Category: Wildlife Habitat: Wildlife Corridors

1. Help snow leopards by protecting their habitat

   Posted on 9:00pm Friday 28th Jun 2019

   High in the Himalayas, one of the world’s most beautiful big cats – the snow leopard - roams the lonely mountain slopes There are only about 4,000 snow leopards left in the wild.   And now their habitat is threatened with new roads, dams and mining projects disrupting habitats and leaving them with no-where to go.   One of the snow leopards’ last refuges could have a highway built straight through the middle of it. But there’s a cunning plan. Two Avaazers are working with the local community and the Rainforest Trust to buy up and protect snow leopard habitats.   And if they can raise enough money, they’ll create a vast, permanent snow leopard conservation corridor which blocks the road completely. Snow leopards, red pandas, pangolins, wild yaks, the Himalayan Black Bear, clouded leopards, and hundreds of species of butterflies all need us to dig in and lend a paw to make this purchase happen and keep it safe from road construction and mining. They need our help  We need to buy this precious corner of the world and protect it for snow leopards and all the other wildlife who live there.  The money must be raised within a few weeks – the more of us who chip in the better – and then we can create this snow leopard sanctuary together. Chip in now to protect this precious corner of the world, and to help preserve the planet's most threatened biodiversity hotspots -- before we lose them forever:   In the last few years, Avaaz has bought a rainforest in Indonesia for orangutans, its funded a Maasai-led wildlife corridor in the Seregeti, and protected a vital piece of the Galapagos.  Now it’s time to fight for the snow leopards.  Donate here

2. El Pantonoso Reserve is 100% fully funded

   Posted on 8:00pm Friday 23rd Mar 2018

   There’s good conservation news from the World Land Trust today. They’ve announced that the El Pantanoso Reserve is now 100% fully funded, which means that 10,900 acres is permanently protected through their partner Fundación Biodiversidad Argentina.  The reserve is a wildlife corridor of Yungas Forest.  It sits between the Calilegua National Park and the Estancia Urundel, and it’s Argentina’s biggest area of Jaguar habitat. This project has also been supported by a legacy which was left by a supporter of the World Land Trust, so it just shows how legacies can make a difference to causes one cares about.   Arcadia, a charitable fund of Lisbet Rausing and Peter Baldwin, also supported the project.  And it was secured by supporters of the Buy an Acre Argentina programme. At the moment, the World Land Trust’s Buy an Acre programme is focusing on Mexico at the moment, where a £100 donation can buy an acre of land.  In Ecuador, land prices are going up, and it’s not possible to buy an acre for £100, hence the focus on Mexico where the World Land Trust’s partner Grupo Ecological Sierra Gorda can save habitats about £100 an acre.

    

3. Saved: 730 acres of habitat-rich land in Ontario by the Couchiching Conservancy

   Posted on 8:00pm Thursday 1st Mar 2018

   The Couchiching Conservancy has acquired over 700 acres of habitat-rich land.   It sits alone one of southern Ontario’s wild rivers. The property includes over 4 kilometres of shoreline along the Black River.   This area is home to a number of species which are at risk, such as the Blanging’s turtle a species threatened by the loss or fragmenting of habitat, motor vehicles, and raccoons and foxes that prey on eggs, and the eastern hog-nosed snake, threatened by habitat loss and persecution by people. It’s an important acquisition, because it creates a large corridor of wilderness which enables species to move from one area to another.   As the climate changes, this will be all the more vital for them. Hundreds of donors enabled this purchase to happen, and there was also a major contribution from Ottawa’s Natural Areas Conservation Programme.     This programme is a private-public partnership which aims to conserve land across southern Canada, and federal funds are matched by contributions raised by the Nature Conservancy of Canada and its partners who manage the program  Here's more information about the Couchichong Conservancy:

    

4. Great news for Elephants from the World Land Trust

   Posted on 7:00pm Friday 2nd Jun 2017

   
   

   There are some charities which really do strike a chord with you and make you sit up and think, "Wow". The World Land Trust does it for me.   I think it's an amazing charity.  It protects the world's most important and threatened wildlife habitats, acre by acre. In fact, you can sponsor or give the gift of an acre, which makes for a marvellous gift because it lasts. Since it was founded in 1989 - so not that long ago compared to other charities - the World Land Trust has funded partner organisations around the world to create reserves, and thereby give permanent protection to habitats and wildlife. Habitats are vital to wildlife.  They matter.  Without a healthy habitat to live in, wildlife can't survive.  The World Land Trust has just succeeded in raising funds for a wildlife corridor in India, linking two tiger reserves.   The animal who'll probably benefit most from this corridor is the Indian elephant.  Elephants needed a safe passage to travel between two Ghats mountain ranges for food and mates.  The funding is being used for land exchange:  the landowner can continue subsistence farming, but away from the passage.   The elephants have been raiding crops as they pass between villages which of course caused conflict between people and elephants.  Hence the appeal was called the Elephant Corridor Appeal.  The success of the World Land Trust's campaign is critical because it gives safe passage to Indian elephants passing through the Mudahalli corridor between the Eastern and Western Ghats, and that can now be secured.  On this occasion, the Trust worked with the Wildlife Trust of India.  So far, Barking Deer, Black-naped Hare, Chital, Sambar Deer, Sloth Bear and Wild Boar have all been seen in the corridor forest and extension area, as well as tigers and elephants.  This is all thanks to the supporters of World Land Trust's campaign.   People (no doubt from all over the world, although the Trust is based in the UK. To me, news like this is fantastic.  This was an effort by a lot of people who were willing to put money into securing this wildlife corridor.   It reinforces what can be done by people coming together to make a difference. We can all create change by acting as individuals, but how much greater our power is when we come together! Elephants of India, enjoy your wildlife corridor.  Be safe. And thank you World Land Trust for the amazing work you and your partners do.