» Listings for 2019

1. Help people help wildlife - elephants

   Posted on 5:00pm Monday 26th Aug 2019

   Update 2023:  Unfortunately Nikela is no longer running but there are lots of elephant charities you can look to help here.   Here’s a great way to get involved and to help reduce the conflict between elephants and people. Sponsor a bee hive! In fact, you can get your name – or theirs – on a beehive and help save elephants.  For a 29 year old called Moses who was deeply passionate about wildlife conservation and rescuing animals, determined that human-wildlife conflict was the most pressing problem in his home area of Tanzania. Elephants from nearby reserves were entering farmlands and causing considerable damanage, destroying crops.  A solution to the elephants destroying crops was to install 20 bee hive fences along a border next to the Arusha National Park.   Moses founded and sorted out a NGO (Alert for Endangered Wildlife Species or AFeWiS).  Placing bee hives strategically along the perimeters of farmland surprisingly keeps elephants at bay.  Elephants are afraid of bees, you see, Each beehive costs $50. Enter Nikela, run by Margrit and Russ. It’s a small US based non-profit organization. And its mission is to “to help people protecting nature, especially doing wildlife conservation.  Nikela helps those protecting and preserving endangered African wildlife species.” So far they have given over $40,000 to 22 projects in 8 countries in Africa. All to those protecting and preserving endangered African wildlife species, all funded by donations from people all around the world! And they sent Moses $500 to get the bee hives off the ground. And there’s good news about the effectiveness of the project, with examples such as this one. Mr Baraka reported that over 50 elephants from a neighbouring reserve were entering his fields and destroying his food crops. Beehives were mounted – and the number of elephants rapidly dropped to 25.  Within 4 weeks, Mr Baraka was reporting that no elephants had come into his fields, saving his crops.  This means they will have food this season. More farmers are asking for beehive fences now and you can sponsor a beehive to be included in a fence.  In fact, you can also sponsor an entire fence – about 10 beehives make up an effective fence in most cases. Can Bees be the “Peacemakers” and solve human-wildlife conflicts with Elephants? You can dedicate your beehive in honour or in memory of someone. So go ahead, what are you waiting for? Remember, to note the exact spelling of the name you wish to see on the beehive, or beehives. Sponsor a Bee Hive here and you’ll help reduce conflict between people and elephants.   If you’re not sure, take a look at comments from donors – we can all make a difference  Sign up for Nikela’s newsletter

    

2. Durrell needs help with Himalayas appeal for pygmy hogs in India

   Posted on 9:00pm Sunday 25th Aug 2019

   The Durrell Wildlife Conservation Trust (founded by Gerald Durrell) have an appeal at the moment. Once, the southern foothills of the Himalayas were covered with lush grasslands.  These grasslands were homes to animals such as elephants, rhinos and tigers. Today, thanks to human activity, there’s less than 10% of the original grassland left. And there are less than 250 pygmy hogs left in the wild.  They rely on this ecosystem – and unless action is taken fast, the grasslands will vanish.  Their home will be gone forever. Pygmy hogs and other native wildlife can only thrive if these grasslands recover. And that’s where Durrell and you & I come in. To protect and restore the grasslands in and around the Manas National Park, Durrell need a 4WD vehicle.   They need to monitor wildlife and understand the threats that this ecosystem faces.  And they need to reach communities and reach important sites across 3 protected areas of grasslands – ensuring that the reintroductions of pygmy hogs goes successfully. There are all sorts of ways your donation can help.  Donate and you can help save the wildlife and communities who rely on the grasslands. Pygmy hogs are depending on you and I to help them.  I have made a donation – will you? Donate here and help Durrell rewild India's grasslands

    

3. China building ecological wildlife corridors for pandas

   Posted on 10:00am Monday 12th Aug 2019

   Looking through the info I have on Good Being Done, I was delighted to see that forestry authorities in Shaanxi Province have launched an ecological corridor programme. The province is situated in the north west of China, and the idea behind the programme is to connect habitats of giant pandas which have become fragmented.   This means that the pandas will be able to move between the habitats. By way of bridge construction and road culvert clearance, six such corridors will be built by 2027 in the Qinling mountains areas.  The pandas will then be able to move around more easily. That’s not all – bamboo trees will be planted along the corridors, and vegetation will be restored.  This means that the pandas will have more to eat. The thing is that this defragmentation of panda habitat was all down to human activities again.   Human doings such as road traffic and hydropower station construction caused it. And that meant the pandas couldn’t connect and breed – they find breeding hard enough as it is – so it didn’t help the panda population. Nationwide research showed that there were about 345 wild pandas living in the Qinling areas, so may there be many more in the future! Source:   http://www.xinhuanet.com Life of Rare Pandas by National Geographic And Wildlife Animal Documentary

    

4. Please help puffins in Iceland - they need your voice

   Posted on 8:00pm Sunday 11th Aug 2019

   Here we go again.  More trophy hunters after the thrill of the kill. This time, it’s gorgeous, adorable puffins.  Companies in Iceland (the country, not the supermarket) are offering guided puffin hunts.  A hunter can pay $3,650 each for a chance to bag up to 100 puffins at a time.  How on earth can you want to do that? The IUCN’s Red List lists puffins as “vulnerable”.  And that means that if things don’t change for the better, they could go extinct. Over the last 10 years, Iceland’s Atlantic puffin population has fallen by 1.5 million.  And Iceland allows hunters to kill thousands of puffins every year.  Many end up on plates in local restaurants, served to curious tourists.  And by the way, companies in Iceland also give people the chance to hunt reindeer, goose, and Ptarmigan. Millions of people want to get a closer look at puffins every year, from the island of Alderney to Norway, the Faroe Islands, the USA and Canada.  Many of these places have puffin viewing tours, which give people the chance to see puffins alive and close up. So why can’t Iceland stop the hunt to kill puffin tours and put more emphasis on having hunt to see, enjoy and love tours instead? Please sign this petition.  Tell Iceland's president Jóhannesson to protect their puffins, not kill them. And by the way, Theresa Villiers, Britain’s new environment secretary, is being urged to ban puffins which have been killed in trophy hunts. And also to push CITES to list seabirds for global protection.  RSPB Spotlight Puffins £9.99 from the RSPB Online Shop

5. Bangalow Koalas creating koala wildlife corridor

   Posted on 3:00pm Saturday 10th Aug 2019

   Planting trees with Bangalow Koalas and IFAW The IFAW (that’s the International Fund for Animal Welfare) have planted 1,500 koala trees on Irish comedian Jimeion’s property. A number of private land owners in the Northern Rivers region of New South Wales, Australia, have taken action to keep the local koalas safe.  They are allowing parts of their properties to be re-planted with eucalyptus trees.  This means the koalas can have a safe haven and pass through the landscape. The idea came from Bangalow Koalas who want to restore a koala wildlife corridor from Byron Bay to Repentance Creek.  A neighbour of Jimeion kindly let everyone use his paddock so that they could get to the steep land behind Jimeion’s property. Over 120 people came to help, all wanting to help plant koala trees and secure the species’ future.   Amongst them were old and young volunteers – plus tourists from the UK and Germany.  Imagine going home after your holiday and telling people you were part of a volunteer group which planted trees to help secure koalas’ future! The land had been prepared already and the holes pre-dug.  Saplings had been provided – and all the volunteers planted 1,500 trees IN ONE HOUR!  They trees were the koalas’ favourite local food trees such as red gum, swamp mahogany, tallow wood and the important medicinal melaleuca that koalas eat from instinct when they don’t feel well. The trees grow quickly in the climate and in a few years they will be home for koalas, birds and native wildlife.  And Jimeoin hopes that by planting trees on his land, the koalas will stay.   The key message IFAW want us to take from this is that yes, there are messages of loss and possible extinction of koalas.  They are certainly in trouble.  But there is hope – and crucially THERE IS A SOLUTION. ©Bangalow Koalas IFAW and Bangalow Koalas hope to plant 25,000 trees by the end of the year.  It’s a fantastic thing to do and I hope they make it.  A big thank you to both IFAW and Bangalow Koalas, and also to volunteers and – of course – to the land owners who are willing to help the koalas in this way  Visit IFAW here Visit Bangalow Koalas here – check out their gallery, whatever you do.  It has some beautiful photos and videos of the Bangalow Koalas!  You can become a member or donate through their website to help.  Here’s a video of another project Bungalow Koalas worked on with the Northern Rivers Community Foundation.  They started a wildlife corridor in Binna Burra in the Northern Riveres of NSW to help conserve the local koalas.