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"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
 


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  1. SUCCESS: The Green Match Fund 2023 is from 20-27 April 2023

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    #GreenMatchFund

    Update on 29 April 2023:  The Green Match Fund 2023 was a great success, and £4,349,330 was raised for 178 charities in 7 days.  There were 22,457 donations to make this happen!   Congratulations to all the charities involved! 

    Here's the background here: 

    Here’s a chance to make a donation for wildlife which gets DOUBLED! 

    From the 20th April at midday for one week, you can donate to an environmental charity taking part and your donation will be matched! 

    This is a great chance to really make your £ stretch to make a difference!

    If we all pull together, we can really go places for nature and the natural world
    If we all pull together, we can really go places 
    for nature and the natural world
    Visit the Green Match Fund here

    Charites taking part in the Green Match Fund include:

    • Wildlife Trusts (a number have their own individual appeals)
    • Rewilding Britain
    • Bees for Development Trust
    • Surfers Against Sewage
    • Northumberland Rivers Trust
    • Fauna and Flora International (for pangolins)
    • The RSPB
    • Buglife
    • Students organising for Sustainability (that's Hedgehogs Friendly Schools)
    • Blue Marine Foundation
    • Virunga Foundation (that’s for gorillas)
    • David Shepherd Wildlife Foundation
    • ZSL (for big cats)
    • Bumblebee Conservation Trust
    • Wild Fish Conservation
    • Royal Entomological Society (that’s for insects)
    • International Animal Rescue (for mangroves)
    • The Shark Trust
    • Sumatran Orangtuan Foundation
    • Beaver Trust
    • Royal Zoological Society of Scotland (wildcats)
    • Whale and Dolphin Conservation
    • Bat Conservation Trust
    • CPRE (for hedgerows, so important to lifestyle)
    • Wildlife Vets International (for vultures)
    • Space for Giants (elephant-human conflict)
    • South Downs National Park Trust (for a network for ponds)
    • Rhino Ark (UK)
    • Orangutan Foundation
    • Bees Abroad (bees and elephants)
    • Cetacean Research and Rescue Unit
    • Hebridean Whale and Dolphin Trust
    • Project Seagrass
    • Organisation Cetacea
    • People’s Trust for Endangered Species (for hedgerows)
    • International Otter Survival Fund
    • World Cetacean Alliance
    • The Falconry Centre – Vulture Conservation
    • South Georgia Heritage Trust (whales)
    • UK Wild Otter Trust


    Even if you cannot donate, this is a great opportunity to find out more about what the charities that interest you most do, and to spread awareness of what they do – spread the word!

    The above list doesn’t cover all the charities taking part, so visit the Green Match Fund’s page to find out more!

    #GreenMatchFund

     

  2. Act for wildlife in Cambodia with FFI's urgent appeal in the Cardamom Mountains

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    I’ve had an email from Fauna and Flora International (FFI) about an impending crisis that is about to get catastrophically worse.

    The beautiful Cardamom Mountains in Cambodia are being covered in snares. 

    FFI say that the snares are shredding through clouded leopards, ripping elephant trunks in half and snapping the limbs of their calves.  Pangolins, sun bears, moon bears and indeed any mammal than a mouse are being badly impacted, as any animal larger than a mouse can be trapped in these cruel snares.

    To make matters worse, FFI’s project funding in the area has fallen through.  FFI patrol teams are still able to operate in some areas and maintain an effective resistance.  A very generous donor has enabled them to remove countless snares – and so save many, many animals.  FFI had hoped to extend the areas that they were covering.


    Unfortunately, the donor is unable to continue their support – and FFI must fill a £92,345 hole. 

    If FFI cannot fund the project, the warden leaders won’t be able to pay their patrol teams’ wages – and any who have the means won’t be able to have equipment and the backing to mount and maintain an effective resistance. 

    Funds will be spent on boots, machetes, camping gear, hammocks, rucksacks and everything wardens need to wear as they go out on one patrol after another.   The wardens need GPS kits, patrol mapping – and they need to be paid. 

    FFI say time is short. 

    What’s so important about the Cardamom Mountains?  Well, they have dense rainforest, mangroves and wetlands – and they have more than 60 globally threatened animal species and 17 globally threatened trees.  The Cardamom Mountains matter.  These include:

    • Asian elephants
    • Sun bears
    • The clouded leopard,
    • Dholes, a type of wild dog
    • The Sunda pangolin

    This elephant has been injured by a snare - the boot is protecting his leg
    Young elephant wears a protective boot
    to help recovery, after being caught in a snare.
    Credit: Charnwood Photo

    These snares are CRUEL – as the metal clasp tightens, causing the animal terrible pain.  The more they struggle, the tighter the snare gets, cutting more and more deeply into flesh and bone.  It is a terribly cruel and painful way to die.   

    At the same time, the animals have lost their habitat, because of illegal logging, land encroachment and unsustainable agricultural ways of doing things.  Over 10% of the forest has gone in 15 years  So the animals find themselves in smaller spaces, into what is known as a “wall of death”, because it is easy for them to get trapped by a snare.

    Enter the wardens. They are from the local communities and they cover over 100km every month, spotting and removing snares, watching for any signs of illegal poaching or logging, and undertaking biomonitoring and data-gathering activities.   These activities are important because they give a better understanding of the wildlife in the area, and enable the right decisions to be made about how to help them.

    The clouded leopard is well adapted to prowling through the forest

    The clouded leopard is well adapted to prowling through the forest
    Credit:  Bill – Adobe Stock

    Wardens also help by supplying the human-wildlife conflict teams with flashlights and noise-makers.  These can help deter elephants from the boundaries of farms and villages, so preventing damage to crops and property. These things make a huge impact – there have been no retaliation elephant killings since the wardens started such work.

    The warden team is essential to protect the animals of the Cardamom Mountains. 

    Please help today by making a donation.

     

  3. Help the Rainforest Trust save a vital 110 acres of Colombian tropical forest

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    The  is working hard to buy 110 acres of Colombian tropical forest.  

    The Rainforest Trust is on the verge of purchasing and protecting 110 vital acres of Colombian tropical forest.  

    The tropical forests are endangered themselves as farms expand and other developments take place.  They are the only place on the planet where you'll find cotton-top tamarins - whose numbers have gone down 80% in just 20 years.

     

    Help the Rainforest Trust save 110 vital acres of tropical rainforest in Colombia

    Help the Rainforest Trust save 110 vital acres of tropical rainforest in Colombia
    Please donate here

     

    As well as cotton-top tamarins, the area is also home to spider and howler monkeys, a critically endangered turtle species and scarlet macaws.  

    Local organisation Fundación Proyecto Tití is working hard to protect the whole area.

    They have blocked the creation of a clear-cutting cattle ranch.

    Now they are working with the Rainforest Trust to secure more land.  The land is critical becuase it will give the animals safe passage - a corridor - between protected areas.  It will give the animals the vital space they need to recover and survive. 

    We can all help the Rainforest Trust achieve this goal.  

    Find out more from the Rainforest Trust and donate here.

    You can donate to this project through SumofUs who partner the Rainforest Trust

  4. Rainforest Foundation UK have good news from the DRC about 29,142 hectares of forest!

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    Rainforest Foundation UK have good news from the Democratic Republic of the Congo!

    The Bamasobha Community have been granted their community forest!


    Its community forest programme there has gained momentum, as the Bamasobha community has been granted their community forest!  This secures 29,142 hectares!   Find out more about it here.

    There are now over 100 community forests which are either established or applied for, in the world’s second largest rainforest.  They total over 2 million acres!

    Rainforest Foundation UK works in the two largest rainforests, the Congo Basin and the Amazon.  The forests are spread over billions of acres but as we all know, they are threatened by illegal logging and mining.    Destroy the forest habitats, and you also undermine the livelihoods of locals living there.  You also destroy eco systems.

    ForestLink fights illegal activities in the forest

    So communities are important in the fight against illegal activities, and the Rainforest Foundation UK’s ForestLink monitoring system enables communities to send low-cost alerts about illegal logging.  It’s been so effective that it’s been expanded to the Ivory Coast!


    There was also a landmark conviction of eco-guards for human rights abuses which were committed in the Salonga National Park.   It sends a strong message that abuses won’t be tolerated.  

    Rainforest Foundation UK says that much needs to be done to address the risks from a poorly designed UN plan to double protect areas within the next decade.  It is working to “amplify the voices of those on the frontline of deforestation on the international stage” as the climate summit in Glasgow approaches.

    Visit Rainforest Foundation UK's website here

  5. New Appeal from the World Land Trust: Save Tanzania’s Coastal Forests

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    The World Land Trust has launched the first appeal for this year and this one is in Eastern Africa.

    The coastal forests there did cover an area larger than the UK – now, they would fit into half of Scotland.

    There are 400 forest fragments from Somalia to Mozambique and biodiversity islands that are full of endemic life.

    The Appeal Target:   £360,000

    The Trust is working to raise £360,000.   With help from these donations, their partner the  Tanzania Forest Conservation Group (TFCG)  can save a crucial wildlife corridor.   Elephants, leopards, lions and other animals are counting on us all to save this land for them.

    Roads are bringing cashew plantations closer and closer.  The animals need their wildlife corridor to be saved.

    About the Rondo Appeal

    The Rondo Plateau is a 900 metre table-top mountain.  It is a microclimate of misty forests, chameleons and bush baby primates whilst below it, big cats, butterflies and elephants roam. 

    And with all our help, the Tanzania Forest Conservation Group is going to create a huge protected belt around this ancient landscape.


    The donations will help safeguard a crucial wildlife corridor between the Rondo Forest Reserve and the Nyerere National Park.  49,000+acres (20,000 ha) of land will be protected.  The corridor will come in the form of 10 Village Land Forest Reserves, each under the stewardship of a village, and the Tanzania Forest Conservation Group will work with them closely.

    Which animals will the appeal help? 

    These animals are examples of those who need the Ronda route:

    • Elephants who need space to roam and who need their migration routes,
    • The African Lion and African leopard manage prey species – they must do this or animals such as the African Bush Pig would go unchecked, and devastate local farms.
    • The lions in the area need the land between the forest and shrubland to hunt or they would become extinct in the area
    • Leopards need forests so that they can store their kills up in the trees where other animals can’t get them.
    • The dwarf galago is a tiny endangered primate, who lives in trees and who needs the connectivity the Ronda land will give it.
    • The bearded pygmy chameleon is very vulnerable to habitat disruption – even the loss of a few trees could be one loss too many for some
    • The chequered elephant shrew’s population is very fragmented because of habitat loss so the subspecies is under real pressure

    We all need to act

    Please help protect these animals by protecting their homes today – and please donate to the World Land Trust’s appeal