Our goal: To secure a safe future for river dolphins and their habitats wherever they occur WDCS, the Whale and Dolphin Conservation Society, has been supporting and funding projects that protect river dolphins for the last 20 years. We are now embarking on a multi-year campaign which aims to take the expertise that we already have and build on it to create a blueprint for the protection of river dolphins across the world. In order to do this we will: Work at the grassroots level with local scientists/researchers and local communities to: • Identify local people willing to champion the protection of river dolphins and support and train them to do so. This capacity building and training will give local people the tools they need to develop vital grassroots conservation action plans for dolphins both regionally and nationally. • Starting in South America, establish and fund at least one research field station in each of the countries in which river dolphins occur. This will help us understand more about their distribution and the threats they face, as well as giving local researchers a dedicated place in which to develop their skills and expertise in this field. • Starting in South America, establish and fund at least one community run river dolphin education/interpretation visitors centre in each country where the dolphins occur. This has the potential to act as an income generator for the community – giving tourists a reason to visit and allowing the community to display and sell locally made items and produce. It will also provide a dedicated educational space in which to teach school children about the importance of preserving and protecting their local environment. • Identify local and regional threats and work with local communities to help change practices that threaten river dolphins e.g. working with the fishing community to encourage them to release dolphins caught accidentally in their nets, or helping them find alternative sources of bait to prevent the deliberate killing of river dolphins. Work at a country and regional level to: • Create regional, multi-country agreements to protect river dolphins and ensure that all nations are committed to their protection. • Ensure existing laws and legislation related to river dolphins are effective, meaningfully enforced and sanctions are implemented. Where laws do not exist or are too weak, establish effective and strong national and regional legislation to protect river dolphins from direct and indirect threats with equally strong enforcement and sanctions. • Establish a network of protected areas throughout Asia and South America dedicated to the protection of river dolphins and their habitats Examples of what your support could help us do: £40 will pay for a locally based, community educator in the Amazon for a month £100 will cover the costs of producing a set of puppets to help educate children about their local wildlife £420 will cover the costs of environmental education materials for schoolchildren for a year in Colombia £1,000 will cover the costs of the education programme from the Natutama education/interpretation centre in Colombia for a month £2,500 will help us to implement responsible dolphin watching activities in the towns of Leticia, Puerto Nariño (Amazon) and Puerto Carreño (Orinoco) as a viable economic alternative for these communities £6,500 will help us undertake detailed research into river dolphin’s preferred habitat on the Indus River in Pakistan. £10,000 will help fund research into the abundance of the Boto over a 1,000km stretch of two little explored rivers – the Ucuyali in Peru and the Purus in Brazil £7,200 will pay for a locally based researcher for one year £26,920 will cover the running costs of a community based education/ interpretation centre in the Amazon £75,000 will help us to set up a new research station in South America and cover the running costs for a year Thank you