» Listings for 2019

1. Help pygmy hippos in Liberia

   Posted on 8:00pm Thursday 12th Sep 2019

   ©Fauna and Flora International Head to the jungles of Liberia, and you’ll find the absolutely adorable pygmy hippopotamus.   They enjoy spending their time bobbing along rivers, plodding up the riverbank and searching for tasty leaves. Enter a group of illegal miners.  They’ve hacked and hammered their way deep into the ancient forest, hunting for rare metals.  They brought about rampant deforestation and poaching all around them and the hippos have nowhere to run to.    All but 3,000 are dead.  They are heading towards extinction. But there’s a chance to enable local rangers to protect the hippos’ home - and making it impossible for the mining to ever return in the future. They are working with local people who want to protect the ancient forests as much as Fauna and Flora International do.   Please help the pygmy hippos and keep them free to romp and stomp around their home in peace. Will you donate £3 to help Fauna and Flora International and keep the forests free from illegal mining and care for the pygmy hippos and keep them safe Please go to Fauna and Flora's website to donate

    

2. Rhino horn belongs only to rhinos

   Posted on 9:00pm Wednesday 11th Sep 2019

   Do you agree with the statement: Rhino horn belongs only to rhinos? If you do agree with it, please sign the African Wildlife Foundaton’s pledge, saying “Rhion horn belongs only to rhinos”.  World Rhino Day takes place on 22 September, and the AWF says we must make one thing clearer than ever:  Rhino horns are not for sale. Let’s make it very clear: Rhino horns do not cure cancer or hangovers or any ailments. But the demand for rhino horn is there, as people believe it has medicinal benefits and is a symbol of high social status. Rhino horn is made of keratin – as human nails are – and it is as effective as curing cancer as chewing on your fingernails is. RHINO HORN BELONGS ON A RHINO. There are less than 6,000 critically endangered black rhinos left.  Unfortunately, poachers, traffickers and consumers don’t care.   We must stop them. Please give rhinos your support on this World Rhino Day.   Join one of 50,000 wildlife advocates and fight for these rhinos. Sign the AWF’s pledge if you agree that rhino horn belongs on a rhino.

    

3. 3,100 respond to an appeal for Big Cats

   Posted on 9:00pm Saturday 31st Aug 2019

   Do you ever hear of an appeal and wonder how many people sign up to it? Well, National Geographic had a Big Cats Appeal in honour of World Lion Day on 10 August.  They asked people to help protect lions, cheetahs and other Big Cats.  Big Cats are in trouble because of habitat loss, degradation and conflict with humans. 3,100 people responded to an appeal for Big Cats. And they raised an incredible $199,000.   That money will go straight to fund innovative solutions and technology protecting wildlife and wild places. ©National Geographic Society National Geographic has identified 20 populations across 18 countries as priority areas for lions.  These populations encompass almost 1.25 million square kilometres – it’s estimated they have 83% of Africa’s known lion population. And they help communities too, as they create conservation programmes which help protect wonderful Big Cats and employ local people too.  Find out more and support their work here Derek and Beverly Joubert are conservationists and film makers who have been working to help save big cats and other key wildlife species and their habitats for over 30 years.    The Jouberts and National Geographic founded the Big Cats Initiative in 2009 to try to halt the decline of big cats in the wild. The Big Cats Initiative supports scientists and conservationists who are working to save big cats.   They have built over 1,800 livestock enclosures to protect livestock and so save big cats from retaliatory killings.  The Big Cats Initiative takes a three pronged approach to big cat conservation: It assesses It assesses and maps big cat populations, and it analyses the success of measures put in place to help protect them – this knowledge helps guide the protection efforts the Big Cats Initiative chooses to fund. It protects The initiative supports protects designed and implemented by people living in areas where they are big cats, creating ways in which local communities and big cats can co-exist It communicates With Nat Geo WILD, the Big Cats Initiative spreads the word about the big cat decline, thus encouraging the public to find out more through free education initiatives and programming on Nat Geo WILD. Find out more about the Big Cats Initiative here 3 ways to help and get involved: Donate Spread the word Sign up for the newsletter so that you can get updates from the field

    

    

4. 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

    

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.