"Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it's the only thing that ever has." Margaret Mead, American anthropologist, 1901-1978
The theme “Our solutions are in nature” emphasises the importance of working together at all levels to build a future of life in harmony with nature.
2020 is a year to reflect, grab the moment and come up with creative and innovative solutions. We all need to work to stop biodiversity loss, for all people and all life on Earth.
IFAW have launched a 72 Hour Challenge to help stop the slaughter of elephants and protect animals around the world.
Elephants love sweet, crunchy pumpkins – and if they spot a patch of them, they will eat them. They may even lead their family to share them
Sadly, these pumpkins can be laced with deadly cyanide – and that’s done by poachers.
Parks are empty of tourists and budgets for patrols have decreased or stopped altogether so elephants are very exposed to poaching threats.
The lack of tourists, reduced ranger patrols and closed parks have made it very easy for poachers to move in, to kill elephants and sell their ivory tusks.
IFAW (that’s the International Fund for Animal Welfare) are asking us all to chip in and support their 72 Hour Challenge. They are hoping to raise £20,000 by 23 May.
Donations could help establish and train rangers across landscapes where IFAW is working:
£25 could help train a ranger on how to recognise the signs of poison and poachers
£50 could help provide the equipment rangers need – maps, boots, uniforms, meal rations – to protect the animals
£100 could help conduct an anti-poaching patrol, clear snare traps and protect the animals.
Please donate what you can to this urgent Elephant Challenge today. Please share as well. If we all donated £3 or £5, that would help a lot.
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.)
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.
On 16 May, the UK’s Daily Telegraph brought news of an amazing secret operation to dehorn hundreds of African rhinos.
They are all threatened by increased poaching during the pandemic.
Over the next two weeks, up to 400 black and white rhinos will have their horns removed to protect them from poachers. About 70 have been dehorned so far
The rhinos are dehorned with electric saws. They are sedated. The horns grow back in about 3 years.
The exact location in Africa is secret at the moment. There is an enormous risk to the team of vets and rangers and the last thing anyone wants is for poachers to find out their whereabouts, for the safety of all concerned, people and animals.
Rhino horn can trade for tens of thousands of pounds a kilo. It is used in medicine and as a status symbol.
This really is a last resort; because tourists have stopped visiting as the coronavirus brought lockdown into being, poachers have stepped up to do more poaching.
Treating rhinos and transporting them if they have injuries or need surgery;
De-horning rhinos, which has been shown to be one of the most effective ways to deter poachers from harming and killing rhinos;
Rescuing rhinos; many are treated for injuries and airlifted to one of many rhino orphanages that Rhino 911 works with. Plus, of course donations are given to the orphanages so that they can buy the special formula milk every growing rhino needs!
There’s a video you can watch at but carries a warning that some parts of it may be disturbing to some viewers.
I’ve had an email from SumOfUs.org about a petition for pangolin lovers. They have some really good campaigns on SumOfUs and are achieving some great results
Pangolins they need our voice, and our signature to tell Facebook "to increase the enforcement of wildlife trafficking policy and make sure that no threatened or endangered species’ parts are sold on your platform."
Pangolins are the most trafficked animal on the planet. Up to 2.7 million of them are killed by poachers every year. Poachers want to sell their parts to traditional medicine shops.
A new report says that Facebook it worse, because they are letting traffickers sell pangolin parts on their platform! Report investigators searched translations of pangolin in different languages, and there was listing after listing, even though Facebook has already signed an international coalition to stop this sort of thing! They just need to enforce their own rules.
