Good news for Gorillas

Tea plantation operators will not be allowed in the Kafuga Forest, Uganda.

A court has put the forest under the stewardship of the local district, and they’ve also said the forest must be made into a protected area within a year!

This area is on the borders of gorilla habitat and the forest keeps threats at a distance from the Bwindi National Park.   The park is home to about a third of the last mountain gorillas on earth – less than 1,100. 

 
The Kafuga Forest is safe
image ©CC BY-SA 2.0

And Kafuga Forest is home to hundreds of species of birds, rodents and chimpanzees.

The struggle has been going on for years, with 12 people being arrested for cutting down trees there in 2016.  

The High Court wanted evidence from the envrionmentalists that the suspects had done this inside of the Kafuga Forest – and the area had been mapped, with the financial support of Rainforest Rescue.  This mapping was crucial because it showed the court that the defendants’ claim that they were felling trees on their property wasn’t right.

A quarter of a million people signed a petition with Rainforest Rescue about it and many people donated towards it as well.

Rainforest Rescue report that the next step is to make the forest a protected area in the next year!

Visit Rainforest Rescue's website here.

Help #SnowLeopards

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.

The Snow Leopard Trust’s programmes:

• decrease snow leopard attacks
• safeguard livelihoods
• improve attitudes towards predators                             

This means safer passage for cats as they travel near local communities.  

Visit the Snow Leopard Trust’s website here.

Donate here.

Images on this blog ©Snow Leopard Trust

Rainforest Rescue are asking for donations to help the indigenous Ekuri protect their community forest.

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.  

Please sign Mighty Earth's petition here - and share it.

SayNotoNets!

Action for Dolphins have a petition to stop the senseless killing of marine life.  The petition is calling for the removal of shark nets and drumlines in Queensland.

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.

Find out more about Action for Dolphins' Say No to Nets campaign and petition

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.

Visit Actions for Dolphins' website and sign the petition here.