World Land Trust

Donate your points in support of urgent conservation projects around the world with the World Land Trust.

The World Land Trust (WLT) has been saving wildlife, acre by acre, since 1989. WLT is a UK-based international charity that works in conjunction with local partners to buy and protect threatened habitats which are vital to the survival of endangered and endemic species. Nearly 400,000 acres of tropical forests, wetlands and grasslands have been purchased and are being protected, and over 2 million acres more are being protected for conservation. WLT always works in partnership with local Non-governmental Organisations (NGOs) in whom the ownership is vested; WLT works with them to protect and manage the land for conservation.

The World Land Trust is a registered charity (registered charity number 1001291); its Patrons are Sir David Attenborough OM, CH, CVO, CBE FRS and David Gower OBE.

WORLD LAND TRUST Buy an Acre fund* is currently supporting these urgent projects:

ECUADOR: local partner: Nature and Culture International (NCI

Ecuador contains 17% of the world’s total number of bird species: 1,600, but there is little protected land in the south and west of the country, where many of rarest bird species are only managing to hang on in diminishing patches of unprotected habitat. Over recent years WLT has helped fund land purchase in support of Fundación Jocotoco’s reserves which have saved unique habitats and their dependent species. In 2011 WLT has Buy an Acre projects with NCI, to save the threatened cloud forests of the Andes, the tropical forests of the Upper Amazon and the Tumbesian Tropical Dry forests, to protect the habitats, their wildlife and community water supply.

COLOMBIA: local partner: Fundacion ProAves

Straddling the Equator and rising from the shores of the Pacific Ocean to the high Andean peaks, the Chocó region of north western South America shelters one of the wettest tropical areas on earth: More than 26 ft (8 m) of rainfall a year sustains one of the single greatest concentrations of unique biodiversity on the planet. But in recent decades, road-building has resulted in urban expansion which is threatening the region. WLT is working with Fundación ProAves to buy strategic properties to save vital habitats and their wildlife in a country that is growing in sophistication and is keen to protect its wonderful habitats while there is still an opportunity.

MEXICO: local partner: Grupo Ecológico Sierra Gorda (GESG)

GESG are co-managers (jointly with the Government) of the Sierra Gorda Biosphere Reserve in central Mexico. This area is one of the most ecologically diverse and important regions in Mexico as it is the meeting point of two bio-regions - the Nearctic from the north and the Neotropical from the south. The altitudinal range (300 - 3,100m) protects a wide range of species including all six species of cat found in Mexico: Jaguar, Puma, Bobcat, Margay and Ocelot. WLT is aiming to raise funds to save more of these threatened habitats during 2011.

GUATEMALA: local partner: FUNDAECO

WLT began a land purchase project with this NGO in 2009 to protect the wetland and rainforest habitat in the Laguna Grande Reserve. This area contains the single most threatened habitat in the Guatemalan Caribbean and is important for its location – situated along the Belizean-Guatemalan border. WLT has already helped fund the purchase of 1,658 acres (671 ha) which encompasses a system of lagoons, mangroves and tropical forests. Not only does this region contain a high diversity of species but they are also important wintering habitats for more than 100 species of neo-tropical migratory birds. Due to extensive cattle ranching and logging less than 20% of the original tropical forests in the Caribbean Region of Guatemala survive. The Buy an Acre fund will have more of this important habitat.

www.worldlandtrust.org

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