World Land Trust Alliance with World Parks Endowment

On 6 July 2006 the World Land Trust Trustees, Council Members and staff met with Byron Swift and Richard Moore of World Parks, USA for the AGM of the World Land Trust, being held in Chediston Church Room under the chairmanship of Hon. President Dr Jerry Bertrand. A Village Hall in Suffolk, UK might seem to be an unlikely venue for cutting edge conservation developments but that was precisely the case. The meeting decided to bring together the two organisations in a close working alliance, sharing resources and contacts, as well as providing support for shared projects. Keen not to fall into the trap of so many organisations who try and fail to work hand in hand across the world, John Burton and Byron Swift know only too well of the pitfalls, having been involved in international conservation for the past 30 years. Moving fairly slowly towards a shared vision World Parks has changed its name to World Land Trust-US and, by sharing information and costs, both organisations will benefit from higher profile and a wider support base.

World Parks was established in the same year as WLT (then Programme for Belize) and shares the same project criteria and are already supporting Fundación Jocotoco (Ecuador), and Guyra Paraguay. US supporters can now make tax-deductible donations to all WLT projects through the WLT-US office.