Category: Help a species

1. Calling all giraffe lovers around the world – giraffes need your voice!

   Posted on 12:00am Sunday 19th Jun 2022

   Giraffes are in trouble.  The giraffe population is already down between 36 to 40%. For the first time ever, 5 African countries are proposing to add the giraffe to the list of protected species.  This would really make a difference. How you can help giraffes with a click There’s a petition calling on CITES to launch and fund an Africa-wide Giraffe Action Plan.  The Plan would: Recover giraffe populations Protect giraffe habitats Support local communities living alongside giraffes The petition can be found at Avaaz.org.  Avaaz.org is a world-wide community with nearly 50 million members.  It has petitions you can set up and sign to give your support to proposed changes or messages about causes you care about and want to help Please sign this petition to help giraffes today! When you go through to Avaaz and the petition, there’s a picture of someone called Tess and a dead giraffe, just to warn you.  Avaaz say that Tess killed the giraffe for fun. She's certainly got a big smile on her face. There are no words to describe how I feel about people who do this. Why this petition to help giraffes now? Very shortly, countries from across the world will meet for a crucial global wildlife summit. Back in January 2019, 57 proposals to amend the list of species subject to CITES regulations were submitted by 90 countries for consideration.   This consideration will take place from 23 May to 3 June 2019 in Colombo, Sri Lanka, at the 18th Meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora. (I can’t help feeling that if they spent less time making up titles like that, and more on protecting wildlife, we might make more progress.) So how could this CITES meeting affect giraffes? For the first time ever, five African countries have proposed adding giraffes to the list of protected species. You can see the species here that the meeting will consider, and find out about the proposal to protect giraffes here Sign the Petition at Avaaz.org now, Then please share the petition widely to help make the senseless killing of this giraffe into a new direction for giraffes.

    

2. The 21st May 2021 is Endangered Species Day.

   Posted on 12:00pm Tuesday 11th May 2021

   The 21^st May 2021 is Endangered Species Day.

   Thousands of people worldwide take part by celebrating, learning about and taking action to protect species who are threatened and endangered.

   Most of the events will be online or consist of digital actions but there will also be nature hikes, garden plantings and litter clean-ups!

   The day is organised by the Endangered Species Coalition.  Their mission is “to stop the human-caused extinction of our nation’s at-risk species, to protect and restore their habitats and to guide these fragile populations along the road to recovery.”

   They work to safeguard and strengthen the Endangered Species Act.   The law means every citizen can act on behalf of threatened and endangered wildlife and the wild places they call home.  

   For a start, there’s a Pollinator Party, a Chalk Art Event and a Youth Art Contest.   And there are other events around the world, too. 

   The Coalition is a network of organisations and hundreds of thousands of individuals, all dedicated to protecting the US’s disappearing wildlife and remaining wild places.

   They help protect the Canadian lynx, Gray Wolves, Grizzly Bears, Mexican Gray Wolves, the beautiful Monarch Butterfly and Wolverine.
   
   

   
   image © Endangered Species Coalition
   
   

   You can help the Endangered Species Coalition:

   1. Take a look at their 10 things you can do to save endangered species
   2. Those involved in education can take a look at the Educator’s toolkit which includes activities for Endangered Species Day – there’s also an Endangered Species Art Youth Art Contest
   3. The Stop Extinction Challenge in August each year, whereby people meet with their Congress members to advocate for threatened and endangered species.
   4. Join the Endangered Species Coalition Activist Network
   5. Find out about the Pollinator Protector programme

   If everyone reading this blog took one (extra) action to help endangered species, imagine how many actions that would be!

   Visit the Endangered Species Coalition

3. Help the Rainforest Trust save a vital 110 acres of Colombian tropical forest

   Posted on 4:00pm Monday 26th Apr 2021

    
   The  is working hard to buy 110 acres of Colombian tropical forest.  

   The Rainforest Trust is on the verge of purchasing and protecting 110 vital acres of Colombian tropical forest.  

   The tropical forests are endangered themselves as farms expand and other developments take place.  They are the only place on the planet where you'll find cotton-top tamarins - whose numbers have gone down 80% in just 20 years.

    

   
   
   Help the Rainforest Trust save 110 vital acres of tropical rainforest in Colombia
   Please donate here

    

   As well as cotton-top tamarins, the area is also home to spider and howler monkeys, a critically endangered turtle species and scarlet macaws.  

   Local organisation Fundación Proyecto Tití is working hard to protect the whole area.

   They have blocked the creation of a clear-cutting cattle ranch.

   Now they are working with the Rainforest Trust to secure more land.  The land is critical becuase it will give the animals safe passage - a corridor - between protected areas.  It will give the animals the vital space they need to recover and survive. 

   We can all help the Rainforest Trust achieve this goal.  

   Find out more from the Rainforest Trust and donate here.

   You can donate to this project through SumofUs who partner the Rainforest Trust

4. Sign petition to end the Atlantic commercial seal hunt

   Posted on 7:00pm Thursday 15th Apr 2021

   IFAW (International Fund for Animal Welfare)  have been working for half a decade to end the Canadian commercial hunt.

   It has been working with organisations, governments at a local and national level and dedicated animal lovers.

   And they are making progress – the hunt is a shadow of its former self.

   • 36 international trade bans on seal products
      
   • 4 million seals have been saved since the European Union ban in 2009
      
   • A 97% decrease in the value of the commercial seal hunt from 2006 to 2019
     
     

   
   Sign petition to end the Atlantic commercial seal hunt

   
   But the 2021 hunt has opened, and IFAW are asking us all to sign a petition to Canada’s Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to get this event stopped once and for all.

   IFAW says that the hunt is cruel and unnecessary.  It’s time for the Canadian Government to stop funding the commercial hunt and invest in economic alternatives for those few fishermen who still take part in it.

   They have a form you can use to send a message to Trudeau – there’s a personalised copy to make it more effective and you can actually personalise that.  Though as they say, please be polite!

   Sign here and let’s really put the pressure on to get this commercial seal hunt STOPPED

5. International Beaver Day is on 7th April

   Posted on 8:00am Wednesday 7th Apr 2021

   The 7th April is International Beaver Day.

   Beavers can be quite controversial animals in the natural world;  personally I admire them for their incredible engineering skills.

   About 400 years ago, beavers were hunted to extinction in the UK but they are being re-introduced (with caution) in the hope that they will help restore our wetlands to their natural state and also reduce  the impact of flooding.

   Forestry England has produced this video showing why beavers build dams.   Their teeth are really quite something  (the beavers, not  Forestry England.)
   
   

   
   Now, a number of the UK's Wildlife Trusts have beaver appeals and they are Dorset, Derbyshire, Devon, Cheshire, Cornwall and Kent.

   The Wildlife Trust's website describe beavers as the engineers of the animal world and looking at the video above, it's easy to see why. 

   To support the Wildlife Trust's conservation efforts, you could Adopt a Beaver  either for yourself or as a gift for a nature lover!  You could also buy them this Give a Dam t-shirt:
   
   

   This t-shirt is made from 100% organic cotton 
   and it's printed in the UK in a renewable energy powered factory.
   £19.00   Find out more about it

   Of course you should also take a look at the Beaver Trust.   I hope they won't mind me quoting their very exciting mission which is:
   
   "to recover Britain’s waterways and landscapes through the rapid and widespread re-establishment of beaver wetlands across whole river catchments."

   Their belief is that beavers are a practical, low-cost solution for long-term restoration.  They can help revesse the trend of extinction of British wildlife. You can see from their map where beavers are in the UK.

   Furthermore, the Beaver Trust reports that in the US West, land managers and scientists hare using beaver dam analogs to do three things:

   1. To heal damaged streams
   2. To re-establish beaver populations
   3. To help wildlife

   And they've seen positive changes in 1 to 3 years in many cases!   Find out all about it here

   Visit their website to have a good look round and see how you can  help.