protecting endangered nature and culture · protecting endangered nature and culture. endangered...

ARCADIA 2010

PROTECTING ENDANGEREDNATURE AND CULTURE

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An introduction to Arcadia

Protecting endangered nature

Protecting endangered culture

Our financial commitments

How we operate

Meet the team

Palimpsest manuscript containing hidden erased text, St Catherine’s Monastery, Egypt

PROTECTING ENDANGERED NATURE AND CULTURE CONTENTS

AN INTRODUCTION TO ARCADIA

AN INTRODUCTION TO ARCADIA

02Arcadia works internationally to preserve endangered nature and culture. Since its establishment in 2001 we have given $149 million to these causes.

In 2010 we paid out $16.9 million across 27 ongoing conservation projects. We also awarded 10 new grants worth $7.1 million.

This report reviews our activity over the last 12 months.

It celebrates the successes of grants completed in 2010, and highlights how our recent awards support our existing and new projects.

PROTECTING ENDANGERED NATURE AND CULTURE

ENDANGERED NATURE

We work to preserve the world’s most endangered habitats, on land and in our oceans. Supporting a number of NGOs, we fund active conservation projects, research and training, and advocacy.

8 Over the last nine years, we have helped to conserve over 19 million hectares of land and 53 million km2 of ocean habitat.

8 This support is helping to protect such critically endangered species as the Bornean orangutan, the Black rhinoceros and the Hawksbill turtle.

ENDANGERED CULTURE

Working to preserve our global heritage, we protect at-risk historical records and objects. Supporting universities, museums and archives, we also seek to improve access to knowledge through technology.

8 Our grants cover a range of cultural materials including books, manuscripts, newspapers and historical artefacts such as African rock art.

8 Through our support of SOAS, University of London, we have helped to record over 200 of the world’s most endangered languages.

Critically endangered Hawksbill turtle in Nicaragua, one of the many marine species Arcadia is helping to save

SOAS working to record endangered languages in Ghana, Africa

PROTECTING ENDANGERED NATURE


Marine conservation, which receives limited support from public and private funders, is a key concern for Arcadia.

Building on our existing grants, in 2010 we awarded a further $5 million to help preserve the world’s oceans.

04PROTECTING ENDANGERED NATURE

MARINE CONSERVATION

According to Oceana, one of the world’s leading marine NGOs, less than 1% of the oceans currently has protected status. This is compared with 10% of the world’s landmass.

To address this imbalance, in 2007 we awarded $6.8 million over three years to fund the core operating costs of Oceana and the Marine Conservation Biology Institute (MCBI).

Over the last three years our grantees have secured major changes in marine policy including widespread bans on destructive fishing techniques, tighter controls on mercury and oil pollution and the creation of new Marine Protected Areas. Encouraged by these successes, in 2010 we awarded both organisations repeat grants.

A fishing trawler operating in the Pacific Ocean off the West Coast of the US, an area hit hard by overfishing

MARINE CONSERVATION BIOLOGY INSTITUTE (MCBI)GRANT: $500,000 (2010 - 2011)

MARINE CONSERVATION BIOLOGY INSTITUTE

06In July 2010 President Obama introduced the US Government’s first ever nationwide policy on ocean management.

Over the last 18 months MCBI has played an integral part in shaping this policy change. With our continuing support, MCBI is now working with the US Government to put this policy into practice.

US NATIONAL OCEAN POLICY

In July 2009 we awarded MCBI $500,000 to support its campaign for an integrated national approach to ocean management in the US.

Advocating the need for better Marine Spatial Planning (MSP), MCBI secured the support of 262 leading scientists, and in February 2010, submitted a proposed MSP framework in response to the US Government consultation on ocean policy.

MCBI is working to ensure that the more detailed MSP framework being developed on a regional level finds a balance between competing environmental and commercial pressures.


“ Arcadia immediately saw that the USA’s first National Ocean Policy was an unprecedented opportunity to transform how the marine environment is governed. Its support has been essential in all MCBI has done to shape ecosystem-based management in 11+ million km2 of ocean.”

ELLIOTT NORSE, MCBI PRESIDENT

The Oregon coastline and a school of goatfish in Hawaii, two of the diverse regions that fall under the management of the new US National Ocean Policy

OCEANA

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GLOBAL SUCCESSES FOR 2010

NORTH AMERICA - helped secure a ban on offshore drilling in the Gulf of Mexico following the BP Deepwater Horizon oil disaster.

CENTRAL AMERICA – secured a trawler ban from the Belize government, protecting the Belize Barrier Reef, the world’s second largest coral reef system.

SOUTH AMERICA – successfully lobbied the Chilean government on the creation of the Sala y Gomez Marine Park, preserving one of the world’s last truly pristine ecosystems.

EUROPE – continued to campaign against destructive fishing techniques in the Mediterranean, securing bans on the use of drift nets in Morocco and Turkey.


“ When the story is told of the saving of the world’s oceans, Arcadia will get a starring role. On behalf of all the fish, and the billion people who rely on the oceans, we hope you know how grateful we are.”

ANDREW SHARPLESS, CEO OF OCEANA

A Grey Reef shark, one of the many species now protected by the new Sala y Gomez Marine Park in Chile

OCEANAGRANT: $2.5 MILLION (2010 - 2013)

Oceana aims to restore the health of our oceans. It works to reduce commercial fishing subsidies, end the use of illegal fishing techniques and tackle marine pollution.

Arcadia’s decision to renew its core funding will help Oceana to continue influencing marine policy around the world.

LOCAL CONSERVATION WORK

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PATAGONIA NATIONAL PARK

Incorporating evergreen rainforest, temperate beach forest, and semi-arid grassland, the new Patagonia national park already covers over 185,000 hectares.

Encouraging biodiversity across the region, the park provides a haven for a number of endangered species, such as the Huemel deer.

When completed, the project will join together two existing nature reserves, connecting the region’s ecosystems with a central migration corridor.

Our 2010 grant will help Conservacion Patagonica buy a further 115,000 hectares.

LIVING LANDSCAPE SCHEME

Working with landholders and land users across the South East, the Kent and Sussex Wildlife Trusts help improve public understanding of the need for conservation management.

Having identified almost 290,000 hectares of Biodiversity Opportunity Areas (BOAs), these two organisations will work together to link conservation regions and create an ecological network across both counties.

This work will benefit the region’s fauna and flora including wetland species, wild flowers and endangered species such as dormice.


CONSERVATION LAND TRUSTGRANT: $500,000 (2010 - 2011)

LOCAL CONSERVATION WORKGRANT: $1 MILLION (2010 - 2015)

We have also continued to support the efforts of our grantees to protect habitats on land.

In Chile, for example, we have been working with the Conservation Land Trust and its sister organisation, Conservacion Patagonica, to establish a new national park in the Chacabuco Valley.

Closer to home, we awarded $500,000 each to the Kent and Sussex Wildlife Trusts.

These two new grants will help to protect local landscapes and indigenous species.

One of Britain’s most endangered species, dormice are in steep decline

Patagonia National Park, Chile

The Belize Barrier Reef, now protected from the damaging practice of bottom trawling as a result of the work of Oceana

PROTECTING ENDANGERED CULTURE


14Through digitisation we are able not only to preserve cultural collections but also to make them more accessible for researchers and the general public via the web.

In 2010 Harvard University Library and Aluka, two of Arcadia’s major grantees, completed large digitisation projects.


DIGITISING CULTURE

Working with leading cultural institutions, since 2001 we have given over $70 million to help identify and digitise endangered manuscripts, monographs, maps and other cultural records.

As well as helping to digitise material, we have enabled many of our grantees to develop the necessary infrastructure and skills to provide access to their collections online.

In 2010 we awarded the Early Manuscripts Electronic Library (EMEL) funding to develop new technology which will help scholars explore historical records in greater detail.

One of 16,000 images of endangered African rock art we have helped to preserve and record digitally

16HARVARD UNIVERSITY LIBRARYPROTECTING ENDANGERED CULTURE

OPEN COLLECTIONS PROGRAM

EXPEDITION & DISCOVERIES: SPONSORED EXPLORATION AND SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY IN THE MODERN AGEThis collection features records from nine major scientific expeditions between 1626 and 1953.

READING: HARVARD VIEWS OF READERS, READERSHIP AND READING HISTORYExploring the intellectual, cultural and political history of reading, this collection offers a chance to explore virtually the annotated books owned by such authors as William Wordsworth.

CONTAGION: HISTORICAL VIEWS OF DISEASE AND EPIDEMICSThis collection offers researchers a global insight into the historical, social and public policy implications of disease between 1493 and 1922.

HARVARD UNIVERSITY LIBRARY GRANT: $5 MILLION (2004 - 2010)

In 2010 Harvard University Library completed a six-year project to digitise three new collections as part of its Open Collections Program.

With our funding Harvard has digitised over a million images of manuscripts, books, maps and illustrations. These are now available to view online at ocp.hul.harvard.edu

“ The Open Collections Program provides a way for the Harvard Library to share its intellectual wealth with the rest of the world. In all, 2.3 million pages of digitised content are now available online and are regularly downloaded by researchers based all around the globe, from Dublin and Delhi, to Melbourne and Beijing.” ROBERT DARNTON, CARL H. PFORZHEIMER UNIVERSITY PROFESSOR AND UNIVERSITY LIBRARIAN, HARVARD UNIVERSITY

Images from the Contagion collection, now available online via Harvard’s Open Collections Program

“ In contemporary architectural discourse, not enough reference is made to the contribution of African civilizations. However, with access to these digital collections, we can really help to bridge that knowledge gap, using 3D images of sites like Elmina Castle to take students on virtual tours of significant buildings.”

NANA BONSU ADJA-SAI, MASTERS DEGREE CANDIDATE IN ARCHITECTURE AND URBAN DESIGN, UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN

Digital image of one of the walkways at Elmina Castle, just one of the many examples of African architecture being captured and digitally preserved by Aluka

ALUKA

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ALUKA’S CORE COLLECTIONS

AFRICAN CULTURAL HERITAGE SITES AND LANDSCAPES Offers researchers the chance to explore digital images of the continent’s culturally significant sites, including detailed photography of African architecture.

AFRICAN PLANTSProvides digital access to samples of an estimated 60,000 African plant species, complemented by volumes of botanical field notes and reference data.

STRUGGLES FOR FREEDOM IN SOUTHERN AFRICA A collection of personal papers, newspapers and government records, this archive provides insights into colonial rule and resistance.


ALUKA GRANT: $2.5 MILLION (2007 - 2010)

Aluka works across Africa to collect and digitise rare and physically dispersed scholarly materials.

Using our funding to develop the infrastructure for a digital library, Aluka now provides 490 of Africa’s cultural and educational institutions with free access to over 500,000 digital resources.

EARLY MANUSCRIPTS ELECTRONIC LIBRARY

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SINAI PALIMPSESTS PROJECT

Between the 4th and 7th centuries it was not unusual for frugal scribes to wash away or scrape text off a piece of parchment in order to reuse it. With traces of the original text left behind, these ‘recycled’ manuscripts or palimpsests often contain knowledge that has been hidden for centuries.

Home to one of the world’s finest collections of early Christian texts, St Catherine’s Monastery holds over 125 known palimpsests.

Using cutting edge infrared and multi-spectral imaging technology, EMEL’s analysis of this collection has already revealed such discoveries as the oldest known copy of the Gospels in Syriac.

Having funded the pilot project, Arcadia is now helping EMEL develop new technology that will enable even more detailed analysis.


“ The palimpsests of St Catherine’s Monastery preserve hundreds of unstudied, even unidentified texts from antiquity. The Sinai Palimpsests Project will recover texts which were erased 1,000 or more years ago, and open new windows onto the cultures of the Eastern Mediterranean in late antiquity.”

MICHAEL B. PHELPS, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR OF EMEL

Example of palimpsest manuscript Manuscript being digitised by a member of EMEL’s conservation team

EARLY MANUSCRIPTS ELECTRONIC LIBRARY (EMEL) GRANT: $47,000 (2010 - 2011)

EMEL is one of the world’s leaders in the field of digitisation.

Working in partnership with the archbishop and the monks of St Catherine’s Monastery in Egypt, over the next five years EMEL will work to analyse digitally a selection of Christian manuscripts from late antiquity as part of a project to uncover hidden and erased text.

OUR FINANCIAL COMMITMENTS

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CULTURAL PRESERVATION

ENVIRONMENTAL CONSERVATION

LEGACY PROJECTS

GRANT PAYMENTS TO DATE

By the end of 2010, we had paid $135 million of our grant commitments. In 2011, we expect to make a further $20 million of grant payments.


Since 2001, we have made grant commitments of over $192 million across 94 projects.

Before November 2008 our funding also supported three other thematic areas: defending human rights; promoting philanthropy; and supporting education and research. No longer part of our core focus, these are shown below as legacy grants.

LEGACY GRANTS $43 MILLION

22%

NATURE CONSERVATION$52 MILLION

27%

CULTURE PRESERVATION

$97 MILLION 51%

GRANT COMMITMENTS BY VALUE SINCE 2001 GRANT PAYMENTS BY YEAR



GRANTS COMPLETED IN 2010 GRANTS AWARDED IN 2010

GRANTEE PURPOSE OF GRANT GRANT DATES GRANT VALUE

Aluka Infrastructure costs 2007 – 2010 $2,500,000

Association of Commonwealth Universities Research 2009 – 2010 $105,798

Harvard University Library Digitisation 2004 – 2010 $5,000,000

The Wende Museum Core costs 2005 – 2010 $991,500

Conservation Land Trust Infrastructure costs 2007 – 2010 $379,000

MCBI Core costs 2008 – 2010 $2,000,000

Oceana Core costs 2007 – 2010 $5,250,000

$16,226,298

GRANTEE PURPOSE OF GRANT GRANT DATES GRANT VALUE

EMEL - Sinai Palimpsests Project Digitisation 2010 - 2011 $47,000

Conservation Land Trust Infrastructure costs 2010 – 2011 $500,000

Kent Wildlife Trust Project costs 2010 – 2015 $500,000

Sussex Wildlife Trust Project costs 2010 – 2015 $500,000

MCBI Core costs - repeat grant 2011 – 2013 $2,000,000

Oceana Core costs - repeat grant 2010 – 2012 $3,550,000

$7,097,000

HOW WE OPERATE

HOW WE OPERATE

26Arcadia supports charities and scholarly institutions that preserve cultural heritage and the environment.

All decisions on grants are made at the discretion of our Donor Board and in consultation with our Advisory Board.

THE DONOR BOARD

PROFESSOR PETER BALDWIN Co-founder of Arcadia and chair of the Donor Board and the Advisory Board Professor of History at the University of California, Los Angeles, Peter’s most recent work is The Narcissism of Minor Differences: How America and Europe are Alike (Oxford University Press, 2009).

DR LISBET RAUSING Co-founder of Arcadia Senior Research Fellow at Imperial College’s Centre for the History of Science, Technology and Medicine, Lisbet also serves on various boards and committees including the Harvard Board of Overseers and Yad Hanadiv.


THE ADVISORY BOARD

NICHOLAS FERGUSON - chairman of SVG Capital, deputy chairman of BSkyB Plc and chairman of Alta Holdings, Nicholas is also chairman of the Institute for Philanthropy and of the Courtauld Institute of Art.

DR DON RANDEL - President of the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation and a member of the editorial board of Encyclopaedia Britannica.

PROFESSOR DAME ALISON RICHARD - Vice-Chancellor Emerita of Cambridge University and former Provost of Yale University.

LORD ROTHSCHILD OM GBE - chairman of Yad Hanadiv, Lord Rothschild has also served as chairman of the National Gallery and of the Heritage Lottery Fund. In 2002, he was awarded the Order of Merit for his services to philanthropy, an honour bestowed on just 24 people in the UK.

Arcadia actively seeks out organisations led by exceptional individuals that operate in a sustainable, cost-effective, scientifically sound and ethical manner.

We do not accept unsolicited proposals for funding.

MEET THE TEAM



Providing support and advice to the Donor Board and the Advisory Board, our team is responsible for researching proposed grants and monitoring our existing commitments.

ANTHEA CASE CBE Principal Advisor Former Chief Executive of the National Heritage Memorial Fund and Heritage Lottery Fund, Anthea also serves as a Commissioner of CABE, as a regional chairman of the National Trust and as a trustee of a number of arts and heritage organisations.

DR FAY BOUND ALBERTI Head of Philanthropy and Grants Management

Established cultural historian with publications in the histories of science and medicine, Fay oversees the grants management of Arcadia with special interest in Open Access, digitisation and heritage conservation.

If you would like to learn more about Arcadia please visit our website at www.arcadiafund.org.uk

Hidden and erased text revealed by EMEL’s cutting edge technology

ARCADIA

Sixth Floor5 Young StreetLondon, W8 5EH

www.arcadiafund.org.uk

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