Hello! We are “La Casa del Tapir”! (Tapir’s House), an environmental education initiative promoted by AndigenA Foundation in partnership with other organizations in Latin America that seeks to generate empathy and public awareness about tapir conservation.

AndigenA is a Venezuelan non-governmental organization created on 1999 with the aim to promote the environmental conservation in the Neotropical region with emphasis in the Andes Mountain range. Since the beginning we have kept a joint work in favor of tapir conservation in Venezuela with a positive impact in other countries of the species’ range. On 2010, we created a novel environmental education initiative called "La Casa del Tapir" (Tapir’s House) with the purpose to generate a popular interest and commitment regarding tapir conservation.

Tapir’s House works mainly as a virtual center for spreading scientific and popular information about all tapir species through Internet. In order to reach a better efficiency, we produce visually attractive science-based educational materials, mainly in Spanish language because is the language mainly spoken in the Tapirs’ Range in Latin America. In this respect, our materials have been used by hundreds of teachers and their students all across Latin America. Thanks to this original and professional work, Tapir’s House is currently an important reference and regional leader regarding tapir conservation.

From the beginning, Tapir’s House activities has been carried out as a volunteer work due to the lack of a financial support to sustain the activities in a regular way. However, we must recognize an important and valuable support offered by a small group of people identified with our noble cause. Because we want to reinforce and sustain the educational success reached until now, today we ask for your kind attention, generosity and sincere support.

“In the end, we will conserve only what we love; we will love only what we understand and we will understand only what we are taught.” — Baba Dioum, 1968.

APRIL IS TAPIR

Since 2007, “World Tapir Day” is celebrated every April 27th. It is a special date to draw the attention of the general public regarding the importance of protecting these threatened creatures. Although we have joined to this special celebration, we believe that tapirs deserve greater attention. For this reason, on April 2021 we wanted to go further and started the celebration of the “Month of the Tapirs”. Since the beginning this initiative was well received and we want to strengthen it now in order to achieve a greater impact on public attention.

Month of the Tapirs is a special time of learning, commitment, practical actions and familiarization with our roles as active protectors of the environment.

WHAT ARE WE LOOKING FOR NOW?

During April 2025 we want to claim Month of the Tapirs as an annual event to share many amazing facts about tapirs and their importance as ecological and cultural ambassadors. We want to inspire and motivate more people to focus their attention on tapir conservation.

Likewise, we want to produce more educational materials (t-shirts, brochures, stickers, coloring sheets, educational games, among others) to share through virtual scenery and in-person meetings. This year we will share some amazing achieved gotten through a pioneering Tapir Conservation project carried out in Waraira Repano national park (Central Coast Mountain Range in Venezuela), in partnership with Guarenas Repano Foundation. With our allies in Colombia (Mountain Tapir Forever Project) and Ecuador (Fundación Oso Andino), we will also disseminate important information on mountain tapir (Tapirus pinchaque) conservation. This fourth edition of Month of the Tapirs will be full of wonderful news and gifts for tapir fans!

Saving the tapirs and their habitat will contribute towards:

• To conserve the tropical ecosystems, especially the rainforests.

• To protect the watersheds, vital for the people, to irrigate the lands and to produce electric energy.

• To protect the soil from erosion so that the land will continue to support agriculture and to prevent natural disasters.

"Wherever there is a human being, there is an opportunity for kindness." Seneca.

AIMS: MONTH OF THE TAPIRS

Raise public awareness, with emphasis on children, in favor of the tapir conservation and their habitat:

• by developing hands-on, education activities for various educational levels.

• by using in the environmental education, the most updated science-based information about tapir ecology.

• by creating and distributing educational materials for free use through Internet, in educational centers and other community-based organizations.

• by using the South American common tapir and the mountain tapir as “focal species” for the conservation in some wild areas of Venezuela, Colombia and Ecuador, especially in national parks.

Evaluate the effectiveness of environmental education for its future implementation in specific areas of the South American common tapir’s range in Venezuela, Colombia and Ecuador:

• by measuring attitude changes in the people regarding the tapir conservation within the work areas.

WHAT DIFFERENCE CAN YOUR CONTRIBUTION MAKE?

Maybe one single dollar means nothing to many people in developed countries, but for us in Venezuela is a concrete possibility to sustain a wonderful long-term wildlife conservation project based on environmental education as strategy to arouse interest of the people toward tapir conservation.  Each contribution can help us to sustain this wonderful initiative in favor to biodiversity conservation.

Each contribution that you give through this crowdfunding campaign, it will allow us to provide education to our closer neighbors, especially children from the urban and rural areas as well as sustain our informative websites and social media.

Your contribution is a precious opportunity to recognize the real value of the nature and our responsibility with its future.  Please, consider your sincere support today and so we can make together a difference in this world full of contrast.

WHAT WILL THE MONEY RAISED BE USED FOR?

The fund raised through this crowdfunding campaign it will allow us to celebrate the fourth edition of Month of the Tapirs as well as sustain an active work during the next quarter (April 2025 – June 2025).

We want:

• Produce 500 stickers to distribute free of charge in educational centers.

• Produce brochures and a set of educational games in digital format to distribute online.

• Produce 100 T-shirts.

• Print 1,000 Didactic Coloring Sheets about tapirs.

• Sustain regular information through the Internet.

• Develop a series of virtual conferences and talks as part of a Distance Education Program.

• Pay professional fees linked to the production of educational materials (brochures, stickers, educational games, multimedia presentations, etc.).

• Cover administrative expenses (communication: mail, telephone, internet, etc.) to sustain the activities of La Casa del Tapir.

• Pay for the maintenance of our websites (hosting and domain) and social networks.

• Pay living expenses (food, accommodation and fuel) during visits to educational centers (mainly elementary schools and high schools).

EXPECTED RESULTS

• Students and their parents will obtain qualified information about tapirs and topics related to environmental conservation.

• Children and adults will awaken greater awareness and commitment towards the conservation of the tapir and their environments.

• Government staff and community leaders will be motivated to take a more proactive role in strengthening local tapir conservation programs.

• Our environmental education initiative will be used as a joint model for other conservation programs in Venezuela and eventually in neighboring countries.

UPDATES

We will be providing updates and progress of the work through:

Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/LaCasaDelTapir

Website and blog: https://lacasadeltapir.blogspot.com

Instagram: www.instagram.com/lacasadeltapir

Website: www.andigena.org