The 1001: A Nature Trust, the contributors to which are sometimes referred to as the 1001 Club, is a financial endowment that helps fund the World Wide Fund for Nature. It was established in 1970 by the then-head of the WWF, Prince Bernhard of the Netherlands, with help from Anton Rupert, a South African entrepreneur.

Stephen Ellis was a British historian and Africanist whose research focused on post-colonial West Africa and South Africa. He was a former editor of Africa Confidential and African Affairs, a senior researcher at the African Studies Centre Leiden, and a professor at the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam.