There’s good conservation news from the World Land Trust today.

They’ve announced that the El Pantanoso Reserve is now 100% fully funded, which means that 10,900 acres is permanently protected through their partner Fundación Biodiversidad Argentina. 

The reserve is a wildlife corridor of Yungas Forest.  It sits between the Calilegua National Park and the Estancia Urundel, and it’s Argentina’s biggest area of Jaguar habitat.

This project has also been supported by a legacy which was left by a supporter of the World Land Trust, so it just shows how legacies can make a difference to causes one cares about.  

Arcadia, a charitable fund of Lisbet Rausing and Peter Baldwin, also supported the project.  And it was secured by supporters of the Buy an Acre Argentina programme.

At the moment, the World Land Trust’s Buy an Acre programme is focusing on Mexico at the moment, where a £100 donation can buy an acre of land.  In Ecuador, land prices are going up, and it’s not possible to buy an acre for £100, hence the focus on Mexico where the World Land Trust’s partner Grupo Ecological Sierra Gorda can save habitats about £100 an acre.  

The fashion industry has joining forces with conservationists to help protect the Great Barrier Reef!

The Great Barrier Reef is located off the Queensland coast in Australia and it stretches a whopping 2,300 km.

It’s a very popular dive site and is also home to over 1,500 species of tropical fish and over 130 species of shark.

Sadly, over 93% of the reef is now thought to be affected by coral bleaching, caused by rising sea temperatures.

YOOX is a luxury online retailer.   It’s partnered with the Australian designers We Are Handsome to create a range of swimwear and active wear.   The YOOX Loves the Reef project is working to raise vital funds for the Great Barrier Reef Foundation, and a portion from all sales of the line will go to the charity.

©YOOX Loves the Reef

The Foundation supports a variety of scientific projects and research into the fight against coral bleaching.  Some aim to monitor and protect the species living on the reef, such as the green turtle or dugong.  Others tackle the problem of reef damage through research into coral DNA whilst others develop artificial surfaces where coral can regenerate and grow.  

Of course the reef brings in a lot of money to the area, too – over $6 billion a year, not to mention jobs through tourism, diving and scientific research.

So everyone will benefit if the reef can be saved.

It’s good to see industry and conservation working hand in hand. 

The Sichaun province government has secured %1.58 billion in funding during the next 5 years for a planned Giant Panda National Park.

The park will be three times the size of the US Yellowstone National Park, so it will be enormous – 10,476 square miles in all.

The park will protect wild pandas living across the Sichuan, Shaanxi and Gansu provinces.  The environment ministry said it had agreed to plans by 15 provinces and regions to draw up red lines to keep large areas of land off limits to economic development.   These large areas include wetlands, forests, national parks and protected nature zones. 

Over 80% of wild pandas live in Sichuan, and the rest in Shaanxi and Gansu.  The park plans will link up the pandas who are isolated in these areas and encourage them to breed.  Pandas are terribly slow at reproducing and there are several breeding centres in China to help with panda conservation.

Although the number of wild pandas have increased in recent years, the continued increase in numbers depends on having the right habitat available to pandas to breed so the announcement of the Giant Panda National Park is a step in the right direction to ensuring they have the right environment in which to thrive. 

Pandas International is a US based charity working to help with panda conservation.  Visit Pandas International here. 

30 students from the University of Cumbria joined up with the Cumbria Wildlife Trust last autumn.

They helped to plant over 1,300 plants in a wildflower meadow in the Eden Valley.

It’s the fifth year running that conservation under-graduates at the University have helped plant these meadows

The Cumbria Wildlife Trust explained that since the 1950s hay meadows have been in national decline and the Trust is working to restore the.

They provide habitats for animals such as the brown hair, the great yellow bumblebee and skylarks, curlews, lapwings and twits.

The Meadow Life project helps ensure that meadows will be around for years to come.   The Yorkshire Dales Millennium Trust funded this work as part of the Westmorland Dales Hay Time Project.

Well done the students!

 
Plant your own cornflower seeds from Suttons Seeds

There’s some amazing news from Scotland.

The charity Trees for Life have just totted up the number of trees they planted in 2017 and it comes to a record breaking:

156,869 trees!

Of these, 133,000 were planted at the Allt Ruadh exclosure at the Dundreggan Conservation Estate, thus helping to restore the Caledonian Forest in the stunning Highlands.

Volunteers spent over 5,000 planting trees, and members, donors and supporters similarly played a vital role in ensuring the trees could be planted.

What’s more, Trees for Life have been invited to join the growing European Rewildling Network which puts the restoration of the Caledonian Forest in the Highalnds firmly on the European map.

The network shows how re-wilding can benefit from economic development, including nature based tourism such as wildlife watching, nature-based tourism and volunteer opportunities.

Trees for Life has a number of Conservation Weeks and Conservation Days throughout the year, bringing visitors to Scotland.  

The Caledonian Forest is Scotland’s equivalent of the Amazonian rainforest.  Today, just 1% of the original area is left, but Trees for Life has already restored large areas in Glen Affric and at the Dundreggan Conservatoin Estate by planting over 1.3 million trees and encouraging natural restoration. 

The charity’s Caledonian Pinewood Recovery Project will help to restore 50 acres of remnant pinewoods – mostly ancient 200 year old “Granny” Scots pines which are dying.  There are no young trees to succeed them, so the fragments are in danger of vanishing without action.

You can find out more about Trees for Life here  and how to help here.