Testimonials

What Others are Saying:

• Chad Pedracke, Founder and CEO

  “SeaWorld’s support is pertinent to Living Lands & Waters’ mission and achieving our goal to remove a million pounds of garbage from America’s rivers a year. We recently spent over $1,000,000 upgrading our fleet to help us reach this goal and without funding from the SeaWorld & Busch Gardens Conservation Fund and many others, none of it would be possible.”
• Lucy Kemp, Project Manager

  “The Mabula Ground Hornbill Project is a small team with a large mission: to slow and reverse the decline of the endangered Southern Ground-Hornbill. Using a multi-pronged, multi-disciplinary approach to mitigate for the many anthropogenic threats this species faces we are able to use this ‘flagship’ species to keep other savannah species safe too. Our team invests heavily in community custodianship, annual school outreach trips across the country and building relationships with traditional authorities, to provide support for keeping the remaining wild population safe. Another key element of our work is the reintroduction of hand-reared groups back into areas where the species used to occur, and with the help of a wild alpha-male they can survive as fully functional families and teach new young males their much needed bush-skills. Without the generous and most importantly, ongoing, support from the SeaWorld & Busch Gardens Conservation Fund, our work simply wouldn’t be possible. It has enabled us to grow as a project, develop long-term monitoring plans, develop sound research projects and ensure that, at all times, we are working as effectively as possible to rebuild the population. The entire team at the Mabula Ground Hornbill Project would like to extend their thanks to the SeaWorld & Busch Gardens Conservation Fund for providing the resources we need to work for such an iconic and charismatic species.”
• Rosamira Guillen, Executive Director

  “The support we have received from the Sea World and Busch Gardens Conservation Fund has been critical in the growth and expansion of our conservation efforts to guarantee a long-term future for cotton-top tamarins, a cute little monkey that only lives in northern Colombia and that is critically endangered due to extensive deforestation of its habitat and its and hunting for the illegal pet trade.
  
  Thanks to the Sea World and Busch Gardens Conservation Fund, which has been consistent over the last 8 years, we have been able to reach more than 2,700 children in rural communities close to cotton-top tamarin forests, with our conservation message through the implementation of our conservation education programs and engaging them to become young environmental leaders; we have been able to strengthen and expand the reach or our income generating community programs to reduce the use and exploitation of forest resources benefiting more than 50 families in rural communities; and we have been able to continue assessing the conservation of the forest remnants that are still present in northern Colombia to work with our environmental authorities in the implementation of long-term conservation strategies.
  
  The continued support from the Sea World and Busch Gardens Conservation Fund has also helped us leverage funds from other organizations, allowing us to increase the reach and impact of our integrated conservation approach providing benefits for both cotton-top tamarins and people.
  
  We are deeply grateful for the trust and support we have received from the Sea World and Busch Gardens Conservation Fund over the years!"
• Melanie Griffin, Assistant Director of Development

  “Support from the SeaWorld & Busch Gardens Conservation Fund has been absolutely fundamental to environmental education and awareness raising about wildlife trafficking, habitat destruction and other critically important environmental challenges facing Cambodia and the world. Cambodia lacks an official environmental component in the national curriculum and SeaWorld & Busch Gardens Conservation Fund has enabled Wildlife Alliance, through the Kouprey Express Mobile Environmental Education Unit (KE), to fill that gap by providing quality lessons, activities, and events while generating pride and respect for Cambodia’s natural heritage. Additionally, it has tremendously helped build the capacities of the KE team by funding their studies in English, Monitoring and Evaluation, and report and proposal writing. This has been a critical step for the KE team towards sustainability and self-management, showing that high impact can result from even the smallest investment. The KE is a preeminent example of how a small group of passionate Khmers can achieve great things with limited resources, and could be a lesson to other NGOs and projects in the developing world of how to ‘work yourself out of a job’. Thanks to SeaWorld & Busch Gardens Conservation Fund’s support over the years, the KE reached over 120,000 students, teachers, and community members around Cambodia.”
• Ken Nedimyer, Founder and President

  “SeaWorld’s support for our educational SCUBA diving program has helped us double the number of people participating in the program during the past year. More people are learning about coral reefs and coral reef restoration as a result of this increased exposure.”
• Kate Brown, Lagoon Restoration Specialist

  “The SWBG Conservation Fund grant has allowed our restoration project to include Brevard Zoo’s Zoo School students as citizen scientists. Through program evaluations, students and teachers alike expressed a greater desire to be involved or more involved with a conservation effort after completing the Oyster All Star program. The students have learned the value of taking ownership of their environment and the solutions towards conserving biodiversity and attaining sustainability. The participants’ involvement seems to have encouraged them to go even further by spreading knowledge to family and friends. Due to the help from the SWBG Conservation Fund grant, the Oyster Reef Restoration project has been able to restore habitat that is expected to potentially yield 22,911 live oysters in the Indian River Lagoon. Each adult oyster can filter up to 50 gallons of water a day. Thank you SeaWorld Busch Garden Conservation Fund for allowing us the opportunity to get youth involved in making a difference in the world!”
• Charles Welch, Conservation Coordinator

  “Helping local people of the SAVA region to get started with fish farming of the native Paratilapia or “fony” has been a very successful endeavor of DLC-SAVA Conservation, and could not have been accomplished without the support of the Sea World-Busch Gardens Conservation Fund. The project has now installed a total of 7 ponds on the Marojejy National Park periphery, and the success of the project assisted ponds has even led to some villagers building their own private Paratilapia fish ponds. In addition to supplying local people with an alternative source of animal protein, the fish farming has helped SAVA Conservation to build positive relationships within the local communities, which is an integral part of any sustainable conservation effort. Other villages in the wider Andapa area continue to express an interest in starting their own project assisted fish ponds, so planning for new ponds is in progress. “
• Sue Goodglick, Steller Sea Lion Research Program

  “It is evident the 2014 SeaWorld & Busch Garden (SWBG) Conservation Fund grant has allowed us to reach our goal of bringing awareness of the harmful effects of marine debris to Alaskans of all ages. In July a grandfather who saw our 30-second public service announcement with airtime funded by SWBG sent me a request for outreach materials to share with his grandchildren along with the message “thank you Sue for all that you do to keep this State and country's wildlife safe for future generations to come”.
  
  Due to funding cuts there is no money in our program’s budget for outreach during state fiscal year 2016. Therefore, it will be especially important for organizations such as the SWBG Fund to support our continued work. “
• Michael Stern , Founder and Project Director

  “We are always so thrilled and honored to receive funds from the SeaWorld & Busch Gardens Conservation Fund. Long-term partners like the Fund take some of the pressure off fundraising, so we can concentrate our efforts on the work at hand and not just where the next year's budget will be coming from.”
• Mel Pe

  “The SeaWorld and Busch Gardens Conservation Fund has been a great support over the years to Minton Farm Animal Rescue Centre. The grant has allowed us to increase our capacity to care for a large number of wildlife that are in need of care and has given us access to some of the best tools and equipment to ensure we give the best quality of care. In particular the SWBG Fund has really helped us set up our center to better cater for the Koala a specialized species with particularly specialized needs. We are incredibly indebted to the SWBG fund and are so grateful for their support of our work.”