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WIN CHARLIE MACKESY T-SHIRTS PAGE 30 THE MAGAZINE FOR WWF MEMBERS SUMMER 2021 HOPE FOR TIGERS Thanks to you, wild tigers are bouncing back. But they still need our help to thrive 10 WILDFLOWERS TO SPOT CALL OF THE WILD This summer, go on a wildflower We launch our new podcast series by chatting safari to discover 10 beautiful blooms to Sir David Attenborough about his that are rich in culture and folklore hopes and fears for the future CONTENTS Full of vibrant blooms and abuzz with insects, wildflower TOGETHER, WE DID IT! 4 WILDFLOWER GUIDE 24 meadows are a treat for all the A round-up of all you’ve helped Author Jonathan Drori celebrates senses in summer. Tragically, us achieve in recent months 10 of summer’s finest blooms 97% of these precious habitats have been lost over the years. So we’re working to fill the UK’s WWF IN ACTION 6 INTERVIEW: fields with flowers once more Environment news, including SIR DAVID ATTENBOROUGH 26 our Just Imagine competition WWF ambassador Cel Spellman launches our new Call of the Wild TIGERS BOUNCE BACK 10 podcast by chatting to his hero As wild tigers start to reclaim lost lands they once roamed, we need 60 YEARS OF WWF 28 your help to support the people Dave Lewis, chair of our trustees, who share their home and keep reveals his ambitions for WWF tiger numbers growing. and some of the ways you’re By Mike Unwin helping us make a difference BIG PICTURE 18 GIVEAWAYS 30 A mighty herd of wildebeest Win a Charlie Mackesy T-shirt in the Mara reminds us of the and Jana Reinhardt jewellery importance of protecting ancient wildlife migration routes CROSSWORD 31 Solve our crossword to win a MAGNIFICENT MEADOWS 20 copy of Restoring the Wild Join our exciting new campaign to restore and protect 20 million NOTES FROM THE FIELD 31 square feet of rare wildflower Rishi Kumar Sharma follows his meadows. By Derek Niemann dreams to protect snow leopards NATURE’S THERAPY MEET THIS ISSUE’S GUEST CONTRIBUTORS The smell of wild garlic. The warmth of the CEL SPELLMAN JONATHAN BECCI MAY summer sun. The rustle of autumn leaves. is an actor DRORI is our senior “WE’RE and presenter, programme Did you know experiences like these can is an author a WWF and WWF adviser for support mental health? ambassador and the host ambassador. His new tigers. “Ten years ago, A few years ago I was living in London chasing my of our new podcast. Faced book, Around the World in tiger populations were WORKING with an environmental 80 Plants, brings botany at real risk of extinction career. I was tired and stressed. Then I remembered catastrophe, he says: “My and history to life. Jon says: in the wild,” she says. trips I once took to the Lake District and realised how generation has a chance “I discovered wonderful “Now they’re making a disconnected from nature I had become. I discovered to turn things around and and frankly bizarre new comeback. Their future TO RESTORE make a difference.” things about plants.” is looking brighter.” the science showing how being in nature can help reduce stress, anxiety and negativity. I began to volunteer and saw how being outdoors helped people grow and improve their mental and physical health. AND PROTECT GET IN TOUCH MEET THE ACTION TEAM Editor Liz Palmer [email protected] I started practising mindfulness on nature walks, Editorial executive Holly Towner wwf.org.uk/contact and realised there was far more to be seen and heard Senior supporter engagement manager than I’d ever noticed before. I wanted to share what I 20 MILLION 01483 426333 Hannah Crawley had seen and help others feel the same benefits. WWF-UK Living Planet Centre, Supporter engagement manager Last year, WWF and the Mental Health Foundation Rufford House, Brewery Road, Stephen Osborne Senior editor Guy Jowett COVER: produced Thriving With Nature, a guidebook to help SQUARE FEET OF Woking, Surrey GU21 4LL For Immediate Media Co. everyone get outdoors, boost their wellbeing and Consultant editor Sophie Stafford © GETTY | © ALAMY | CONTENTS: connect with nature. It couldn’t have come at a better FOLLOW US Art editor Nicole Mooney time, as many of us have struggled with our mental WILDFLOWER wwf.org.uk/facebook Production editor Charlotte Martyn Account manager Katy Hewett health while separated from family and friends. wwf.org.uk/twitter We need nature now more than ever, and must strive Design director Will Slater wwf.org.uk/pinterest Editorial director Dan Linstead for a new normal in which we can thrive with nature. MEADOWS – To discover how we’re working to protect more wwf.org.uk/news THANKS TO OUR CONTRIBUTORS Simon Aguss, Sir David Attenborough, meadows, visit page 20 or read the guide at wwf.org.uk/youtube Stuart Chapman, Jonathan Drori, Barney © GETTY wwf.org.uk/thrivingwithnature wwf.org.uk/instagram AND WE NEED Jeffries, Dave Lewis, Becci May, Derek Will Baldwin-Cantello, WWF director of Niemann, Charlotte Perkins, Rishi Kumar nature-based solutions Sharma, Cel Spellman, Mike Unwin YOUR HELP” Produced in association with Immediate Media Co. www.imcontent.co.uk 2 | Action Summer 2021 THANK YOU TOGETHER, WE DID IT! “ALL OF US HAVE THE POWER TO MAKE REAL CHANGE, AND TOGETHER, WE DID IT! THE SOLUTIONS ARE THERE” Thanks to your membership, we can help CEL SPELLMAN, WWF AMBASSADOR protect wildlife and wild places. Here are some of the great things supporters The number of Adélie like you have helped achieve penguins in western Antarctica has fallen due to a decline in the abundance of their main food, krill 1 UGANDA YOU HELPED BOOST MOUNTAIN GORILLA BIRTHS 2 6 ANTARCTICA © CHRIS JOHNSON / WWF AUSTRALIA For many years, you’ve provided crucial support to the International Gorilla Conservation Programme (IGCP) YOU HELPED PROTECT PENGUINS FROM FISHING in Uganda, Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of 3 Because of your support, we managed to create a large ocean the Congo. IGCP’s work with governments and local 1 sanctuary in the Antarctic that will help protect the world’s communities has helped the mountain gorilla population 4 largest Adélie penguin colony. Through a coalition with other rise steadily to over 1,000 individuals. Last year saw a environmental NGOs and the krill fishing industry, we secured record 12 gorilla births in just 16 weeks in the Bwindi agreement to make a 4,500 sq km area of ocean off-limits to krill Mgahinga Conservation Area, one of the three sites where fishing all year round. The area, around Hope Bay in the northern mountain gorillas live. These are the only great apes whose 5 Antarctic Peninsula, is home to a wealth of wildlife including population is increasing. Key to this success is mountain whales, seals and seabirds, all of which depend on krill. The tiny gorilla tourism that ensures the benefits are shared with shrimp-like creature forms a fundamental part of the Antarctic nearby communities, giving local people a real incentive to food web, but is also caught on an industrial scale for use in help protect gorillas. Unfortunately, tourism has been hit hard The sum you helped us fish feed and food supplements. Several giant colonies of Adélie raise during our UK Aid © GETTY by the pandemic – gorillas share 98% of our DNA, so it’s vital penguins live on the Antarctic Peninsula, but their numbers we shield them from infectious diseases such as Covid-19. Match appeal, including have fallen in recent years, so protecting their food resources is Your support will be crucial in helping communities bounce back. 6 £2 million from the a vital step to securing their future. Now we’re working through KOALA © GETTY UK government the coalition to push governments to create an even larger – and © GETTY £4.76M officially designated – marine protected area in the region. 2 INDIA 3 COLOMBIA YOU HELPED GHARIALS RETURN TO THEIR RANGE YOU HELPED INDIGENOUS 4 KENYA AND TANZANIA 5 AUSTRALIA The population of critically endangered gharials in India has received COMMUNITIES TO a boost, as we’ve helped release 30 juveniles into Hastinapur Wildlife YOU HELPED SUPPORT WILDLIFE GUARDIANS YOU HELPED KOALAS RECOVER FROM BUSHFIRES Sanctuary on the Ganges river. These unusual-looking crocodilians PROTECT FORESTS You’re helping Maasai communities in Kenya and Tanzania to Thanks to your support for our emergency appeal after last year’s were once found across the Indian subcontinent, but they’re now You’re helping local people coexist and thrive with wildlife such as elephants and lions, devastating bushfires, our colleagues in Australia have launched confined to India and Nepal after their numbers declined by up to in the Colombian Amazon to thanks to your amazing response to our Land for Life appeal. the biggest nature regeneration programme in the country’s history. 98% due to poaching and changes to freshwater habitats. We worked guard and conserve their forest Maasai people and their livestock have lived alongside wildlife Regenerate Australia aims to restore wildlife and habitats hit by the with Uttar Pradesh Forest Department to set up a reintroduction homeland. Local and indigenous for generations – but the land around them is changing. fires, rebuild communities and lead the country towards a sustainable programme in 2008, which has released 818 captive-bred gharials communities have been © AFRICAN PEOPLE & WILDLIFE / FELIPE RODRIGUEZ It’s under pressure from habitat loss, privatisation, rising future. Its ambitious goals include into the Ganges. One individual we released at the sanctuary was guardians of the Amazon for generations, but they need support to human population and expanding agriculture.