High in the Himalayas, one of the world’s most beautiful big cats – the snow leopard - roams the lonely mountain slopes

There are only about 4,000 snow leopards left in the wild.   And now their habitat is threatened with new roads, dams and mining projects disrupting habitats and leaving them with no-where to go.   One of the snow leopards’ last refuges could have a highway built straight through the middle of it.

But there’s a cunning plan.

Two Avaazers are working with the local community and the Rainforest Trust to buy up and protect snow leopard habitats.   And if they can raise enough money, they’ll create a vast, permanent snow leopard conservation corridor which blocks the road completely.

Snow leopards, red pandas, pangolins, wild yaks, the Himalayan Black Bear, clouded leopards, and hundreds of species of butterflies all need us to dig in and lend a paw to make this purchase happen and keep it safe from road construction and mining.

They need our help 

We need to buy this precious corner of the world and protect it for snow leopards and all the other wildlife who live there.  The money must be raised within a few weeks – the more of us who chip in the better – and then we can create this snow leopard sanctuary together.

Chip in now to protect this precious corner of the world, and to help preserve the planet's most threatened biodiversity hotspots -- before we lose them forever:  

In the last few years, Avaaz has bought a rainforest in Indonesia for orangutans, its funded a Maasai-led wildlife corridor in the Seregeti, and protected a vital piece of the Galapagos.  Now it’s time to fight for the snow leopards. 

Donate here

Water flow lessens animal-human conflict in Liwonde National Park, Malawi

We all need water, humans and animals.

So what happens when there is competition between humans and animals for water?

Liwonde National Park in Malawi is home to over 10,000 different species.   Black rhinos, elephants, zebras and baboons are among them – the place is a biodiversity hotspot.

The Shire River passes through the area, and is a vital life source for all the animals there.

Years of poaching, illegal fishing and snaring have devastated the park’s ecosystem.  Competition for resources has rocketed; as well as the animals, people need water to survive. 

The people of Chikolongo had to go miles to retrieve water from the Shire River – it was the only major source of water available.  In their trek, the journey often led to death for people and animals – especially as a result of human encounters with crocodiles, elephants and hippos.

The IFAW (that’s the International Fund for Animal Welfare) heard about the crisis in Chikolongo and knew they had to help.

So in 2013, they created the Chikolongo Livelihood Project – designed to build sustainable solutions to reduce the conflict between villages and wildlife.

They completed a water pump and pipeline to bring easily accessible and clean water directly into the heart of the Chikolongo community.

Since that pipeline was created, there have been no incidents of human-wildlife conflict.  The villages have what they need to co-exist amongst the animals they had thought were dangerous.  They are happier.

Plus, IFAW established a community fish farm and developed an incentive system to encourage the growth of commercial crops which was designed to help reduce poaching. 

And the animals of Liwonde National Park are successfully recovering.

A Greek conservation group has created the world’s first dolphin sanctuary! 

The  Archipelagos Institute of Marine Conservation created it for dolphins who have been rescued from captivity. 

It’s on the island of Lipsi, south of Samos in the eastern Aegean. 

The hope is that these rescued dolphins will have a safe place to live out their lives, and also end their exploitation in zoos and marinas.  They say there are nearly 3,000 dolphins in captivity around the world and hope that by providing this sanctuary, they will help change worldwide perception of animals in captivity.

It is hoped that the knowledge gained by helping these dolphins can be used by scientists around the world.  The Institute exists to defend nature.  It has over 20  years research and now it’s taken action to create this first dolphin sanctuary.

You can help by making a donation

The Institute aims to defend the biodiversity of Greek seas and islands, and also the north eastern Mediterranean. 

The BBC have a news report about Nike trainers turning up on beaches from the stunning Orkney Islands to the Channel Islands, from Bermuda and the Bahamas to Ireland. 

It's thought that the trainers - along with a lot of other shoes and various products - toppled overboard in heavy seas. 

This means that even more items are turning up on beach shores, endangering wildlife who may think they are something to eat, or who get tangled up in them.

So wouldn't be great if companies who lose items at sea in such spillages do a team day where they help clean up the planet, whether it’s a beach or the countryside?  

And if there is a spillage in sea, they have to give a certain amount of their profits to marine conservation charities at the nearest point to which the spillage happened?

We need all the good news we can get for rainforests at the moment, and there's two sets of good news from the Sumatran Orangutan Society today!

Temporary Moratorium set to become a Permanent one!

In an email, SOS sent a link to Mongabay which report that a temporary moratorium which prohibits the issuing of new permits to clear primary and peat forests is set to become permanent later this year.   There is more that can be done to strengthen this action, such as including secondary forests, say environmental activists.  

When it was first introduced back in 2011, the moratorium was largely ineffective in stemming deforestation;  but since 2016, it has been shored up by peat-protection regularions which have helped to slow the loss of forest cover.  And fears that the move would harm the economy have been unfounded. 

There's also a need to close a loophole which allows primary and peat forests to be razed for rice, sugarcane and other crop planatations.  

But the move to make the moratorium permanent is a start.  Indonesia has pledged to slash its carbon dioxide emissions by at least 29% by 2030.   Although it is one of the top emitters world-wide, most of the emissions come from deforestation and not the burning of fossil fuels.

Swing over to Mongabay for more information. 

And there's more!

Palm oil plantations to be cleared ready for new forest

From 2018 to 2019, SOS ran an urgent appeal - the Rainforest Home Appeal.   They needed to raise £870,000 to buy 890 acres. 

Visit SOS, the Sumatran Orangutan Society

The public did it and the money was raised - and on 17th June 2019, a restoration team will start to clear the oil palm trees using chainsaws.   Once the oil palms have gone, the next phrase of restoration will start, bringing the land closer to being forest again!