Environmental Education and Outreach

While Wildlife Alliance's partner, the Phoenix Fund, continues to focus on law enforcement and direct protection as the short-term key to the survival of the Amur tiger and Amur leopard, it recognizes that re-education of the community will ensure the survival of the species in the long-term. Many damaging human activities often take place because of the ecological ignorance of local people. The majority of local people in the Russian Far East are unaware of the threats to tiger and leopard survival and other ecological problems of the region. With fewer than 500 Amur tigers left in the wild, and scarcely 30-35 leopards, environmental education and outreach can play an important role in promoting conservation and preventing species extinction. That is why many of Phoenix's project activities are focused on local people and younger generations.

Environmental education / outreach activities include:

• Maintaining an active presence in schools, communities and the media with education and outreach programs, publications and festivals in an effort to create a more stable community basis for conservation of endangered species.
  
  
• Educating local communities to foster more positive attitudes about specific conflict species and encourage their protection.
  
  
• Developing and publishing education and outreach materials for schoolchildren, adults, and tourists in Russian, English and Chinese to increase awareness of conservation problems.  

To learn more about Phoenix Fund, visit http://www.phoenix.vl.ru/