One of the events I look forward to most of all in the year is the World Land Trust's Big Match Fortnight.   The anticipation is always so exciting as we wait to find out what the project is! 

With all the terrible events taking place in the world, it’s a breath of fresh air and wonderful to see people and organisations being proactive and making a difference. 

The World Land Trust is based in Suffolk, but which has an international reach.  It protects habitats and wildlife in tropical regions and it raises funds to buy land for the specific purpose of conservation.

Since its founding back in 1989, the Trust has worked with many conservation groups around the world.  With the help of its supporters and very generous donors, it has funded 2,973,468 acres, co-funded a further 3,560,336 acres, the planting of 3,114,186 trees and the protection of over 13,066 species.  That’s quite a feat, so that just shows what you can do when you have a very strong focus

Once a year, the World Land Trust has a Big Match Fortnight, a huge fundraiser to raise funds for a specific project. In 2024 it runs between the 2nd and 20th October (it was the 16th, but that's been extended) and donations are doubled by some wonderfully generous donors, and huge thanks to them.

The project for this year's Big Match Fortnight has now been announced and it is….drum roll please…

Over 185 MILLION acres of Amazon rainforest have been lost since 1978.   Rapid agricultural expansion, illegal gold mining and an oil boom threatens it further.  Continue on this journey of destruction, and the Amazon rainforest could no longer be a carbon sink at all by 2030. 

Donations will enable Nature and Culture in Ecuador (NCE) to establish a Provincial Protected Area in Ecuador’s Orellana Province.

Once finished, the protected area would protect about 1.85 million acres, 14 unique ecosystems and an amazing diversity of wildlife.

Don’t forget, all donations are doubled during Big Match Fortnight (2 to 20 October 2024) by some wonderfully generous Major Giving supporters.  This means that you can double your impact at no extra cost to you. (It was being doubled until the 16th October but this date has now been extended to the 20th October.)

Achieve this goal, and the project will also help communities to safeguard their land in Northeast Ecuador.  84% of the area of Orellana still has Amazon rainforest intact.  About half of it is protected through national reserves but the rest has no protection so it’s vital to do something about it and protect it, working with indigenous communities and the provincial government, while the opportunity is there.                                                                   

Apart from the indigenous communities, who else calls it home?

Well, animals such as the Amazon River Dolphin, Giant otters, the Lowland Tapir, Jaguars, Military Macaws,  the South American river turtle, the Harpy Eagle, the Giant Anteater, and the Giant Armadillo.  White-bellied Spider Monkeys all live there, as does the Amazonian Manatee, and also many species new to science such as the Tiputini Velvet Worm. 

You support will create a Provincial Protected Area in Orellana.  It will also help build a huge connected landscape of protected sites across the Ecuadorian Amazon. 

Did you know that back in 2018 the Amazon Platform for Forest, Climate and Human Wellbeing Initiative was set up?  Its aim is to unite conservation across 6 provinces in Ecuador, creating an Amazon Platform and so preserving the largest corridor of continuous forest in Ecuador.  It will span about 13.6 million acres of land – and that’s over twice the size of Wales.  The success of this Big Match Fortnight fundraiser in October 2024 will enable NCE to expand this protection north.   The Amazon Platform is aiming to improve connections within current Protected Areas too.  It’s a massive and very exciting platform!

I will be donating in memory of my father and aunt, both of whom are now no longer sadly with us but who have birthdays close to the dates of the Big Match Appeal.  They both loved nature and travelling and it’s a wonderful way to remember them and know that the seeds of their memories and love will be planted with purpose and be part of something much, much bigger.  And for me as a donor, it's wonderful to know that from the 2nd to 20th October 2024, my donation will be doubled!  So it will have twice the impact!  (You can still donate after that, it just means your donation won't be doubled after the 20th October.)

Their first project raised sufficient funds to save 110,000 acres of threatened tropical rainforest in Belize.  This was in collaboration with the Massachusetts Audubon Society, and the US partner also enabled the WLT founder John Burton to establish the Trust’s first office in the UK.  And the second project focused on the island Danjugan, threatened by tourism development.  The Trust raised enough money for the Philippine Reef and Rainforest Conservation Foundation Inc. to buy the entire island, and the Foundation still manages and protects it. So you can see how the Trust works.  There’s more of its history here, and it also gives other examples of projects the Trust has supported through its fundraising campaigns in countries such as Brazil, India, Guatemala, and Vietnam.