Objectives

• To provide clear and relevant conservation training to enhance awareness against poaching and to help implement sustainable alternatives for communities living in regions affected by environmental instability.
• To empower anti poaching units to demonstrate legally assertive action against currently superior poaching elements in order to cripple environmentally destructive activities in all areas of operation.
• To execute relentless patrols in areas of operation to target the removal of wire snares used indiscriminately for the commercial bushmeat trade.
• To demand and monitor only ethical and corruption free standards of practice from all anti poaching units.
  To establish and support environmentally beneficial training and educational projects that teach methods which counteract poaching and encourage environmental protection.
• To work towards the repopulation of endangered species.
• Through marketing and awareness campaigns increase accurate global understanding about the current issue of poaching facing volatile regions.

Damien served as a Clearance Diver in the Royal Australian Navy before transferring to a Special Operations unit within the Australian Army. Following the completion of military service he was employed by an Non-Government Organisation tasked with retraining the future police of Iraq. Damien eventually moved to the position of Project Manager, overseeing daily operations of the Iraq Special Police Training Academy in Baghdad. He returned home from Iraq in 2008 after three years service.

Arriving in Africa at the beginning of 2009, the intention was to apply his background skills to wildlife protection and conservation. After traveling the southern half of the continent he came to rest in Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe. It was in Zimbabwe that he received a first-hand look at the decimation poaching was having on the wildlife population. Incensed by the lack of resources made available to combat the problem he founded the International Anti Poaching Foundation (IAPF), designed to counteract the bloodshed through assertive action and specialist training. He has since been working very closely with other conservation based organizations with similar objectives.
 

What we are about
The IAPF believes that through education and action an actual difference can be made to the current crisis. The IAPF understands the necessity for the service it provides and seeks to collaborate openly with all other similar orientated organizations.

Where we are based
The IAPF was started in Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe. Members spend majority of their time in the field, however they do regularily return to Victoria Falls between projects to regroup and conduct fundraising activities.

How we are funded
At this point the IAPF is in its very early stages. The next few years will be financially tough. We are confident that once further established the IAPF will begin to receive the corporate sponsorship that it is so desperate for. With this funding we will expand accordingly to deliver the program as far reaching as our resources permit.

Damien works voluntarily for the foundation drawing no salary or wage. All staff employed by the organization are paid by private donors, not from the trust account. This ensures that 100% of all donations go strait back into conservation through anti poaching. 


Board of Trustees

Roger Parry
After 10 years with Zimbabwe Parks and Wildlife Management Authority Roger ascended to the rank of Senior Warden at Chizarira National Park. Following his time at Parks he has spent an additional 15 years in the field of wildlife conservation. Roger’s experience includes 15 years of using chemical and physical restraint of wildlife for conservation purposes. Additionally, Roger has had extensive experience in the training and deployment of operational anti poaching units. 

Leon Varley
Leon worked for the Wildlife Forestry Department of Zimbabwe for five years. It was in the Forestry Department that he began training and operating amongst anti poaching units in Chizarira and Hwange National Parks - with excellent results. Since departing Forestry, Leon has spent the past 22 years conducting walking safaris across much of Southern Africa. He has witnessed first-hand the effects poaching has had over this part of the continent and joins the foundation offering his full support.

Leon also writes as a freelance journalist, covering contemporary environmental issues that are affecting Sub Saharan Africa.