» Listings for January 2018

1. Chile receives amazing donation of land

   Posted on 9:00pm Wednesday 31st Jan 2018

   There’s amazing news from Chile.

   It’s officially designated a national park network, including land which has been privately donated by a couple from the US.
   
   

   
   The government signed a deal with Kristine McDivitt Tompkins.  She and her late husband Doug worked for years to protect areas of Patagonia. They relocated to Chile in 1994 to work on conservation, and they bought up land to preserve as wilderness. He founded North Face clothing label and died in a kayaking accident back in 2015 in Chile.

   The couple set up a not-for-profit organisation, Tompkins Conservation.  The area being protected is about the size of Switzerland, and it’s thought to be the biggest donation of land by private owners to a country.

   The move will create 5 new national parks and expand 3 others.  Plus is adds about 10 million acres of land – about 10% of this was donated by the Tompkins.

   The Chilean government wants the national parks to span a tourist route of over 1,500 miles across the country.

   This is the most recent act of natural protection by Chilean President Michelle Bachelet.   Back in 2017, an area off the coast of Easter Island was designated as one of the largest marine protection zones. 

   Keep going, Chile, and may other countries follow your example.  Nature needs it.

    

2. AWF Donates Land to Rwanda to Protect Mountain Gorilla Habitat

   Posted on 9:00pm Thursday 18th Jan 2018

   The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) lists mountain gorillas as critically endangered.    Mountain gorillas are only found in the Virunga Massive and in Bwindi Impenetrable National Park in Uganda.  They are one of the four great apes living in Africa and are the only great age which is increasing in population.  ©  Craig Sholley The Government of Rwanda, says the African Wildlife Foundation, has distinguished itself as a leader in conservation after the amazing recovery of the ape numbers. The 2010 cenuses of mountain gorillas in the Virunga Massife showed there were about 880 individuals - 480 in the Virunga Massive and 400 in Bwindi.  This means they had increased about 26% over the previous 7 years.  Visit the African Wildlife Foundation's website for more info This success led to a key challenge:  enough habitat for the mountain gorillas. In 2017, the African Wildlife Foundation bought a 27.8 hectare property right next to the park.   However, the increase in mountain gorillas has led to a key challenge: adequate habitat. So in 2017, the African Wildlife Foundation bought a 27.8-hectare property next to the park.   In January, the Rwanda Development Board received a property that will help increase the size of Volcanoes National Park, vital habitat for the mountain gorillas.  The park was established in 1925 and it's home to mountain gorillas.  It is sited in the north of Rwanda bordering the Democratic Republic of Congo and Uganda and it hoped that the handover of land from the African Wildlife Foundation to the Rwanda Development Board will help address the issue of adequate habitat. Visitor numbers have risen 82% since 2007, showing that more and more people want to see mountain gorillas.  Visitor numbers will help ensure their long term survival, provided that the gorillas are treated with respect and given the right habitat they need to survive and thrive. Responsible Travel is an ethical travel directory and it lists a number of gorilla safaris - click here for more information.

3. New Northern Forest to be planted in the UK

   Posted on 9:00pm Monday 8th Jan 2018

   In January 2018, the UK Government kicked off the year by backing a project to create a new Northern Forest.   The Government will provide £5.7 million to increase tree cover in this area.  The project will cost £500m over 25 years, and the balance will be raised by charity.  The Woodland Trust is leading the scheme with local Community Forests.  The project will see 50 million trees over 25 years.  They will stretch from Liverpool right over to Hull, embracing the major cities of Liverpool, Manchester, Sheffield, Leeds, Chester and Hull alongside other major towns along the M62 corridor.  Shared from New World 360 According to the Woodland Trust, benefits of this new forest include: Improving air quality in towns and cities Mitigating flood risk in key catchments Supporting the rural economy through tourism, recreation and timber production Connecting people with nature Helping to delivery better health and wellbeing for people by providing access to green spaces Providing a rich habitat for wildlife to thrive Woodland cover is at just 7.6% there, below the UK average of 13%.  The EU has an average of 44%.  Tree planting rates are very low with there being only 700 hectares against the Government’s target of 5,000 hectares a year, so this project should help. However, while it is one thing to create new forest, it is another to destroy ancient woodland which the Government is hell bent on, in part to create room for this ridiculous and incredibly expensive HS2 railway.   If this Government really cared about forests and woodlands, it would stop destroying ancient woodland and stop routing the high-speed train route through them.   Five Community Forests that sit within the proposed areas for the Northern Forest – you can find out more about the Community Forests here.

    

4. Plastic is harming the Ganges

   Posted on 8:00am Monday 8th Jan 2018

   The river Ganges is a lifeline for over 500 million people across India. The river is workshipped as Ganga Mata, the Divine Mother.   She has sustained life for thousands of years. As this clip from You Tube shows (thank you to the BBC.co.uk for it), the Ganges is in trouble, thanks to human use of plastic. Wherever we are in the world, we all need to try to cut down on the amount of plastic we use and look for alternatives.    I've made a start using bamboo toothbrushes and I love them!  If we can each look at what we use plastic for and see what alternatives we can use, that would be a great start. I'm off to buy a blueberry bush to put in a pot in the garden - that will save the plastic packaging they've come in before.