A Message from the Director

Foremost, I would like to extend a heart-felt thank you to all of you who have contributed in our quest to create the promise of a future for the red panda. We are all grateful for your support. You make it possible to enable our efforts, which benefit the red panda and the people of Nepal.

Right now, we are at an important juncture in our journey. We’ve just completed the first stride toward creating the Mai-Hewa Red Panda Community Area with the training of our forest guardians. But, once again, we humbly need your help. The next step entails organizing a 17-village Mai-Hewa Red Panda Community Conservation Management Union. This is the community-based organization that will manage the world’s first protected area dedicated to the red panda. To do this, we need to raise an additional $20,000.

We are confident that with your help we can raise the money, and that by this time next year the communities of Ilam and Panchthar will declare the creation of the Mai-Hewa Red Panda Community Conservation Area. With that tangible goal in mind, we invite you to contribute to our financial aim, volunteer or get creative and invent fun ways to raise money for the red panda. Feel free to contact us to share and learn about ways to participate. Help us to make history by adding your own contribution to the creation of the world’s first protected area dedicated to the red panda.

Dhanyabaad (Thank You),
Brian Williams
Founder and Director

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News from the Field

Birth of a Network

The Red Panda Project has achieved a fantastic success, further legitimizing its efforts in Nepal. 22 March 2007 marked the official registration of Red Panda Network-Nepal, a national non-profit dedicated to preserving the red panda and its habitat for the future of Nepal.

But, “Wait,” you might be thinking. “What about the Red Panda Project? Isn’t that the same as the Red Panda Network-Nepal? What’s the difference between these two organizations?” As these are great hypothetically-posed questions, an attempt at an explanation is in order.

For starters, the Red Panda Project and the Red Panda Network-Nepal are very closely related. Without the Project, the Network wouldn’t exist. A good way to think of the relationship is as Guipetto and Pinocchio. The Project (Guipetto), tinkering around in the red-panda-conservation woodshop, carves out a couple strong ideas. These ideas include Project Pude Kudo: The effort to guide and support Nepalese communities through the creation and management of a Red Panda Protected Forest, and the partnership with the World Wildlife Fund-Nepal to monitor and protect the Red Panda throughout a majority of its range. Naturally, these efforts have been tended by Red Panda Project colleagues in Nepal. Soon enough, it became clear that the Nepal-based work should become more autonomous – without strings, if you will. Thus a little wooden boy was brought to life…er…rather the Red Panda Network-Nepal has been registered in Kathmandu as a non-profit organization.

So now the new non-profit will officially be responsible for Pude Kudo and the partnership with WWF-Nepal. What does this mean for the actual Red Panda Project? It means that the work in Nepal is getting serious and the guidance and support of the Nepal-based organization has become a major priority. It also means that the Red Panda Project is realizing a unique broadening of its organization. It is important to remember that the red panda range extends well beyond the Nepal border: There is much still to be done.

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