Mission

Save The Snakes is dedicated exclusively to snake conservation and human-snake conflict mitigation. Together with our worldwide network of snake conservationists, our mission is to protect snake populations around the world through education and community outreach to create a harmonious relationship between humans and snakes.

Purpose

Despite their unwarranted reputation, snakes are critically important animals for our world. Snakes maintain balance in the food web and therefore keep ecosystems healthy. They provide humans an ecological service by controlling pest populations. Snakes are truly interesting and amazing animals, which are celebrated or worshiped in cultures around the globe. Yet, due to increased conflict with humans, many snake species are under threat of extinction.

According to the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species, which evaluates the conservation status of plant and animal species, 12% of assessed snake species are listed as threatened and their populations are in decline. Even more alarming is that a most of the world’s reptile species have yet to be assessed by the IUCN, meaning their conservation status is unknown.

However, as human populations rapidly grow and spread into areas that wildlife depend on, conflict with snakes is becoming increasingly common. Each year, 2.7 million people around the world suffer a serious snakebite envenomation. In response to this snakebite crisis, the World Health Organization classified snakebite as a neglected tropical disease as few efforts exist to reduce snakebite in developing countries. For many, the solution to this crisis is to kill snakes, oftentimes indiscriminately. Some snakes are killed even if they pose no real threat to the human that encountered them.

Unfortunately persecution is not the only issue that snakes face. Around the world, snake populations are in decline because of habitat destruction, disease, over-harvesting, invasive species, and even climate change. These combined threats have brought some snake species ever closer to the brink of extinction. Simultaneously, the conservation needs of most other snake species are underfunded, remain poorly understood by researchers and garner little attention from society.

How We Save The Snakes

To increase worldwide snake conservation efforts, Save The Snakes was founded in 2017 to protect threatened snake populations and reduce direct conflicts between humans and snakes. Save The Snakes works with a community of organizations, companies, individuals and donors who help us promote, implement and sustain snake conservation around the world. Together we work globally to promote our mission and foster support for snake conservation.

To accomplish successful, international snake conservation efforts on the ground, Save The Snakes relies on the expertise, dedication and passion of our Conservation Partners to protect snake populations and mitigate human-snake conflict. We support their snake conservation efforts and highlight their incredibly important work on a global platform. To ensure the long-term impacts of our snake conservation efforts, our Conservation Partners address the challenge of human livelihoods and work to understand the delicate balance between humans and snakes. Their programs require close attention to the human context and together we actively explore ways to benefit the communities they work with in order to protect snake populations and their ecosystems. This unique, community-based approach to snake conservation is the most efficient use of financial resources because it directly empowers and supports the conservationists who implement desperately needed snake conservation efforts.

Ethics

Save The Snakes envisions a world where our society sustains increasingly healthy ecosystems, where all communities and wildlife species are respected, and where humans and snakes can live together in harmony. To accomplish our vision, we believe that a multidimensional approach for problem solving is critical to achieve project objectives. Our organization and leadership celebrates, respects and appreciates people of all races, cultures, sexual orientations and genders. We recognize that such diversity in our organization and in the communities where we work will greatly advance the success of our conservation efforts and see that our mission to protect snakes is accomplished.

Support Save The Snakes

Please donate today to help us continue our work. Save The Snakes depends on the assistance of generous people like you to help fund our snake conservation efforts around the world. We encourage you to set up monthly recurring donations, which help both you and Save The Snakes plan for the future. Thank you for your continued support.