Saola Tracks #3: Strides Forward – Board Update, Engaging with Partners, News from Our Supporters

Since the Saola Foundation’s birth and public launch in September, we have seen overall excellent progress in building our organization. The generous support of many of you has made this possible.  

Board Update

The Chair of our Board of Directors, Matt Hayden, has been a force in guiding the Foundation to a solid, professional footing. He recently had to step down to care for his ill wife, Kass, who has since passed away. We wish Matt and his family well, and are indebted to him for the wisdom and attention he brought to the Foundation during his tenure. Matt has generously offered to continue as an informal advisor to our executive team, something that we’ve already been making use of. 

We are very pleased to announce that Board member Steve Burns, Director of Utah’s Hogle Zoo and a leading voice for conservation, has been elected as the Foundation’s new Board Chair.  Going forward, recruitment of additional Board members will help fill the void left by Matt’s departure, and complement the sound skill set and experience of the current Board as we continue to pursue excellence in 2021. 

Engaging with Partners

Asian Species Action Partnership (ASAP) of the IUCN Species Survival Commission (SSC).  ASAP is an alliance of conservation organizations with the collective aim of focusing urgent conservation attention on species most at risk of extinction in Southeast Asia.  ASAP recently accepted the Saola Foundation as one of its newest partners, and we are honored to be part of this important initiative. 

IUCN SSC Saola Working Group (SWG). We continue to coordinate with the SWG to ensure maximum, synergistic benefit of both organizations’ efforts to save the Saola.  In particular, the Saola Foundation looks forward to coordinating with and supporting the efforts of various partners, including the SWG, in the search for surviving Saolas in the forests of Lao PDR. 

News from our Supporters

• The Maue Kay Foundation, one of our founding donors, has now adopted the Saola Foundation as one its core projects.  You can read more at: https://mauekay.org/mkf-projects/wildlife/saola-foundation. We are deeply grateful for MKF’s ‘vote of support’ for the Saola Foundation and our conservation mission. 
• We recently received a substantial donation of 10,000 euros from Wroclaw Zoo in Poland. Wroclaw Zoo’s Director, Radoslaw Ratajszczak, first did wildlife surveys in Vietnam in the 1980s, not long after the end of the Vietnam War.  Wroclaw’s support to the Saola Foundation is the latest step in a larger commitment – for several years now, Radoslaw has guided Wroclaw Zoo to support the conservation of Saola and other wildlife in the Annamite Mountains.  
• We are delighted to announce receipt of a major grant made jointly by the conservation organization Synchronicity Earth, based in London, and Wildlife Reserves Singapore. Their joint grant will fund for the coming year the position of the Saola Foundation’s Lao Program Director.  This position will be filled by our long-time colleague and a true champion of Saola, Chanthasone Phommachanh, a.k.a., Olay.  While an undergraduate student more than ten years ago, Olay did his first fieldwork in the Annamite Mountains with Saola Foundation President Bill Robichaud. Olay will oversee the preparation and implementation of all Saola Foundation fieldwork in Lao PDR.  He will also be a key point of liaison with local Lao government authorities in the Saola’s range, and other conservation partners in Lao PDR.