Saola Tracks #1: Welcome, Remembering Petr Colas, Gratitude
Welcome!
Dear friends and supporters of Saola,
It is our sincere pleasure to introduce you to the Saola Foundation for Annamite Mountains Conservation, a new non-profit organization registered in the United States (as ‘Saola Foundation’ for brevity).
The Saola Foundation’s mission is to bring additional, critical resources to the endeavor to save Saola, in support of the One Plan Approach endorsed by the Saola Working Group (of the Species Survival Commission, International Union for the Conservation of Nature, IUCN). The IUCN One Plan Approach for saving a highly endangered species combines conservation in the wild with an essential captive breeding program, into one, coordinated strategy.
We cordially invite you to explore our website to learn more about us: https://www.saolafoundation.org/.
The Saola Foundation aims to make a pivotal contribution to saving Saola by focusing on two initial priorities:
i. Help raise the major funding needed to save Saola through comprehensive implementation of the One Plan Approach.
ii. Provide technical and financial support to an intensive search in the wild for the remaining Saolas. Finding Saolas is an essential step to saving the species, and the Saola Foundation’s Technical Advisory Group estimates that thus far only about 10% of the effort needed to find the last Saolas has been deployed in the field. This is a gap the Saola Foundation will help to close, comprehensively. And the intensity and expertise put into this will likely yield significant benefit for the conservation of other little-known threatened species in the Annamite Mountains.
The Saola Foundation’s mission is to bring additional, critical resources to the endeavor to save Saola, in support of the One Plan Approach endorsed by the Saola Working Group (of the Species Survival Commission, International Union for the Conservation of Nature, IUCN). The IUCN One Plan Approach
The Saola Foundation is the world’s first and only chartered entity to focus absolutely on saving Saola and its amazing home of the Annamite Mountains. We are immensely proud of the team we’ve assembled for this important task – you can learn more about the Saola Foundation’s personnel here: https://www.saolafoundation.org/meet-our-team
Saving Saola requires many of us, across the world, pulling together. You are also a key part of the global ‘Saola team’. Consequently, we look forward to keeping in close contact with you, and working together in the days and months ahead. For now, to help our fledgling bird take flight, your contribution of financial support would be deeply appreciated (donations are tax-deductible for US residents):
https://www.saolafoundation.org/donate
And please help publicize the birth of the Saola Foundation through your social media accounts.
Remembering Petr Colas, Saola advocate
Last month, the conservation world lost a friend and a visionary. Petr Colas, Director of Ostrava Zoo and Botanical Garden in the eastern Czech Republic, passed away after a brief illness.
In 2012, under Petr’s leadership, Ostrava Zoo opened the world’s first and only restaurant named after the Saola, inspired by the Southeast Asia Campaign of the European Association of Zoos and Aquaria. Saola Foundation President Bill Robichaud, when he served as Coordinator of the Saola Working Group, subsequently visited Petr and the zoo, and they had lunch together at the ‘Saola Restaurant’ – something of a pilgrimage. Petr then generously introduced Bill to other potential partners, some of whom also became supporters of Saola conservation, such as Zoo Zlin.
As a well-respected and beloved member of the global zoo community, Petr passionately advocated for modern zoos to be not just centers of recreation, but also education, research, conservation and animal welfare.
Petr joined Ostrava Zoo in 1990, and was appointed the zoo’s director in 2004. Credited with making Ostrava Zoo one of the most visited tourist destinations in the Czech Republic, Petr’s leadership also made Ostrava a world-leader in zoo-led conservation.
He once wrote: “We humans have already destroyed and exterminated so much that loss of other species of animal or plant would lead us to the collapse of whole ecosystems. Each of us is in the world only on a short visit. Therefore, in the time given to us, and we do not know how long it will last, we should not just accumulate perishable possessions. Instead, we should try to do everything to hand Earth over to those who come after us, at least in the state in which we received it from our predecessors, or in an even better state.”
Petr pursued these words fully in his own life, and his example and inspiration are his legacy. He is deeply missed.
Gratitude
Establishing a new organization to address a challenge like saving Saola requires the efforts and goodwill of many people.
Foremost, we are deeply grateful to the Saola Foundation’s initial donors, especially in this challenging time financially. Their commitment and belief – in us, and in Saola conservation – allowed us to transcend the Covid headwind, and contract staff and commence operations on September 1, and prepare for our public launch this week.
The remarkable breadth of the donors below is a reflection of the collaboration needed to save Saola: our supporters include conservation-oriented zoos, two former Directors General of IUCN (Lee Talbot and David McDowell), and a private business in Lao PDR (Comma Coffee).
The following Founding Supporters each committed at least 5,000 USD or euros to help bring the Saola Foundation to life (one other Founding Supporter wishes to remain anonymous)
We received additional financial support from the following individuals and institutions, to whom we are also most grateful:
Steve Burns
Corina Cathomen
Troy Hansel
Andy and Paula Holman
David Hulse
Kristine Karnos
Vilat Keomoungkhoun
Elizabeth Mann
Jan and David McDowell
Howard Olson
Ostrava Zoo, in honor of Petr Colas
Bill Robichaud
Tom Robichaud
Lorraine Scotson
Linda Tabor-Beck
Michele Thompson
In addition, the wonderful artist, Eric Losh (https://www.facebook.com/EricLoshIllustration/), contributed the design of the Saola Foundation’s beautiful logo.
Ann-Marie Holmes designed and published this, our first, newsletter.
The following people also contributed significantly and generously in various ways to establishment of the Saola Foundation:
Will Duckworth
Melissa Keomoungkhoun
Nataly Keomoungkhoun
Wibe Wagenmans
Yos Wagenmans
George Williams
Saving Saola won’t be easy, but we know what success will look like – many of us working in deep collaboration, each making a contribution. With thanks to the individuals and institutions above, the Saola Foundation is off to a promising start. We hope you will join us.
On behalf of all the Saola Foundation team, we look forward to working with you to help save this extraordinary animal.