The World Land Trust is one of my favourite charities.  They save land, acre by acre, thanks to the donations of people and organisations who care.

They’ve been saving habitats (places where wildlife live) and species since 1989, and they HQ is in a small town in Cambridgeshire.  And they work with local conservation partners around the world, who understand the needs of local wildlife and people. 

Every year, they now have a Big Match Fund Fortnight.  This essentially means that any donation you and I make is matched.  So any donation you & I make is doubled.

Now, this year’s Big Match Fund Fortnight is up and running – it kicked off on 3^rd October and so far, 15% of funds have been raised. 

The World Land Trust is aiming to riase £575,000 to rejuvenate a landscape in Vietnam.   The money raised will go to the World Land Trust’s local partner, Viet Nature.  Viet Nature will begin bringing back tropical forest, so that it’s teeming with rare species.

At the moment, the area is overrun with what’s known in Vietnam as “American grass” since it replaced the forests that were destroyed by Agent Orange.   The plan is to rejuvenate the soils, clear invasive grasses, nurture native tree seedlings and then care for them until they are established.

But one of the very exciting things about this project is that the forest will re-connect with nearby reserves such as the Khe Nuoc Trong, so it will become one of the largest remaining areas of Annamite montain forest.

This means that wildlife will be able to find a home in the jungle as it spreads out.  Primates such as the Red-shanked Douc and the endangered Sunda Pangolin, the Crested Argus Peafowl and other endangered birds will be able to find habitat to live in.

And of course, the rejuvenated forest will recreate an environment that’s healthy for locals, who depend on fresh water, clean air and livelihoods.  In addition, the forest will stabilise soils and lock carbon up, so that will help climate change.

This is an amazing project, and it’s the World Land Trust’s major appeal for 2019.  Last year, Jungle for Jaguars in Belize was very successful – let’s hope that all the supporters can do the same for wildlife and people in Vietnam.

Donate here.

The Big Match Fund Fortnight ends on 17 October 2019 but you can still donate after that, it just falls outside of the Big Match Fund Fortnight.