There’s been a great effort in the Channel Island of Jersey by students at one of the schools there, Victoria College.

The boys there have been collecting aluminium cans – 2,000 in all – for the Durrell Cans for Corridors initiative.   The 2,000 aluminium cans have provided enough for 40 trees to be planted!

The scheme was set up in Jersey in 2002 and was supposed to run for a year but it's been so successful, it was continued. 

The Cans for Corrridors project was founded back in 2002.  The aim was to help restore the natural habitat of endangered animals, as it had been destroyed by deforestation. 

The money raised from recycling 50 cans means that the project can plant one tree in a tree corridor in Brazil!

Durrell aims to restore, expand and link previously destroyed habitats. 

Since the collection point at Durrell’s wildlife park was installed, islanders in Jersey have put over 1 million cans into it. 

Aluminium is used over other materials because it is the most cost-effective reclaimable metal.   Recycling it is 90% more efficient than mining the raw material, according to Durrell.   And a recycled can will be back on supermarket shelves in approximately 2 months

Even if you don’t live in Jersey, you can collect cans and other recyclable aluminium products.  There are a number of aluminium recycling centres around the UK and you can find your nearest and whether they can collect your cans.  Kitchencraft.co.uk even have a can crusher you can buy to make recycling easier.  The funds raised can then be sent to Durrell, marked ‘Cans for Corridors’. 

There’s a poster you can download to raise awareness of the scheme for Durrell.

If you’re a charity, find out how you can recycle and raise funds 

The Kenyan government has set up a task force to look into ways to deal with human-wildlife conflict and clashes between ranchers and communities.

The task force is expected to make recommendations on game farming and game ranching.  It will evaluate its contribution to Kenya’s GDP, and food security.

The Kenya Wildlife Service is busy dealing with cases of poaching and wildlife trafficking, but also cases of human-wildlife conflict.  Pastoral communities have invaded private ranches as they look for pasture.

So the task force is expected to come up with solutions to human-wildlife conflict which will last, and also safeguard game parks, community and private land.

It is aiming to create a peaceful co-existence between communities and wildlife.

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 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.