TERAVARNA Foundation Partners with Wildlife Vets International Through Art with Impact

Art can transcend differences, begin conversations, and pull people together on topics that are important. TERAVARNA Foundation is promoting that impact beyond the art world to support organisations tackling significant environmental and social issues through its Art with Impact initiative.

We are excited to introduce you to a brand new collaboration with the British charity Wildlife Vets International (WVI), a veterinary expertise organization that has been helping international projects with wildlife since 2004. By partnering with conservation groups, governments, local veterinarians, and field staff, WVI helps apply veterinary skills to the battlefront of wildlife conservation.

Bringing Veterinary Expertise Into Conservation

When people think about wildlife conservation, they typically think about habitat protection, poaching prevention, or population recovery. However, another key component, animal health, is important.

Through specialist medical knowledge and disease research, training, rehabilitation and practical help, WVI helps endangered species and threatened species. WVI does not undertake its own conservation projects but supports other organisations with access to veterinary skills.

It trains local vets and biologists in wildlife medicine, assists with disease surveillance, aids in the development of clinical and rehabilitation practices, and aids conservationists to safely handle and treat wildlife. WVI also helps to process and examine samples to assess potential disease threats, and builds practical protocols and resources that can be maintained by local teams following expert veterinary visits.

The approach is aimed at developing capacity at the local level over time, in contrast to the immediate provision of support. WVI's veterinary partners offer hands-on training and up-to-date information on deer wildlife health issues, empowering local professionals to take responsibility for addressing all of these health issues in their own communities.

Supporting Species Around the World

WVI's activities have included a wide variety of endangered and vulnerable species such as tigers/painted wolves, sea turtles, and other wildlife.

It has projects for threatened carnivore disease surveillance, rehabilitation of endangered wildlife, disease control for island endemic wildlife, and veterinary assistance for conservation and reintroduction programmes. In addition, WVI strives to understand and handle disease threats that may grow particularly serious if wildlife populations are small or fragmented.

For instance, it has trained local wildlife vets to treat the sick and wounded, safely rehabilitate, investigate disease threats and take action in cases of human-wildlife conflict with the help of the organisation's tigers. WVI has worked in diverse tiger ranges such as Nepal, China, Bangladesh, Indonesia and Russia.

An important part of conservation is preserving a species, and not just where an animal is found, as demonstrated in this work. This can equally involve recognizing its wellness, disease avoidance, veterinary capacity enhancement, and the provision of expertise needed for the conservation teams to improve the care of particular animals and populations.

Art With Impact

The partnership is part of the TERAVARNA Foundation's Art with Impact initiative, where there is an opportunity to participate in selected TERAVARNA art competitions and provide funding for nonprofit organizations.

Through the initiative, 5% of the entry fees for selected TERAVARNA art competitions are offered to nonprofit organizations dealing with environmental conservation, education, cultural preservation, humanitarian relief and community development.

TERAVARNA Foundation has contributed $200 to aid WVI in its conservation efforts.

A Connection Beyond the Gallery

TERAVARNA Foundation believes that through creativity it is possible to make significant connections. Art need not stand "apart from the world. It can bring to a spotlight attention to important issues, stimulate curiosity, and provide avenues for collective action.

Our collaboration with WVI combines two vastly different worlds – the creative world and wildlife conservation. WVI provides access to veterinary expert knowledge to conservation teams looking to protect threatened species, supported by Art with Impact, which provides a means for engagement in art to advance organisations working on conservation.

We are pleased to be involved with Wildlife Vets International and their work to be a recognised leader in placing veterinary science at the centre of wildlife conservation.

Through Art with Impact, we hope to continue building partnerships that turn creative participation into meaningful contributions, one initiative at a time.