Firstly, apologies if our last two eBulletins are a bit close together - we intend to make the eBulletin a monthly occurrence. The eBulletin is maintained by Pete - please email him if you have any comments or questions

Last Minute Christmas Gifts & Unusual Valentines
Its still not too late to buy that last minute Christmas gift. Acres of Rainforest can be bought for £25 from our website, or by calling Claire on 01986 874422, until Tuesday 17th of December for Christmas delivery (UK only). The World Land Trust now has a Valentines page on the website, with details of how you can save Rainforest for your loved one. http://www.worldlandtrust.org/supporting/valentine.htm - we will be producing special certificates in time for valentines day.

WLT Chairman, Prof. Renton Righelato helping to plant new trees at Kites Hill.

Tree Planting at Kites Hill
Last week the WLT planted over 200 trees at its Kites Hill UK reserve. Some of these trees include the "Trees for Peanuts" saplings, planted for supporters who have helped save over 15,000 Rainforest trees. Work was carried out by WLT staff and British Trust for Conservation Volunteers (BTCV). A register of supporters who donated to the "Trees for Peanuts" campaign will be kept at Kites Hill.
Read more about Trees for Peanuts, and how you can save big Rainforest trees from just 10p a tree: http://www.worldlandtrust.org/projects/uk.htm

Rare Wolf photographed by WLT Partner
Dr Nigel Simpson, UK representative of Fundacion Jocotoco, the WLT's partner organisation in Ecuador, visited Brazil in November on a bird-watching trip. He was accompanied by Dr Robert Ridgely, who recently published a wonderful new book on the Birds of Ecuador. While they were there they were fortunate enough to have an excellent sighting of one of the world's rarest members of the dog family. The Maned Wolf is found in South America from Bolivia to Brazil and northern Argentina, and usually lives in relatively open habitats, including grasslands and swamps. Rather like a fox in colouring, it is very long-legged, and this probably helps it in stalking prey in long grass. The full story, including the Photograph is available on the WLT website http://www.worldlandtrust.org/news/wolf.htm

Rare Turkeys in Belize
As Christmas approaches, it’s time to give a thought for Turkeys. Not many people realise that in addition to the wild turkey ancestor of the Christmas dinner, there is another, much rarer species – the Ocellated turkey. Its name derives from the peacock-like ocelli (eyes) on the tail feathers, and it is a rather beautiful bird. Being turkey sized, and tasty, it is popular with hunters, and increasingly rare over much of its range. It is only found in Central America, in Guatemala, Belize and Mexico.
One place where it is very common, and now very tame is around the visitor centre of the Rio Bravo Conservation and Management Area (RBCMA), owned by the Programme for Belize. This was set up with funding from many organisations, including the WLT. You can read the full story, and see the ocellated turkey on our website http://www.worldlandtrust.org/news/oscturkey.htm

Obituary for Christopher Parsons OBE
It was with great sadness that the World Land Trust learned of the death of Christopher Parsons, on the 8th November 2002. Christopher Parsons was a staunch supporter of the World Land Trust, and a long-serving Trustee. John Burton writes "When introducing Chris overseas, I always introduced him as the Producer of David Attenborough’s Life on Earth, but although this is almost certainly his best known achievement internationally, it completely underestimates the huge variety and range of Chris’s work over the years, right up until his untimely death. Scores of people throughout the world will miss Chris, and we at the Trust will certainly miss his enthusiasm; he always made a particular effort to get to our meetings, which he often chaired. He received the OBE in 1982 for services to Broadcasting, and he was one of the very few Honorary Members of the Linnean Society of London, an award for his services to natural history". You can read a tribute to Chris Parsons on the World Land Trust website. http://www.worldlandtrust.org/news/chrisparsons.htm

Carbon Balance your Christmas and New Year
After all the excitement has died down, the Christmas tree has lost all its needles, and the tonnes of wrapping paper have been discarded, spare a thought for the impact Christmas has had on the environment. You can help by recycling as much as you can - some councils even operate Christmas Tree recycling schemes; check out http://www.gov.uk for information about local council recycling. Last year there were Christmas card recycling bins in Tesco stores: http://www.woodland-trust.org.uk/whsmith/recyclechristmas.htm.
The World Land Trust has recently launched Carbon Balancing as a way of helping to minimise your impact on the environment. One Acre of Rainforest at £25 would help Carbon Balance a family christmas. Rainforests absorb about 500 Kg of carbon per acre every year, and store considerably more. To find out more about Carbon Balancing, visit our minisite http://www.carbonbalanced.org