Well, 2023 has been an incredible year for the Koala Clancy Foundation in Australia.

They have a mission, you see:  to plant 300,000 trees by 2030 in order to save koalas from extinction.

They started planting in 2016 and since then, they’ve constantly surpassed the number of trees they’ve planted every year.   And now, they’ve planted 129,422 trees!!!

Every tree counts!
Working together to achieve a goal really makes a difference.
Find out more 
Image © Koala Clancy Foundation

2023 has been no exception – these are ALL records for the Foundation:

• 33,518 koala trees total in one season.
• 10,663 koala trees on one site in one season.
• 1,931 Koala trees in one day.
• 3,618 Koala trees in one weekend.
• 5,891 koala trees in 7 days – their biggest week ever

The work doesn’t stop there, however!  The Koala Clancy Foundation will be busy weeding in the You Yangs – a vital activity to restore koala habitat – and they are running regular bonus events for Koala Clancy members.  For instance, they’re doing visits to past tree planting sites to collect tree cards so that they can use them in future projects.

You can become a member here, and if you live outside Australia, why not support the work of the Koala Clancy Foundation and simply donate?

Visit the Koala Clancy Foundation here.

Ancient woodland now covers just 2.5% of the UK.   And Butterfly Conservation say that the Small Pearl-bordered and the Pearl-bordered fritillary are finding their habitat is reducing at a horrifying rate:  the small pearl-bordered have gone down 66% and the pearl-bordered Fritillary 64%.

Butterfly Conservation purchased Rowland Wood back in 2010.  They’ve been working hard to reverse years of damage to it.  But it still risks losing one of the last remaining colonies of both the small Pearl-bordered and Pearl-bordered Frilliary in the south east.

The good news is that the butterflies have appreciated this effort – there have been successful reintroductions of both species – but Butterfly Conservation know they really need to keep going.

Help save the Small Pearl-bordered Fritillary

They need to raise £12,000 to keep this conservation work going. 

Unfortunately, back in the 1960s, critical points of the wood were planted with non-native trees, and this ruined the natural eco-system.  

In 2017-2019, the charity reintroduced both species.   Traditional woodland management techniques such as coppicing have reopened sections of canopy.  This has created open spaces which has helped the butterflies to thrive.  

We need to keep this effort going.    Rowland Wood is one of the last places in southern England where you can see both these species of butterfly.

Please help Butterfly Conservation carry on this vital conservation work, regenerating Rowland Wood and increasing the amount of habitat available for both species of butterfly.   Please donate to this appeal today.  Thank you

It’s International Orangutan Day on 19^th August and the Orangutan Foundation have a wonderful opportunity for us all to create real impact for orangutans, forests and people!

How can we do this?

By sponsoring an acre of tropical rainforest!   You can protect an acre of essential rainforest habitat for one year from ONLY £2!

 
Please sponsor an acre of rainforest and
  help orangutans this International Orangutan Day.
Image copyright Orangutan Foundation

Sponsorship will directly benefit 5,000 orangutans in the Lamandau Wildlife Reserve and Tanjung Putting National Park.  The Orangutan Foundation is aiming to protect 3,000 acres in the run up to International Orangutan Day!

Donations support:

• 500,00 acres of tropical rainforest – we all need tropical rainforest to help keep the balance of nature and keep us all well and healthy
• 5,000 critically endangered orangutans
• 10 forest guard posts in critical orangutan habitat
• 25 Local people directly protecting habitat
• Training in SMART technology to improve forest and wildlife protection

You could also sponsor an acre as a gift to someone who loves orangutans and the natural world.  All you need to do is to leave a name and email address in the “Additional Info” section at checkout.

Please give others the opportunity to sponsor rainforest too – tell everyone you can about it! 

There’s more information about it – just swing over to the Orangutan Foundation’s website!

UPDATE on 15 August 2023: 

There's great news from the Gift a Rescue Elephant a bottle of milk match which took place in August 2023, and ended on 13 August.

10,500 bottles of milk were gifted in the Milk Match campaign!  With the match, that makes a total of 21,000 bottles of milk for the orphan elephants in the care of the Reteti Elephant Sanctuary! 
 

Visit the Reteti Elephant Sanctuary here.

Original blog:

Give an elephant a bottle of milk and it will be matched

On the 12^th August, it’s World Elephant Day and a great chance to make a difference to that most wonderful of giants, the elephant.

The Reteti Elephant Sanctuary is Africa’s first community owned elephant sanctuary in North Kenya.    Reteti takes in orphaned and abandoned elephant calves with the aim to release them back into the wild.  In short, they rescue to release!  

Meet the elephants here

And this World Elephant Day, there’s a chance to help them!

Give the elephants a bottle of milk – and it will be matched!  For every bottle you give the elephants, there’s a match with another one.

Please give a bottle of milk to a baby elephant.

One bottle of milk is $10.00

8 bottles of milk is $80.00 (that’s enough milk for a day’s supply for one elephant).

This match is running through to 13 August 2023 up to 12,500 bottles!  Help the sanctuary secure 25,000 bottles which will keep the calves in milk for up to 2 months!

About 10 to 25 elephant calves are rescued in the area of Northern Kenya every year.

 
Please give an elephant a bottle of milk here
Thank you!
Image © Reteti Elephant Sanctuary

These elephant calves are orphaned or abandoned because of drought, man-made wells which they can fall into, conflict between people and wildlife, and natural deaths.   Local communities wanted to retain elephants within the county and so the Kenya Wildlife Service and Samburu County Government promoted the establishment of a new Sanctuary. 

The keepers are all recruited from the Namunyak Conservancy ad they have been trained in the care, rehabilitation and release of elephant calves.  The Samburu have been living with wildlife for many years and deeply respect elephants.   You can meet the keepers here.

You can adopt an elephant for a minimum of USD50 a year, or you can give a bottle of milk. 

Visit the Reteti Elephant Sanctuary’s website to find out more.

Please give a bottle of milk here.  Thank you for going to look :-)