Unite to support Africa's wildlife rangers

Wildlife rangers throughout Africa are incredibly brave men and women and they all deserve our support and help as they battle to protect wildlife.

Unfortunately, they are facing severe cuts in salaries their resources.   This means that their families may be destitute – often some rangers won’t see their families for months – and it also means that wildlife may be helpless against poachers.

#ForWildlifeRangers

So what do rangers do?

Rangers undertake varying responsibilities but overall they may:

• protect and conserve wildlife, habitats, and ecosystems.
• counter poaching
• monitor wildlife
• manage infrastructure
• control invasive species
• oversee burning programs
• provide environmental education
• maintain community relations.

So what is the Wildlife Ranger Challenge all about?

On October 3rd, 88 teams of wildlife protectors are going to compete in a 21 km race through the varied terrain of their patrol regions.  They will carry their typical 25kg backpack and equipment as they go.

Their aim is to raise awareness and funds for their colleagues who are dedicated to defending wildlife and supporting local communities. 

The Wildlife Ranger Challenge website is the place to go for more information and there are social media streams as well you can follow the event on.

Join a global community of wildlife rangers and their supporters who are running, walking and riding around the world #forwildliferangers. 

Wildlife are depending on all of us.  Please share the event with #forwildliferangers 

It’s not too late to take on the Challenge and to fundraise or donate.

You can donate through Just Giving and GoFundMe (the latter is if you’re in the US and want to make a tax deductible donation).

Every dollar donated will be matched by the Scheinberg Relief Fund, doubling your generous contribution.

Visit the website for the Wildlife Ranger Challenge

The World Land Trust is known for its fundraising efforts to rescue vital parts of the natural world.  It works with local conservation groups around the world.

Every year it runs a Big Match Fortnight, in which donations are matched.  And this year, the World Land Trust are fundraising for its partner Fundación Jocotoco who protect  vital rainforest.  For the last 2% of Ecuador’s Chocó forests is approaching an extinction cliff.

The Big Match Fortnight is running from 1 to 14 October 2020 and it is a great chance to make donations go twice the distance. 

There are just 500 brown-headed spider monkeys who are thought to be alive in the wild on the planet.  On one hike, 60 to 70 were counted in the tropical rainforest between the Pacific coast and the Andean peaks – about 15% of the single global population in a day.    It’s not an easy place to work in – rangers have to handle constant downpours, rugged terrain, and slippery ground. 

Over 80 years ago, the forest stretched all over Ecuador’s west. 

Ecuador has lost 98% of this natural wonder to oil palm plantations and others.   A new plan could mean that such a loss has numbered days.  

Jocotoco has a chance to buy and protect 57,000 acres of Chocó forest from one company.

The appeal from the World Land Trust will support at least 1,667 acres and other organisations will help fund the total too.

The area has the same reptile and amphibian diversity as the Amazon; it’s got the highest plant diversity of the Americas and more bird species in 100 square miles than across all Europe.   25% of its flora and 10% of its fauna is found nowhere else on earth.

Logging could destroy the last 2% of this forest.   Support the World Land Trust’s “Saving Ecuador’s Choco Forest” appeal and you can help it last forever.

Find out more and donate

Polar Bears International have a fundraiser on with a difference.

They are looking to raise money to buy bear-safe bins!   These will help keep both polar bears and people safe. 

In 2020, Polar Bears International say the summer ice melt in the Arctic is on schedule to be one of the largest on record. 

This ice melt has several outcomes:

Polar bears are going ashore for longer periods and in more places than before

They are at greater risk of being in conflict with people

They re hungrier when they arrive on land and they have to look for alternative sources of food.

So one solution is to reduce encounters which could prove to be dangerous by reducing food attractions.

Polar Bears International have a fundraiser called Bear-Safe Bins, and this will enable them to deliver bins that are resistant to polar bears to communities sharing areas with polar bears.

The bins will reduce conflict between polar bears and people and so help keep everyone safe. 

Join the Bear-Safe Bins Fundraiser, and help provide this simple solution to a growing problem. 

Polar Bears International have sent two pilot bins for use in Churchill, as part of its Polar Bear Safe Community and now they're raising more funds so that extra bins can be sent out to communities needing them.

The bins aren't cheap - they are $1,000 each- but then you need good quality bins to fend off polar bears!

Visit Polar Bears International here

Donate to the Bear-Safe Bins Fundraiser here - and no, you don't need to buy an entire bin, you can contribute towards one! 

STOP THE TOTAL DISASTER

There’s a new petition on the online global community Avaaz.

I am asking you to PLEASE READ IT, and if you’re willing to, to SIGN IT.

Either way, please, please SHARE IT.

So here’s the scoop:

Energy giant Total is about to build the biggest heated oil pipeline in the world. 

Avaaz say that the impact of this oil pipeline is three fold:

1. The oil pipline will displace thousands of farmers.  
2. It will pass through key elephant and chimpanzee reserves.
3. It will threaten crucial biodiversity hotspots.  It will cross over 200 rivers, 12 forest reserves, and skirt Africa’s largest lake.   ONE LEAK could threaten some of Africa’s most biodiverse mangroves and coral reefs.

This is all done to extract 1.033.417.417.032 litres of oil, a fossil fuel – taking us closer to a climate catastrophe.  Mind you, Total's CEO have publicly committed to preventing it!  In Total’s Climate Report 2019 concerning climate change, it was stated “Clearly, we need to take stronger action.”

Let’s have a quick look at Total and Biodiversity:  Commitments and Actions

“Given its business, Total sometimes works in sensitive natural environments. We are aware of the stakes involved and have taken measures to ensure that biodiversity and ecosystems are taken into account in our projects and operations.” Patrick Pouyanné, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Total wrote.

Total’s biodiversity policy includes (and I quote):

• Applying the Mitigation Hierarchy, an approach to avoid, reduce, mitigate and, if necessary, compensate any loss in biodiversity

• Taking ecosystem sensitivity into account.

• Managing biodiversity by integrating risks and impacts in our environmental management systems. • Reporting on biodiversity performance to stakeholders.

• Working with local and international partners and our industry associations to improve

Online community Avaaz are attacking the pipeline plan in three ways

1. A call to Total’s CEO Pouyanné now to make him famous in the media so everybody knows about these plans
2. To support the growing movement on the ground
3. To push the French government with what Avaaz calls “razor-focused advocacy”.

Avaaz points out that this is all about fighting for what we all care about.   We need to protect the precious life on earth, to stand up for basic human rights – and to protect life and biodiversity for future generations.

Join this massive call to STOP THIS TOTAL DISASTER and share widely.

Please let’s help communities in Uganda.  Let’s help them defend their lands and the reserves the wildlife need.

One of the most important legacies I think Queen Elizabeth II is creating is an ambitious aim to create a global network of portected forests, spanning all 53 countries of the Commonwealth.

At 9pm on ITV3 on Sunday 23 August 2020 at 9pm, there's a chance to see the documentary about it again. 

It also features a wonderful conversation between Her Majesty and Sir David Attenborough as they stroll through the gardens of Buckingham Palace.   Their discussion covers a range of subjects from climate change to conkers!

There's also footage of the other royal family members making the Queen's Commonwealth Canopy a reality. 

"Together our forests will thrive," says the project's website.

The project protects woodlands across the Comomonwealth.   Princes William and Harry and Angelina Jolie all appear - the Princes are planting trees in Canada's Great Bear Rainforest. 

The highlight however must surely be the conversation between two legends - Her Majesty the Queen and Sir David Attenborough.  Bless them both.

Do take a look at the Queen's Commonwealth Canopy project website and take a look at the map showing where the project is at work.  And look at the projects too - 45 countries have now joined in, with Bermuda joining in March 2020. 

There are a number of charities working for the conservation of the Great Bear Rainforest and they are:

PacificWild working to protect wildlife and their habitat and they have some interesting campaigns including stopping tankers on the north and central coast

The Nature Conservancy - do watch their film about the Great Bear Rainforest

Raincoast Conservation Foundation work to ensure that coastal grizzlies continue their presence as the top carnivore and apex predator in the coastal rainforest.