About Us
Welcome to Eurasian Wildlife and Peoples!
Our mission is to protect the interconnected web of life on our planet, reverse wildlife and habitat losses, and support community participation in wildlife conservation across Eurasia.
We envision a world with resilient, sustainable, transboundary ecosystems home to diverse wildlife and human cultures.
Wildlife
Together with conservation groups, scientists, and community leaders and activists across Eurasia and in the United States, we:
Support wildlife research and biodiversity conservation
Raise awareness and increase engagement in wildlife conservation
Exchange best practices on wildlife conservation with experts around the world
Implement strategies to protect wildlife diversity with a particular focus on protected areas
Peoples
Whenever and wherever possible in our work, we support and engage with Indigenous peoples and local communities. We believe that local communities hold the key to a thriving and resilient planet. We seek to:
Amplify Indigenous and community voices calling for environmental justice and supporting traditional environmental practices.
Recognize and aid in protecting Indigenous traditional lands, sacred spaces, and traditional ecological knowledge
Where/what is Eurasia?
There are many ways to define “Eurasia.” For our purposes, we focus on wildlife and peoples stretching from Mongolia in the east to Eastern Europe in the west. That region encompasses a wealth of ecosystems that are home to many different species and myriad ethnic groups and Indigenous peoples.
How we work
Based in the United States, we seek to bridge the gap – knowledge, resources, expertise, and beyond – between “Western civilization” and Eurasian ecosystems and communities. We:
Raise awareness about nature conservation, traditional ecological knowledge, and sustainable development
Facilitate knowledge exchanges among experts and communities
Capacity-building in civil society organizations and initiatives
Strengthen protected areas (including sacred sites)
Campaign to prevent or mitigate potentially destructive development that threatens ecosystems and wildlife and just transitions for communities
In collaboration with other international groups, experts, and community leaders, we support and encourage community participation in wildlife conservation, ecosystem protection, communities, and biological diversity. Our partners are generally people and organizations in Central Asia with whom we strive to nurture long-term relationships.
Eurasian Wildlife and Peoples operates under the fiscal sponsorship of Earth Island.
Since 1982, Earth Island has been a hub for grassroots campaigns dedicated to conserving, preserving, and restoring the ecosystems on which life depends. EI provides comprehensive fiscal sponsorship and project support to a vibrant network of activists and social entrepreneurs promoting ecological sustainability and environmental justice.
Earth Island provides an organizational home in which project leaders can develop campaigns and programs with a minimum of bureaucracy. An alternative to dozens of separate nonprofits each duplicating basic administrative functions, Earth Island projects function with programmatic autonomy while sharing critical services including: governance and compliance, financial management and administration, training and technical assistance, as well as a supportive peer-learning network.