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1. 2,000 aluminium cans enable 40 trees to be planted!

   Posted on 8:00pm Saturday 21st Apr 2018

   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

    

2. Trees for Life plant record number of trees in a year!

   Posted on 9:00pm Friday 16th Mar 2018

   There’s some amazing news from Scotland. The charity Trees for Life have just totted up the number of trees they planted in 2017 and it comes to a record breaking: 156,869 trees! Of these, 133,000 were planted at the Allt Ruadh exclosure at the Dundreggan Conservation Estate, thus helping to restore the Caledonian Forest in the stunning Highlands. Volunteers spent over 5,000 planting trees, and members, donors and supporters similarly played a vital role in ensuring the trees could be planted. What’s more, Trees for Life have been invited to join the growing European Rewildling Network which puts the restoration of the Caledonian Forest in the Highalnds firmly on the European map. The network shows how re-wilding can benefit from economic development, including nature based tourism such as wildlife watching, nature-based tourism and volunteer opportunities. Trees for Life has a number of Conservation Weeks and Conservation Days throughout the year, bringing visitors to Scotland.   The Caledonian Forest is Scotland’s equivalent of the Amazonian rainforest.  Today, just 1% of the original area is left, but Trees for Life has already restored large areas in Glen Affric and at the Dundreggan Conservatoin Estate by planting over 1.3 million trees and encouraging natural restoration.  The charity’s Caledonian Pinewood Recovery Project will help to restore 50 acres of remnant pinewoods – mostly ancient 200 year old “Granny” Scots pines which are dying.  There are no young trees to succeed them, so the fragments are in danger of vanishing without action. You can find out more about Trees for Life here  and how to help here.

    

3. African Parks report 3 successes for big cats

   Posted on 8:00pm Tuesday 6th Mar 2018

   There’s an awful lot of bad news about big cats around at the moment; they are being hunted for their skins, claws, bones and other parts; killed to prevent human-wildlife conflict, and their habitats are increasingly fragmented and lost. So it’s great to hear from African Parks that there are some hopeful signs across the continent for these majestic animals. Lions are being restored to Malawi In 2012, African Parks reintroduced lions to the Majete Wildlife Reserve.  They secured the park and brought back key species, including prey populations.  The lions have formed a small but growing pride to such an extent that African Parks have moved the first two of 10 lions to Liwonde National Park – the first time lions have been there for at least 4 years! New cheetah population doubles in less than a year In 2017, African Parks reintroduced cheetahs to Liwonde National Park, also in Malawi.  They’d been absent for 100 years.  Several females have had cubs, so increasing their numbers in just a few months since their arrival. Lion numbers grow in Rwanda Lions were eradicated by refugees coming back to Rwanda after the genocide, so they had been absent for 20 years.   African Parks reintroduced 7 lions to the Akagera National Park.   With the space to thrive, lions have nearly tripled, and the park is now a real wildlife gem.  Tourism is flourishing with over 36,000 annual visitors to the park, bringing $1.3 million in tourism revenue.  This is reinvested in the surrounding areas. Restoring and protecting the big cat in Africa’s wild places does a number of things: It maintains vital ecological processes It gives tourism a boost Tourism gives much needed benefits to the local communities and revenue to the region Get involved You can help African Parks continue to protect Africa’s big cats and ensure they have the space, prey and safety they need to breed and thrive.    Donate here

    

4. Schools help rainforest by fundraising

   Posted on 5:00pm Monday 25th Sep 2017

   It's always wonderful to read about schools helping with fundraising towards wildlife and environmental causes. Reading through my copy of the excellent "Rainforest Review 2017" from Rainforest Concern, I was really excited to see a number of schools supporting the charity.   Cake sales, farmer's markets, a raffle and rainforest calendars were just a few of the ways in which young people raised funds for this charity.  The charity reported on 10 schools who did their bit for Rainforest Concern and raised funds - it would be great to see more schools getting involved. One young supporter raised a very impressive £553, which saved 11 acres of rainforest!  And Angharad is only eight years old!  She ran 20 km over 4 weeks.   A big well done to her :-)  There some great teacher resources for schools on Rainforest Concern's website which you can find here, and there are even Amazonas Comics for the children too! It costs £50 to sponsor one acre of rainforest.  If you sponsor an acre, Rainforest Concern will give you a personalised certificate recording your sponsorship and regular updates on their progress.  Your sponsorship will protect many plants and animals who need rainforest to live in.  Click here for more information.

5. Wild Horses of Alberta Society....

   Posted on 4:00pm Monday 31st Jul 2017

   So yesterday I was having a canter around the BBC website and having a browse and I came across a video made by the Wild Horses of Alberta Society. The Society is "committed to the preservation of these magnificent animals in their natural environment" and they have a number of videos on their You Tube page which I must say I did enjoy.   As well as informing the public about the history of these wonderful horses, the Society  is also working with the government to establish reasonable and achievable wild horse population management solutions, and also another objective I particularly like is their work to promote the welfare of wild horses by rescuing, gentling and rehoming of wild horses providing veterinary care. They also have a wild horse adoption programme. Of course, being a horse lover I had to have a look, and the video was just wonderful!   The wilds of Alberta, the care the people took of these wild horses and the spirit of the horses was just - for me - really moving.   Here's one of their videos, A Year with the Wild Horses - do take a look!   The organisation entered into a Memorandum of Understanding with the province of Alberta back in November 2014 - a 5 year agreement.  It means WHOAS can run 2 programmes in a large area of the Sundre Equine Zone -  Firstly, a contraception program for wild horse mares - this should help manage horse populations Secondly, an adoption program so that WHOAS can rescue wild horses in trouble on private land or that are found abandoned or injured. It's always interesting to see how people are working to help animals and I do wish the Society well in its work. Click here to visit the Wild Horses of Alberta Society's website