ANNOUNCING 2022 UMVIKELI WILDLIFE PROTECTOR: DR ANNE INNIS DAGG

Image Credit: The Anne Innis Dagg Foundation

Wild Tomorrow Fund is delighted to announce this year’s Umvikeli Wildlife Protector, Dr Anne Innis Dagg, a trailblazing zoologist, feminist and giraffologist. Dr Anne will be presented with the award at our Annual Gala in NYC, on November 11th 2022 at The Edison Ballroom in New York City. Tickets on sale here.

Now in its fifth year, Wild Tomorrow Fund's Umvikeli Wildlife Protector Award is an international award that recognizes an individual or organization working tirelessly to protect wildlife and wild spaces. The 2022 award to Dr Anne Innis Dagg recognizes her work deepening understanding of giraffe and other African animal biology and behavior, and her Foundation’s focus on saving habitat for giraffe and all species.

In 1956, Anne as a 23-year-old Canadian biologist, made an unprecedented solo journey to South Africa to become the first western researcher to study giraffes in the wild. After returning home, despite her numerous academic accomplishments, Anne experienced unrelenting and insurmountable discrimination as a female scientist. While this destroyed her career and halted the study of her beloved giraffe, this experience catalyzed Anne to become a feminist activist.

In 2010 at the age of 78, she was sought out by giraffologists, and brought back into the world of giraffe research, with her story subsequently featured in the award-winning 2018 documentary, The Woman Who Loves Giraffes. In much delayed recognition of her work, four Canadian universities awarded her an Honorary Doctorate. Her work and legacy continues with the Anne Innis Dagg Foundation founded in 2020, supporting “the habitat and the people that live amongst the most magnificent creature on the planet, the giraffe”.

The plight of the iconic giraffe has been referred to as the “silent extinction” because people do not realize how precarious their existence is. Today, less than 100,000 giraffe roam the African continent: that’s only one giraffe for every four elephants. Anne Innis Dagg’s mission is to draw attention to the challenges wild giraffes are facing in Africa and encourage more people to support conservation.

Anne in 1956, watching giraffe. Image Credit: The Anne Innis Dagg Foundation

“I am honored to be the 2022 Umvikeli Wildlife Protector”, said Dr Anne Innis Dagg. “Across Africa, habitat for giraffe is shrinking and their populations have plummeted by almost 40% over the last 30 years. I hope this award helps to bring attention to their plight, and also to women in science, technology, engineering and mathematics, who still face discrimination.”

 “We are delighted to honor Dr Anne Innis Dagg, whose passion for giraffe, and knowledge of their behavior and unique intelligence, has elevated giraffe as a species, and as a focus for conservation” said Wild Tomorrow Fund’s Founder and Executive Director, John Steward.

Wild Tomorrow Fund’s Annual NYC Gala raises funds for the protection, restoration and rewilding of threatened habitat in southern Africa. The charity’s newly declared wildlife corridor in KwaZulu-Natal South Africa is restoring wild space for 46 threatened species including the giraffe, critically endangered black rhinoceros, leopards, elephants and other lesser-known yet equally important species.

Past recipients of the Wild Tomorrow Fund's Umvikeli Wildlife Protector Award include:

  • Dr. Carl Safina (2021), a world renowned author, conservationist and MacArthur genius whose writing and research connects people’s hearts to nature and wildlife.

  • Les Carlisle (2019), an esteemed conservationist who has spent his career tirelessly working to protect wild spaces including establishing our next-door neighbor, Phinda Private Game Reserve in South Africa.

  • Dr. Dave Cooper (2018), a world-respected South African wildlife veterinarian who is working on the front lines, saving as many lives as he can from the devastating impact of rhino poaching

  • United States Senator Chris Coons (2017) who co-sponsored the END Wildlife Trafficking Act

Learn more about Wild Tomorrow Fund’s conservation work with giraffe here.

About The Anne Innis Dagg and the (AID) Foundation

Established in 2020, the Anne Innis Dagg (AID) Foundation provides support to organizations and individuals that protect the survival of the most magnificent creature on the planet, the giraffe. The Foundation also directs funding to programs that raise the voices of marginalized individuals in science and education in support of Anne’s lifelong principle that people, animals and their surroundings deserve mutual respect.

 Through the AID Foundation, Anne is committed to creating support for women+ and raising the voices of marginalized people in Africa and around the world. The AID Foundation has forged strategic partnerships to fulfill Anne Dagg’s mission and many conservation and educational programs are currently underway.

More information in Dr Anne Innis Dagg’s personal journey is available here: www.anneinnisdaggfoundation.org/herstory

Wild Tomorrow Fund