We finish things
A case we open, we carry. If we cannot carry it, we say so before anybody starts hoping.
We started with one poisoned eagle and a file nobody would open.
Pangaea Continental is a Dutch-registered foundation working across Europe on the protection, enforcement and rescue side of wildlife law. Small, unusually stubborn, and funded by people who want a particular case finished.
How it began
In 2013 an eastern imperial eagle was found poisoned on a Hungarian estate. The bird was ringed, so its whole life was on record. The file sat unopened for eleven months because nobody could pay for the toxicology and nobody could translate the veterinary report. Two of the people who eventually paid for both went on to start this organisation.
What we became
We registered in Nijmegen in 2016 with three staff and one car. There are now standing operations in six countries and casework coming in from eight more. We have never grown faster than we could keep promises, which is why the team page is short.
How we are paid
Roughly two thirds from private donors and foundations, the rest from project contracts with national parks and provincial governments. We take no money from anyone with a stake in the outcome of a case we are working. That rule has cost us more than one grant and we have kept it.
Why we are careful
Our staff receive threats. Some are shouted at a roadside, some arrive by post, and a few are specific enough to hand to the police. That is why this site carries no photographs, no home regions and no direct lines, and why the contact form records more about a sender than most forms do.
How we got here
2013
The eagle case
A poisoned imperial eagle in Hungary, a file left unopened, and two people who paid for the lab work themselves.
2016
Registered in Nijmegen
Three staff, one vehicle, and a mandate limited to species listed in the Habitats and Birds Directives.
2018
First conviction
A Bulgarian poisoned bait case ends in a suspended sentence and, more usefully, a precedent on evidence handling.
2020
Six countries
Standing patrols in Romania, Spain, Bulgaria, Greece, Poland and Portugal.
2022
Rescue network
Twenty-seven vets and handlers on call across the regions we work.
2025
Habitat agreements
9,300 hectares under signed long-term protection with private landowners.
How we work
Local first
Every operation is led by people who live there. We bring money, lab access and lawyers, not opinions about how a valley should be run.
Evidence over outrage
A photograph on social media closes doors. The same photograph, timestamped and handed to a prosecutor, opens them.
Small on purpose
Twenty-nine people. We would rather turn work down than run a case badly.
No hero stories
We do not publish the faces of the people doing this work and we do not dramatise it. Both make the job harder.
Open books
Annual accounts, case outcomes and the ones we lost, published every March.
Most of our casework starts with a phone call from a stranger.
If you have seen something, hold evidence, or work somewhere that touches this, we would rather hear it early than read about it later.
Contact us