You can help Save the Golden Lion Tamarin!

Save the Golden Lion Tamarin is a U.S.A.  501(c)(3) public charity dedicated to raising funds to support the efforts of the Brazilian organization Associação Mico-Leão Dourado to Save Golden Lion Tamarins in their native Brazilian coastal Atlantic Forest habitat.

The tiny golden lion tamarin (GLT), one of the world's most endangered primates, is threatened by loss of its forest habitat, mainly due to urban sprawl from the city of Rio de Janeiro.  The Associação Mico-Leão Dourado is a small group of individuals who have dedicated their careers to bringing GLTs back from the brink.  Their GLT Conservation Project is internationally recognized as the model for in-situ/ex-situ conservation of an endangered species and its habitat.  They have had many successes:

• Thanks in part to a successful program to reintroduce zoo-born GLTs to the wild the population of this species in the wild has increased from a few hundred to over 1500. 
• Protected habitat has increased by 140%.
• The Red Data Book status for GLTs was changed from "critically endangered" to "endangered" - the only case of a conservation upgrade for a primate.
• A strong research program provides the science to drive the conservation  applications.
• Hundreds of Brazilian students at all academic levels have participated in our reintroduction, reforestation, corridor planting, education and ecotourism, GIS and ecology training programs.
• GLTs have become a conservation icon at local and national levels.
• Partnerships with the Brazilian government and other non-governmental organizations and local communities have enabled the development and implementation of real conservation at the watershed and landscape levels. t
• A highly committed and award-winning team of Brazilians working full time to conserve GLTs and the diversity of life in their Atlantic Forest habitat.

We have a clear and attainable conservation target:

2,000 golden lion tamarins living freely in a landscape of 25,000 hectares of connected and protected Atlantic Forest habitat 

by the year 2025

We are more than halfway there!

We have the knowledge base, the people, and the infrastructure, and we know how much it will cost.

With your help we can SAVE Golden Lion Tamarins

IN PERPETUITY!

urism, GIS and ecology training programs

protected habitat has increased by 140%; the Red Data Book status for GLTs was changed from “critically endangered” to “endangered”—the only case of a conservation upgrade for a primate;  a strong research program provides the science to drive our conservation applications; hundreds of Brazilian students at all academic levels have participated in our reintroduction, reforestation, corridor planting, education and ecotourism, GIS and ecology training programs; GLTs have become a conservation icon at local and national levels; partnerships between the GLT Conservation Project and Brazilian government and nongovernment agencies have enabled the development and implementation of real conservation at the watershed and landscape levels.  We have a highly committed and award-winning team of Brazilians, the Associação Mico Leão Dourado (AMLD; working full time to conserve GLTs and biodiversity in Brazil’s Atlantic Forest. 

Three PHVAs and annual cycles of adaptive management provide a clear and attainable conservation goal:  we need 2,000 golden lion tamarins living freely in a landscape of 25,000 ha of connected and protected Atlantic Forest habitat by year 2025.  We have come a long way toward achieving that goal and we have the knowledge base, the infrastructure and the people to complete the task—to conserve GLTs in perpetuity.  And we know how much it will cost. 

With this record of success, why am I writing to you? Although Brazil is a vibrant, growing, stable democracy, poised between the developed and developing world, there are new financial challenges which we must meet or we risk the erasure of 30 years of progress.  We are able to raise local and international funds for applied aspects of our conservation work, e.g., forest protection and restoration and to purchase land for reforestation (, but we are having serious problems raising funds to pay salaries of AMLD staff in Brazil.  As you know, people make conservation happen.  If we lose our Brazilian team we will lose GLTs as well.

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9604 Garwood St.
Silver Spring MD 20901
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