Compensation Programmes

In addition to the land programmes that provide a safe environment for the endangered animals to live and breed, the World Wildlife Foundation also promotes compensation programmes that will protect them from the hostile human element.

Many of the endangered animals, such as the Patagonian Puma of Argentina and Chile, are seen as a great threat by local landowners. The animals can prey on livestock, causing serious damage to the landowners’ livelihoods. Understandably, the landowners kill the preying animals in an attempt to protect their assets. In the past, some landowners have even gone as far as hiring lion hunters to track and kill all pumas in the area of their land.

A compensation programme gives landowners the opportunity to support the endangered animals while at the same time protecting their livelihoods. When a landowner joins the programme, they agree not to kill the endangered animals. If, however, their livestock should fall prey to any of the animals then they submit a claim for compensation, which will then be paid to them to cover their loss.

The information gathered from these claims can also be used to provide means of tracking the population of the endangered animal and thereby aid the conservation effort. However, such a land programme needs strong financial backing if it is to be accepted by the landowners and therefore we, as an animal charity, are heavily dependent on donations.

Our current compensation programme is Saving the Southern Puma.