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Conservation Project News

Conservation projects news from the World Land Trust, an international wildlife conservation charity working to protect threatened wildlife habitats worldwide.

This page shows the most recent projects news updates, or a selection of posts in the same category. To read older posts, use the projects news archive in the navigation bar on this page. The newest posts can always be found at www.worldlandtrust.org/news/projects-news.htm.

Conservation projects news on this page:

Tuesday, 19 May 2009:

New Appeal: Saving Sharpe's Longclaw habitat in Kenya 

The loss of grasslands is having a devastating effect on wildlife all over the world. These habitats are being lost to agriculture and development, and surviving grasslands are increasingly fragmented. The Kinangop Highlands of Kenya is one of the grasslands under threat. This area consists of largely unprotected grasslands which are vanishing at an alarming rate.

Top: Kinangop Grassland. Above: A Sharpe's Longclaw, an endangered species that occurs only in Kenya (photo © Charlie Moores/10000birds.com). Click on the images to see larger versions.

The Kinangop Highlands are the stronghold of Sharpe's Longclaw, a bird endemic to Kenya that is seriously threatened by the loss of its grassland home. As much as three quarters of 'tussock' vegetation the Sharpe's Longclaws require may have already been lost in the Kinangop Plateau, threatening the survival of these birds.

The World Land Trust (WLT) are aiming to help our partners Nature Kenya buy a strategically important area of grassland consisting of 50 acres by December 2009. The reason for the urgency is that the price of land in this area is escalating.

Help us protect the Sharpe's Longclaws in Kinangop

This is a project with enormous conservation value, so please support this appeal now: You can donate via our fundraising page on Justgiving or by contacting the WLT office.

Learn more about the new Kenyan Grasslands Project »

Labels: Kenya

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Wednesday, 29 April 2009:

First ever sighting of Tayra at Sierra Gorda Biosphere Reserve (Mexico) 

An abundance of wildlife is protected by the Sierra Gorda Biosphere Reserve where the World Land Trust (WLT) has helped purchase and protect more than 1,800 acres. This exceptionally diverse reserve has 15 vegetation types, including tropical evergreen forest, tropical deciduous forest, xerophyllus scrub (flowering grasses), oak forest, coniferous forest, pine-oak forests and cloud forests which make it a haven for a huge variety of species.

Top: macaws and above: a Tayra. Click on the images to see larger versions. (Photos by Roberto Pedraza.)

Over recent weeks there have been remarkable sightings of wildlife, including 60 macaws which were photographed at El Barro, one of the many impressive sinkholes on the Reserve. The photographer, Roberto Pedraza, Technical Advisor for WLT's partners, Grupo Ecologica Sierra Gorda, also photographed several green parakeets at another sinkhole not far from Las Arenitas.

He was also lucky enough to record the first ever sighting of a Tayra (Eira barbara) on the reserve. The Tayra is a member of the weasel family also known locally as "weird cat" and "old man's head". Although listed by IUCN as of Least Concern, numbers of Tayra are decreasing, especially in Mexico, due to loss of habitat for agriculture. Roberto was especially excited by the sighting, writing in an email: "Yesterday we had a once in a life-time experience, a close encounter with a rare species, three beautiful Tayras, never seen before and never expected, as they are extremely rare. We had the chance because I really wanted to photograph green parakeets in a sinkhole (not so far from the Arenitas) so we arrived there quite early. After an hour and half we heard noise in the litter and the Tayras just appeared!! One of the three climbed a nearby tree and just stared at us, so we had the chance to take several photos that turned out extremely well."

Learn more about the Sierra Gorda Reserve

Labels: Mexico

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842 acres of Atlantic rainforest habitat secured in Brazil 

Great news from REGUA, Brazilian project partners of World Land Trust (WLT): A parcel of Atlantic rainforest habitat made up of 12 separate properties (totalling an impressive 842 acres) has now been saved.

Atlantic forest landscape at the REGUA Reserve, Brazil. Click on the image to see a larger version.

Known as the 'Matumbo Gap', the protection of this important land purchase, a priority for REGUA, has been secured largely as a result of WLT donors who have donated generously and also enabled the leverage of additional matched funding from WLT-US and American Bird Conservancy as well as a grant through the IUCN National Committee for the Netherlands Small Grants for the Purchase of Nature Programme.

REGUA is now looking at other strategic parcels of land urgently needing protection and are currently negotiating the purchase of a property adjacent to the Matumbo, which is being part funded by members of the British and Irish Association of Zoos and Aquariums through WLT's Wild Spaces programme.

Learn more about the REGUA Project in Brazil

Labels: Brazil

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Tuesday, 28 April 2009:

Borneo Orang-utan Appeal: Fundraising for first land purchase completed (Malaysia) 

Thanks to the generous contributions from both corporate supporters and individuals, the World Land Trust (WLT) has successfully raised the £343,000 that was required to secure a critical corridor of land between two fragmented portions of the Lower Kinabatangan Wildlife Sanctuary in Sabah, Borneo.

Negotiations for this parcel of land have been complex but are reaching their completion and we will shortly be transferring the balance of the funds for the purchase of this land over to our project partner, LEAP Conservancy in Malaysia. This purchase will not only keep a hugely diverse rainforest standing but will also allow the continued survival of over 600 Orang-utans as well as other endangered wildlife such as the endemic Proboscis Monkey and a significant population of the Bornean Pygmy Elephant.

Our sincere thanks go out to all of you who helped raise funds for this important appeal, in particular the Marshalls Group of Cambridge who helped raise over £120,000 through their Cambridge Rainforest Appeal.

But our work doesn't stop here: WLT plans to carry on fundraising in order to keep more of Borneo's forests standing and to ensure the protection of Orang-utans and other threatened wildlife into the future. Keep checking the WLT website over the next few months for updates on new land purchases in the Lower Kinabatangan area. In the meantime you can support our new appeal on our Justgiving page with all donations going towards this new land purchase in the Kinabatangan.

Labels: Malaysia

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Friday, 17 April 2009:

Helping elephants and tigers survive in India: Success stories and NEW APPEAL 

Wildlife corridors protecting elephant migratory routes

The survival of Asian Elephants is threatened by loss of forest habitat and the ever-increasing human population. World Land Trust (WLT) works with local partners, Wildlife Trust of India (WTI), to purchase and protect corridors of land which form part of traditional Elephant migratory routes. WTI have identified 88 such corridors, all vital if Asian Elephants are going to continue to breed and exist into the future.

WLT is currently assisting WTI on the purchase and protection of two elephant corridors: The Siju-Rewak corridor in the Garo Hills of NE India in Meghalaya state, and the Tirunelli-Kudrakote corridor which runs through Wayanad district of Kerala. Other vital corridors are in need of protection too - see below.

WLT has, so far, helped protect two wildlife corridors: one in Garo Hills, Meghalaya state in NE India and the other in the Western Ghats montane forests in Kerala.

In both cases there is growing concern among local people that elephants are left in peace and that they themselves are better off away from the corridor areas where they live in daily fear of their crops and houses being wrecked. WTI works with local communities to identify alternative land away from elephants and helps build new houses for them. The corridors are then reforested using native tree species which are grown, planted and tended by local people, bringing extra income for themselves and their families.

Reforestation in Garo Hills

WLT's first challenge was to raise the funds to secure the Siju-Rewak Elephant Corridor, in the Garo Hills of NE India. This was successfully achieved, and now protects 1,700 acres (over 700 ha) of continuous forest for elephants and other wildlife. This corridor was especially important as it also protects a vital crossing point over the Simsang River.

Building on the success of this project WLT and WTI are reforesting and restoring forest corridors in other parts of the Garo Hills, to benefit Elephants.

Community lands in the West Garo Hills have been systematically deforested and intensively cultivated, causing devastating loss of habitat for Elephants and other endangered species such as the Hoolock Gibbon, Tiger and Clouded Leopard, which are all present in this region. As a result of relentless slash-and-burn agriculture the land eventually becomes unproductive and local communities are now recognising the benefits of keeping forested areas.

In a pioneering project communities are voluntarily transferring small areas of their lands for conservation purposes. WLT and WTI's first job will be to designate these areas as Village Forest Reserves and then undertake planting to restore tropical forest.

Creating Village Forest Reserves

The first Village Forest Reserve was set up in 2008 at the village of Selbalgre, after villagers realised that forest cover benefitted their cultivation practices by stabilising the soils and increasing water retention in the land.

At least seven new areas have been identified for reforestation and, once protected, they will form a continuously forested wildlife corridor between Nokrek National Park and Selbalgre Village Reserve.

A growing number of communities are seeing the positive impacts of conserving some of their tribal lands and it is hoped that more reforestation will be possible.

As a means of providing alternative sustainable food sources for the people of Selbalgre, WTI have encouraged the installation of fish pools for the preservation of the endemic fish species of the region. These and other community development activities, including repair of school buildings and provision of teaching materials, will be carried out during 2009.

NEW APPEAL: Creating more wildlife corridors in India

Elephant corridors provide a safe habitat for many other species of endangered wildlife, including tiger. Please support our new appeal to create new corridors for wildlife.

WLT and WTI are urgently looking to create new wildlife corridors in India and we have a donor who will match all donations, up to a total of £100,000. This means that we can be even more effective in saving wildlife, so please support this appeal and help elephants, tigers and other threatened species.

We aim to raise £200,000 by 31st August this year to ensure that the next corridors can be created.

Support this urgent appeal via our Justgiving fundraising page

Labels: India

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Wednesday, 1 April 2009:

Grassland protection in Kenya and creating a forest corridor in Tanzania: Two new conservation projects 

World Land Trust (WLT) made a visit to East Africa in mid February, with John Burton, CEO and Ruth Canning, Conservation Projects Officer meeting two potential project partners.

For many years supporters of the WLT have been urging us to get involved in Africa, but despite several visits we have never managed to identify a suitable project or a suitable partner with whom to work, but that is now set to change.

Nature Kenya, and the Tanzanian Wildlife Conservation Society, are both relatively small, but very active locally managed conservation NGOs, who have a strong interest in community land-based conservation projects.

WLT's John Burton and Ruth Canning with Friends of Kinangop Plateau (FoKP), a local site support group for Nature Kenya.

Protecting Grasslands in Kenya

Nature Kenya is developing a proposal to acquire small pockets of privately owned grasslands in the highlands near Lake Naivasha. These grasslands are rapidly disappearing and are home to endemic and endangered wildlife, and in particular, the few hundred surviving Sharpe's Longclaws. John was lucky enough to see this rare bird during his visit. Rather like a skylark with a yellowish breast, it is very difficult to see, and when flushed it flies off as fast as it can and immediately hides. But, just as the skylarks of Great Britain, they are important indicator species and should be protected at all costs. Their grassland habitat is being ploughed up for cash crops - which also displaces traditional cattle grazing.

With strong community backing this project has a good chance of success and every 6 acres will protect another breeding pair of Sharpe's Longclaws.

The "Bunduki Gap", which will be reforested thanks to funding provided by the WLT. Click on the image to see a larger version.

A Forest Corridor in Tanzania

Meanwhile in Tanzania, we propose to use funds already raised for restoration purposes to create a corridor of 263 acres (106.5 ha) between two sectors of the Ulugurus Forest reserves. The Uluguru mountains are home to numerous endemics, the best known of which are the African violets: the ancestor of the popular house plant. The surrounding habitats are impacted by human population growth, and, in the long-term, help with community development is going to be essential to prevent encroachment into protected areas.

More information on these new project initiatives will be available on the website in due course.

Labels: Kenya, Tanzania

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Jocotoco Antpittas increase in Tapichalaca (Ecuador) 

The endangered Jocotoco Antpitta (Grallaria ridgelyi) was first discovered in Ecuador in 1997. Tapichalaca Reserve, owned and managed by World Land Trust partners Fundación Jocotoco, was set up specifically to protect the discovery site of the Jocotoco Antpitta. With protection, numbers of this antpitta have gradually increased, but so have visitor numbers.

All four of the young Jocotoco Antpittas. Top: Two birds almost in adult plumage. Middle: At a few months old. Above: The recently discovered nestling, just before it left the nest. Click on the images to see larger versions. Photos © Francisco Sornoza/Fundación Jocotoco

In order to limit disturbance of the antpitta's habitat, one pair has been fed regularly with worms by reserve warden Franco Mendoza. Visitors have been able to enjoy close views of this reclusive species without the use of tape recordings, which are otherwise commonly used to attract birds. Thanks to the abundance of food the antpittas have bred rapidly, with three young birds appearing in sequence at 3 or 4 month intervals. In November a fourth nestling was spotted, and this led to the discovery of the nest - the first one found after ten years of searching.

The feeding site is also regularly used by Chestnut-naped Antpittas, and by the very rare Andean Coati, related to racoons.

Learn more about the Jocotoco Antpitta »

Learn more about the Tapichalaca Reserve in Ecuador »

Summary report for 2008 from Fundación Jocotoco (pdf, 450KB, opens in new window)

You will need Adobe Reader to open the report. Adobe Reader is free and can be downloaded from Adobe, below.

Get Adobe Reader (opens in new window)

Labels: Ecuador

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Tuesday, 24 March 2009:

Tree planting at Kites Hill Reserve (Cotswolds, UK) 

A working party was held at Kites Hill in late February to extend the SSSI Beech woodland which borders this beautiful reserve in Gloucestershire.

The Kites Hill Reserve encompasses both woodland and fallow grasslands, some of which are now being reforested. (Click the image to see a larger version.)


BTCV volunteers remove a fallen beech tree from the site of the woodland extension.

Donning work gear, the World Land Trust (WLT) and the British Trust for Conservation Volunteers (BTCV) planted mixed broadleaved trees during a milder spell that followed the snowfall and frosts of January which had delayed the working party. In total 110 trees were planted in two areas of the site.

Further activities at Kites Hill that are planned for this year include the continued coppicing of ancient hazel on the site and the excavation of a pond to enhance the reserve's range of aquatic habitats.

Kites Hill, located in the Cotswolds Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, was originally used as farmland. The site was donated to the World Land Trust, designated a nature reserve and is now protected for the benefit of wildlife.

Learn more about the Kites Hill Reserve

Labels: UK

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