Mark Anderson, CEO BirdLife South Africa, Her Imperial Highness Princess Takamado and South Africa’s Acting Ambassador to Japan, Her Excellency Annelize Schroeder

In September 2025, Mark Anderson, the CEO of BirdLife South Africa and Mouse-Free Marion Non-Profit Company Director, travelled to Japan on an awareness- and fund-raising visit on behalf of the the Saving Marion Island’s Seabirds: The Mouse-Free Marion (MFM) Project.  The trip was deemed successful, with introductions to influential businesspeople at a dinner hosted by the UK’s Ambassador to Japan, Her Excellency Julia Longbottom CMG.  His Royal Highness The Duke of Edinburgh (Royal Patron of the MFM Project) and Her Imperial Highness Princess Takamado, Honorary President of BirdLife International, also attended the event.  Mark returned from Japan not only with important new contacts for the project, but also with a US$300 000 donation.

With the MFM Project’s first venture to Japan proving worthwhile, a second visit was always in the offing, so in June this year Mark returned to Japan, again in support of the project.  This time he was hosted by South Africa’s Chargé d’affaires a.i. in Japan, Annelize Schroeder, at an event held at the South African Embassy in Tokyo.

After his return to South Africa Mark wrote to MFM News describing his latest trip.  “I have just spent a busy few days in Japan during which I presented the Mouse-Free Marion Project to 30 leading Japanese Presidents, CEOs and Senior Executives of leading Japanese companies with longstanding investments in South Africa at an annual event hosted by the South African Embassy in Tokyo on 02 June.  We are deeply grateful to Her Imperial Highness Princess Takamado, who attended as an honorary guest and endorsed the MFM Project during her address.  The event helped raise awareness and support for this globally significant conservation initiative, which aims to remove invasive House Mice from Marion Island and secure the future of millions of seabirds.”

The attendees at the South African Ambassador’s official residence gather for a photograph

Mark continues “It was also encouraging to see strong interest from the Japanese media.  I was interviewed by several outlets, including Japanese national television, helping to highlight both the importance of the MFM Project and the international collaboration needed to make it a success.  Together, we are building momentum towards a conservation achievement of global significance.”

Mark Anderson (second right) with Motoko Saito, Editor, World News Division, NHK (Japan Broadcasting Corporation; second left) and recording crew in the South African Embassy on his debut on Japanese television

While in the South African Embassy in Tokyo, Mark was also interviewed for a two-minute video on the MFM Project that was broadcast with both English and Japanese subtitles on Fuji Television.  In it he said that the project is “the most important thing that I will do in my lifetime”.

Back home and following a suggestion by the South African Embassy in Japan, Mark was interviewed about the MFM Project by Yuka Ota, the first certified female Japanese safari guide in South Africa, who is based near Hoedspruit in Limpopo Province.  Yuka is a well-known personality in Japan through her programme “Yuka on Safari”, on which she gives accounts of her wildlife experiences in South Africa on YouTube, and via podcasts and Instagram (with 132 000 followers).

Mark ends his account by thanking Acting Ambassador Annelize Schroeder and the South African Embassy staff in Tokyo, Princess Takamado, and Keiko Suzue and Emi Shimizu of BirdLife International in Tokyo, and everyone who helped spread the message about the Mouse-Free Marion Project in Japan.  The MFM Project Team adds its own thanks to Mark for the valuable work he continues to undertake towards a mouse-free island in the Southern Ocean, once more teeming with birds.

John Cooper. News Correspondent, Mouse-Free Marion Project, 19 June 2026

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The Mouse-Free Marion Project is a registered non-profit company (No. 2020/922433/08) in South Africa, established to eradicate the invasive albatross-killing mice on Marion Island in the Southern Ocean. The project was initiated by BirdLife South Africa and the South African Department of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment. Upon successful completion, the project will restore the critical breeding habitat of over two million seabirds, many globally threatened, and improve the island’s resilience to a warming climate. For more information or to support the project please visit mousefreemarion.org.