WILD Foundation - History

History

The WILD Foundation was founded in 1974 by South African game ranger Dr. Ian Player. One of his most notable conservation contributions prior to forming The WILD Foundation was his 1960s work to save the white rhino from extinction, called Operation Rhino. Recent escalations in rhino poaching have brought this story back to the forefront of WILD’s efforts.

After leaving the government wildlife service, Player founded The Wilderness Leadership School (WLS), taking people of all ages—especially those from underserved communities and leaders from all sectors – on five day reflective hikes in the African wilderness. Started during apartheid, this school was the first organization in Africa giving its participants, called "trailists," a thorough wilderness experience regardless of background, race or nationality. The Wilderness Leadership School helped give rise to similar schools around the world.

In 1974, the ideas of conservation, spirit, science and culture that inspired the Wilderness Leadership School expanded into the concept that became The WILD Foundation and WILD's sister organizations in The Wilderness Network. Afrikaner author and war hero Sir Laurens van der Post worked closely with Dr. Player in the early days of WILD and was a founding member of the board of directors, serving until 1987. Originally named the International Wilderness Leadership Foundation, the organization began doing business as The WILD Foundation in 1988. WILD has been a member of the World Commission on Protected Areas (International Union for the Conservation of Nature) since 1988, and founder/co-chair of the IUCN Wilderness Specialist Group.

Since its founding, The WILD Foundation has worked on scores of field projects in dozens of countries. In 1983, The WILD Foundation established the World Wilderness Congress, the longest running international forum for the environment. The WILD Foundation has helped foster organizations, such as the Cheetah Conservation Fund based in Namibia, noted National Geographic photographer James Balog's Extreme Ice Survey, and the International League of Conservation Photographers, a consortium of the world's top photographers dedicated to "furthering environmental and cultural conservation through ethical photography."

For six years until about 2010, WILD and iLCP partnered with CEMEX Corporation to produce a book series, drawing attention to such topics as biodiversity, the human footprint, transboundary conservation and climate change. In 2004, The WILD Foundation worked with CEMEX Corporation and other NGOs to consolidate CEMEX's conservation projects in the Maderas del Carmen region in northern Mexico. The Maderas del Carmen was the first “declared,” managed wilderness area in Latin America, and the first such area in the world owned and managed by a major private sector corporation. This work was part of the 9th World Wilderness Congress, and led to the establishment of an “Area of Bi-National Environmental Interest” straddling 10 million acres of Texas/Mexico border. This area was supported by presidents Barack Obama and Felipe Calderón and signed into law in November 2011.