The Sumatran Orangutan Society have launched an appeal to help guides in Sumatra.

These guides normally take tourists through the national parks but because of COVID-19, the Indonesian government has closed the parks to tourists.  This means that the income supporting the guides’ families has vanished overnight.   Food security is tenuous. 

Visit the Sumatran Orangutan Society

These guides are normally at Bukit Lawang, Tangkahan and Ketambe – these sites are in the precious Leuser Ecosystem.  There’s no idea of when the parks will open up again.

So SOS launched an appeal to help the guides.   Thus far, over £6,000 has been raised.  All donations are going to Nature for Change and OIC and they have started to buy and distribute food supplies already.

You can donate here.

Find out more about SOS here

Rapanui have an unusual offer this weekend!

Their Buy One, Get One Tree offer has a twist – an under-the-sea twist.   They’ve teamed up with the Marine Conservation Society to help protect seagrass.

This underwater grass is crucial in the fight against climate change.

Why?  Well, seagrass absorbs 10% of the ocean’s carbon every year.

In fact, estimates are that seagrass can capture as much carbon per hectares as trees in UK woodlands.  And seagrass is vital for marine life.

Find out more about seagrass and why it matters here

Unfortunately, 35% of seagrasses worldwide have been lost or damaged over the last 40 years – so Rapanui want to help the Marine Conservation Society do something about it.

This weekend (until midnight Sunday 14 June 2020), every order on the Rapa store will help the Marine Conservation Society protect 5 square feet of this wonder-plant in the UK's seas!

Visit Rapanui here – they have a wonderful range of t-shirts, hoodies, jackets, bundles, shirts and more!

Visit the Marine Conservation Society here and donate directly to their seagrass appeal

The World Land Trust reports that wildlife were putting themselves at risk in Guatemala because they were getting close to urban areas.

So their conservation partner FUNDAECO introduced human-made watering holes and they have proved to be invaluable for wildlife – several species have been filmed using them.

This initiative came after the Caribbean was hit by longer summers and animals got closer to towns. 

It only takes the team a few days to install each watering hole.  The water holes will now be an annual part conservation.  The plan is to roll these artificial water sources out on other reserves.

This means that wildlife will have access to water throughout the summer.

The first project the World Land Trust did with FUNDAECO was the purchase of 1,500 acres of lowland and inundated tropical forest.  They created a reserve at Laguna Grande.

Today, they are still buying and protecting some of the last remaining wetlands and tropical forests in Caribbean Guatemala.  Back in 2017, they started to create a new core reserve area in the Sierra Santa Cruz.  And WLT supports FUNDAECO through its Keepers of the Wild Appeal – that funds rangers on the reserves.

Find out about the work the World Land Trust is doing in Guatemala here

Find out about FUNDAECO here

The Marine Conservation Society wants to help vital seagrass around the south coast of England to recover. 

Seagrass exists in the shallow, sheltered waters around the UK’s coast.  It forms marine meadows and these are very productive ecosystems and biodiversity hotspots, with marine life such as the spiny seahorse and the short snouted seahorse.  And cuttlefish and sharks breed here.  They are also nurseries for Pollock, cod and plaice.

Support the Marine Conservation Society's Marine Meadow Appeal
Image copyright Marine Conservation Society

The climate is changing fast, and the impact is clear to see - bushfires, floods, storms, temperatures which are soring, melting ice sheets.  

Seagrass can help tackle the changing climate.  It is a flowering plant, and it lives underwater around the UK's coast in shallow, sheltered waters.  Crucially, it absorbs 10% of the carbon buried in ocean sediment every year - so it's a great weapon in tackling global warming.  The MCS says that it's estimated that seagrass around the UK shores can absorb and store at least as much carbon per hectare as trees in UK woodlands!

The problem is that a major threat to seagrass comes from traditional moorring methods - anchors and chais drag along the seabed.

If these traditional moorings can be repaced with advanced systems, where chains are raised off the seabed, it will be possible to regenerate marine meadows.  

The MCS has trialled these and discovered that they work!  So they want to expand it to five marine protected areas.  This will enable them to better lock in carbon and be a safe protected habitat for seahorses, cuttlefish and juvenile fish.

The Marine Conservation Society  needs to install advanced moorings to help replace damaging anchoring methods and let seagrass recover.   And they are asking for donations to help them do just that.

How appeal donations will help seagrass and seahorses

• £10 could help them replant 1 square meter of seagrass; 
• £20 could help divers monitor the recovery of seagrass beds where advanced mooring systems are installed.
• £30 could help them to cultivate 10,000 seagrass plants.
• £35 could help advise boaters, walkers and abait collectors on how to protect seagrass beds and other sensitive habits.
• £200 could help get old, damaging moorings in seagrass beds removed, ready for the new eco-friendly ones.

The Goal of the Appeal:

The goal is to raise £105,000 to install over 75 advanced moorings that will replace traditional, damaging anchoring methods and enable seagreass to recover.

Find out more and donate here.

Koalas Will Go Extinct If We Don't Stop Rampant Deforestation -

Please sign this petition to help them 

This petition is to the Government of Queensland, and Care2.com's The Petition Site is running it.

The koala could go extinct within our lifetime, according to researchers.   This is mainly because state governments have been much too lenient when it comes to clear-cutting in the koala's last remaining habitats.

For instance, between 2012 and 2016, five thousand koalas died becuase of habitat lost, and 94% of them died because of rural deforetation.   Koalas in Queensland are losing ground to huge stores and skyscapers thanks to the threat of new developments.  

Unfortunately, the previous premier rolled back tree-clearing laws. 

The new premier, Annastacia Palaszczuk is thinking about introducing new measures which would put an end to endless destruction of the koalas habitat.

This petition is about speaking up for koalas, being their voice, and asking the Palaszcuk government to pass new tree-clearing restrictions today.  The koalas can't speak up for themeslves - they have no voice.  We need to be their voice instead.

Please sign here to help koalas.