A Fierce Advocate for Animal Conservation ~ April Kelly Inspires Us to Be a Friend to Nature in a Special Way
In befriending April Kelly, I can readily appreciate how the planet’s wildlife has found their “forever friend.”
Golly, I was so honored that April wrote on the Ladies Who Lunch Conversations post: You are the perfect example of "women supporting women," and I am proud to call you a friend. 🥰🙏
Awww. We all need such a special, unconditional friendship…
That April is a fierce advocate for wildlife conservation and sustainable habitat demonstrates her uncompromising, virtuous, chivalric code. Allow me to explain an extraordinary passion project:
This woman is a force!
Because I love animals so much, I was seeking a guest to feature for my Ladies Who Lunch Conversationvideocast. The stars were aligned. Kismet! I found April ~ the perfect animal advocate, nature lover, and wildlife leader to inspire us.
April is a conservation biologist/anthropologist, wildlife filmmaker, children's book author, expedition leader and international flight attendant. And she's just getting started...
April founded the women-led nonprofit organization, Conservation Wild in 2021, which she now runs as their Executive Director.
Conservation Wild is a women-led organization dedicated to empowering female leadership around the world.
Her passions are fueled by intellectual gravitas.
She has Bachelor’s degrees in Anthropology and Geography from the University of North Texas and a Master’s degree in Zoology/Wildlife and Environmental Conservation from Miami University in Oxford, Ohio.
This was the first time in our four-plus years of producing the Ladies Who Lunch Conversations videocast that I actually got to meet the guest before the show.
Bill and I and dear friend, CJ Johnson ~ who is volunteering her marketing skills to April and Conservation Wild.
April looks like she could “catwalk” just for the airline passengers she serves as an international United flight attendant ~ which she does in order to fuel and fund her conservation work, but in fact, her catwalks involve the real Cats. Big Cats.
I was thrilled that April agreed to be our very special guest on the March videocast.
You’ll be spellbound learning about her time spent working in remote jungles, oceans, mountains and savannahs all over the world including fieldwork expeditions in Belize, Borneo, Namibia, Costa Rica, Brazil, Ecuador, Australia, Hawaii, Mexico and Nepal.
April is a globe-trotting adventuress!
She’s completed fieldwork courses for grad school in: Belize: working with manatees and howler monkeys, Borneo: working with orangutans and nine other species of primates, and Namibia: working with cheetahs.
April has conducted fieldwork all over the world with multiple different endangered and threatened species, including her most recent projects working with jaguars in Costa Rica and Brazil.
And one of the best things she and her team offer is to participate in one of her expeditions!
If you love Nature and getting involved at the grass roots level in a true adventure, you can participate in her hands-on, wild adventures in the field.
Email to sign up:
*** If you are interested in joining in the Pantanal this year for Jaguar and Giant river otter conservation, please let them know.
Dates: Aug 16-22, 2024
7 days with jaguars in the wild.
*Only 3 spots left!!!*
This is a Conservation Wild Expedition!
A portion of the trip costs goes to our conservation partners there.
In the past, April has assisted the nonprofit, Climb for Conservation since 2016, as their Wildlife Biologist, leading conservation expeditions and treks in multiple countries.
In addition to her extensive fieldwork, she also filmed, directed and co-produced the film Mark of the Jaguar, which premiered in 2021 at the Wildlife Conservation Film Festival in New York City and won the award for "Best Endangered Species Film" that same year, to examine the coexistence between humans and jaguars in the region.
In our Ladies Who Lunch Conversation, you’ll learn the heartfelt, intimate background to how this story and the film came about…
In 2020, in response to the devastating fires in the Brazilian Pantanal, April co-created the Pantanal Relief Fund initiative with her friend Abbie Martin, and raised over $75,000 for the people and wildlife of the Pantanal."
While most of us might have worked on customer lists or some kind of guest lists, I was blown away by April’s animal list that she’s worked with: (some are exotic enough that you may need to look up more than one.)
A sampling of the animal wildlife April works with:
Pangolins
Tapirs
Lots of primate species ~ gorillas, monkeys…
Reptiles
Amphibians
Giant otters
Bats
Rhinos…
Jaguars
Tigers
Tortoise
And many more. 😆
Conservation Wild works to protect species of wildlife while supporting local and Indigenous communities through:
Cultural preservation,
Community-based conservation,
Immersive fieldwork experiences and
Grassroots, nonprofit collaboration.
What makes Conservation Wild unique?
The organization works to Protect Threatened and Endangered Species by working with local citizens to tap into their vast cultural knowledge to preserve habitat and support community livelihoods.
April and her team focus on incorporating existing Indigenous knowledge in local areas of implementation in order to protect wildlife, while also supporting community livelihoods. By including locals in the decision making process, their ancestral knowledge of nature and wildlife remains intact and serves as the best model for future conservation.
I know from my own interests and research that many cultures have an oral history tradition. This ancestral knowledge of habitat and sustainability is lost when we don’t respect the Cultural Preservation and Community based Conservation that Conservation Wild works so assiduously to honor.
Friends
Successful women like April help teach us that we work best when we work together. It does take a village!
In reading the list of Partners that she has developed and nurtured, you can’t help but be impressed:
NAMA Conservation in Costa Rica,
Pantanal Relief Fund and the Jaguar Project in Brazil
The CAF~RDC (Community Ranger’s Association of Congo) in the Congo
Pangolin Conservation and Research Foundation in Namibia
Community Baboon Sanctuary in Belize
Be a Friend to Conservation Wild and your Planet
In our Ladies Who Lunch Conversation, April detailed the launch of her GoFundMe for indigenous reforestation project.
You can make a difference!!
And I’m more than grateful to the Ladies Who Lunch Conversations’ loyal fans and friends who have already contributed. It feels good to do good to support such inspiring women such as April. Thank you.
And if you contribute this month, your donation will be an extra birthday gift of sorts ~ as April celebrated a happy, milestone birthday recently.
The Merch
You can also purchase merch, of course!
I love these workbooks.
And fashions by Conservation Wild, too.
All available on Facebook and/or website.
Friends indeed help each other.
It’s a big world out there and we have a whole lotta’ helping to do to keep our planet safe and beautiful. 🥰
Thank goodness we have April.
And thank you so much for being so very inspiring, April. We will continue to support you and your journey.
Cheers to your continued success.
Oh ~ and in case you're curious about the esteemed Chivalric Code ~ the seven virtues of knighthood are: Courage, Honor, Justice, Mercy, Generosity, Faith, Nobility. All meaningfully characterize April and her valiant work on our behalf. Cheers.