Using the species you see to save the ones you don’t.
Millions of people connect with black-and-white colobus in AZA zoos every year. Yet their red and olive relatives remain largely invisible to the public as their populations decline across Africa. SAFE Colobus bridges that gap by leveraging the visibility of zoo ambassadors to support the strategic conservation partnerships, resources, and on-the-ground action required to secure their future.
OUR WORK
HOW WE WORK
From zoo ambassador to forest lifeline.
Conservation doesn’t happen in a vacuum. We connect public scale directly to frontline protection through a 3-stage coordination model.
01 / PUBLIC VISIBILITY
Activating Unmatched Reach
We tap into the millions of annual visitors across AZA institutions to bring a silent crisis into focus, converting passive zoo appreciation into sustained conservation engagement.
02 / INSTITUTIONAL FOCUS
Shared Strategy & Rigor
We provide the first-ever centralized U.S. framework dedicated solely to colobus conservation, aligning funding, research, and zoo resources so effort compounds rather than scatters.
03 / FRONTLINE IMPACT
Direct Field Execution
We route resources straight to trusted, in-range partners on the ground, empowering local communities and protecting critical forest habitats where risk is highest.
WHY SAFE COLOBUS
Making the invisible impossible to ignore.
Species facing the greatest risk of extinction are often the least visible. SAFE Colobus exists to unite zoos, aquariums, conservation organizations, donors, and supporters behind a shared, high-impact strategy for Africa’s most threatened monkeys. We provide the infrastructure, field partnerships, and strategic alignment necessary to ensure every dollar, campaign, and institutional resource drives measurable, long-term impact where it is needed most.
IN-RANGE PARTNERSHIPS
Anchored by those who live with what’s at stake.
Conservation endures only when rooted where impact is felt. We work alongside dedicated in-range partners who bring deep local knowledge, lived experience, and on-the-ground accountability to protect colobus and their forest systems.
Connecting field expertise and community action across Côte d'Ivoire and Ghana to safeguard threatened primate habitats.
Community Field Stations
Establishing a new locally staffed field station to protect the forest and mitigate illegal hunting pressure.
Institutional Anchor Facilities
Linking major AZA facilities—including North Carolina Zoo, Cleveland Metroparks Zoo, and Columbus Zoo—directly to field deployments.
Changing the course for Colobus takes all of us.
Whether you represent an accredited zoo, lead field conservation, educate the public, or support from afar, your involvement directly powers species survival. Discover how you can strengthen frontline defense for Africa's most threatened group of monkeys.
GET INVOLVED