AWF Mourns Passing of Founder Jim Bugg

African Wildlife Foundation (AWF) wishes to extend its deepest sympathies to the family of James Bugg, who passed away on February 18.

After his first trip to Africa in the late 1950s, Bugg played an instrumental role in the formation of the African conservation organization, whose other founders included former World Wildlife Fund chairman Russell Train and Kermit Roosevelt, the son of U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt. Then called the African Wildlife Leadership Foundation, AWF provided scholarships to Africans interested in conservation and established a wildlife management training college on the slopes of Mt. Kilimanjaro in northern Tanzania. 

“Jim’s first trip to Africa coincided with a time of great social change and political upheaval across the continent,” says Craig Sholley, African Wildlife Foundation’s vice president of philanthropy and marketing. “Because Africans were largely excluded from wildlife management circles under the old colonial system, Jim and the other founders understood there was a need to train and support a new generation of African conservation leaders.”

The launch of AWF wasn’t Bugg’s first foray into new enterprises. A World War II veteran, Bugg owned or started a number of businesses and initiatives during his lifetime, including a Century 21 franchise, Decorating Den Interiors and the Yellow Ribbon Fund, a Washington, DC–based charity that supports wounded soldiers returning from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and their families. In 2007, Washingtonian magazine heralded Bugg as its Washingtonian of the Year.

At AWF’s 50th Anniversary Founders Luncheon several years ago, Bugg couldn’t believe the small foundation he helped create, and whose first-year operating revenues were US$3,000, had blossomed into an organization now working in more than 18 countries across sub-Saharan Africa, with an operating budget of US$23 million.

Over the years, AWF has remained true to its roots and continues to foster conservation leadership in Africa through training and capacity-building programs and via scholarship support. Its conservation initiatives have expanded over the decades, however, to meet the conservation challenges of the 21st century, from combating the multi-billion dollar illegal wildlife trade to building schools and enhancing primary school education for rural communities that live closest to wildlife.

Though it is with great sadness that the conservation community has lost one of its own, AWF expresses great appreciation for Bugg’s vision and determination to ensure Africa’s extraordinary natural heritage survived for future generations.

Remarked Bugg once about his first trip to Africa in 1959: “I would assure you that I would see more animals in any half mile that we traveled in Mozambique than you would see if you walked through the National Zoo today that same half mile.”