OUR PROJECTS
ROOM TO ROAM
IFAW PROJECT - Africa
Program Background
Room to Roam is an ambitious and urgent vision for Africa’s surviving savannah elephants and the human communities with which they share the land and its resources. It was created by IFAW.
To secure a network of connected, critical landscapes enabling wildlife and people to flourish, IFAW must forge lasting partnerships.
Its four thematic pillars are science, climate resilience, coexistance, and rescue to release.
The Impact on Wildlife Association supports their project and has joined its other affiliates by recently funding $25 000 in 2024.
$25,000
funded
Program Goals
"Room to Roam"by the International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW) is an ambitious conservation initiative aimed at protecting Africa's savannah elephants and the ecosystems they inhabit. The project emphasizes the importance of connectivity between habitats to ensure the free movement of wildlife, enhancing biodiversity and resilience against climate change. It integrates local communities, traditional leaders, governments, and NGOs in a collaborative effort to secure critical landscapes and foster coexistence between humans and wildlife.
The initiative is underpinned by over 20 years of scientific research and community engagement, focusing on securing and linking habitats across East and Southern Africa. The connectivity ensures that elephants and other species can thrive in their natural environments, which in turn supports overall ecosystem health and resilience to climatic variations.
Elephants play a significant role as ecosystem engineers, whose activities contribute to maintaining healthy savannahs and mitigating climate change through natural carbon sequestration. That is why Room to Roam aims to secure and connect 12 critical landscapes, each home to atleast 10,000 elephants.
Africa's wildlife faces a variety of threats, such as habitat fragmentation, human-wildlife conflict, poaching, and climate change. Strategic actions can be made including community-led conservation, promoting sustainable livelihoods, and empowering women through initiatives like Team Lioness and Jenga Mama. The goal is to create a sustainable model where both wildlife and human communities can prosper, ensuring the long-term survival of elephants and the broader ecological balance.
VIDEO
Room to Roam: The Elephant’s Path to Climate Resilience
Hear what the President & CEO of IFAW and Author, Azzedine Downes, has to share on the subject, its impact on animals as well as climate change.
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