"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
The Snow Leopard Trust have an appeal called Building Resilience: Together we are Mighty and it’s all about helping to build resilience for snow leopards and local herder families.
Supporters had a goal of $70,000 - six zoo partners were matching this sum and they are The Big Cat Sanctuary, Foundation Le Pal Nature, La Passerelle, Zoo Basel, Zoo Dresden, and the Zoological Society of Hertfordshire.
This goal has been met, and now the Snow Leopard Trust is looking to raise £300,00 in the next 30 days (so roughly by the end of December 2020).
As I type, 822 people have raised $91,332 for Snow Leopards and it's wonderful to see so many big cat lovers coming together to support these majestic, wonderful animals.
How donations will help snow leopards
All our donations and our love for snow leopards will help do a number of things:
Develop tools to reduce livestock depredation, such as predator proof corrals.
Create community-managed programs, like livestock insurance, to offset the costs of living with wildlife and reduce the risk of retaliatory killing.
Provide training and support for local rangers to patrol key protected areas.
Programmes such as these will help make life easier for snow leopards and help build resilience for the herder families locally as well.
You see, bulldozers appeared without warning and started to clear one of Nigeria’s last remaining forests.
The Ekuri people rose up quickly – they have a lot of experience defending their forest against the exploitation of others.
The Ekuri people and Rainforest Rescue have developed a powerful coalition over the years.
They want to get the government of Cross River State to abandon its plans for a superhighway to nowhere.
If it were to be created, that superhighway would impact national parks, forest reserves – and 185 villages along its 270 kilometre route.Sixty Eco-Guards are being trained to protect the forest by Martins Ego and activities of the NGOs Ekuri Initiative and DevCon.
One of the species of wildlife who will be particularly affected if this highway goes ahead is the endangered Cross River Gorillas because the region is home to the Afi Wildlife Sanctuary.
Please help the Ekuri people defend their forest home and protect it for people and wildlife – especially the gorillas! Find out more and donate here
Land grabbers are burning the Cerrado region in Brazil to clear the land for cattle and soy production.
The demand for meat never ends and huge multinational companies such as Cargill bring most of the Brazilian soy to the UK to feed cows and pigs.
Later, those cows and pigs are sold as pork and beef in our supermarkets. We need to tell our local supermarkets to force Cargill to protect the Cerrado region.
It's worked before in the Amazon - we need to put pressure on Tesco, Sainsbury’s, Morrisons, ALDI and ASDA to tell Cargill to stop the fires - or they will take their business elsewhere.
Over 15,200 animals have been caught in Queensland’s shark control programm since 2001. Dolphins, turtles and whales were left struggling for hours – many had long and agonising deaths.
The Hon. Mark Furner is in charge of removing these death traps and replacing them with more effective technology to protect marine life and swimmers.
The Queensland Government spends $13.1 million a year on their shark control programme, but only $1 million of that goes on researching and trying non-lethal alternatives. The result is that anyone who swims near them is threatened by them.
New South Wales and Western Australia re both trying more effective non-lethal technologies, so please sign the petition to hold the Queensland Government accountable for all the marine lives killed in their shark control programme. It is a lethal one.
Some 575 animals have been trapped in shark nets and drumlines in Queensland alone this year.
Progress is being made – the trialling of drones has started at 5 beaches but we all need to put the pressure on.
Please sign and share and let’s get the Queensland Government moving on saying no to nets.
Bees, butterflies and other pollinators all benefit from them, and they also give food and shelter to animals such as owls and bats.
The problem is that traditional wildflower meadows have practically disappeared from our countryside and replaced with uniform green grassed industrial-fertilized fields.
There are few flowers who can survive in this landscape and that means pollinating insects have declined.
In Devon, the Culm grasslands to the north of Dartmoor are very important because they support both wildflowers and wild creatures – yet only 10% of the wildflower rich grasslands of 100 years ago are still in a good condition in north Devon today.
There is, however, hope for our meadows:
Lost wildflower meadows can be restored
Lost wildflower meadows can be restored to richness, and colour, and life using different methods. The Devon Wildlife Trust has been working with landowners to do that for years.
All you need to make a meadow for wildlife on a patch of grassland is:
Time
The most suitable wildflower seeds
Access to the right equipment
The know-how to manage a meadow in its earliest stages.
The goodwill is there – people want to act for wildlife
In 2019, supporters helped back the Devon Wildlife Trust’s Blooming Wild Devon crowdfunder to bring wildflowers back to the countryside in North Devon and the South Hams and also to increase wildflowers in urban green spaces. As a result of an amazing effort, supporters enabled the Trust to restore, improve or create 9,482 acres of wildflower-rich grassland – the equivalent of 278 football pitches!
Now the Trust wants to support people to make meadows wherever they live in Devon – in fields, road verges and gardens! The aim is to have a county of Meadow Makers!
At the same time, more and more people want to help create wildflower meadows, and they are asking the Trust for advice on how they can increase the diversity and abundance of native wildflowers on their own land.
This gave the Devon Wildlife Trust an idea!
The Devon Meadow Makers is a hub sharing knowledge, expertise and access to equipment and wildflower seed so that new meadows can be created across Devon.
A crowdfunder has been launched to set this idea into reality and if you support it with a pledge of £8 or more, you can choose from a range of wildflower seed mixes to start your own meadow!
You can select a reward, depending on what you donate - £5 will give you a six page guide on creating a wildlife meadow for instance.
Meadow Makers will need specialist seed harvesting kit, sowing drills and other machinery on a loan basis (to save people buying it) to give meadows the best possible start.
By sharing expert knowledge and practical support, this will create a network of wildflower meadows – join them up, and wildlife will have their own byways so that they won’t get stuck on one site!
The Devon Wildlife Trust needs to raise £6,000 to turn the Devon’s Meaqdow Makers idea into a reality.
This is a great idea – it will give Devon a lot more wildflower meadows, help our pollinators and other wildlife – and the great thing about it is that you don’t need a large garden to join in!
