"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
The 22nd June is World Rainforests Day. Rainforests are vital for life to survive on Earth. Their loss threatens our biodiversity and imperils earth’s health. We ignore this loss at our peril.
World Rainforest Day was founded back in 2017 by the Rainforest Partnership. It celebrates the importance of healthy, standing rainforests for climate, biodiversity, culture and livelihoods. Crucially, it convenes a global movement to protect them and restore them. The Pledge programme mentioned below is launching in 2024 to drive rainforest and climate action across all sectors immediately.
Natural climate solutions such as protecting and restoring forests could reverse global emissions by a third, according to World Rainforest Day.
This day is held to celebrate rainforests and encourage us all to protect them. If we can all unite and become a forest of action that rains on earth, then we can make a huge difference.
The World Rainforest Day website has these things we can all do to make a positive impact on rainforests, today and every day:
Ways to help rainforests
Image copyright World Rainforest Day. They have a toolkit you can use to spread the word, which you'll find on their website.
Make a pledge!
World Rainforest Day says that "for a climate-stable future, we need standing rainforests. This #WorldRainforestDay marks the start of the Year of Action #forRainforests. Will you join us by making a pledge to take action?" Pledge here.
You could also visit Rainforest Rescue, whose mission is to give the rainforest a voice and preserve it in all its splendor. It has petitions you can sign to give rainforests your voice, and projects it runs to protect them, thanks to donor support. The petitions expose destructive projects and name the perpetrators, so they are important.
World Giraffe Day gives us all an important chance to raise awareness of the challenges giraffes face in the wild.
Giraffe face a Silent Extinction if we don’t act
There are only about 117,000 giraffe left in the wild now, so every giraffe is important and matters. West African giraffe are rarer than mountain gorillas. In fact, their decline has been referred to as the Silent Extinction, by Sir David Attenborough in the BBC documentary, “Giraffes: Africa’s Gentle Giants”.
Giraffe have gone extinct in at least 7 African countries
In the last 300 years, we’ve lost 90% of all giraffe habitat
Human population growth across Africa is having a huge impact on giraffe and other wildlife
The Foundation updates State of Giraffe every year, and this highlights the conservation efforts that are being made and also the status of wild giraffe in Africa.
Action is essential.
The Giraffe Conservation Foundation is the only organisation in the world which concentrates solely on the conservation and management of giraffe in the wild throughout Africa. Giraffe are still vulnerable to extinction, according to the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species.
It works in 15 African countries across 45 million acres of giraffe habitat. And it is making a difference to giraffe and I quote:
Over 300 giraffe returned to their historical habitat
18 new giraffe populations established
Over 85 giraffe born in original giraffe habitats
Over 12 million acres of giraffe habitat reclaimed
Over 5 million data points recorded
Impact on over 100 million acres of giraffe habitat
Enter World Giraffe Day!
Why is on the 21st June? Well, it’s the longest day or night of the year, depending on where in the world you live, and because it’s the longest, it’s also – naturally – World Giraffe Day!
This an annual event was initiated by the Giraffe Conservation Foundation to celebrate this most beautiful of animals.
Zoos, schools, governments, companies and NGOs are hosting events to help raise awareness, and you can get involved and do your bit. Stick your neck out and raise awareness of giraffes and remind people of their beauty on social media!
Crucially, it’s a great opportunity for the Giraffe Conservation Foundation to raise much needed funds to continue their work moving wild giraffe to their historical habitat.
Giraffe Translocation
The charity has a translocation programme, moving giraffe. Giraffe are moving to areas where there are very few or no giraffe. They are also caught, and then given satellite tracking units so that they can be tracked which enables conservationists to find out more about their movements. Catching and tracking giraffe provides an excellent opportunity to find out as much as possible about these beautiful animals.
All the giraffes which have moved thanks to the programme are doing well and thriving. And the great news is that many new calves are being born! The programme is a key part of the Giraffe Conservation Foundation’s programme to ensure that giraffe have a future in Africa.
The Foundation works closely with local communities – many African children have never seen a giraffe so it has taken children into the field for a day to see giraffe.
It’s the Giraffe Conservation Foundation’s biggest fundraiser of the year and the non-profit receives most of its support as a result of it. So please, please if you can, chip in! This year, the goal is $65,000 and every donation impacts on over 100 million acres of giraffe habitat
You could also adopt a giraffe (or a family of giraffe) for yourself or as a gift for a loved one - the Adopt-a-Giraffe Program allows you to follow the lives of a few selected desert-dwelling giraffe in the remote north west of Namibia, next to the Etosha National Park. The adoption programmes help fund the giraffe translocation programmes, so these matter.
Show how you #StandTallforGiraffe – literally! Take a photo of yourself standing tall – you could make it a group photo, but please bear social distancing rules in mind! A baby giraffe measures about 2m at birth – whilst the adults reach the giddy heights of over 5m.
Or come up with something that’s giraffe inspired – a cake with a giraffe on it, or paint a picture – just show how giraffes have inspired you and spread the message on social media of World Giraffe Day!
And tag the Giraffe Conservation Foundation on social media - here are the tags…
I love the charity Free the Bears. They are an Australian wildlife conservation and animal welfare organization and they work with local communities and governments in Asia to help sun bears, moon bears (Asiatic black bears) and sloth bears.
So they need protecting.
As governments work to tackle the illegal wildlife trade, so Free the Bears has more to do, rescuing bears who have been held captive for bear bile farming, educating the public, looking after the bears they have rescued – so far 950 in all. As more bear bile farms close and Free the Bears rescue those bears, so they need to build more enclosures. These bears have been captive, in some cases for a very long time. They cannot go into the wild upon release – they need gentle, loving and knowledgeable expert care, sometimes for ever.
Free the Bears rescue 18 bear cubs in Laos!
Free the Bears' government partners in Vientiane in Laos had captured a major wildlife tracker. And 17 orphaned endangered bear cubs were in his possession. Tragically, one of them had already died. Free the Bears went to the rescue
These bears have bear necessities
They need a healthy diet of fresh fruit and vegetables, with dog biscuits for protein and also pulses and grains
They are clever so they need a variety of enrichment activities to stimulate their minds
They love to have their own space so they have climbing platforms and hammocks – most bears don’t see other bears in the forest; they are very private
Many of the bears need veterinary care, some for a while. Remember that many have been used for bear bile farming – a needle has been injected into their gallbladders to access their bile whilst the bears have been drugged
Their enclosures have an environment that’s as near as possible to the natural habitat the bears would normally enjoy – these enclosures need maintaining.
Of course, this all costs. Donations help Free the Bears do these things:
Give immediate medical attention and care to the orphaned cubs
Support on-going conservation efforts to protect both bears and their habitats in the years ahead.
This bear cub was rescued in March 2023.
Free the Bears need help!
There are a number of ways you can help care for the bears in the care of Free the Bears:
Be a bear carer – there are different levels available from £5.00 a month.
Sponsor a bear (£240 for a year)
Send a gift to the bears such as a jar of honey, a hammock, a climbing frame, a cub care kit donation, a bathing pool donation, a treat ball donation
Send a gift for a bear lover to your human!
Simply donate!
Take part in Night in a Cage on 13th April 2024 (or a night to suit you in April 2024) and raise funds for Free the Bears - or you could sponsor someone who is doing it.
It's time for A Night in a Cage!
This is a great fundraiser - and a really important one - to help Free the Bears care for the bears they have rescued. In the case of the 18 bear cubs just rescued, the estimated cost of caring for them over their life times is $50,000.
The CEO of Free the Bears, Matt Hunt, the charity's incredible founder, Mary Hutton OAM, and bear carers around the world will be spending the night in a cage to raise awareness of the plight of endangered sun bears and moon bears.
Now, if you've only just heard about A Night in a Cage and would love to do the challenge, you can do it any time in April - so you can choose a night in April that suits you.
Sun bears are the smallest of all bears, but they have a tongue which is 30cm long (that’s a foot!), huge paws and a sun-shaped patch on their chest which gives them their name.
Sun bears are excellent climbers – they live in tropical forests in South East Asia. There they spend more time than other bears in trees, and make nests there. They are crucial for seed dispersal and pest control. The problem sun bears have is that they have lost 60% of their land due to habitat destruction and over-exploitation. Not only that, they are hunted for their paws and their gallbladders – these are sold on the black market.
The bears need us all to act. They have been rescued and they need our help to ensure they get all the wonderful loving care and attention they need for the rest of their lives.
Derbyshire Wildlife Trust have a new appeal, Common Farm, and the goal was to raise £300,000 by 30th November 2023.
Update on 18 March 2024:SUCCESS!!!
Derbyshire Wildlife Trust to say that they could officially announce they'd completed on the purchase of Common Farm!!!
Over 2,000 donated to the appeal (only launched last October), contirbuting nearly £300,000 to the purchase. Major donors and philanthropic organisations gave the rest of the funding needed to secure the site. Locals have been critical to the success of the appeal, organising walking tours for potential donors, delivering leaflets, donating and encouraging people to get involved. And the Trust is working closely with the community to develop the site as a great place for people and nature.
This is great news, well done Derbyshire Wildlife Trust and to everyone involved!
It’s made up of 18 sheep-grazed grassland fields which the Trust is going to transform into a wildlife reserve. The team will make every field count, as they make the most of the different types of habitat; they will re-wet the land, by filling in ditches, as drainage ditches flush vital rainwater from the site. Blocking or filling them in will create pools by filling in the ditches to re-wet the land.
As the land gets wetter, so trees and vegetation and wildlife will benefit. And cattle and ponies may come in as grazers, their manure enriching the soil and their grazing stopping trees from becoming dominant.
The project should form a diverse habitat – woodland expansion, scrubby thickets and open grassland that are species-rich and will benefit barn owls and skylarks and curlew, as well as plants such as the ragged robin and harebell. This will give a new territory to wildlife – native plants and animals will thrive – hopefully within a year!
Back in February 2023, the BBC’s Panaroma did a programme called “Is the Cloud damaging the planet?” Reporter Richard Bilton investigated the question.
Cloud stores our pictures and emails and it powers our internet searches. It enables us to stream movies and box sets. So far, that’s great.
The problem with digital pollution
The problem is that it depends on huge data centres which use huge amounts of power and water – so every time you and I go online, that increases our carbon footprint.
Then there’s all the emails you don’t need or want, duplicates of photos and videos, files and apps you’ve got but don’t use. Cloud stores them and needs energy to do it.
It all creates a type of pollution called digital pollution, and it consumes energy – even when we don’t think of it or use it. It just sits there, consuming electricity, forgotten and all too often unnecessary.
And yet, when we think of carbon emissions, we tend to think of things such as farting cows, car journeys, dirty factories, planes in the sky, and all that sort of thing. How many of us think of digital pollution and the damage it does?
Let's get deleting!
Delete your unnecessary stuff and there are a number of advantages such as, we can extend the life of our gadgets, and we pollute less and help the environment.
Plus, it gives you a feeling of control of your digital stuff. I’ve just spent a 30 minutes deleting a lot of stuff from my phone – old messages, three pictures taken of the cat because she kept moving her head when only one was any good, photos sent of things I no longer want or need. And my phone seems to have a new lease of life and burst of energy as a result of it. I’ve cleared a lot of rubbish to create more space.
Now there is an event in March (on the 16th) which gives you the chance to do your own digital de-tox, or you could make a start whilst waiting for something, or someone.
It’s the Digital Cleanup Day and its on 16th March 2024. It’s a really good opportunity to raise awareness of digital pollution – most of us wouldn’t even think of it. Clean up your data stored in i-Cloud such as files, pictures and videos, your mobile phone, and social media accounts. And take a look at your email account. Often it’s a good chance to see if you can get better organised with it all, too – which will help with the general organisation and running of life. Why not have a digital clean up party and see who can delete the most?!
So there are four things to do:
Clean up your smartphone
Clean up your computer hard drive
Clean up your mailbox
Make new arrangements and do things in a different way - there are lots of ideas on the website
You could share your results - you'll need to register to do that
