The World Land Trust eBulletin Issue 44, December 2006

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In this issue:
What happens to rainforest that is unprotected?
Thank you for your support!
Make your last minute Christmas shopping benefit conservation
News in Brief
Seasons Greetings from the World Land Trust team

What happens to rainforest that is unprotected?

This photograph, taken by John Burton, the World Land Trust's Chief Executive on a recent visit to Paraguay, shows all too clearly the fate of the Atlantic Rainforests. A decade ago, this area was covered in forests. Now all that remains is this stump, and a sign pointing to the fragments and remnants being protected by the WLT's partners, Guyra Paraguay. Soya bean and other crops have devastated the area, although the situation is actually far worse in Brazil.

To help protect important wildlife habitats such as the Atlantic Rainforest the World Land Trust relies entirely on support from generous individuals. As the year is coming to an end, we would therefore like to say:

Thank you for your support!

Thanks to supporters the WLT and WLT-US have been able to purchase and protect more wildlife habitats and initiated new projects. These are some of the activities undertaken during 2006:

John Burton (CEO, World Land Trust): We are raising more funds this year than any other year in the history of the World Land Trust and are helping our partners buy more land, with new initiatives in the Atlantic Rainforests of Misiones, Argentina, a new reserve planned in the Gran Chaco of Paraguay, as well as a rapid assessment being carried out in the Andes of Peru. The WLT is also continuing to help buy land in the coastal rainforests of Brazil, where our partner organisation, REGUA, is reintroducing the endangered red-billed curassow.

Byron Swift (Executive Director, World Land Trust-US): A few highlights from this year include the purchase of 1,000 acres of of Atlantic rainforest in San Rafael Reserve, Paraguay and support to Fundación Avifauna in Panama by creating the Rainforest Discovery Center in the lowland rainforests of Soberania National Park. In Lagunas de Huamanpata, Peru, WLT-US achieved a major accomplishment in our program to preserve the very biodiverse cloud forests of Amazonas when the municipal government declared a reserve of 24,000 hectares of pristine cloud forest this year. WLT-US is subsequently funding the initiation of protection and management planning with our partner organisation IIAP.

As this eBulletin goes to press the office of the World Land Trust is working flat out providing 'gift acres' for Christmas. With all your support, we hope to be able to expand our partners' reserve network even more next year. Thank you to all our supporters, past, present, and future.

Make your last minute Christmas shopping benefit conservation

Let's face it, as much as we would like to buy environmentally friendly presents for all our friends and family, there are those who just wouldn't appreciate our green gifts. Although you can't save the world by shopping, you can at least make sure that your Christmas gift purchases will benefit conservation - by using Everyclick.com.

Everyclick is a search engine with a difference: It donates half of the revenue it generates to charity and users can nominate a specific charity to support when they use the search engine. What's more, Everyclick is an excellent way of finding suitable gifts for those tricky members of your family. So if you haven't yet sorted out your Christmas presents, browse the shopping options on Everyclick.com and your online purchase will help support WLT's vital conservation work.

This is how it works: Go to www.everyclick.com/uk/worldlandtrust/shopcharity?keyword=All where you will find an A to Z list of online shops (including an indication of how much money your purchase will generate for charity). You can narrow down your search by using the search field or the shopping categories to the left. Shops featured include Amazon, CD Wow, Gamestation, Goldsmiths, John Lewis, Mothercare, Natural Collection, Plantstuff, Teleflorist and Thornthons, so you should be able to find something for every one, from you gardening uncle and environmentally conscious sister to your fashion obsessed niece and gadget loving son.

Supporters in the US may use the worldwide search results of Everyclick, or the US charity search engine Goodsearch.com. Simply go to www.goodsearch.com, type World Land Trust in the "Who do you GoodSearch for?" field and click verify. You can then search the web as normal.

So, with your wish lists at hand, check out Everyclick.com or GoodSearch.com and turn your Christmas gifts at least one shade greener. So far this year WLT has received nearly £600 from Everyclick - with your help we can raise much more.

News in Brief

Lucky winner to visit the Atlantic Rainforest in Brazil

Earlier this year the WLT in association with Trips Worldwide and Express Newspapers held a competition where the first prize was a trip to the rainforests of Brazil. The lucky winner was Anneliese Martindale from Wallasey, who can look forward to a visit to the bustling city of Río de Janiero, followed by a relaxing couple of days at the REGUA lodge in the Atlantic Rainforest. Congratulations Anneliese, and enjoy your holiday!

You too can visit the Brazilian rainforest. See www.worldlandtrust.org/news/brazil-holiday-images.htm for images from the REGUA lodge and www.worldlandtrust.org/projects/visit.htm#brazil for more information on visiting the reserve.

Carbon Balanced news

Green & Easy is a great new site that offers environmentally conscious consumers the facts they need in order to make informed shopping decisions. The WLT are offering carbon offsets through Green & Easy to make your purchases carbon neutral. For more information, visit www.greenandeasy.co.uk.

Refreshed Media Ltd. , an online marketing company who recently carbon balanced their business activity with the World Land Trust, were short listed for the Environmental Excellence category in the 12th Annual Dorset Business Awards. The award is in "recognition of an organisation with a defined environmental policy, showing evidence of a commitment to sound environmental good practice". Although they didn't win, Refreshed Media were praised for making their environmental policy central to their way of working. For more details see www.refreshedmedia.com.

Win "An Inconvenient Truth" on DVD

To celebrate the release of the climate change documentary “An Inconvenient Truth” on DVD the 26th of December, we have been offered ten copies of the film to give away. For a chance to win a copy simply send the answer to the following question to webmaster@worldlandtrust.org by 10th January, putting "WLT competition" in the subject field.

Deforestation, meaning the clearance of forests by people and the conversion of land to another use, contributes to global human-caused carbon emissions, but by how much?

A. About 5%
B. About 20%
C. About 60%

The ten winners (who will be selected at random) will be sent a copy of the DVD, so don't forget to include your name and address in the email. Good luck!

On the WLT website:

Another Christmas, another goat?
WLT's CEO John Burton has been speaking out about the environmental impact of Goat Giving in his blog, Green Issues. This is his latest post:

Desertification and destruction of fragile habitats
http://www.worldlandtrust.org/news/2006/12/desertification-and-destruction-of.htm

Seasons Greetings from the World Land Trust team

The WLT office in Halesworth, UK will close from 1pm Friday 22nd December and re-open Tuesday 2nd January. Our US office will stay open throughout the December. Best wishes for the new year from us all!