Global conservation efforts are facing a critical situation following the Trump administration's move to terminate USAID and suspend foreign aid, which has left essential nature protection programs without financial support. In 2023 alone, USAID allocated more than 375 million dollars to global biodiversity initiatives, funding wildlife rangers, forest restoration, and community-driven conservation.

The funding suspension has already taken a toll on field operations, resulting in reduced ranger patrols and conservation organizations contemplating staff reductions. In Africa's Congo Basin, where USAID has aided efforts in forest mapping and safeguarding endangered species, researchers and patrol teams have lost their funding abruptly. In Kenya, community conservancies, which manage eighteen percent of the nation's land, now confront financial instability, raising alarms about habitat degradation and escalating human-wildlife conflicts.

With conservation funding already in a precarious state, experts caution that this abrupt cessation could undo progress in combatting wildlife trafficking and deforestation. Although there are legal efforts to reinstate aid, conservation organizations find themselves in a state of uncertainty, urgently seeking alternative financing to sustain their initiatives.