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More Than Great Stories MISSIONPROGRAMS 2 0 0 9 ANNUALREPORT More Than Great Stories MISSIONPROGRAMS 2009 ANNUALREPORT 02 Leadership Messages 04 Strategic Initiatives and Explorer Programs 14 Research, Conservation, and Exploration 22 Lectures and Public Programs 26 Education Programs 30 Mission Media 32 Grantmaking 38 Philanthropy 44 Ways to Give 48 Financials 50 Leadership 51 Connect with National Geographic 52 Acknowledgments Video links for selected stories are featured wherever this symbol appears. Click the play button to watch the video. A Message from John Fahey THIS YEAR, OUR ANNUAL REPORT TO THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC DONOR community comes with our heartfelt appreciation for the wonderful support so many of you gave us throughout 2009 to ensure that the Society’s work could continue and evolve, despite the challenges created by the global economic downturn. The year was tough, but it also produced a silver lining. Over the course of 2009, we took advantage of the need to refocus our resources and found good ways to refine our thinking about how we can most effectively continue to do the important work of the Society, which ultimately is to inspire people to care about the planet. Clearly, this precious and fragile planet needs our continuing attention. There is much to be done, science to be pursued, and meaningful stories to be told. Your help and support, coupled with the hard work of National Geographic’s remarkable and dedicated staff, explorers, grantees, and journalists, insures our future. John Fahey President and CEO 2 Leadership Messages A Message from Terry Garcia I WANT TO JOIN JOHN IN EXPRESSING GRATITUDE FOR THE INCREDIBLE support our donors and friends have provided to our organization in 2009. We’ve always appreciated you, but perhaps never more than during these recent times. Your belief in the importance of our mission programs has enabled us to continue to fund important science and exploration, identify and nurture bright and emerging talent, provide our many audiences with exciting and engaging NG experiences, and, of course, continue our efforts to champion geographic education and literacy. As you’ll see as you review this report, your help enabled researchers to find hundreds of new species in Australia and to prove that dinosaurs had colored feathers. You also helped us launch a geography teacher leadership academy and bring the Terra Cotta Warriors to Washington for a dazzling, sold-out exhibit. And with your help and enthusiasm, we undertook some new and big ideas that bring new dimensions to science and exploration and engage the public in fresh, high-impact ways for years to come. Going forward, partners like you insure that our work will continue to generate great stories (with amazing pictures!) and much more. Terry Garcia Executive Vice President, Mission Programs To Donate Now, Click Here M ISSIO N PROGRAMS 20 09 ANNUAL REPORT 3 Strategic Initiatives and Explorer Programs ational Geographic explorers are at the heart of Mission Programs’ NStrategic Initiatives. The Society recognizes explorers from traditional and emerging fields through three programs— Explorers-in-Residence, Fellows, and Emerging Explorers. In the coming year, expect to see a number of our explorers working on the environmental front. We recently launched a Fresh Water Initiative, headed by new National Geographic Fellow Sandra Postel. The Ocean Initiative team will travel to the Mediterranean to continue its work to restore and protect the ocean. And a new Energy Initiative led by Fellow Thomas Lovejoy will raise awareness about energy consumption. On the cultural front, the Enduring Voices team plans to visit endangered language communities in India, Russia, Japan, and Chile in 2010-2011. Meet our explorers at nationalgeographic.org/explorers. 4 More Than Great Stories CELEBRATING MORE THAN120 YEARS OF EXPLORATION, EDUCATION, AND CONSERVATION National Geographic Explorers-in-Residence The Explorers-in-Residence Program enhances National Geographic’s long-standing relationship with some of the world’s best explorers and scientists, who develop programs and carry out fieldwork in their respective areas of study with the Society’s support. Robert Ballard, Ocean Explorer Wade Davis, Anthropologist/Ethnobotanist Jared Diamond, Geographer Sylvia Earle, Oceanographer J. Michael Fay, Conservationist Zahi Hawass, Archaeologist Dereck and Beverly Joubert, Filmmakers/Conservationists National Geographic Fellows Meave and Louise Leakey, Paleontologists Johan Reinhard, Anthropologist Fellows provide expert consultation on National Paul Sereno, Paleontologist Geographic projects, education and outreach, and Spencer Wells, Geneticist environmental and public policy. †Greg Anderson, Linguist Clockwise from top left: Explorers-in-Residence †John Francis, Environmentalist and “Planetwalker” Mike Fay, Sylvia Earle, Jared Diamond, Robert Ballard, †David Harrison, Linguist and Dereck and Beverly Joubert. Fredrik Hiebert, Archaeologist Elizabeth Kapu‘uwailani Lindsey, Filmmaker/Anthropologist Thomas E. Lovejoy, Tropical and Conservation Biologist Sandra Postel, Freshwater Conservationist Chris Rainier, Photographer Reza, Photographer/Humanitarian Enric Sala, Marine Ecologist *Stephen H. Schneider, Climatologist †Barton Seaver, Sustainable Seafood Expert Maurizio Seracini, Cultural Heritage Engineer †Jonathan Tourtellot, Geotourism Expert * National Geographic was saddened by the death of Climatologist Stephen Schneider in July, 2010. Schneider spent decades studying the forces influencing climate and the policy implications of human-driven warming. † New Fellow in 2010 To Donate Now, Click Here MISSION PROGRAMS 2009 ANNUAL REPORT 5 Strategic Initiatives and Explorer Programs continued National Geographic Emerging Explorers Collaboration and synergy characterized the third annual National Geographic Explorers Symposium. The new class of National Geographic Emerging Explorers—inspiring researchers, explorers, and storytellers who are making a difference early in their careers—as well as Explorers-in-Residence, Fellows, and grantees attended the weeklong event, which featured two days of panel discussions on topics ranging from protecting cultural heritage to the future of the ocean. Urban planner Thomas Culhane and biogeochemist Katey Walter Anthony, both 2009 Emerging Explorers, began working together after meeting at the symposium and subsequently won the inaugural $50,000 National Geographic Blackstone Innovation Challenge Grant. Among those Emerging Explorers making news in 2009 was epidemiologist Nathan Wolfe, who co-authored a groundbreaking study that suggests the most malignant known form of malaria may have jumped from chimpanzees to humans. Thomas Culhane, Urban Planner Grace Gobbo, Ethnobotanist Beverly Goodman, Geo-Archaeologist Kristofer Helgen, Zoologist Shafqat Hussain, Conservationist Malik Marjan, Wildlife Biologist and Conservationist Katsufumi Sato, Behavioral Ecologist Katey Walter Anthony, Aquatic Ecologist and Clockwise from top left: Biogeochemist Beverly Goodman, Shafqat Michael Wesch, Cultural Anthropologist and Hussain, Malik Marjan, Katsufumi Media Ecologist Sato, Nathan Wolfe. Nathan Wolfe, Epidemiologist 6 More Than Great Stories 10 NEW EMERGING EXPLORERS AT THE 3rd ANNUAL SYMPOSIUM Blackstone Ranch Institute The Blackstone Ranch Institute supports individuals who are engaged in results- oriented conversations about the most important environmental challenges of our time. In addition to supporting National Geographic’s Explorers Symposium in 2009, the Institute also Clockwise from top left: initiated the NGS/Blackstone Innovation Grace Gobbo, Thomas Culhane, Challenge Grant, to encourage new and Katey Walter Anthony, Kristofer innovative projects resulting from the Helgen, Michael Wesch. collaboration of two or more NG explorers. Emerging Explorers Thomas Culhane and Katey Walter Anthony were the first recipients. Their joint project using arctic microbes to fuel biogas generators in cool climates is helping meet communities’ energy needs in a sustainable way. To Donate Now, Click Here M ISSIO N PROGRAMS 20 09 ANNUAL REPORT 7 Strategic Initiatives and Explorer Programs continued Restoring Ocean Health National Geographic’s Ocean Initiative completed two expeditions in 2009. In April, Ocean Fellow Enric Sala traveled to the southern Line Islands with a team of scientists and cinematographers to document one of the last undisturbed places in the ocean. This expedition is being featured in the National Geographic Channel’s Journey to Shark Eden special, and in a future issue of National Geographic magazine. In the fall of 2009, Sala, Explorer-in-Residence Sylvia Earle, and marine scientists from around the globe traveled to Cocos Island and Las Gemelas seamounts in Costa Rica. The expedition was captured on film for Shark Island, a Nat Geo Wild special. Ocean wildlife captured on film during an expedition to Cocos Island 8 More Than Great Stories Learn more at n ationalgeographic.org/oceans. 400,000 PEOPLE PARTICIPATED IN THE GENOGRAPHIC PROJECT Saving Big Cats In 2009, National Geographic launched the Big Cats Initiative (BCI), a comprehensive program that supports on-the-ground conservation projects, education, improved animal husbandry, and a global public- awareness campaign, with an initial focus on threatened lion populations in Africa. BCI made a first round of grants in spring 2010 to organizations in five African countries—Botswana, Cameroon, Mozambique, Tanzania, and Zambia—that are working to address