Highlights of 2021

Above: Angela Merkel in the COP26 VIP Lounge in front of Explorers Artwork.

It's been a busy year at Explorers Against Extinction, culminating in a crazy November.

The highlights included:

- Being selected as one of only 15 organisations from thousands of applications to display in the official delegates areas of the COP26 Climate change conference in Glasgow. Out of the 25 available exhibition spaces we were allocated three, two in the main delegate area and one in the Leaders Lounge.

- Sara and Robert were invited to the COP26 conference as official delegates where they attended the briefings on deforestation and bio-diversity. 

- Record entries to Sketch For Survival Competition, receiving over 1,000 entries from 45 countries around the World.

- Record entries to our Focus For Survival Competition with over 600 entries.

- Our Sketch For Survival Auction, finishing on 28th November, raised a record £88,000 for our Conservation work, beating our previous record of £59,000.

- We exhibited our Auction Collection - comprising of the 100 winners of our Sketch For Survival Competition + an Invitational Collection of work from leading wildlife artists from around the world - for two weeks at the gallery@OXO on London's Southbank.

- Our Awards night at the Royal Geographical Society on 18th November, where awards were presented to our Artists, junior artists and writers of the Year. The evening was hosted superbly by our Patron Pip Stewart.

- Our Young Explorer Programme gave grants to two young conservationists, from Mexico and India, to undergo research projects on two ecosystems in Costa Rica and India and help forward their careers in Conservation.

We now look forward to an even busier 2022. Among other new initiatives we will be launching Junior Sketch For Survival, a competition aimed at the under 16's, funded by the Aviva Community and Climate Funds. 

Details of this and all our 2022 projects and campaigns will be announced during February & March.

As usual, a big thank you to all our supporters for their generosity and help in 2021, its a real team effort.