March 2021:  There’s news about African elephants.

The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) has recognised the African elephant as two separate species after the emergence of new evidence.

1. The Forest Elephant – the number in the wild has fallen by over 86% in three decades – they are now critically endangered, a step away from extinction

Getting involved

• ZSL is working to help forest elephants in Cameroon, specifically in the forest landscape of the Dja Biosphere Reserve. 
• The African Wildlife Foundation has more information about forest elephants.  
• The Aspinall Foundation  funds and coordinates PALF, an anti-wildlife crime project in Congo and it works with the ANPN in Gabon (Gabon’s National Park Authorities) to protect forest elephants.
• WCS (Wildlife Conservation Society) works to help Savanna elephants https://www.wcs.org/our-work/species/african-elephants

There are more elephant charities here.

PLUS!  News of a special appeal!

The World Land Trust has launched its first appeal of 2021 to help Tanzania's coastal forests and a crucial corridor for elephants, lions, leopards and others.   

Find out more and please donate if you can and spread the word at the World Land Trust's website

There’s good news for spectacled bears in Peru from the World Land Trust!

Locals in the Amazonas Department have successfully expanded a reserve in one of the most biodiverse ecoregions in the world.   It’s essential for spectacled bears and critically endangered primates.

Originally 8,155 acres were envisioned but the community owned area has been enlarged by 21,530 acres! 

This was made possible by Natureleza y Cultura Peru and World Land Trust supporters such as Puro Coffee.  Well done and thank you to them!  The reserves now protects 64,700 acres in what is a key biological corridor.

130 flora species and 29 mammal species call the area home, and there are 65 avian species as well.

The success of this project just shows how important it is to have local communities steer conservation efforts and how vital it is to involve them at every stage.   The communities manage the land, and NCP give them training and support in such areas as reserve mapping, fire prevention and tourism.  The area is rapidly being turned into agricultural land so you can see how important this development is.

Find out more about the Peruvian milestone to add 21,500 plus protected acres to spectacled bear country!

Find out about the Action Fund here. #Nottoolate

There’s good news from Ecuador, brought to us by the World Land Trust and their partner Naturalez y Cultura Ecuador (NCE for short). 

The Santiago Municipal Reserve was officially declared early this month.

It’s is an important expansion of vital habitat for species, covering 34,051 acres, and it’s a link between two national parks.  Essentially it’s expanded the Sangay-Podocarpus Connectivity Corridor which spans 1.4 million acres as well as parts of the Podocarpus-El Condor Biosphere Reserve.   WLT and NCE work here, too.

However the protected land doesn’t stop there.  North of the aforementioned connectivity corridor, there’s a 200 mile long area of reserves and national parks.  They like along the eastern Andes, connected by the Llanganates-Sangay Biological Corridor which is managed by Fundacion Ecominga, another WLT partner.  So the network of protected areas now covers about 4 million acres.

The most recent acquisition of 34,051 acres was partly funded by donations to the World Land Trust’s Action Fund.   The idea behind the Action Fund is that the World Land Trust can respond rapidly to any need to purchase land.

This purchase is an excellent example of the Action Fund at work and how important it is to be able to move fast in conservation.

The forests and grasslands would have faced cattle ranching and timber chopping, but thanks to the efforts of supporters like you and me, they have been saved.   Scientists have already recorded 344 plant species, 152 species of birds, 57 amphibian species, 47 mammal species and 11 reptile species.  They all call the area home.

Their home was saved just in time!

Visit the World Land Trust's website here

It’s been quite a week for gorillas, thanks to Reddit’s WallStreetBets (WSB) community.  It’s the group behind the GameStop Movement.

Imagine - 3,500 gorillas have been adopted!

In short, Reddit investors have adopted 3,500 gorillas in just six days to help the Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund International.   That’s an incredible investment!

Normally, the Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund International have about 20 new adoptions on a weekend, so this is truly quite an astonishing leap up!

And it started with one post...

It all started to happen on Friday.  A member of the WSB community posted that they had sent a donation to Dian Fossey Fund International which allowed them to adopt their own gorilla.   The charity protects endangered mountain gorillas. 

And the post was upvoted over 112,000 times – members of the WSB community followed suit and adopted a gorilla!

Not only that, the Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund International received  over $350,000 (£252,000) in donations as well!

It’s wonderful to see people wanting to do their bit and it just shows what can be done when one person sows the seed and drops an idea into a community.

A huge thank you to the Reddit WSB community for supporting the apes!  Dr Stoinski from the charity thanked WSB for their amazing support – the video was posted and upvoted over 159,000 times!

Essentially, the Fund works in four ways:

1. Daily protection of the gorillas
2. Scientific research
3. Education Conservationists
4. Helping Communities
   
   

Visit the Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund International

How you can help gorillas

Adopt a gorilla here

Shop in their store here for gorilla products and support the Fund that way

Find out more about the Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund International

Spread the word #gorilla and on social media

Twitter:  @SavingGorillas

Facebook:  @SavingGorillas

Instagram

Just donate whatever you can

Source:  BBC News

I’ve had news of a need for help from the International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW).

Back in March 2020, IFAW recommended that the New South Wales (NSW) Government move the conservation status of koalas from Vulnerable to Endangered on an emergency basis.  This recommendation was made on the basis of a scientific report, commissioned by IFAW, which showed that koalas are facing an immediate and significant threat of extinction in NSW.

Please petition the NSW Government to save the koalas
by giving them endangered status protection

The change in the koala's conservation status would mean that:

• There would be greater protection for the forests where koalas live
• Politicians would have greater powers to stop trees and critical habitat from being cleared.

This would mean that in the short term, koalas would get some breathing space to recover after the terrible bushfires which killed thousands of koalas and destroyed key koala habitat. 

The IFAW report showed that:

• Over 6,000 koalas died in the fires alone
• In three generations, 65% of the koala population has been lost
• The fires “all but destroyed” many koala populations that were significant in their regions
• The bushfires burned over 12.6 million acres across NSW.  This land was vital to koalas.  The land left is depleted because of the long drought.

Many koalas were left starving and injured.  Things had been bad enough before, because of enormous habitat destruction and a prolonged drought.

 Please act to help koalas!

Unfortunately, IFAW is still waiting for an answer.   Please, wherever you are in the world, join IFAW and the 190,000 people who have already signed the petition and ACT to save koalas.

They need every single one of us to help put the pressure on.  It does not matter where we live.   What matters is that we all act for koalas and do what we can to help them.

Please sign here today, and give the koalas a voice and your support.  And when you’ve done that, please share and spread the word.

Thank you.

Image above © IFAW