Saving Real Acres in Real Places Since 1989
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WLT_25Years_0417_24pp_qxd_Layout 1 25/04/2017 17:21 Page 2 Saving Real Acres in Real Places Since 1989 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 worldlandtrust.org WLT_25Years_0417_24pp_qxd_Layout 1 25/04/2017 17:21 Page 3 2 worldlandtrust.org To save endangered Why I support World Land Trust species you need to save the land - the whole by Sir David Attenborough ecosystem When I'm asked why I support World Land Trust I say that it can be summed up by the following reasons. They are short and to the point, which is what I like about WLT: First, they save land “Fifty years ago, in the conservation movement’s early days, there was a great emphasis on individual endangered species - Giant Pandas, Oryx, particular species of birds. We eventually realised, however, that the important unit was not a particular species but a whole ecosystem. Indeed, in the long run, you will not save those endangered species unless you save the whole ecosystem. To save an ecosystem you need to save the land. That is what WLT’s programme partner NGOs do with funds raised by WLT. By protecting whole ecosystems, they not only protect the mammals that everyone knows, but protect the smallest insects and plants, many of which haven’t even been discovered.” The Narupa Reserve in north east Ecuador, owned by WLT Second, WLT does not own the land partner, Fundación Jocotoco. “WLT raises funds to buy land but ownership is with the local Funded with support from WLT, organisation. It is vitally important that all land that is saved this reserve is home to globally belongs to the people of that country, as it is they who take on threatened bird species, the responsibility of its protection. WLT will help them with the including the Military Macaw, as management of the land and, indeed on any other matters that well as Jaguar, Puma and they request, but it is the overseas partners that own it.” Mountain Tapir. WLT_25Years_0417_24pp_qxd_Layout 1 25/04/2017 17:21 Page 4 3 Third, WLT keeps its overheads low It is vital that the land saved “They do this by keeping their administration to a bare minimum belongs to the people - their staff is small and they do not have fancy offices in an of that country expensive location.” Your donation reaches the people it was intended for “WLT raises funds for land purchase and the protection of the reserves they have helped create. Staff do not spend their time writing reports and carrying out research - they let their local project partners do that. So funds raised by WLT go directly to saving those precious ecosystems and their endangered species. The Trust has been hugely successful in a relatively short time. Of course there is still much left to be done but I am sure that the World Land Trust will go on to raise more funds and save more wildlife and their habitats in the years to come. As well as funding land purchase, WLT helps partners protect the reserves that have been created. Monitoring The money that is given to the endangered species is an important part of their work. World Land Trust, in my estimation, Here ranger Pablo Antonio Millán is checking a nest of has more effect on the wild world than fledgling Yellow-shouldered Parrots, a threatened almost anything I can think of. species protected by ProVita on Margarita Island, Venezuela. Pablo’s salary is funded through WLT’s Sir David Attenborough Keepers of the Wild programme. WLT Patron WLT_25Years_0417_24pp_qxd_Layout 1 25/04/2017 17:21 Page 5 4 worldlandtrust.org The first 10 years World Land Trust How it all began: the Belize connection is an exemplary model of how biodiversity October, 1988 conservation From the USA, Jerry Bertrand (now WLT’s Honorary President) should be done. contacted John Burton to ask if he thought he could raise funds in It is a trim and the UK to help save 110,000 acres of tropical forest in Belize which focused was about to be bought and cleared to make way for agriculture. organisation, The project’s name was Programme for Belize and John’s immediate response was yes. proficient in the In 1989 John and his wife, Viv, set about establishing a small ways of protecting fundraising office from their Suffolk home with one of the first fax species, habitats 8 May, 1989: The late Gerald machines in the country. The latter was essential for communicating and landscapes Durrell and his wife, Lee, regularly with both North America and Belize since email was still a flew over from Jersey to help for the long term thing of the future. launch Programme for Belize in a multiplicity at the London Butterfly The charity was registered, of countries and House. Lee is now a WLT trustees were appointed and cultures. If only Council Member. WLT pioneered land purchase fundraising through Buy an there were Acre. At that time it cost less dozens of WLTs! than £25 to buy an acre in Dr Lee Durrell, Belize. It was a great success Honorary Director, and today Programme for Durrell Wildlife Belize, based in Belize City, Conservation Trust, protects 262,000 acres, and Naturalist and Author, the deforestation threat can be WLT Council Member seen at the gates (see right). WLT_25Years_0417_24pp_qxd_Layout 1 25/04/2017 17:21 Page 6 5 Onwards to the threatened forests of the Osa Peninsula in Costa Rica and the island of Danjugan in the Philippines July 1994 Bill Oddie launched WLT’s second project: Rainforest Action Costa Rica working with the TUVA Foundation in Costa Rica. The focus was on the Osa Peninsula where land-owning campesino farmers were under great pressure to sell up their land to speculators. The community work carried out by TUVA was, and continues to be, extremely successful and WLT raised funds to purchase threatened land that was incorporated into Corcovado National Park. September 1994 The Philippine Reef & Rainforest Project was launched at the Stratford-upon-Avon Butterfly House by David Bellamy. The challenge: to raise funds to buy the island of Danjugan, in the Visayan Island Group, and save it from unsympathetic Danjugan Island is a green jewel set in the Sulu Sea. WLT commercial development. Danjugan is one of the few islands supporters helped save it as a protected nature reserve. in the group to retain its original forest cover, which is home David Bellamy helped launch the Philippine Reef & to endemic species and a vital stopping-off place for migrating Rainforest Project. He is joined by (l-r) Gerry Ledesma birds in the southern hemisphere. The island was saved and (President of the Philippine Reef & Rainforest WLT maintains its support of the Philippine Reef & Rainforest Conservation Foundation), David Tate (Tate & Lyle, Conservation Foundation, subsequently funding a Keeper of sponsors) and Mrs Serrano, Consul from the Philippines the Wild (ranger) and a variety of projects including Embassy in London. mangrove reforestation on the mainland island of Negros. WLT_25Years_0417_24pp_qxd_Layout 1 25/04/2017 17:21 Page 7 6 worldlandtrust.org Conservation in action New hopes for the wildlife of Patagonia’s coastal steppe Summer, 1999 WLT launched its 10th Anniversary Project, to protect the disappearing Patagonia Coastal Steppe. Adjacent to the wildlife rich Valdes Peninsula, where the Killer Whales and Sea Lion sequence of Sir David Attenborough’s Trials of Life was filmed, Estancia la Esperanza (Ranch of Hopes) now protects 15,000 acres (6,250 hectares) of coastal steppe and 12km of coastline. In partnership with local NGO, Fundación Patagonia Natural, funds were raised over the following five years and the Ranch of Hopes Wildlife Refuge now protects vital fauna and flora of the coastal steppe, including large mammals such as Puma, Geoffroy’s Cat and Guanaco. This area of coastal steppe is one of the world’s great The establishment of wildlife-safe wildernesses, with outstanding wildlife spectacles including boundary fences and ranger patrols within the reserve Elephant Seals, Killer Whales and Magellanic Penguins along enabled the grasses to recover the coastline, and Guanaco, Burrowing Owls and Rheas and the Guanaco population of on the grasslands. WLT’s efforts to protect this wonderful the reserve to rise from 150 to more than 1,000. habitat are to be applauded. Sir David Attenborough, WLT Patron WLT_25Years_0417_24pp_qxd_Layout 1 25/04/2017 17:21 Page 8 7 Saved: land for the people of the Atlantic Forest of Argentina Rio+20 Earth Summit, 19 June 2012 The Misiones State Government presented WLT’s project to save the Atlantic Forest in Argentina at the Rio+20 Earth Summit, heralding it as a ground-breaking initiative to conserve biodiversity while upholding the traditional rights of indigenous communities. This was in recognition that three months earlier, WLT facilitated a Multicultural Agreement with three Guaran communities, their The Emerald Green Corridor project. Top: Looking across neighbours who were the titleholders of theί land, and provincial the Uruguay River; the new reserve is on the right. the government, settling a 16 year dispute over the future of their Below: Guaran communities can now protect their forest shared land in Misiones, north Eastern Argentina. homes from beingί logged and developed, working in partnership with WLT’s local conservation partners, John Burton, WLT’s CEO, said: “The agreement that has been Fundación Biodiversidad Argentina and Fundación Naturaleza para el Futuro. reached is truly ground-breaking and heralded as such by the government of Misiones. In my view, it is probably the most important land purchase the WLT will ever make, because of the innovations involved and the wealth of biodiversity it protects.” The Multicultural Agreement sees 9,301 acres (3,764 hectares of Atlantic Rainforest designated as a protected nature reserve called Corredor Verde Esmeralda (Emerald Green Corridor), managed for conservation by two Argentinian project partners, in collaboration with the Guaran communities.