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1. Magnificent investment in gorillas, thanks to one post

   Posted on 9:00pm Thursday 18th Mar 2021

   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

    

2. Success! Tea plantation operators will not be allowed in the Kafuga Forest

   Posted on 10:55pm Tuesday 1st Dec 2020

   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.

    

    

3. Help Rainforest Rescue help the Ekuri people protect their forest and help gorillas

   Posted on 9:00pm Monday 23rd Nov 2020

   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

    

    

4. Good news from the World Land Trust for conservation

   Posted on 9:00am Saturday 14th Nov 2020

   There’s some good news from the conservation world that I wanted to share with you today so here it is:The World Land Trust have had a very successful autumn. I’m thrilled to say that they hit the required fundraising target of £100,000 in just a few weeks to protect vital gorilla habitat in Africa.  The success of #FutureforGorillas means that there’s a safer future for Camaroon’s great ape population.  The fundraiser kicked off on 4 September and hit its target, thanks to the kindness and generosity of donors in early November.  The World Land Trust’s partner, the Environmental and Rural Development Foundation (ERuDeF), now has the resources to start creating a forest corridor in eastern Cameroon.  The area is home to Western Lowland gorillas, chimpanzee, elephants, pangolins, hippos, leopards and other species as well.  The creation and protection of forests will mean that species can keep their populations strong in number and have a future.  Here’s the video about it: Find out more about the #FutureforGorillas Appeal here And there’s more good news from the World Land Trust! Big Match Fortnight:  Save Ecuador’s Chocó Forest Their Big Match Fortnight Appeal hit its target of £500,000 in a fortnight! Donors from around the world joined together and made a difference to the incredible appeal to help the World Land Trust and its partner in Ecuador save the last 2% of the Chocó Forest.   The Appeal is still open so you can still donate (I’m writing this on 14 November 2020) which means that even more of the forest can be saved and protected for wildlife.Decades of logging have destroyed 98% of the Chocó forest.  And the World Land Trust’s partner, FJ, got the chance to save the remaining 2% of it – about 57,000 acres in all – from one firm.  Other organisations are involved but the support from World Land Trust donors means that 1,667 acres will be saved – that’s an expansion of the Canandé Reserve which links it to other areas that are protected in the region.  The area is so diverse that scientists took just 45 minutes to find a new species! In fact, 25% of its flora and 10% of its fauna can’t be found anywhere else on earth The Canandé Reserve is a botanical haven.  It’s home to about 375 bird species and 135 reptile and amphibian species of whom 28 are globally threatened.  Goodness knows how many other species live there! The more support the appeal has, the more their forest home can be extended and protected.Support this appeal here   You could also support the #NottooLate Appeal Fund, enabling the World Land Trust to act quickly wherever conservation action is needed.   Visit the World Land Trust's website here

    

    

5. Virunga National Park and Mountain Gorillas

   Posted on 7:00pm Tuesday 19th May 2020

   Mountain gorillas are under threat in the Virunga National Park in the DRC.  It’s a popular tourist area, known for its mountain gorillas.   It covers 3,000 square miles, and its three sectors – north, central and south – have an unrivalled diversity of landscapes and ecosystems. It was founded back in 1925 as Parc Albert, and it was the first national park to be established on the African continent, primarily to protect the mountain gorillas who were living in the forests of the Virunga Massif.  The park is a Unesco World Heritage site.   It is home to several hundred species of birds, mammals and reptiles. The world’s entire population of critically endangered mountain gorillas live only ini the Virunga Massife and Bwindi.   The Virunga National Park is home to about a third of these wonderful animals.  Currently it is estimated that there are about 1,000 mountain gorillas.    Find out more about the park’s history here There are currently over 700 male and female rangers actively protecting the park and the communities surrounding its borders.  And let’s not forget the dogs who are part of the Virunga National Park Canine Unit, an invaluable part of the team. Urgent funds are needed: To protect the endangered mountain gorillas To support the rangers To support the families of rangers who have fallen in the line of duty.  Over 175 rangers have been killed in the line of duty. To deliver essential disease prevention efforts Challenge such as this need heroes and each and every ranger is one, fighting to protect these amazing animals and give their families an income at the same time.  Rangers do an extremely dangerous job, putting their lives on the line every day, to look after wildlife.  Find out about the Rangers Project here. Leonardo DiCaprio has contributed to a new fund which aims to support the Virunga National Park. Earth Alliance, a group co-founded by DiCaprio, has donated part of the initial £1.65 million funding.  Di-Caprio was an executive producer on the documentary Virunga.  (It was nominated for an Oscar in 2014.) On Monday, the park launched the Virunga Fund, which is made up of donations from groups such as Emerson Collective, Global Wildlife Conservation and Earth Alliance.   The EU have also contributed. Unprecedented threats are facing the gorillas  Its closure to tourists due to the coronavirus has resulted in a considerable loss of income. Covid-19 poses an existential threat to the gorillas – WWF has warned that they are at risk of catching the coronavirus because they share 98% of their DNA with humans  A month after the park was closed, 12 park rangers, a drive and four members of the local community were killed in a terrible attack by 60 militiamen, who ambused a group of civilians being protected by the rangers.  At the time, a statement from the park said it was an attack on local civilians, rather than the rangers themselves. The rangers are racing against the clock to protect the local communities around the park and the gorillas.  You can help: You can help by spreading the word - following the Virunga Park on social media and making a donation $8 funds a pair of new boots for a ranger $32 funds a ranger for a day (including family health insurance) $50 funds a month of support for the widow and children of a Fallen Ranger $150 funds two weeks of food and supplements for an orphan gorilla $300 funds an hour of flight time for an anti-poaching patrol $500 funds a one day tactical elephant protection operation $1,000 funds a comprehensive sweep and remove of deadly snares in the mountain gorilla sector.  Donate here And remember, every little helps.