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World Land Trust Press Releases
Press releases from the World Land Trust, an international conservation organisation working to preserve the world's most biologically important and threatened lands.
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Jaguar Cars support Belize conservation
Wildfires threaten Patagonia Nature Reserve
Sightings of Threatened wildlife on new reserve in Ecuador
Jaguar Cars support Belize conservation
Press Release dated: Thursday, February 27, 2003
A team of young scientists from the University of East Anglia (Norwich) arrived in Belize this week to carry out research that will benefit wild Jaguars. The three researchers, who are undertaking their projects as part of their MSc studies, will be working with a local Belizean organisation, the Programme for Belize (PfB), who own and manage a huge reserve in northern Belize. The students are Begonia Sastre who is looking at the economic benefits to the local communities of conservation, Dave Redding who is studying the effects of vegetation type on the prey species of the Jaguar and Puma, and Juan Carlos Ruiz Guajardo who is looking at the effects of logging on Jaguar prey.
Jaguar Cars has been supporting conservation in Belize for over 10 years, and their latest grant is to the World Land Trust, who have initiated this imaginative joint programme with PfB and UEA. The studies will investigate a range of issues, including assessing the conservation benefits to the local people, the effectiveness of corridors between nature reserves, and the expectations of eco tourists. The results of these investigations will help the long term goals, which are to ensure that sufficient income is generated to pay for the conservation of the land and its wildlife, and the local people are able to derive significant benefits.
Fact File
- The World Land Trust was instrumental in establishing the Programme for Belize, and has been supporting land acquisition programmes since 1989.
- PfB now own and protect over 252,000 acres -- nearly 1/20th of the country.
- Jaguars once roamed free from Texas to Argentina, but are now extinct over much of their former range
- Belize is a stronghold for Jaguars. While they are difficult to see, their footprints are often spotted in the reserves
- Ecotourism is one of the main sources of income in Belize, once dependent on sugar exports and logging.
- The UEA scientists who are studying on a Masters course in Applied Ecology and Conservation, will be returning to the UK in June
For further information contact the World Land Trust: 01986 874422 (John Burton)
University of East Anglia: Mary Pallister 01603 593007.
For more information, contact: John Burton
CEO
World Land Trust
jab*at*worldlandtrust.org (To avoid spam, we cannot show the email address in full. Please replace *at* with the symbol @ in your email address field.)
Web site: http://www.worldlandtrust.org
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Wildfires threaten Patagonia Nature Reserve
Press Release dated: Tuesday, February 18, 2003
The Estancia La Esperanza, a 15,000 acre nature reserve funded by the World Land Trust and owned by the Fundacion Patagonia Natural was threatened by wildfires sweeping across the dry steppes as summer draws to a close in the southern hemisphere. The reserve was established to conserve the unique fauna and flora of the Patagonian Steppe, which at the time was not contained in any national parks or reserves. Since the reserve was created the numbers of guanaco (wild Lamas) has grown dramatically and a pair of puma has reared kittens. Wildlfires are a real hazard in the dry steppe habitat, and when one approached the reserve last month there was a real risk that the vegetation would be destroyed. A small area on the south western border was ablaze, and dozens of volunteers had turned out to try and beat it back. Then quite unexpectedly the rains came, with over 25mm falling in 24 hours. This is a spectacular occurrence, and certainly saved the reserve. As far as can be ascertained no large animals were hurt in the fire. The small amount burned (less than 10% of the reserve) may even benefit, as the burned area will have a flush of new grasses and herbage, fertilized by the ash and rainfall.
For photographs and more information, please see the World Land Trust website.
For more information, contact: John Burton
CEO
World Land Trust
jab*at*worldlandtrust.org (To avoid spam, we cannot show the email address in full. Please replace *at* with the symbol @ in your email address field.)
Web site: http://www.worldlandtrust.org
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Sightings of Threatened wildlife on new reserve in Ecuador
At the end of 2002 the World Land Trust provided the funds for its local partner in Ecuador, the Fundación Jocotoco, to buy a new corridor reserve adjacent to CERRO Tapichalaca, in the Amazon watershed of the Andes.
The first scientist to explore the more remote parts of the reserve, Dr Niels Krabbe (co-author of "The Birds of the High Andes"), has just reported some exciting finds. On his return from exploring the mountain he sent an email which told us:
"We had a fine trip to the paramo. It took three days to cut the trail. The first two days were sunny, the rest of the time it rained and was foggy. There was a pair of tapirs with a young right next to the second camp. I got there in time to see the grass move after they had entered a thicket! In the paramo a spectacled bear had been eating puyas [ a giant lobelia, found only at very high altitudes], and the remnants were so fresh that we would have seen it had it not been so foggy. We saw some nice birds, including Masked Saltator, Greater Scythebill, Solitary Eagle, also had an unexpected Swallow-tailed Kite at 2900 m. and we saw most of the high elevation species: Imperial Snipe (six roding [displaying] around 2nd camp every evening and morning), Neblina Metaltail, Masked Mountain-tanager, Grass Wren, Many-striped Canastero, Andean Hillstar, Glossy Flowerpiercer, Rainbow bearded Thornbill, Andean Snipe, White-throated Screech-owl, Band-winged Nightjar, Great Sapphirewing, Slate-crowned Antpitta, Tawny Antpitta, Paramo Tapaculo, White-throated Tyrannulet, Brown-backed Chat-tyrant, Brown-bellied Swallow."
Dr Nigel Simpson a Trustee of the World Land Trust and Fundación Jocotoco organised both this land purchase and the first, commented:
"Our hopes have been fulfilled in that four endangered or near-threatened bird species which are new to the reserve, but were hoped to be present on the edge of the paramo, are now confirmed. These are Masked Mountain-Tanager (globally vulnerable), Neblina Metaltail (a high altitude hummingbird), Greater Scythebill (all near-threatened), - and to have six Imperial Snipe displaying over his tent must have been spectacular (this is another near-threatened species which is known from our Yanacocha reserve). The Andean Hillstar sighting is a significant northerly range expansion. Solitary Eagle is very special (very occasionally seen in the past at Buenaventura).
And all of course additional to the Jocotoco Antpittas which we knew were there. This brings to ten the total of Red Data Book bird species now confirmed on the expanded reserve.
Some of the Puyas could be endangered- Niels found one eaten by Spectacled Bear (one endangered species eating another?!) and together with the Mountain Tapirs with young this is a spectacular start. We may be able to begin high altitude botanical surveys in March"
The WLT and the Fundación Jocotoco are working together to acquire a network of reserves targeted at endangered species. These observations confirm the importance of this approach, and another reserve is to be purchased in the very near future, with funds donated by the Rainforest Cafe in London.
For further information as to how your donation can help acquire more reserves visit the World Land Trust web site: www.worldlandtrust.org/projects/.
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Sir David Attenborough, World Land Trust Patron
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