Well, there’s never been a more important time to stand up for nature and make a real noise about it.

Friends of the Earth emailed this morning.  Essentially, the UK is planning what they describe as a bonfire of the laws protecting our environment.

Even in national parks, the UK government’s investment zones could concrete the countryside.  Developers would have a field day. Rules which limit river protection could go.  So could those protecting us from toxic pesticides.  If the Retained EU Law Bill goes ahead, Friends of the Earth say that hundreds of environmental laws could be torn up.

Friends of the Earth have a petition urging us all to stand up for nature.

Prime Minister Liz Truss is going all out for deregulation on a scale never seen before. 

We all need to unite like never before and stand up for nature.  Over 70 organisations – including Friends of the Earth – have written to the government demanding a change of direction.

Please join with them by signing and sharing the petition today.  

I am quoting from the petition page:

"To: the UK government 

• Don’t axe the laws that protect our environment – commit to making them stronger instead. 
• Protect nature in “investment zones”. Don’t let them turn into concrete jungles bereft of wildlife. 
• Make planning rules work for people and nature - especially communities with limited access to nature."

As Friends of the Earth point out, a recent YouGov poll found that 81% of UK adults believe that wildlife and the environment are under threat.  We need to stand up for nature.  Just over 80,000 people voted Liz Truss in as PM.  That’s a tiny amount compared to the number of nature lovers in the UK.

Please sign the petition here

Find out more about #DefendNature here

Please take the 5 steps outlined by the Wildlife Trusts and contact your local MP and councillor.  We need to make some serious noise for nature.

Please join in the conversation about conservation and the People's Plan for Nature... find out more and join in (by 30th October 2022)

We need to protect nature.

The Hertfordshire and Middlesex Wildlife Trust 
have an appeal to save nature, including chalk streams.
Find out more here

350.org have a petition about a proposed new and enormous oil field called Rosebank. 

350.org say that if this Rosebank oil field goes ahead, the annual CO2 emissions would be more than those of the 28 lowest-income countries in the world put together.

350.org say that the Government should help tackle the cost-of-living crisis and our climate by kick-starting a fair transition to renewables and mass-insulating UK homes.

It says that the only way the Government will reject those Rosebank oil and gas field is if they see HUGE public opposition to new North Sea oil and gas.

Here’s the Conservative party manifesto for 2019, when they won the general election.  Check out their promises on climate change and fossil fuels.

The UK Government could be:

• Investing money into renewables for everyone
• Help fossil fuel workers transition to other jobs
• Take insulation and energy-saving measures to help us through the cost-of-living crisis.

(Personally, I think it could also remove VAT off all products which mean we use more energy from renewables from washing lines for the garden and clothes horses (use the sun and wind to dry clothes) to solar power and wind power.)

Add your name now: Demand that Liz Truss rejects Rosebank and ALL new North Sea oil and gas!

Fauna and Flora International (FFI) have an urgent funding appeal at the moment.

It’s to stop the crisis in Kanyama in the Congo Basin in Africa.  The area has been hit hard by poachers.  Gorillas drifting outside the Maiko National Park are being hunted. Not much could be done to stop it.

The Maiko National Park is a carbon sink.  It helps to fight climate change, and regular local climate patterns 

A huge portion of the habitat of the Grauer gorilla lies outside the boundaries of the national parks. These forest areas are vulnerable to deforestation. 

BUT change has happened! 

Thanks to a recent change in legislation, FFI have the opportunity to formally protect the forest area by Local Community Forest Concession Kanyama.  The forest will be managed by the local community.  Teams of community rangers will patrol it, supported by FFI.

And Fauna and Flora International think this change – in legislation – could mean the turning point for the Grauer gorilla.  The Grauer gorilla is endemic to the area. If they are lost from the DRC, then they are lost forever.

60% of the beautiful Grauer gorilla has been lost in just 25 years.  They have been hunted and eaten.  Their homes have been eradicated by illegal mining agricultural conversion and logging.  They risk infection from human-bourne diseases.  They are critically endangered (IUCN Red List). 

Find out more about this appeal here
Please donate here
image credit: Lindsey/Adobe Stock

FFI want to act FAST

They want to make the most of the opportunity this change in legislation has given them.

Now, they need donations.  

The donations are essential to train and equip local people to become effective community rangers.  They can then go into the field, monitoring gorilla movements, patrolling the forests and removing threats.

What’s more, a very generous donor has agreed to increase every single donation made to the project by 400% until £88,963 has been raised.

Donations will pay for:

• Community rangers and training
• Urgent supplies and equipment
• The establishment of a protected area
• Community outreach and awareness raising
• Surveying and mapping gorilla habitat
• Personnel and operations

Illegal mining businesses are increasing their interest in the forests day by day so the sooner we can get the rangers out there protecting it, the better.  The mining businesses will destroy the habitat the gorillas need and an influx of poachers will arrive. 

The Congo peafowl (the national bird of the DRC) and the endangered Opaki are also endemic to the Congo basin.  It’s also home to the Ground pangolin. 

Please help FFI help the gorillas and other species

Take a look at Panorama:  The Green Energy Scandal Exposed

The programme's website says that Drax power station in Yorkshire provides 12% of the renewable energy in the UK.

It's received £6 billion in green energy subsidies from the government. 

Reporter Joe Crowley looks into where the wood comes from.   

We need our forests.   Wildlife needs the forests.

Visit the programme's website to find out more.  

It’s International Red Panda Day on Saturday 17^th September – are you ready to celebrate red pandas and raise awareness of them?

How much do you know about red pandas?

Here are 15 Fantastic Facts About Red Pandas  from the Red Panda Network - for instance, did you know that they glow in the dark? 

Threats to the Red Panda

The biggest threat to red pandas is habitat loss and fragmentation.  Agriculture and settlement conversions have fragmented forests.  These areas have been degraded because of herding and resource harvest.  Now there are 400 forest patches – unprotected and isolated.  They are reducing the ability of the red pandas to survive

Other threats are livestock herding, free roaming dogs and disease, bamboo lifecycle and world climate change.  And wildlife crime is also a worry.

We need to protect red pandas from poachers and restore their forest habitat so that they have everything they need to both survive and thrive!

But the good news...

The Red Panda Network, who celebrate their 15th birthday this year, say there is a LOT to celebrate.  For a start, red panda numbers are improving in eastern Napal, a project area, according to population data. 

So how can you help the Red Panda Network help red pandas?

Plant a Red Panda Home to reverse the effects of deforestation. 

The Red Panda Network is working with local communities to plant trees and to restore and reconnect the habitat of red pandas!  This is in Nepal.  The aim is to establish a biological corridor, which enables red pandas and other species to survive and which is protected by the community. 

This year, over 84,000 trees have een planted, and roughly 10 hectares have been purchased.  54,815 saplings have been planted over 35 hectares!

Since 2019, 336,380 trees have been planted, thus reforesting 461 hectares of red panda habitat in Nepal.  The trees are planted and fences installed to protect the saplings.  The network buys private lands in key habitat areas - it also helps the local community by giving green jobs to locals.

Not only that, there are now 12 anti-poaching networks in Nepal!  In 2021, the teams patrolled for 437 hours.  They covered about 197 km in 36 Community forests!  That's some going! 

Join the Party for Red Pandas!

Ways to help the Red Panda Network:

• Adopt a red panda from USD$50
• Plant a Red Panda Home - $20 will plant 25 trees
• Help fundraise - why not have a red panda party?!
• Sign up for the e-newsletter from the Red Panda Network so that you can keep informed
• See red pandas in the wild on an eco-trip!
• Become a panda guardian - a monthly gift will give alternative income opportunities that support sustainable livelihoods for the people living among the pandas.

Visit the Red Panda Network here