So after the incredible success of previous events (see below), the World Land Trust's Big March Fortnight 2023 kicked off on the 11th October 2023.

The appeal was Columbia's Forests of Mist Appeal. And the aim is to secure a future for one of the threatened cloud forests in Columbia.

UPDATE on 16 February 2024:   £1.15 MILLION has been raised for this project!  SUCCESS!!   Find out more here

Columbia has some of the largest cloud forest areas in Latin America – and yet it has just 10 to 20% of its original cloud forests remaining.

Since 2007, Fundación Guanacas has protected 850 hectares of habitat here.  It is a partner of the UK based World Land Trust, who work to support conservation groups around the world.  You can visit the website of Fundación Guanacas here.

The Columbia Forests of Mist appeal will:

1. Extend the protected area of land by 181 hectares
   This will mean 1,031 hectares are protected – the ecosystem is threatened by agricultural activity. Pumas roam here – they are safe from human conflict and illegal hunting, but the encroachment of agricultural land could change all this. Without this land purchase, the area could be bought up and used for livestock – and that will make forest fragmentation worse.
   
   
2. Restore 100 hectares of essential cloud forest habitat
   This will be done by planting 36,500 native tree species between 2023 and 2028.  It will reconnect fragmented forests for animals such as the puma, the ocelot and Northern oncilla so that they can move safely, rest and feed.  The pumas’ presence and condition will be monitored by the forest rangers, using camera traps to see what the pumas are up to, and rehabilitated wildlife will be released in the area, too.
   
   
3. Protect habitat of 665 species. 
   15 species are on the IUCN Red List so this project is giving them a lifeline.   Species such as the  Antioquia Brushfinch are here – this species was once thought to be extinct – and so is the Antioquia Chocolate Frog, a tree frog found in northwestern Columbia alone.  This frog needs the torrents and puddles that the damp terrain provides. But a successful appeal will help:

• 28 Amphibians, of which 3 are threatened species. 
• 443 birds, of which 6 are threatened species
• 148 mammals of which 4 are threatened species
• 46 reptiles – 2 species are threatened
• Over 250 plant species.  These include 120 recorded orchid species and the area also has the world’s tallest palm tree!
  

4. Ensure the health and security of very important water cycles
Wildlife and local people depend on these, as the cloud forest captures, stores and releases water downstream.

5. Offer livelihoods to local people through ecotourism and conservation jobs. 
Nine cabins will be built to host guests, for example, and ecotourism activities will be developed with local communities.   Three forest ranger positions will be held by local people for the first three years of the project and their role will be to plant and nurture trees, monitor camera traps and accompany visitors to the reserve

The Antioquia Brushfinch is one of the species
who need this appeal to succeed.

This is an exciting and important opportunity to support Fundación Guanacas, a partner of the World Land Trust, to expand its Guanacas Reserve which has one of the only cloud forests in its Antioquia region.  Fundación Guanacas needs funds to save land that would suffer deforestation and soil degradation if it were not saved and restored.

Please support this appeal if you can!

All about the World Land Trust:

The World Land Trust is an amazing charity based in the UK, (HQ in Suffolk).  It focuses specifically on conserving threatened habitats and it does this through raising funds for land purchase.  It goes down this route with considerable care, and the land is purchased, protected and managed by local partner organisations. Thus is has the ability to respond swiftly when lands are under threat of destruction.

So far, the World Land Trust has protected 2,409,420 acres, and planted 2,457,900 trees.   It works in countries such as Argentina, Ecuador, Belize, Mexico, Peru, South Africa, the UK, Zimbabwe, Mozambique, Paraguay, India, Guatemala – and lots more!  View their projects here

It raises some of these funds through a Buy an Acre scheme – a £100 donation can buy an acre of land and protect it for wildlife in perpetuity.  You can also donate (one off or monthly) to the Action Fund which is used to for funds to enable the Trust to respond fast where action is needed, be it to extend and safeguard existing reserves or fight fires, or make sure that the reserves are protected by experienced rangers.

Every year, the World Land Trust has a huge appeal in the autumn.  It's called Big Match Fortnight...

All about previous Big Match Fortnights

In 2022, this appeal was a real opportunity to save Ecuador’s incredible Río Anzu and Río Zúñac forests!  The Life of the Edge appeal launched in October 2022 reached its £1,430,000 target!  Everyone who donated has enabled the World Land Trust's partner  – Foundación EcoMinga – to DOUBLE the size of the Anzu and Zúñac reserves in Ecuador’s upper Río Pastaza watershed.  Read all about it HERE

Along with donations from EcoMinga’sother supporters, the World Land Trust’s partner would be able to safeguard 5,1234 acres across both reserves, patrolled by the World Land Trust funded Keepers of the Wild.  And – very exciting – they will be linked to a 1.6 MILLION hectare protected network.  

In 2021, the Trust aimed to raise £1.2 million for the Guardians of Nimla Ha’ – one of their most ambitious appeals to date.  An incredible £1.37 million was raised which enabled the Trust’s partner in Guatemala, FUNDAECO, to complete the purchase to TRIPLE the size of their Laguna Grande Reserve, home to over 700 species.  Manatees, ocelots, 357 bird species, primates, Jaguars, Margays will all be much safer thanks to this purchase.   The reserve tripled in size from 1,668 to nearly 5,000 acres.  Find out more about the Guardians of Nimla ‘Ha appeal here.

We need to buy these habitats to protect them.  Let conservation be the victor here, not extraction and destruction

Together we can all make this happen.  Every single donation will make a difference.

The wildlife need us.   Please let’s take action and donate and/or spread the word!

We can act as individuals by donating and spreading the word and being a part of a something really important and terrific.  By pulling together, we can power through this appeal and help protect wildlife.

Visit the World Land Trust’s website for updates and to donate

Join in the fun from 25^th December through to 5^th January with the Wildlife Trusts!

It’s time for their 12 Days Wild, when the Wildlife Trusts encourage us all to do one wild thing a day – perhaps to go stargazing, or recycle a Christmas tree, or feed the birds – something like that.

You could take small actions to help nature or do something to connect with the natural world!

You can register with the Wildlife Trusts online to get going and they’ll send you activity suggestions.

And if you’ve missed out on the 12 Days Wild dates, why not simply create your own 12 Days Wild Challenge and keep track of the actions you take?

There’s nothing like being with nature!  Find the nature reserve nearest you.  And find your nearest Wildlife Trust here.

You can find out more about the Wildlife Trusts here - there are 46 of them around the country.  

Their purpose is "to bring wildlife back, to empower people to take meaningful action for nature, and to create an inclusive society where nature matters. "

And their vision is of "a thriving natural world, with our wildlife and natural habitats playing a valued role in addressing the climate and ecological emergencies, and everyone inspired to get involved in nature’s recovery."

Go to the Wildlife Trust's website here to find out more about 12 Days Wild and to register.

"Humankind’s greatest priority is to reintegrate with the natural world."

Jonathon Porritt

On Sunday 10^th December 2023 at 18:20 UK time on BBC1, there’s the last in series of Planet Earth III.  The photography and filming has been just outstanding and incredible to watch. 

Tonight, the programme takes a look at people who are heroes. They are people around the world who are risking it all to save wildlife.  They travel to and work in dangerous places, and some – such as wildlife rangers – risk their lives.  Many lose their lives in the line of their conservation work.

As the programme's website points out, there are so very many people around the world making a difference for nature.  We need to hear more of their stories.   Take hedgehogs for instance.  Did you know there are 126,548 people (10th December 2023) registered as Hedgehog Champions with Hedgehog Street?  

Tonight’s Planet Earth III programme goes to South Africa, Ecuador, the Cote d’Ivoire, Austria and the Amazin rainforest to meet heroes there.

In South Africa, we see a team working to save black rhino, a species wanted for their horn.  They are saving htem by setting up new breeding populations in safe havens, and they need to sedate these huge animals first and then fly them by helicopter – or more accurately, in a sling under a helicopter – to their new home.

We meet Jaime Culebras who has devoted his life to saving frogs. Santiago is one of the very last Morona-Santiago harlequin frogs and Jaime wants to find Santiago a partner to set up a breeding colony.  He has to trek to a remote cloud forest in the Andes to find out, and explore for a mate for his beloved frog by night.

There’s Trang Nguyen who is working undercover to catch people trading in illegal ivory.  This trade is one of the main reasons why forest elephants have declined by two thirds in two decades.  Trang is incredibly courageous and she does very dangerous work to catch criminals in the act.

Katharina Huchler is working to help the Northern bald ibis, some of the rarest birds in the world who were hunted to extinction 300 years ago in Europe.  Katharina has to show them the way to bring them back to Austria – will these birds follow her over the mountains?

The destruction of the Amazon rainforest is well known.  The Munduruku is an indegeous group who live there, and the government is discussing new laws to open it up to mining and agriculture.  Leader of the Munduruku, Alessandra Korap, is organising a huge demonstration by indigenous people in Brail to get their voices heard. 

Planet Earth III accompanies the series narrated by Sir David Attenborough
Available from Foyles.co.uk

We need to save habitats to save species.  People power matter, even if they are in small numbers.  The recent Common Farm Appeal from Derbyshire Wildlife Trust, launched in late September 2026, shows us from its website that when people get together and support and join in, great things happen.  As a result of 1,893 people, just over £290,000 was raised to buy 83 acres of farmland which is going to be turned into a nature reserve.  It will bring back many species.  1,893 people have made a huge difference and acted for nature. 

Enter the former president of the Maldives, Mohamed Nasheed, who goes to every climate conference, doing what he can to persuade politicians and leaders to act.  He says the more the environment is an election issue, the more action there will be on climate. 

We all need to vote for the planet in future elections.

Don't miss Planet Earth III tonight!

Be a hero yourself for conservation!

The programme's website has a section on how you can be a hero for conservation.  

And there's a new initiative starting as the series comes to an end, called Be a Voice for Nature.   It points out that there are so many things we can ALL do. 

Be a voice for nature.

Starting on Thursday 2nd November 2023 on Channel 5 at 7pm, there’s a new series of Secret Life of the Forest. 

The secret cameras are back as summer ends, taking in the beauty of Forestry England’s Great Yorkshire Forest and the wonderful wildlife who live there.  Beavers, turtle doves, Exmoor ponies and very rare insect species found only in Yorkshire feature in the habitat there.  It spans over 8000 acres and it’s situated at the southern edge of the North York Moors National Park.

The Forestry Commission bought it in 1921, and as the UK was extremely short of trees after the Second World War (it still is), and Dalby was included in strategic planting schemes.  These now provide us with lots of timber and give homes to wildlife.   400,000 people visit every year.

The cameras cover the beaver  pond, also home to stunning kingfishers - and they are also waiting to capture footage of the pine-marten, too.  Forestry England staff and volunteers care for this beautiful places.  Actor Robert Lindsay is the narrator. 

The new series launches on Thursday 2nd November 2023 at 7pm on Channel 5 – and if you can’t see it, don’t worry, you can catch it on Channel 5 catch up.

Find out more from the Forestry Comission’s website

Find out about volunteering with the Forestry Commission here

By the way, it's worth taking a look at the Yorkshire Wildlife Trust which is re committed "to creating a Yorkshire rich in wildlife for everyone. From saving our wildlife and wild places to bringing people closer to nature".   There are lots of ways to get involved and help them, so fly off to their website here to take a look.