Annual Report 2010

For ten years now, the Annual Report of the Frankfurt Zoological Society and the “Help for Threatened Wildlife” Foundation has been our regular connection to all of you. As in past years, in the 2010 Annual Report we inform you about our global conservation work and the topics that shape our efforts to preserve biodiversity all over the world. We’ve been able to continue to pursue with élan our ambitious conservation projects – not least thanks to your benevolence and commitment.

The financial statements of the Society and Foundation were approved as in years previous without qualification by the auditor selected by the membership. As you will see in the following pages, we have striven for efficiency and effectiveness in applying the conservation funds at our disposal – despite taking on more project activities than ever before.

We are always deeply moved when we read in a last will and testament how inspiring Bernhard Grzimek’s work and the Serengeti are to people. This is of course both a challenge and a great responsibility.

In 2010, events unfolding in the Serengeti strongly influenced our aims and actions and they continue to do so. For along with our many allies, we had to intervene and direct the attention of the global media to the protection of this wonderful Tanzanian savannah landscape and its unique wildlife. We must make sure that the plan for a highway through the north of the Serengeti is not realised! A highway such as this, which would create more and more traffic, would deal a severe blow to this World Natural Heritage Site.

In the meantime, we are to congratulate the Tanzanian government for taking the decision not to further pursue this construction project. The proposed alternative southern route will better serve everyone in the long run – for we, too, do not begrudge the country healthy economic development. 50 years ago, this is just what Bernhard Grzimek and an independent Tanzania’s first president, Julius Nyerere, wanted.

On the final pages of this report, you will find a list of our partners in Germany and abroad, and to them I say: The FZS is well-equipped for the future. On behalf of the Board and the Council of the “Help for Threatened Wildlife” Foundation, I would like to thank all of our members, sponsors, and donors and all of our friends who have supported our international conservation efforts with such enthusiasm. I would like to make special mention of all of those individuals who made donations to the Frankfurt Zoological Society to mark a personal occasion. Finally, I would like to express my admiration and great thanks to all of our partners and friends for their tireless efforts here and abroad to preserve the world’s biological diversity.

Gerhard Kittscher
President of the Frankfurt Zoological Society