» Listings for 2018

1. 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.

    

2. China to create a massive panda park

   Posted on 8:00pm Monday 19th Mar 2018

   The Sichaun province government has secured %1.58 billion in funding during the next 5 years for a planned Giant Panda National Park. The park will be three times the size of the US Yellowstone National Park, so it will be enormous – 10,476 square miles in all. The park will protect wild pandas living across the Sichuan, Shaanxi and Gansu provinces.  The environment ministry said it had agreed to plans by 15 provinces and regions to draw up red lines to keep large areas of land off limits to economic development.   These large areas include wetlands, forests, national parks and protected nature zones.  Over 80% of wild pandas live in Sichuan, and the rest in Shaanxi and Gansu.  The park plans will link up the pandas who are isolated in these areas and encourage them to breed.  Pandas are terribly slow at reproducing and there are several breeding centres in China to help with panda conservation. Although the number of wild pandas have increased in recent years, the continued increase in numbers depends on having the right habitat available to pandas to breed so the announcement of the Giant Panda National Park is a step in the right direction to ensuring they have the right environment in which to thrive.  Pandas International is a US based charity working to help with panda conservation.  Visit Pandas International here.

    

3. Trees for Life plant record number of trees in a year!

   Posted on 9:00pm Friday 16th Mar 2018

   There’s some amazing news from Scotland. The charity Trees for Life have just totted up the number of trees they planted in 2017 and it comes to a record breaking: 156,869 trees! Of these, 133,000 were planted at the Allt Ruadh exclosure at the Dundreggan Conservation Estate, thus helping to restore the Caledonian Forest in the stunning Highlands. Volunteers spent over 5,000 planting trees, and members, donors and supporters similarly played a vital role in ensuring the trees could be planted. What’s more, Trees for Life have been invited to join the growing European Rewildling Network which puts the restoration of the Caledonian Forest in the Highalnds firmly on the European map. The network shows how re-wilding can benefit from economic development, including nature based tourism such as wildlife watching, nature-based tourism and volunteer opportunities. Trees for Life has a number of Conservation Weeks and Conservation Days throughout the year, bringing visitors to Scotland.   The Caledonian Forest is Scotland’s equivalent of the Amazonian rainforest.  Today, just 1% of the original area is left, but Trees for Life has already restored large areas in Glen Affric and at the Dundreggan Conservatoin Estate by planting over 1.3 million trees and encouraging natural restoration.  The charity’s Caledonian Pinewood Recovery Project will help to restore 50 acres of remnant pinewoods – mostly ancient 200 year old “Granny” Scots pines which are dying.  There are no young trees to succeed them, so the fragments are in danger of vanishing without action. You can find out more about Trees for Life here  and how to help here.

    

4. Search engine Ecosia plants trees as you search

   Posted on 5:00pm Wednesday 14th Mar 2018

   If you're looking for a way to help plant trees yourself, here's a very easy way to do it!   Choose the search engine Ecosia to search online for the things you want!  This short You Tube video tells you  how Ecosia started.   It explains why they are planting teres, and how they decide where to plant trees.  Their goal is to plant 1 BILLION trees and you can help every time you search online.  So far, nearly 23 million trees have been planted already!    You can use Ecosia on a whole range of devices, such as computers, mobiles and tablets and help them plant more.  You only need to make a small change to have a big impact - the information about Ecosia is followed by an interview with conservationist Jane Goodall.

    

   
   
   

5. Drones making a big difference to turtle research and conservation

   Posted on 8:00pm Tuesday 13th Mar 2018

   Research undertaken by the University of Exeter shows that drones are rapidly becoming a key resource for scientists.  In a paper published in the Endangered Species Review, scientists noted a number of benefits drones have to turtle conservation. Drones enable scientists to track turtles over big areas and in places which are hard to reach.  And they can gather information in much greater detail.  They are cheaper than alternative ways to gather data, such as satellite systems.  The information they collect enable scientists to discover more about turtle behaviour and their movements in the water.   Drones also give an extra weapon with which to fight poaching. What’s more, stunning footage collected by the drones really increases public interest and involvement. What scientists don’t know at the moment is if the turtles can pick up drones in flight, and what impact it has on them, so the University says more research is needed to investigate these points. Visit the University of Exeter's Biosciences website Responsible Travel lists a number of turtle conservation holidays