The Aspinall Foundation (formerly The John Aspinall Foundation) is a British charity (Registered Charity 326567) which works to promote

wildlife conservation Wildlife conservation refers to the practice of protecting wild species and their habitats in order to maintain healthy wildlife species or populations and to restore, protect or enhance natural ecosystems. Major threats to wildlife include habita ...

. It was set up by casino owner John Aspinall in 1984 and runs the two zoos he established,

Port Lympne Wild Animal Park Port Lympne Hotel & Reserve near the town of Hythe in Kent, England is set in and incorporates the historic Port Lympne Mansion, and landscaped gardens designed by architect Sir Herbert Baker, for Sir Philip Sassoon. The estate with an Edwa ...

and

Howletts Wild Animal Park Howletts Wild Animal Park (formerly known as Howletts Zoo) in the parish of Bekesbourne, near Canterbury in Kent, was established as a private zoo in 1957 by John Aspinall. In 1962, the House known as Howletts was being restored. A small cottage ...

Kent Kent is a county in South East England and one of the home counties. It borders Greater London to the north-west, Surrey to the west and East Sussex to the south-west, and Essex to the north across the estuary of the River Thames; it faces ...

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

. It also runs conservation projects overseas to protect endangered species and return captive animals back to the wild. The charity is now run by

Damian Aspinall John Damian Androcles Aspinall (born 24 May 1960) is an English businessman and conservationist. He has raised and released a number of zoo-bred lowland gorillas in Gabon. Early life Aspinall is the son of Jane Gordon Hastings and John Victor ...

, son of the founder. In addition to running the zoos, which breed rare and endangered animals, the Foundation campaigns on wildlife issues, such as opposing Chinese attempts to relax the rules governing the trade in products made from tigers. As of 2002, the twin zoos were home to 14 hybrid, Siberian and Sumatran tigers. The Foundation set up a project for gorillas orphaned by

bush meat Bushmeat is meat from wildlife species that are hunted for human consumption, most often referring to the meat of game in Africa. Bushmeat represents a primary source of animal protein and a cash-earning commodity for inhabitants of humid tro ...

poachers in the

Republic of Congo The Republic of the Congo (french: République du Congo, ln, Republíki ya Kongó), also known as Congo-Brazzaville, the Congo Republic or simply either Congo or the Congo, is a country located in the western coast of Central Africa to the w ...

in the late 1980s and in 1998, created an orphan

gorilla Gorillas are herbivorous, predominantly ground-dwelling great apes that inhabit the tropical forests of equatorial Africa. The genus ''Gorilla'' is divided into two species: the eastern gorilla and the western gorilla, and either four or fi ...

project in the neighbouring state of Gabon. It supports the 'Project Protection des Gorilles Gabon' which is based in

Franceville Franceville is one of the four largest cities in Gabon, with a population of 110,568 at the 2013 census. It lies on the Mpassa River and at the end of the Trans-Gabon Railway and the N3 road. It grew from a village named Masuku when Pierre Savor ...

Gabon Gabon (; ; snq, Ngabu), officially the Gabonese Republic (french: République gabonaise), is a country on the west coast of Central Africa. Located on the equator, it is bordered by Equatorial Guinea to the northwest, Cameroon to the north ...

and seeks to reintroduce gorillas in the

Batéké Plateau National Park Batéké Plateau National Park is a national park on the Bateke Plateau, southeastern Gabon covering . Due to its purported universal cultural and natural significance, it was added onto the UNESCO World Heritage Tentative List on October 20, 200 ...

. In 2013 the foundation launched a programme to breed

Scottish wildcat The Scottish wildcat is a European wildcat (''Felis silvestris silvestris'') population in Scotland. It was once widely distributed across Great Britain, but the population has declined drastically since the turn of the 20th century due to habita ...

s, with plans to create a breeding centre on the island of

Càrna Carna or Càrna is an island in Loch Sunart, an arm of the sea, close to the Ardnamurchan peninsula, on the west coast of Scotland. Geography Carna lies wedged across the mouth of Loch Teacuis in the middle of Loch Sunart, forming two narro ...

, off the west coast of Scotland. In November 2019, The Aspinall Foundation rescued 11

elephants Elephants are the largest existing land animals. Three living species are currently recognised: the African bush elephant, the African forest elephant, and the Asian elephant. They are the only surviving members of the family Elephantidae and ...

, 19 buffalo, 29

wildebeest Wildebeest ( , , ), also called gnu ( or ), are antelopes of the genus ''Connochaetes'' and native to Eastern and Southern Africa. They belong to the family Bovidae, which includes true antelopes, cattle, goats, sheep, and other even-toe ...

and 4

giraffe The giraffe is a large African hoofed mammal belonging to the genus ''Giraffa''. It is the tallest living terrestrial animal and the largest ruminant on Earth. Traditionally, giraffes were thought to be one species, ''Giraffa camelopardalis ...

from Blaauwbosch Private Reserve in

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the north by the neighbouring countri ...

's Eastern Cape after the SPCA were granted a warrant for the animals' removal following years of neglect. In February 2020 The Aspinall Foundation became the first organisation in the world to send captive bred cheetahs from the UK for rewilding in South Africa. Damian Aspinall personally released the two male cheetah, who were born at Port Lympne, into their new home close to

Cape Town Cape Town ( af, Kaapstad; , xh, iKapa) is one of South Africa's three capital cities, serving as the seat of the Parliament of South Africa. It is the legislative capital of the country, the oldest city in the country, and the second largest ...

. In March 2021, The Charity Commission announced that they had opened a statutory inquiry into The Aspinall Foundation over serious concerns about the charity’s governance and financial management. ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...

'' reported an item in its accounts in November 2021 suggesting the foundation had paid £150,158 to Victoria Aspinall, the wife of Damian Aspinall, to be used in 2020 as fees for "interior design services". Damian Aspinall was asked to stand down as chairman and trustee in June 2022 over financial irregularities it had discovered during its inquiry, but Aspinall had been granted time to challenge the ruling. Tara Stoinski of the

Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund The Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund International (originally the Digit Fund) is a charity for the protection of endangered mountain gorillas. The Digit Fund was created by Dr. Dian Fossey in 1978 for the sole purpose of financing her anti-poaching patr ...

made this comment on the television program 60 Minutes (aired 15 March 2015): "I think that humans have a very romantic notion of what the wild is like, and the wild is not a place where it is safe, and animals get to roam free and make choices". She wonders about the value of sending zoo-born animals to Africa and believes that it would be wiser for Aspinall to use his funds to save gorillas already in the wild. In 2022, the Aspinall Foundation announced that 13 elephants, born in captivity, would be returned to Africa, for release in the wilds of Kenya. Some experts questioned the wisdom of this strategy, citing issues such as the stress caused by "a hazardous journey", low temperatures at night in Africa, as well as "unfamiliar surroundings, foraging for food, predators and illness". Some concern was also expressed about water quality and the risk of conflict with the human population. The Foundation replied with a statement that it "has a 30-year history of successful rewilding projects around the globe".

References

External links

The Aspinall Foundation website
*
BBC Article on the Gabon Gorilla sanctuaryBBC Article on the foundation's work in CongoDamian Aspinall rescues starving elephants from private game reserve in South Africa
{{DEFAULTSORT:Aspinall Foundation 1984 establishments in England Charities based in Kent Foreign charities operating in Gabon Organizations established in 1984 Foreign charities operating in the Republic of the Congo Animal charities based in the United Kingdom