Bat Conservation International, Inc.

Bat Conservation International is dedicated to the enduring protection of the world’s 1,300+ species of bats and their habitats and creating a world in which bats and humans successfully coexist. In pursuit of this vision, during the next five years BCI will work worldwide at scale with local, regional, national and multinational public and private partners to

● Respond rapidly and effectively to bat conservation crises, preventing the extinction of threatened bats and the extirpation of globally significant populations of bats.

● Identify, prioritize and begin conserving the world’s most “Significant Bat Areas.”

● Respond strategically to broad, irreversible threats that impact bats at multiple locations around the world.

● Build a global network of conservation biologists, NGOs, corporations, public agencies, local communities and regional bat scientific networks to address global issues impacting bat species.

● Create the first actionable global bat inventory and conservation database.

● Empower the next generation of bat conservationists and scientists through strategically targeted scholarships and grants.

● Stimulate research on the most pressing scientific questions relating to the lasting protection and value of all bat species.

● Work throughout the world to develop the public policy frameworks needed to safeguard bats.

● Educate key communities and the public at large on the importance of bats, raising their profile as an order of mammals worthy of concerted attention and action.

BCI will maximize its conservation impact by focusing on ten critical conservation strategies:

1. Accelerate scientific research
2. Prevent extinctions
3. Protect intact areas with highly diverse bat communities
4. Preserve mega-populations of bats
5. Forge global and regional strategies and partnerships
6. Address threats impacting multiple species at multiple sites
7. Promote community-based conservation of bats
8. Create and help enforce legal and policy frameworks
9. Help develop and perfect important technologies
10. Invest in tomorrow's conservation leadership

BCI's 30-year record of conservation impact has been achieved through the dedication of its staff, volunteers and supporters. During the next five years, BCI will begin the transition from a U. S. organization with some international projects to a truly global organization, diversifying its Board of Directors and workforce, staying abreast of and conforming to the laws and regulations of the countries in which BCI works. BCI will invest in its staff and volunteers, providing increased training and other resources to help ensure each staff and Board member excel in their work. We will ensure we maintain the highest quality web presence, translated into an increasing number of languages, and provide our decentralized staff with the means to operate and communicate effectively despite the physical distances separating them.

White-Nose Syndrome
• To date, BCI has given $275,285.00 in research grants to 16 institutions. Now our funding efforts are shifting to support carefully targeted projects based on priorities identified by the WNS science meetings and the WNS National Strategy.
• BCI works with state and federal partners to hold an annual national White-nose Syndrome Symposium.
• We participate in projects that use new technologies to monitor important hibernacula. We provide targeted information to managers and decision-makers to assist in WNS preparedness, and establishing concepts for delivering information to our partners, the public and media.

Wind
• BCI engages in specialized training sessions on studying wind energy impacts on bats. Staff serve as expert instructors at workshops to demonstrate field techniques and data collection and analysis procedures.
• We have published articles on bats and wind energy in our BATS magazine to highlight the issues to our members and keep them informed on our research progress.
• BCI staff deliver frequent presentations at professional conferences, BCI workshops, special symposiums and industry meetings.
• BCI staff have provided professional testimony, helped develop guidelines for wind energy and wildlife, served on professional committees and participated as instructors at workshops on wind energy and wildlife.

Subterranean
• BCI works with diverse partners to conduct mine and cave assessments and targeted research to identify the most important abandoned mines and caves used by bats, and to address the relative threats posed to humans and bats by recreational or incidental human access to these subterranean environments.
• We also partner to install bat-friendly mine and cave gates and to conduct workshops and educational outreach events.
• We collaborate with key partners to develop and implement outreach and training events and publications, like public presentations, mine- and cave-assessment workshops, gate-construction workshops, and publications on managing mines and caves for bats.

• We conduct site-based assessments and work with managers to develop the best recommendations to protect important bat habitats and help managers accomplish their objectives.

Global
• BCI and partners launched the first African Bat Conservation Summit in 2013.
• BCI helped launch continuing education, conservation and research initiatives in the Philippines that are blossoming into self-sustaining regional and national bat-conservation efforts.