodia's wilderness and wildlife, stop trading and wildlife trafficking, and educate Cambodians about protecting their environment.

2001: The Cambodia branch helps form the "Wilderness Protection Mobile Unit" – now called the Wildlife Rapid Rescue Team (WRRT) – in an effort to stop poachers, traders, and sellers of wildlife and wildlife products. To date, WRRT has rescued 38,000 live animals and stopped 90% of restaurants in Phnom Penh from serving illegal wildlife dishes.

2002: WildAid works in Burma's first national park, Alangdaw Kathapa, to train agencies on wildlife protection, monitoring, and community outreach.

2002: With funding from the David and Lucile Packard Foundation, the Marine Seascapes program begins work in two Mexican marine protected areas and the Galapagos Marine Protected Area. This program provides resources and training to governments and agencies which enables them to protect fish, sea turtles, marine mammals and coral reef ecosytems.

2002: WildAid helps establish the Community Agriculture Development Program (CADP). Working with landless farmers in Southwestern Cambodia, WildAid evaluates their development needs and assists them in relocating out of protected areas and into the Sovanna Baitong agricultural village.

2004: WildAid convinces the government of Thailand to advocate for a regional wildlife law enforcement network to address Southeast Asia's role as a shipment hub for illegal wildlife and wildlife products.

2004: WildAid launches the Kouprey Express Mobile Environmental Education Unit, which travels through rural Cambodia teaching schoolchildren and villagers about wildlife, the environment, and how to meet community needs without degrading natural resources.

2005: With initial funding from the US Agency for International Development, WildAid becomes the lead support NGO for the Association of Southeast Asian Nations' Wildlife Enforcement Network (ASEAN-WEN).

2005: WildAid conducts an initial assessment of wildlife and habitat threats in Gunung Leuser, Indonesia. When the Boxing Day tsunami devastates the region weeks later, WildAid returns to conduct a post-tsunami assessment to help the Indonesian government agencies respond to the crisis.

2006: Phoenix Fund's Director, Sergei Beruznuk, wins a £30,000 Whitley Award recognizing his "outstanding achievements in nature conservation" related to re-routing an oil pipeline away from the habitat of critically endangered Amur leopards.

2006: The WildAid board agrees to divide the organization's activities into two separate non-profit organizations: Wildlife Alliance, which supports the field projects and partners in Southeast Asia, the Russian Far East, and the Western Pacific and has kept the same U.S. non-profit registration and founding directors; and a new separate organization with the name WildAid, which conducts public outreach campaigns both at home and abroad through their Active Conservation Awareness Program and maintains the projects associated with shark conservation and the conservation of the Galapagos Islands. Wildlife Alliance has its headquarters in Washington, D.C., while WildAid is based in San Francisco.

2007: CNN's Anderson Cooper 360° two-part series, Planet in Peril, features Wildlife Alliance programs in Thailand and Cambodia, including the Phnom Tamao Wildlife Rescue Center, Bokor National Park, and efforts to stop the transboundary illegal wildlife trade in Asia.

2007: Wildlife Alliance Care for Rescued Wildlife program rescues 72 mammals, 140 birds and 27 reptiles from neglect and deplorable conditions at the Angkor Zoo in Siem Reap, Cambodia.

2007: Animal Planet's Crime Scene Wild series, hosted by Steve Galster, first airs in Europe and subsequently Asia.

2008: Wildlife Alliance co-founder Steve Galster testifies to Congress on the links between the illegal wildlife trade and national/international security.

2008: First ecotourists arrive to support forest and wildlife conservation through tourism in Chi Phat, in the Southern Cardamoms Protected Forest of Cambodia.