The Audi Environmental Foundation has been supporting Wilderness International in various projects since 2021. It began with a biodiversity monitoring project on 100,000 hectares of tree savannah in the north of the Kalahari, supported by state-of-the-art drone technology. The project was carried out in 2022 together with the Kuzikus Wildlife Reserve and implemented jointly by Wilderness International and the Audi Environmental Foundation.
In 2024, the Audi Environmental Foundation is co-financing another globally unique pilot project to use drone technology to extract environmental DNA from hard-to-reach treetops. The expected results could represent a milestone for biodiversity research, as this new method will help to collect meaningful data much more efficiently in the future. This not only helps our work in wildlife and species conservation, but also forms an important basis for all future conservation projects.
As part of the Environmental DNA project, the Audi Environmental Foundation also provided us with financial support for the installation of a solar system at our research and forest guardian station in our Peruvian protected areas. The system was inaugurated in March 2024 and has since contributed to improved processes in the environmental DNA project and to a sustainable, self-sufficient power supply in the protected area. Since then, we have saved 3,500 liters of gasoline per year for the generators that were previously used, and it has greatly improved the quality of life of the researchers, students and forest guardian living on site.
For more than a decade, the Audi Environmental Foundation has been making an active contribution to environmental protection and thus shaping new paths for sustainable action. The foundation's commitment is long-term and multifaceted. It was established on December 1, 2009 by AUDI AG as a wholly owned subsidiary in order to strengthen social and environmental commitment. In all the projects it supports, the Environmental Foundation does not focus solely on nature and the environment, but also aims to contribute to a sustainable human-environment system through its work.
