CREE relies on a diverse array of tools, not least its innate human resource potential due to a capable, passionate, and dedicated staff. Our team is experienced in both traditional and non-traditional methods of social and biological research, project implementation, and conflict mitigation.  We draw on expertise from both developed and developing country contexts. We house an interdisciplinary staff and employ consultants with conservation, policy, law, psychology, and socio-anthropological backgrounds.

Why we are unique

CREE is the only organization that focuses solely on the relationship between poverty alleviation and environmental conservation as its principal concern and driving force. This means that all of our projects have the goal of making rural peoples’ lives better as a result of living near wildlife. We are uniquely structured with local leadership on 100% of all our projects.  Thus CREE forms a tightly held together nucleus of young and passionate talent from the developing world. We empower local scientists to leverage tangible and relevant impacts for their local communities from wildlife, striking a more sustainable and just balance between man and the environment.  Most importantly, we enable them to accomplish their dreams by giving them the resources they need to implement their ‘brainchild’ for the benefit of their people.

CREE respects the wishes of our donors. To this end we make sure donations go exactly where the benefactors intend. By browsing specific projects on our website, donors can choose to help finance a specific conservation and development project. In this manner money is channeled directly into work the donor sees as most needed. We produce huge impacts with small amounts of money  Furthermore,  we detail both the successes and challenges faced in our work in order to continually learn and implement better projects.  Our accounting system is transparent and publishable. We are a small organization, which greatly diminishes our overhead and administrative costs.

An African chameleon

Our logo

CREE’s symbol takes its inspiration from the shape of the baobab tree. The baobabs, totaling about a dozen species, are native to the hot dry savannas in Africa, Madagascar and northern Australia.

The baobab tree serves as a meeting place for many villages to discuss community matters, relate the news of the day, or tell stories. It is also considered to be an object of worship by the people of the African savannahs. Baobabs are a protected tree in South Africa and is said to be one of the “World Trees”, or Tree of Life by many of the cultures on the African continent. In West Africa, especially in Senegal, and in Zimbabwe, such spaces have been used as tombs. ­ In fact, the baobab is one of the only trees in Africa preserved as repositories for the ancestors and hence has spiritual power over the community’s welfare. For instance, in Nigeria certain baobabs are centers of worship involving fertility spirits and the Yoruba of South Nigeria often include the name for baobab (Ose) in their village name.

One particular way the baobab tree has been used as a religious object is as a burial chamber. In some parts of Africa, the bodies of certain important individuals are placed in a hollowed-out trunk of the baobab tree to symbolize the communion between the vital forces of the plant gods and the body of the departed. Perhaps its oldest link to people and their culture is that nomads in dry areas used the hollowed trunks to make into water reservoirs. These have been recorded as holding at least 200 gallons of fresh water and up to 4000 gallons. Moreover, the water remains sweet for years if kept well closed. These reservoirs can be hollowed out in a few days.

Sources:

African & African – American Cultural Traditions
Baobab – Kansas Palms