"Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it's the only thing that ever has." Margaret Mead, American anthropologist, 1901-1978
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!
Give an elephant a bottle of milk and it will be matched
On the 12th 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!
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.
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.
They rescue sun and moon bears held in captivity in Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam and they have a couple of bear sanctuaries where they look after the bears.
Last week, they took a tiny male moon bear cub- Laos Rescue 122 - into their care. He was an orphan and very traumatised, and weighed only 8.5 kg.
The little cub was spotted high up in a tree in the capital of Laos, Vientiane. Free the Bears think he probably escaped illegal wildlife traders who were trying to sell him in the city after poachers killed his mum.
This tiny bear is cowering in the corner of his quarantine den and Free the Bears say it is going to take a lot of expert, loving care to help him recover. He’ll be in quarantine for a month, and then he may be introduced to a couple of other cubs who have also been rescued recently. This should help him recover and develop.
But there’s more – Free the Bears have heard of a juvenile female mon bear, orphaned, and being held in a tiny cage. She is in the far north of Laos and she looks desperate. Free the Bears are working with government partners to sort out a rescue which hopefully will take place at the end of the week.
You can help these bears and Free the Bears help the bears by making a small donation or sending a Cub Care Kit to help Laos Rescue #122 – the little moon bear rescued up a tree. The kits are £19 each.
Why not be a bear carer? (This is from £5 a month) or consider volunteering with Free the Bears?
Let’s help Free the Bears help free the bears – and care for them afterwards!
Around the world there are many people who are willing to put their lives on the line in order to protect endangered animals and habitats.
The International Ranger Foundation (IRF) is the official body representing rangers around the world. It was established on 31st July 1992, after a year spent setting up and planning for the establishment and development of the organisation. The aim now is to drive through this development so that there is a professional body of rangers around the world.
Mokala National Park observing World Ranger Day, South Africa This shows how dangerous the job of being a ranger can be and gives you an insight into the life of a ranger. THANK YOU to rangers, everywhere.
The video below from the IRF explains that 2023 is an important year because it's the first year of the newly set biodiversity framework, with lots of targets. Target three is especialy important because it sets a target of 30% of the world having effectively managed areas by 2030. To achieve this, it will be vital to have a professional body of rangers around the world and the numbers of rangers worldwide will need to increase from 286,000 today to 1.5 million. There will be benefits for wildlife and biodiveristy of course, but also for people, who will benefit from the economic and social services outcomes which come about from such a development.
So the theme for World Ranger Day for 2023 is Rangers – The Natural Solution To Achieving the 30X30 Biodiversity Targets.
Sadly, last year 148 rangers died in their line of work. Many of these deaths were attributable to homicides and others to vehicle accidents, as the video below explains.
There is a lot of information about rangers on their website, so please explore their website. It works with The Thin Green Line to promote the initiative of World Ranger Day.
World Ranger Day is a chance for all of us to show our appreciation for the work that wildlife rangers and guardians do and offer our support in whatever way we can and to remember those who have died or been injured doing this vital work and to think of the families they leave behind.
The Thin Green Line says that often rangers' families are left behind without any support. Donations and support give a gift of hope and an urgent lifeline to families left behind.
And it’s good to know that there is something you can do to help wildlife and locals in their communities at the same time, and we thought we’d do a roundup of charities and organisations working to help in this way. Sometimes wildlife rangers are called wildlife guardians.
Based in Australia, the Foundation works with ranger groups, ranger associations and conservation partners in over 60 countries. They say it’s estimated that over 1,000 park rangers have been killed n the line of duty over the past 10 years. They are dedicated to providing Rangers worldwide with the assistance they deserve and need.
Other organisations supporting wildlife rangers
Ol Pejeta Ol Pejeta Conservancy is a 90,000 acre wildlife conservancy in Kenya. They have 150 rangers who are dedicated to protecting the wildlife there and neighbouring communities. They also have a K9 unit, whose dogs work hard also to protect wildlife.
Project Ranger supports a range of patrols such as horse patrols, foot patrols, motorbike, aerial, truck and K9 patrols. In doing so it protects a number of species in national parks, UNESCO World Heritage Sites, conserved land and wildnerness areas. There are plenty of ways to support their work so visit their website to find out more!
The World Land Trust has a Keepers of the Wild initiative. The rangers are working on the front line of conservation, safeguarding some of the world’s most threatened animals and the crucial habitats in which they live. They protect reserves from poaching and logging, and importantly, link to local communities, building trust, helping to change attitudes and find practical solutions to problems. You can support Keepers of the Wild by making a donation.
The David Shepherd Wildlife Foundation works to support rangers in both Asia and Africa. You can support wildlife rangers here and help them conserve nature. Their work includes carrying out anti-poaching and anti-trafficking patrols across national parks, finding and removing wildlife snares and collecting essential data on endangered speices and their habitats. They also work with communities to raise awareness and mitigate wildlife conflict. Click here to see how the Big Green Match Fund helped DSWF's frontline conservation teams with the Living with Widlife Appeal.
This organisation works to save wildlife from extinction through education, anti-poaching and conservation efforts. It does this by using anti-poaching units, awareness and education and on the ground action, working on wildlife’s problems. You can adopt a ranger (also there’s a K9 poacher tracking unit) – find out what the options are to adopt a ranger here.
African Parks has an anti-poaching team of 1,000 rangers making up their law enforcement team. Thei rangers are stabilising force both for parks and regions
Virunga National Park is located on the eastern edge of the Congo Basin in Africa, and it's home to over 1,000 species of mammal, bird, reptile, and amphibian and a third of the world’s endangered mountain gorillas. It has 750 male and female rangers, all working hard and putting their lives on the line to protect the park and local communities. There's a canine unit as well. Find out more
The Gorilla Organisation has a supporting rangers scheme in the Democratic Republic of Congo and they act as the eyes, ears and voice of the forest. They cut snaes, save injured gorillas, combat the militias running the blood minerals trade, monitor the gorillas’ health and collect vital conservation data every day. Find out more here.
Tigers4ever have anti-poaching patrols in Bandharvagh, India, to protect tigers. They equip forest patrols, provide anti-poaching patrols and provide permanent solutions to water scarcity for wildlife
Become an Orangutan Guardian and help the Orangutan Foundation’s 60 Indonesian staff work on the frontline of conservation in the Lamandau Wildlife Reserve. Their role is to guard and patrol the forests and rivers, to rescue and monitor the orangutans and to replant and nurture tree saplings. And crucially, they need to gain the trust and support of local communities. Become an Orangutan Guardian!
The Lewa Security Team consists of field rangers, radio operators, gatekeepers, baby rhino keepers, anti-poaching rangers and the tracker dog unit. The Anti-Poaching Rangers and Tracker Dog Unit work day and night to protect wildlife and keep them safe, especially rhinos and elephants. The tracker dog unit has four dogs and their handlers, the dogs act as efficient trackers, as they can pursue suspects for lengthy distances.
Save the Rhino makes sure that ranger teams have the the equipment they need to do their job as safely as possible. It has expanded canine units across the projects it funds, which in turn helps apprehend criminals. Find out more from Save the Rhino
Tusk
The charity Tusk give a Wildlife Ranger Award every year to give international recognition to the men and women who face danger every day to protect the wildlife and its ecosystems in Africa.
There are also rangers in other countries such as Australia and America and the UK, working for organisations such as national parks and they are also essential to protecting the environment and keeping wildlife safe.
And a very big thank you to each and every wildlife ranger working to care for and protect our wildlife and their habitats. And thank you to their families too.
The 29th July is World Tiger Day(also known as International Tiger Day and Global Tiger Day). It's an opportuniity to celebrate tigers, one of the world's most iconic big cats.
Today, the David Shepherd Wildlife Foundation (DSWF)** reports that there are only 4,500 tigers left in the wild today –a decrease from 100,000 in a century and three subspecies have become extinct. There are more tigers in captivity around the world than in the wild, bred for consumption and entertainment.
The illegal wildlife trade in both tigers and tiger parts – captive breeding facilities have made things much worse
Habitat loss -tiger habitat has decreased by 93% - all species need the right sort of habitat to survive and thrive, and it needs to be protected habitat
Human-wildlife conflict
The illegal wildlife trade is using wild and captive tigers to meet the demand for their body parts. As the tigers are now so scarce in the wild, cruel and dirty tiger farms make these body parts far easier to source.
Please help the DSWF shed light on the dark side of the illegal tiger trade today.
David Shepherd Wildlife Foundation launches a Tiger Appeal:
DSWF supports frontline tiger conservation initiatives in India, Thailand and Russia and provides funding for undercover investigations and exposés into the illegal wildlife trade. DSWF have launched a Tiger appeal to raise vital funds to fight the illegal trade in tigers.
By donating today, you can provide funding to debunk myths on the use of animal by-products in traditional medicine, fund anti-poaching rangers and fund undercover investigations to disrupt criminal networks involved in the illegal tiger trade. Donate Here
The RSPB and the Co-op have announced a three year partnership to protect carbon stores through the restoration and long-term management of UK peatland.
The focus will be upland peatland in Scotland and Wales which are owned by the RSPB, also supported by the National Peatland Action Programme in Wales and Peatland ACTION in Scotland. These areas are about the same size as 400 football pitches.
In the UK, peatlands store about 3.2 billion tonnes of carbon and they provide vital habitats for wildlife and reduce flood risk. But 80% of the peatlands in the UK are degraded, and without any intervention to repair and preserve them, their greenhouse gas emissions could exceed the equivalent of 20 million tonnes of CO2 a year.
The Co-op’s initial investment is £1 in 2023, and it’s funded via sales of compostable carrier bags in its stores. It’s part of the Co-op’s Climate Plan commitments to fund UK natural restoration.
The Co-op has reduced the carbon emissions of its operations by 56% since 2016, and back in 2021, it was the first supermarket to ban the sale of peat-based compost from its stores, with only peat free alternatives available to customers.
The benefits of the project will be:
To restore and maintain actively eroding peatland
To create the conditions needed for the areas to recover
The protection of natural habitats for wildlife
Potentially, improving water quality and reducing flood risk by regulating water flow
The two areas involved are Cerniau at RSPB Lake Vymwy in Powys, Wales, which is the largest area of blanket bog and European dry heath in Wales. It’s a vital area for breeding birds and it supports species such as the Hen Harrier, the Merlin, the Peregrine and Red Kite.
Lumbister at RSPB Yell is on one of Shetland’s most northern islands, and home to upland waders such as Snipe, Dunlin, Golden Plover, Curlew and Whimbrel, as well as the Arctic Skua, the Great Kua, Red-throated Divers, and otters. Round-leaved Sundew and Butterwort and Sphagnum moss are also to be found there.
The RSPB’s Executive Director for Income and Conservation Investment, Rebecca Munro, said that “Businesses have a vital role to play in the transition to net zero and we are excited to be working with Co-op to protect and restore some of our most precious upland sites to make sure these places are delivering for our climate, whilst also providing a lasting home for our wildlife.”
Guy Stuart, Director of Sustainability, Techhoical and Agriculture, Co-op, said “We are in the grip of a climate and environment emergency, a crisis which is of humankind’s making. Around the world we are seeing shocking water shortages, floods, extreme heat and biodiversity losses. We need to decarbonise and quickly”.
Mr Stuart noted that we can reduce carbon far faster than we are at the moment through co-operation, and this partnership between the RSPB and the Co-op can play a part in helping to avoid carbon emissions. Repairing peatlands will increase carbon stores.
