The Eurasian Large Herbivore Organisation

The "LARGE HERBIVORES, Eurasian Support Network" (before the 1st of July 2010 the Large Herbivore Foundation - LHF) works as an independent international nature conservation organisation under the umbrella of ECNC. The LARGE HERBIVORES is committed to the conservation and restoration of Large Herbivore species, their communities and their habitats/ ecosystems in Eurasia. The Large Herbivores are the group of large plant eating (hoofed) mammals, ranging from small species like Musk deer and Roe deer, through Gazelles, Red deer, mountain sheep and goats, to large species like Camel and European Bison. Focus of the LHF programme are the over 35 large herbivore species (excluding their subspecies); the specific key role large herbivores play in the temperate Eurasian ecosystems and the significance they have for people in many ways.

In fact the large herbivores are the engine for a proper functioning of these ecosystems (landscape building and processes, food for carnivores and carrion eaters). They can be seen as a source for a sustainable economy with and for (local) people too.

The (Palaearctic) bio-geographical range of the LHF programme includes Europe, Russia, Turkey, Central Asia and Mongolia, in total 57 countries.

The LARGE HERBIVORES was founded by WWF International and WWF Netherlands in 1998, as a specific programme (Large Herbivore Initiative, later the Large Herbivore Foundation), to evolve into a ‘world-wide’ expert network organization on large herbivores, their ecosystems and the ‘Human dimensions’ involved with this.

The Large Herbivores network has brought together experts and interested parties from science, conservation, (non) governmental organizations (NGO’s and GO’s), etc., from many nationalities and from a wide range of disciplines. The program and organization of LARGE HERBIVORES is set up in such a way to bring people and organizations together to cooperate work on large herbivore conservation and ecological restoration projects. LARGE HERBIVORES facilitates cooperation in field projects, by making use of a seed money strategy to start and support projects, but also to generate cooperation and co-funding at the institutional level. Structural international support (policy, funding) is sought- and lobbied for to be able to address the priority actions for conservation work, as identified by the LHF network.

Besides working with WWF, IUCN and UN organizations (UNESCO, UNEP) the LHF is cooperating with several GO’s and many NGO’s, as well as with international conventions, like CITES and the Bern and Bonn conventions. Until today the LARGE HERBIVORES has initiated and/or supported many projects in the field of large herbivore conservation, ranging from Mongolian Gazelle and Saiga in Asia, to European Bison in Central - and Eastern Europe, and on ecological restoration projects with semi-wild "Tarpan" or Konik horses and "Aurochs" cattle in Central and Western Europe.

Read more:Large Herbivore Foundation Factsheet (PDF 2.11 MB)