4.07.2008 - 10:00am ET

(CSRwire) LONDON (7th April 2008) – Following its annual meeting of Trustees on the 3rd April, the Mitsubishi Corporation Fund for Europe and Africa (MCFEA) has announced a program of £230,000 in new grants, including a 3-year grant to Peace Parks Foundation and an initial 1-year grant to Birdlife International. The 2008 funding programme also includes continued support to Concern Universal, for a project promoting the economic empowerment of small-scale agricultural producers in Guinea; to Fauna and Flora International, to promote environmental capacity building in Romania; to Earthwatch Institute (Europe), including support of its annual events programme; core funding to ARKive, a centralised free digital library of films and photographs of the world’s endangered species; and core funding to Botanic Gardens Conservation International for the 15th consecutive year.

Details of new grants for 2008 are as follows:

Peace Parks Foundation
Sponsorship of Natural Resource Management Students at the Southern
African Wildlife College (South Africa)

Peace Parks Foundation (PPF) is a not-for-profit organisation operating within the Southern African Development Community Region. Established in 1997 by Dr Anton Rupert, Dr Nelson Mandela and Prince Bernhard of the Netherlands, the overall objective of PPF is to facilitate the development of Trans-Frontier Conservation Areas (TFCAs) to promote regional peace and stability, the creation of new jobs associated
with the anticipated growth of tourism in southern Africa, and the conservation of biological diversity.

TFCAs need highly skilled wildlife managers to become sustainable and attractive to the tourism industry, and the MCFEA grant of approx £130,000 over 3 years will cover the training of 240 students studying natural resource management over a three-year period at the Southern African Wildlife College (SAWC). The SAWC, an association incorporated in South Africa and situated within the Kruger National Park, was established in 1997 to train field rangers identified by the parks authorities. The courses are structured to address all aspects of wildlife management including the softer skills of human resource management and administration.

Birdlife International
"Spring Alive" Project (Europe)

Headquartered in the United Kingdom, BirdLife International (BirdLife) is a global partnership of conservation organisations that strives to conserve birds and their habitats and works towards sustainability in the use of natural resources. BirdLife Partners operate in over one hundred countries and territories worldwide and have over 2,500,000 members.

Launched in 2006, Spring Alive is BirdLife's pan-European project designed to promote children's interest in nature and conservation, through tracking the arrival of migrating birds in spring. The core component of Spring Alive is a science web-based project that will be implemented in most European countries. Children and families are encouraged to observe and record the arrival of popular migratory bird species each year and to enter data on the first observation of each species into a specially provided interactive web-site. The website tracks the progress of spring across Europe on maps created from the data submitted. Over the years, analysis of the data will reveal trends in changes of arrival dates of the species.

The MCFEA will be the sole corporate sponsor of the Spring Alive Project in 2008.

WaterAid
Primary support of WaterAid's work with three community organizations in 2008 (Mozambique)

The MCFEA has been supporting WaterAid, an organisation dedicated to the
provision of safe domestic water, sanitation and hygiene education to the world's poorest communities since 2003 when a five-year commitment was made to support work in Mozambique. From 2004, the support has focused on WaterAid's work in Maputo, to help provide the infrastructure needed to improve the city's water supply, public sanitation and health.

Work undertaken by WaterAid and its partners in the district of Urbanização in Maputo, was a dramatic success, achieving 100% water and sanitation coverage. As a result, the Maputo city government has asked WaterAid to support five more districts, with a combined population of around 120,000 people. The new commitment of £72,300 from the MCFEA will look at expanding the work in Maputo in 2008 through the support of three Maputo-based partner organisations, Estamos, Pamodzi and ADASBU.

Additional projects in 2008:

In addition to the above, the MCFEA will also be looking for further partnership opportunities in the African region in 2008, due to increased funding of £60,000 from Mitsubishi Corporation.

About the Mitsubishi Corporation Fund for Europe and Africa

The Mitsubishi Corporation Fund for Europe and Africa (MCFEA), a UK registered charity, was established in 1992 to promote environmental conservation, education and research into the environment and poverty alleviation, through funding from Mitsubishi Corporation of Japan, and its U.K.-based subsidiary, Mitsubishi Corporation (UK) Plc.

The MCFEA's sister charity, the Mitsubishi Corporation Foundation for the Americas (MCFA), based in New York City, was established with funding from Mitsubishi Corporation of Japan, and its U.S.-based subsidiary, Mitsubishi International Corporation. With a current endowment of over US$5.5 million, the Foundation has dedicated nearly US$4 million to environmental causes throughout the Americas since it began operating in 1992.

For more information about the Mitsubishi Corporation Fund for Europe and Africa, please visit www.mcfea.org, and for more information about the Mitsubishi Corporation Foundation for the Americas, please visit www.mcfamericas.org.

About Mitsubishi Corporation

Mitsubishi Corporation (MC) is Japan's largest general trading company (sogo shosha) with over 200 bases of operations in approximately 80 countries worldwide. Together with its over 500 group companies, MC employs a multinational workforce of approximately 54,000 people. MC has long been engaged in business with customers around the world in virtually every industry, including energy, metals, machinery, chemicals, food and general merchandise. MC provides philanthropic spending through a variety of mechanisms, including donations to the MCFEA and the MCFA.

For more information, please visit www.mitsubishicorp.com.

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