» Listings for August 2023

1. Butterfly Conservation have an appeal for butterflies in Rowland Wood

   Posted on 2:00pm Monday 28th Aug 2023

    

   Ancient woodland now covers just 2.5% of the UK.   And Butterfly Conservation say that the Small Pearl-bordered and the Pearl-bordered fritillary are finding their habitat is reducing at a horrifying rate:  the small pearl-bordered have gone down 66% and the pearl-bordered Fritillary 64%.

   Butterfly Conservation purchased Rowland Wood back in 2010.  They’ve been working hard to reverse years of damage to it.  But it still risks losing one of the last remaining colonies of both the small Pearl-bordered and Pearl-bordered Frilliary in the south east.

   The good news is that the butterflies have appreciated this effort – there have been successful reintroductions of both species – but Butterfly Conservation know they really need to keep going.
   
   

   Help save the Small Pearl-bordered Fritillary
   
   

   They need to raise £12,000 to keep this conservation work going. 

   Unfortunately, back in the 1960s, critical points of the wood were planted with non-native trees, and this ruined the natural eco-system.  

   In 2017-2019, the charity reintroduced both species.   Traditional woodland management techniques such as coppicing have reopened sections of canopy.  This has created open spaces which has helped the butterflies to thrive.  

   We need to keep this effort going.    Rowland Wood is one of the last places in southern England where you can see both these species of butterfly.

   Please help Butterfly Conservation carry on this vital conservation work, regenerating Rowland Wood and increasing the amount of habitat available for both species of butterfly.   Please donate to this appeal today.  Thank you

    

2. Save the Penan Forest

   Posted on 4:00pm Saturday 19th Aug 2023

   Updates:
   
   Rainforest Rescue have updates on their website about what is happening in the Mulu National Park which is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.  In Sept 2019, staunch resistance by indigenous communities saved the Park from destruction. A palm oil company which was going to clear 4,400 hectares of forest backed down and withdrew its heavy machinery from the site.  Find out more here 

   You can see some of the Mulu National Park here.  

   Take a look at Save Mulu  where there's a petition you can sign to protect the Mulu rainforest.   

   Sarawak’s indigenous communities celebrate historic win against palm oil development and thank Sarawak's Premier

   Sarawak: Palm oil project off the table for good

   There’s a petition on Rainforest Rescue that I wanted to tell you about.      The Mulu rainforest is being destroyed by greed and corruption.   Oil palm plantations are closing in on the ancient rainforests of Sarawak's only UNESCO World Heritage Site, Mulu National Park. The local indigenous Berawan and Penan communities are resisting the project, which would destroy their ancestral forest and livelihoods.  The rainforest is a treasure trove of biodiversity.  The Penan and Berawan people need all our help to resist this destruction.  Back in 2008, the Chief Minister of Sarawak at the time, Taib Mahmud, granted an oil palm concession to Radiant Lagoon – a Malaysian company.  (His son happened to be the director and controlling shareholder.) Palm oil plantations are spreading at a rapid rate in Malaysia which goes against pledges by the Malaysian government and the late Sarawak Chief Minister Adenan Satem to stop the expansion of oil palm monocultures. The joint petition by Rainforest Rescue and Bruno Manser Fonds demands a moratorium on the cultivation of new oil palm plantations and an immediate stop to the destruction of rainforest in the Mulu National Park area.  Please sign the petition here and let's stop the rot of deforestation

    

3. Protect tropical rainforest for orangutans

   Posted on 12:25pm Wednesday 16th Aug 2023

    

   It’s International Orangutan Day on 19^th August and the Orangutan Foundation have a wonderful opportunity for us all to create real impact for orangutans, forests and people!

   How can we do this?
   
   By sponsoring an acre of tropical rainforest!   You can protect an acre of essential rainforest habitat for one year from ONLY £2!

    
   Please sponsor an acre of rainforest and
     help orangutans this International Orangutan Day.
   Image copyright Orangutan Foundation

    

   Sponsorship will directly benefit 5,000 orangutans in the Lamandau Wildlife Reserve and Tanjung Putting National Park.  The Orangutan Foundation is aiming to protect 3,000 acres in the run up to International Orangutan Day!

   Donations support:

   • 500,00 acres of tropical rainforest – we all need tropical rainforest to help keep the balance of nature and keep us all well and healthy
   • 5,000 critically endangered orangutans
   • 10 forest guard posts in critical orangutan habitat
   • 25 Local people directly protecting habitat
   • Training in SMART technology to improve forest and wildlife protection

   You could also sponsor an acre as a gift to someone who loves orangutans and the natural world.  All you need to do is to leave a name and email address in the “Additional Info” section at checkout.

   Please give others the opportunity to sponsor rainforest too – tell everyone you can about it! 

   There’s more information about it – just swing over to the Orangutan Foundation’s website!

    

    

    

4. It was World Elephant Day on 12th August - there's 21,000 bottles of milk for baby elephants!

   Posted on 4:00pm Friday 11th Aug 2023

    

   UPDATE on 15 August 2023: 
   
   There's great news from the Gift a Rescue Elephant a bottle of milk match which took place in August 2023, and ended on 13 August.

   10,500 bottles of milk were gifted in the Milk Match campaign!  With the match, that makes a total of 21,000 bottles of milk for the orphan elephants in the care of the Reteti Elephant Sanctuary! 
    

   Visit the Reteti Elephant Sanctuary here.
   
   

   Original blog:

   Give an elephant a bottle of milk and it will be matched

   On the 12^th August, it’s World Elephant Day and a great chance to make a difference to that most wonderful of giants, the elephant.

   The Reteti Elephant Sanctuary is Africa’s first community owned elephant sanctuary in North Kenya.    Reteti takes in orphaned and abandoned elephant calves with the aim to release them back into the wild.  In short, they rescue to release!  

   Meet the elephants here

   And this World Elephant Day, there’s a chance to help them!

   Give the elephants a bottle of milk – and it will be matched!  For every bottle you give the elephants, there’s a match with another one.

   Please give a bottle of milk to a baby elephant.

   One bottle of milk is $10.00

   8 bottles of milk is $80.00 (that’s enough milk for a day’s supply for one elephant).

   This match is running through to 13 August 2023 up to 12,500 bottles!  Help the sanctuary secure 25,000 bottles which will keep the calves in milk for up to 2 months!

   About 10 to 25 elephant calves are rescued in the area of Northern Kenya every year.
   
   

    
   Please give an elephant a bottle of milk here
   Thank you!
   Image © Reteti Elephant Sanctuary
   
   

   These elephant calves are orphaned or abandoned because of drought, man-made wells which they can fall into, conflict between people and wildlife, and natural deaths.   Local communities wanted to retain elephants within the county and so the Kenya Wildlife Service and Samburu County Government promoted the establishment of a new Sanctuary. 

   The keepers are all recruited from the Namunyak Conservancy ad they have been trained in the care, rehabilitation and release of elephant calves.  The Samburu have been living with wildlife for many years and deeply respect elephants.   You can meet the keepers here.

   You can adopt an elephant for a minimum of USD50 a year, or you can give a bottle of milk. 

   Visit the Reteti Elephant Sanctuary’s website to find out more.

   Please give a bottle of milk here.  Thank you for going to look :-)