World Rhino Day Video Raises Public Awareness of Rhino Poaching Crisis
In preparation for World Rhino Day, members of the USAID-funded Asia’s Regional Response to Endangered Species Trafficking (ARREST) coalition created a short film calling on the public to stop purchasing rhino horn and to support wildlife protection efforts. Rhino poaching has reached a crisis point. They are now extinct in Vietnam and are being poached faster than they can reproduce in remaining populations, especially in South Africa. Educate for Nature Vietnam (ENV) organized an interactive wildlife trade exhibition in Hanoi on September 28, which featured the USAID ARREST World Rhino Day short film. EVN also used its own public service announcements and footage from a recent delegation in South Africa that gathered ENV conservationists and Vietnamese celebrities to raise awareness of how consumption of rhino horn in Vietnam impacts wild rhino populations. The increased use of innovative media both at public events and online continues to improve public awareness levels and engagement in key wildlife trafficking issues. Please click here to view the video.
USAID ARREST's World Rhino Day video.
Clean Energy Entrepreneurs Perfect Investor Pitches at PFAN-Asia's Project Development & Financing Workshop
On October 1, the USAID Private Financing Advisory Network-Asia (PFAN) program hosted a Project Development & Financing Workshop in Bangkok. Fifteen clean energy entrepreneurs, representing $320 million of investments from eight countries in the region (Bangladesh, India, Indonesia, Myanmar, Mongolia, Nepal, Philippines and Thailand) attended the workshop. Entrepreneurs pitched their businesses to the audience (comprised of professional advisors, clean energy investors and commercial banks), learned about how investors evaluate prospective investments and improved their ability to develop financially, socially and environmentally viable business plans. This event is part of PFAN’s annual business plan competition, the Asia Forum for Clean Energy Financing (AFCEF-5). Following a competitive selection in November, 10 finalists will be given the opportunity to present at the AFCEF-5 Investor Forum in Singapore in February 2015. For additional details on how the PFAN program helps clean energy companies raise capital,
please watch this animated video introduction.
Clean energy entrepreneurs meet and pitch their businesses to potential investors at the USAID PFAN-Asia Project Development & Financing Workshop.
