JCDecaux, the number one outdoor advertising company worldwide, is to join The Lion’s Share Fund, a unique initiative raising much-needed funds to support wildlife conservation across the globe.
The Lion’s Share is an ambitious initiative, led by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), founder FINCH and founding partner Mars, Incorporated, which aims to raise over $100 million per year within the next three years for wildlife conservation and animal welfare by asking advertisers to contribute 0.5% of their media spend every time an animal is featured in an advertisement.
JCDecaux, which operates in 4,031 cities in more than 80 countries and reaches a daily audience of over
410 million people, will play a key role in the initiative, running campaigns of The Lion’s Share across the year. Thanks to global presence in people’s daily lives through its Out-of-Home displays, JCDecaux will help raise awareness worldwide about this important urgent issue of wildlife conservation.
Abdoulaye Mar Dieye, UN Assistant Secretary-General and Director of the UNDP Bureau for Policy and Programme Support, said: “This latest partnership with JCDecaux marks a continuing evolution of this innovative fund, which is providing an opportunity for media companies to join and to help preserve and protect biodiversity across the globe”.
“Each year, we lose 10,000 species to extinction – which is an astonishing 1,000 times the natural rate. This crisis may seem insurmountable at times because its scale feels too large for anyone to have a real impact. But this crisis is reversible, and nature can thrive again. The Lion’s Share is harnessing this hope,” Steiner added.
Jean-Sébastien Decaux, CEO Southern Europe, Belgium, Luxembourg, Africa, Israel and member of the Executive Board of JCDecaux, said: “We are proud to support the Lion’s Share fund in its mission to promote wildlife conservation across the globe. As number one advertising company worldwide, present in more than 80 countries, JCDecaux is committed to contributing towards the United Nations’ Sustainable Goals through its daily activities across the globe. Following our partnership with WildAid in 2018, which aimed to end the illegal wildlife trade, the Lion’s Share global initiative underlines our commitment to preserve and protect biodiversity across the globe. We are delighted to use the power and reach of our advertising portfolio to raise people’s awareness and to help create positive and sustainable changes.”
The Lion’s Share will also hold in Nairobi its first steering committee, agreeing on a five-year, $15 million investment plan. Key investments include a programme to support endangered jaguars in Latin America and to address the loss of tigers and their habitat in Asia. The fund is already having an impact, providing a grant to improve critical radio systems for law enforcement officers protecting wildlife in Mozambique’s Niassa National Reserve, and providing a grant to help secure land for endangered orangutans, elephants and tigers in North Sumatra in Indonesia.
Animals appear in approximately 20 per cent of all advertisements in the world, yet despite this, animals do not always receive the support they deserve. The Lion’s Share gives brands the opportunity to take urgent and significant action to play their part in protecting wildlife conservation and animal welfare by raising money in a sustainable way.
The Lion’s Share was established in June 2018 with Mars, Incorporated as a founding partner, and partnerships with advertising network BBDO and leading measurement company Nielsen.
The Lion’s Share will work to contribute to the Sustainable Development Goals, the UN’s universal call to action to end poverty and protect the planet. Supporting animals and helping to conserve their habitats is key to achieving Goal 14, Life Underwater, and Goal 15, Life on Land.
For more information on the Lion’s Share Fund, visit
www.thelionssharefund.com.
Contacts:
Adam Cathro, UNDP, +1 212 906 5326,
adam.cathro@undp.org
Estelle Ardouin, JCDecaux, +33 1 30 79 34 48,
estelle.ardouin@jcdecaux.comNotes to Editors:
About The Lion's Share key programmes:
- People – Tiger Landscape Partnership: The People-Tiger Landscape Partnership seeks to address the rapid loss of tigers, and their habitat, by promoting sound management of people-tiger landscapes. This will be achieved through land-use planning and land-management practices that integrate wildlife conservation with ecosystem management, and the implementation of effective human-wildlife conflict-management measures to promote incentives for co-habitation. The start-up phase of the People-Tiger Transformative Partnership will focus on a single landscape: the Leuser Ecosystem, Sumatra, Indonesia. The Leuser Ecosystem is the last remaining forest where Sumatran elephants, rhinos, tigers and orangutans roam together.
- Jaguar Corridor Legacy Partnership: The Partnership will embrace an ecosystem approach to conservation, to preserve the whole web of life that underpins thriving populations of top predators such as the jaguar and in turn the communities who depend on jaguar habitats. The Lion’s Share will work with jaguar range country governments and partners to strengthen the Jaguar Corridor by securing 30 priority jaguar landscapes by 2030. The Lion’s Share Secretariat proposes that the Jaguar Corridor Legacy Partnership focus on one landscape in particular for the start-up phase: the Pantanal, Brazil.
- NIassa National Reserve: The Lion's Share facilitated the overall project to expand the coverage of the Niassa National Reserve in Mozambique digital VHF radio system. The primary role of the expansion and upgrade of the radio network within Niassa National Reserve is to improve the communications network for law enforcement activities. This grant has provided funding to allow for the smooth delivery of the equipment to the Reserve, and to assist in the costs of the technicians installing the systems.
- Sumatran Orangutan Society: The grant has enabled the second installment to be paid towards securing a 360-hectare plot of land adjacent to the Leuser Ecosystem in North Sumatra, Indonesia. This will allow for the extension of habitat for critically endangered species including the Sumatran orangutan, Sumatran elephant and Sumatran tiger, and reduction in instances of human wildlife conflict.
About the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP)
UNDP partners with people at all levels of society to help build nations that can withstand crisis, and drive and sustain the kind of growth that improves the quality of life for everyone. On the ground in nearly 170 countries and territories, we offer global perspective and local insight to help empower lives and build resilient nations. For more information on UNDP, visit
undp.org.
About JCDecaux
JCDecaux, the number one outdoor advertising company worldwide, is present in more than 80 countries and 4,031 cities with over 10,000 inhabitants. For more than 50 years, JCDecaux products have been the benchmark in innovation, quality, aesthetics and functionality. In an era of smart cities, JCDecaux is well positioned to play a major role in the evolution of urban growth strategies. Thanks to the expertise of its employees, JCDecaux provides innovative offers with more sustainable, friendly and comfortable cities.
By putting data excellence at the heart of its business, the Group is already helping to build the connected cities of tomorrow.
For more information about JCDecaux, please visit
jcdecaux.com. Join us on
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About Mars, Incorporated
Mars is a family-owned business with more than a century of history making diverse products and offering services for people and the pets people love. With more than $35 billion in sales, the company is a global business that produces some of the world’s best-loved brands: M&M’s®, SNICKERS®, TWIX®, MILKY WAY®, DOVE®, PEDIGREE®, ROYAL CANIN®, WHISKAS®, EXTRA®, ORBIT®, 5™, SKITTLES®, UNCLE BEN’S®, and COCOAVIA®. Mars also provides veterinary health services that include BANFIELD Pet Hospitals, Blue Pearl®, VCA® and Pet Partners™. Headquartered in McLean, VA, Mars operates in more than 80 countries. The Mars Five Principles – Quality, Responsibility, Mutuality, Efficiency and Freedom – inspire its more than 115,000 Associates to create value for all its partners and deliver growth they are proud of every day.
For more information about Mars, please visit
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About FINCH
FINCH is a production company made of filmmakers, artists, and engineers, working at the crossroads of storytelling, entertainment and technology. They believe in impacting culture through work that makes them proud. Finch has offices in Sydney, Melbourne and Auckland. FINCH make documentaries, live experiences, TV commercials, feature films and digital content. They hold more than a dozen patents and actively develop and license products and innovations that push the boundaries of conventional storytelling. Founded in 2011, their work has been recognised with advertising’s top honours including Gold Cannes Lions, a D&AD Black Pencil and several Yellow Pencils.
For more information about FINCH, please visit
finchcompany.com. Join us on
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ABOUT CLEMENGER BBDO MELBOURNE:
Clemenger BBDO Melbourne is one of Australia’s largest and most creatively awarded agencies, having been named World’s most creative agency at Cannes Lions and D&AD; the region’s most effective agency at the APAC Effies over the past 12 months. A member of the global BBDO network, the agency’s mantra is “The Work. The Work. The Work.” You can find more information on the agency at:
www.clemengerbbdo.com.au.