About LHF (team, experts, board, advisors, volunteers)

Large Herbivore Foundation (LHF) is an independent international nature conservation NGO

The Large Herbivore Foundation (LHF) is an independent international nature conservation NGO. The LHF 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 45 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, Mongolia, China, Arabian peninsula and the Mediterranean rim, including the Sahara - Sahelo region in N. Africa.

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

The LHF network has brought together experts and interested parties from science, conservation, (non) governmental organizations (NGO’s and GO’s), etc., from over 30 nationalities and from a wide range of disciplines. The program and organization of LHF is set up in such a way to bring people and organizations together to cooperate work on large herbivore conservation and ecological restoration projects. LHF 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 LHF has initiated and/or supported over 40 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 ''wild (Konik) horses and (Aurox) cattle)'' in Central and Western Europe.

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