When Citizen Conservation was launched in 2018, the project sponsors Frogs & Friends, VdZ and DGHT decided to run a five-year pilot phase to test whether our beautiful concept would work in practice.

Nine of the species we care for have already reproduced in CC. Our Lake Pátzcuaro salamander, Mallorcan Midwife toads, Oriental fire-bellied toads, Bony-headed toads, Vietnamese crocodile newts and Mangarahara cichlids are reproducing regularly and with several keepers. Here, we are making great strides towards the target markers we set for a 40-year CC population: 70% has already been achieved for the Vietnamese crocodile newt, 67% for the Mangarahara cichlid, 61% for the Lake Pátzcuaro salamander, and 43% for the Mallorcan midwife toad. In the meantime, there have also been successes with the other fish species – but since we do not report larvae, they are not yet listed in the table.

Our problem child so far was the Demonic poison frog because for a long time we had not succeeded in even getting foundation animals. But we can now happily announce that we are one frog leap further: 15 animals could be distributed to three CC keepers after balance closing on November 1. We hope, especially for this extremely critically endangered species with an apparently tiny population of animals in human care, that the first successes will soon be achieved and keep all available fingers crossed for our keepers.

One of the tasks of CC’s pilot phase was to find an own form of organization for the time after. That is why the Citizen Conservation Foundation was founded this year as a non-profit limited liability company. In January 2023, it will go into the next round during the first supervisory and advisory board meeting. The specialist group for fish will be formally established, we will then also start with reptiles including our own specialist advisory board, and of course our amphibian program will continue to be expanded step by step. We are excited to see what will have happened by the time of the next semi-annual review, which we will publish for International Biodiversity Day on May 22, 2023. One or the other new species will certainly appear in the table then.