Our vision is a world where wildlife thrives: this can only be a world where people and wildlife coexist.
Communities are central to much of our conservation work at ZSL. In many of our priority landscapes across Asia and Africa, some of the world’s poorest people live alongside highly threatened, iconic species. Conservation must benefit both.
These communities often rely directly on natural resources for food, fuel, timber, fodder and trade. Healthy ecosystems also provide them with clean water, fertile land, and protection from natural disasters. Forests, grasslands, rivers and seas have sustained local people for centuries, but as human populations grow, pressures can become unsustainable. Traditional resources need new management mechanisms; wildlife and people need to find new ways of sharing limited space; and communities need to benefit from the wildlife living alongside them.
At ZSL, we're working to make this happen.
