About Us

Photo by Andrey Giljov & Karina Karenina

Our Mission

We are committed to restoring the saiga antelope to its position as the flagship species of the Central Asian and pre-Caspian steppes, reflecting the species’ cultural and economic value to local people and its fundamental role in the steppe ecosystem. We work collaboratively, and freely share our expertise and enthusiasm for saigas. We disseminate our work widely – to those working for saiga conservation, the public throughout the world, governments and the wider conservation community.

Who We Are

The Saiga Conservation Alliance is a network of researchers and conservationists who have worked together for over 15 years to study and protect the critically endangered saiga antelope. The SCA was officially inaugurated in September 2006, and in November 2006 we were granted Candidate Partner status by the Wildlife Conservation Network.

The SCA membership includes Trustees, who have responsibility for the governance of the charity, the Steering Committee, who make the executive decisions, Institutional members, Individual members, and Supporters.

Find out more about our volunteers, staff and their roles and responsibilities here.

 

How We Work

The Saiga Conservation Alliance’s guiding principles are to conserve the saiga antelope by working through local partnerships and to focus on sustainable long-term solutions that are based on sound science. We work collaboratively and complement the work of others in order to ensure efficient conservation action. The saiga is our target species; however we aim to conserve the steppe ecosystem as a whole, taking into account human needs as well as other species of fauna and flora. We disseminate our work widely – to those working in the conservation community, as well as governments and the public throughout the world.
We believe in strong presence and expertise on the ground – in fact, many of us have witnessed the dramatic decline of the saiga in our homelands firsthand, and together we have many decades of field research experience behind us. This allows us to work closely with all the saiga stakeholders, ranging from remote local communities out in the steppe right up to regional governments. It also ensures that we are well informed and can react quickly, while ensuring cost efficiency.

We place strong emphasis on providing the scientific building blocks for saiga conservation and contributing towards informed and incentive-driven conservation action. Our work is strengthened by strong links with other international research groups, NGOs and Conventions such as the Convention on Migratory Species.

Capacity building is another important part of our work. We train students and young scientists and work with NGOs and schools in the saiga range areas to carry out saiga-related projects. Through close interaction with law enforcement agencies, we also contribute towards the training of rangers in Russia and Kazakhstan.We are committed to protecting the individuals whom we come into contact with during our work, you can read our safeguarding policy here

 

Constitution

The Saiga Conservation Alliance was formally launched in September 2006. We have two working languages: English and Russian. To download a pdf version of our constitution in either language please click on the link below:

pdf_iconSCA_Constitution (English) 240kB

pdf_iconSCA_Constitution (Russian) 300kB

Trustees

E.J. Milner-Gulland, Chair

UK

David Mallon

UK

Anthony Dancer, Treasurer

UK

Waleri Schmunk

Germany

Steering Committee

E.J. Millner-Gulland

Chair, UK

Alexander Esipov

Uzbekistan

Buuveibaatar Bayarbaatar

Mongolia

Olga Obgenova

Russia

Aline Kühl-Stenzel

Germany

Elena Bykova

Uzbekistan

Chimeddorj Buyanaa

Mongolia

Anna Lushchekina

Russia

Professor Zhigang Jiang

China

Albert Salemgareyev

Kazakhstan

Yuri Grachev

Kazakhstan

Yuri Arylov

Russia

Guihong Zhang

China

Programme Coordination

Carlyn Samuel

Programme Coordinator

Alexandra Bukvareva

Projects Coordinator

Olga Esipova

Research and Development Officer

Zebo Isakova

Project Manager

David Hill

 Projects Administrator

Peter Damerell

Project Manager

Our Partners

ACBK

Full Name: Association for the Conservation of Biodiversity of Kazakhstan
Country of partnership: Kazakhstan

Institute of Zoology UZ

Full Name: Institute of Zoology Academy of Sciences of the Republic of Uzbekistan
Country of partnership: Uzbekistan

WWF Mongolia

Full Name: World Wildlife Fund Mongolia

Country of partnership: Mongolia

WCS

Full Name: Wildlife Conservation Society

Country of partnership: Mongolia

Contact us

To contact us please send an email to saigaalliance@gmail.com

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