Dr. Laurie Marker, Cheetah Expert and Innovative Conservationist Visits the United Kingdom 22 February – 1 March

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact:
Liz Georges, Communications Coordinator, liz@cheetah.org, (703) 402-5354
Dr. Laurie Marker, Founder and Executive Director, cheetah@iway.na

FEBRUARY 22, 2013 (Alexandria, VA) — Dr. Laurie Marker, Founder and Executive Director of the Cheetah Conservation Fund (CCF), is visiting the United Kingdom, specifically London, Bath and Oxford, through 1 March. Dr. Marker will be holding a series of meetings, including a workshop in London with CCF UK trustees and supporters, at the offices of Imaginals, Ltd, a consulting firm specialising in corporate social entrepreneurship.

“I’m thrilled to be back in the UK. Our Charitable Trust here has always been an important partner in our efforts in Namibia, and I’m excited about sharing the work we’re doing to save the cheetah with old friends and new,” says Dr. Marker.
Dr. Marker will be available for media appearances and interviews from 22 February through 1 March. Please contact CCF Communications Coordinator, Liz Georges at (703) 402-5354 to schedule an interview.

Dr. Laurie Marker, an American, is recognised as a leading expert on cheetahs – their biology, genetics, ecology, breeding, and issues related to their conservation. She is also an extraordinarily dedicated conservationist. In 1990, Dr. Marker left her position with the Smithsonian in Washington, DC, and moved to Namibia to found CCF so that she could work directly with cheetahs in the wild. With fewer than 10,000 cheetahs remaining in the wild, the need to act swiftly to save the fastest land animal has never been greater.

Ninety percent of wild cheetahs are found outside protected areas, in areas where human populations live. Saving this magnificent animal from extinction requires an innovative approach that addresses not just the cheetah’s welfare, but the health and prosperity of the human populations living alongside it. CCF has developed an integrated system of programmes that work together to achieve the kind of large landscape conservation necessary to save the cheetah.

“Saving the cheetah is never going to work unless we create a solution that addresses the entirety of the cheetah’s ecosystem, including the human populations that live alongside the cheetah,” says Dr. Marker. “Saving the cheetah really is about changing the face of Africa.”

CCF’s habitat restoration project, CCF Bush (Pty) Ltd., produces Bushblok, a fuel log, by selectively harvesting invasive thornbush. CCF’s Future Farmers of Africa (FFA) teaches integrated conservation, livestock and wildlife management techniques to present and future land users and managers. FFA builds skills and educates rural and marginalised farmers about supplemental income streams, enabling them to practice sustainable livestock farming that reduces human-wildlife conflict and provides economic opportunity.

CCF’s highly successful Livestock Guarding Dog programme places Anatolian shepherd and Kangal dogs with farmers to provide non-lethal predator control for their herds. Farmers employing a CCF dog find their predation rates from all predators are reduced by 80 percent or more. CCF is also working with the farmers in the Greater Waterberg Complex, a Namibian conservancy organisation, to assist in habitat restoration, reintroduction of wildlife, and training of integrated wildlife and livestock management skills for the Waterberg Plateau region of Namibia.

Dr. Laurie Marker is a recipient of the Tyler Prize for Environmental Achievement, The Tech Museum’s Intel Environmental Prize, and a runner-up for both the BBC World Challenge and the St. Andrew’s Prize for the Environment. She was named a Hero for the Planet by Time magazine and her work has been featured in Smithsonian magazine as well as on numerous television shows, including Wildlife SOS, BBC’s Wild Case Files and BBC’s Animal Park.

Founded in Namibia (Africa) in 1990, Cheetah Conservation Fund (CCF) is the global leader in research and conservation of cheetahs. CCF is dedicated to saving the cheetah in the wild. CCF’s Founder and Executive Director, Dr. Laurie Marker, an American biologist, is considered one of the world’s foremost experts on cheetah biology, ecology and conservation and has developed CCF’s conservation strategy, which has contributed to increasing the wild cheetah population in Namibia by ~50%. CCF’s long-term studies analyse and monitor the factors affecting the cheetah’s survival in the wild, and results are used to develop conservation policies and education programmes that have reached over 300,000 people. CCF is a registered non-profit in Namibia, Canada, UK and the US. People can learn more about CCF or make a donation to the organisation by visiting www.cheetah.org.