Our blog & news: Get involved to help wildlife

 
 

"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
 


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Category: Help a species

  1. New partnership to curb elephant poaching in Kenya

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    The International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW) has partnered with the TUI Care Foundation to prevent the poaching of elephants and stop human-elephant conflict in the Tsavo conservation area in Kenya.

    TenBoma is IFAW’s innovative wildlife security initiative.  It means that government and community rangers are trained to better predict and respond to threats and protect the animals and local communities.

    In short, the tenBoma approach combines tradition – taking traditional knowledge from communities – with modernity – incorporating this knowledge into modern methods and technology.

    The Tsavo Conservation Area is home to nearly 13,000 elephants

    The support from the TUI Care Foundation has enabled IFAW to provide urgently needed equipment to community rangers.  This equipment includes items such as mobile devices, cameras and boots.  These items enable the rangers to gather information on potential threats to wildlife and people.

    Technology, systematic data processing systems and intelligence will enable the two organisations to implement the initiative.

    Rangers have communications and mobility equipment such as GPS, smartphones and radios so that they can respond more quickly and effectively to intercept poachers.   These also enable the rangers to get to areas where elephants are raiding crops and so coming into conflict with people.

    The Tsavo Conservation Area is one of Kenya's most visited tourism destinations.  IFAW say about 12,850 elephants live there, and amongst them are at least 11 of the world’s remaining big tuskers. 

    They are all facing a threat from poachers who want their ivory and from human-elephant conflict.

    Find out more

     

     

  2. Durrell has a film called Conservation Works

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    The Durrell Wildlife Conservation Trust has moved into 2019 looking forward to its 60th anniversary....It was founded back in 1959 by author and naturalist Gerald Durrell. 

    The charity is committed to saving some of the most vulnerable animals on the planet from extinction.

    For instance, a duck thought to be extinct for 15 years has been brought back from the brink and given a new home on a remote lake in Madagascar.

    The Jersey based charity has a video called Conservation Works, narrated by Alexander Armstrong and here it is from You Tube:

    Durrell's approach:

    1. The charity runs 50 projects in 18 countries, focusing on islands.   
    2. The role of the zoo in Jersey and overseas is conservation, managing breeding programmes for release back into the wild.
    3. It has 25 years of conservation training and runs courses for conservationists. 
    4. And it uses science to help idenfity priorities, design conservation policy and practice and animal husbandry and to evaluate the impact of its work. 

    In the last 30 years, Durrell has helped move 14 target species in danger of extinction away from the edge. 

    As a Jersey girl, I'm very proud of Durrell and the work it does, and wish everyone there and associated with it a very Happy 60th Anniversary!   Keep up the wonderful work :-) 

  3. Good news for tiger conservation in Satpuda in central India from Born Free

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    Today there’s good news from Born Free.

    100 years ago, there were about 100,000 tigers across Asia.   Today, there are just 4,000 and the tiger is officially classified a Endangered by the IUCN (that’s the International Union for Conservation of Nature).

    Threats to tigers include

    • Human-wildlife conflict
    • Poaching for body parts for traditional “medicine”
    • Habitat loss because of deforestation and development, which people are driving

    Born Free have an initiative called Living with Tigers.  It’s a network of Indian NGOs working across central India in the Satpuda area.   

     Find out more about Born Frees work to help tigers

    The network does a number of things, namely to:

    • Tackle the poaching crisis
    • Safeguard tiger habitats
    • Find compassionate solutions so that communities and wildlife can live together

    There’s a dedicated teams of Tiger Ambassadors.  These are local villagers who are trained to identify signs of tigers being present in their area and to help if conflict arises.

    There’s also a Mobile Education Unit which teachers local school children about wildlife conservation.

    So the good news for tiger conservation is....

    Tiger numbers have increased to 500 across the Satpuda landscape in the last 10 years.  This is great news but Born Free wants to go further.   It wants to: 

    1. Safeguard wild tiger populations in central India
    2. Work with more local communities to reduce human-wildlife conflict
    3. Create more protected areas so that wildlife can flourish
    4. Educate more people on the importance of conservation and approaches to co-existence.
    Help Born Free protect tigers here by donating to their work

     

  4. Black bear spotted on camera in Mexico

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    Great news from Mexico!

    The World Land Trust reports that trail cameras in the Sierra Gorda Biosphere Reserve there have filmed a Black Bear recorded in central Mexico.  

    This is the first Black Bear recorded there for 100 years!

    There's also footage of a nine-banded Armadillo and Jaguar.

    Back in 2018, supporters of the World Land Trust raised a whopping £57,800 to protect an area of the forest of 578 acres - that's the size of nearly 300 football pitches!
    Would you like to help the World Land Trust protect more acres for wildlife?

    If you're thinking, "yes, I would!" visit their website here.

     

  5. Panthera's plans for 2019 to help big cat conservation

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    Panthera is dedicated solely to the conservation of wild cats.   And Panthera has shared its plans for 2019 and the advances it wants to make for big cats:

    Sign up for updates from Panthera


    Take On Wildlife Crime and Trafficking Globally
    To clamp down on the threat to other cat species in areas of the world where wildlife crime is rising.  Funding from the U.S. State Department and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service will help Panthera to increase its work with government partners around the world to disrupt the criminals targeting tigers, lions, jaguars, leopards and snow leopards.

    Revolutionize the Way it Shares and Uses Scientific Data
    To roll out what is arguably the largest collection of data on wild cats in the world.  Its new data system will enable scientists and partners to expand and share knowledge in ways they never have before, with immediate access to millions of camera trap images and analytical tools applicable across species, sites, and regions.  This global network will change the way conservation is done and speed progress.

    Increase its Eyes on the Wild
    To produce and use up to 10,000 of the PantheraCam V7s - meaning that up to 28,000 camera traps will be in the field.  These should be a big help to wild cat biologists.

    Be a part of this journey -
    Sign up to Panthera for updates and ways to help here