The 18^th October is World Opaki Day and a great chance to celebrate the opaki and to find out more about the species!

#WorldOkapiDay
#WOD2022
#OkapiConservation 

Opakis are found deep in the heart of Africa, right in the jungles of the Democratic Republic of Congo. 

Threats to the opaki are many, despite the protected status the opaki received in 1933

• slash-and-burn agriculture
• illegal goal mining
• bush-meat poaching

Since the opaki is found in deep, dense jungles, it acts as a flagship species to protect the forest ecosystem in which it lives.

The day is a chance to people to celebrate and find out more about the endangered opaki.  The Opaki Conservation Project has a social media toolkit to help you celebrate and share the day – it will be a great way to raise awareness of the opaki.

Ways you can help the opaki on World Opaki Day:

1. Find out all about the opaki – the Opaki Conservation Project has lots of information
   
   
2. Find out about the Opaki Conservation Project and share the work they do
   
   
3. Learn about the Opaki Wildlife Reserve which helps to protect the habitat of the opaki, and preserve rare plant and animal life, and also the lifestyle and culture of indigenous people.  Encompassing 13,700 square kilometres, it is one of the most important centres of plant and animal diversity in Africa.
   
   
4. You could donate to the project or become an opaki guardian!
   
   

Protecting the opaki’s home on the reserve means also protecting the homes of opaki, forest elephants, chimpanzees, leopard, primates, forest buffalo, bongo antelope and water chevrotain.  There’s also an incredible range of birds and insects.

Please share all about it on social media.  Here are the hashtags:

Facebook: @OkapiConservationProject 

Instagram: @OkapiConservation 

Twitter: @OkapiProject 

Save Bewl Water Local Wildlife Site
from development, protect wildlife and natural beauty

Bewl Water Reservoir, owned by Southern Water, is haven for wildlife.  It has incredible biodiversity.  But there’s pressure to develop the site.

Change.org has a petition, asking Southern Water and Wealden Planning to prioritise local wildlife and natural beauty over development

The petition says there are drip fed planning applications for new property developments and “unchecked commercialisation” of the site.  These include a large inflatable waterpark (built without planning, despite local authority notices to do so), laser challenge, sports car meets and advertising to hen and stag dos.

Bewl is classified as a Local Wildlife Site.

It has 472 protected and designated species, including 20 types of dragonflies, damselflies, declining pollinators such as bees and butterflies, small mammals, 9 types of bat, amphibians and reptiles. 171 bird species have been recorded, including an incredible 122,000 waterbirds on a single occasion.  Applications are in the pipeline for it to be designated with international and national protection – these could be too late.

Objections have come from the High Weald AONB, Sussex Ornithological Society, Sussex Wildlife Trust, CPRE, parish councils, ramblers, sailors and rowers

Southern Water has legal duties to protect biodiversity, and public access and the AONB.  But the petition says it is ignoring the views of wildlife charities, present users and locals.

Please sign this petition  to send a clear message to Southern Water and Wealden Planning that wildlife must be protected from development and urbanisation and the countryside must be conserved and enhanced for future generations.

Please sign here

The Hillside Animal Sanctuary near Norwich is home to 4,000 animals. Most of the rescued animals have been saved from the farming industry, but 2,500 horses, ponies, donkeys and mules also call Hillside home. 

As you can imagine, this is an enormous undertaking demanding a lot of resource. 

So why not help them along?  One of the things you could do is to buy a bale of hay for £5 and donate that to Hillside Animal Sanctuary.

Obviously, you don't buy the bale of hay and trot off to Hillside with it in your car decorated with a piece of red ribbon - it's all much easier than that. You "buy" it online. 

It would make a great gift both for the horses and ponies, donkeys and mules at Hillside but also for any animal lover as a Secret Santa or stocking filler. 

Give a Gift in Lieu to support the animals at the sanctuary 

You could also choose a Gift a Sack of Grass Nuts for £5.00, or Feed a Rescue Dog for a week (£10) or Give a Bale of Straw for bedding (that's £15) or donate £5 towards the Hillside Carrot Appeal; a staggering 29 tonnes of carrots are regularly delivered to Hillside during the winter to help feed the 4000 rescued animals at the Sanctuary.  That's an awful lot of carrot!

You could also adopt an anmal such as Beauty the Sheep as a gift.
Or how about Doris the duck, or Henrietta the ex-battery hen,
or alpacas Inti and Lupi, or Tessa turkey or...
there are lots to choose from!  Click here to see!
(Minimum donation £10 for a year's adoption)

Visit Hillside Animal Sanctuary's online shop here to find out about the gifts mentioned above.  They've also got Christmas cards, adoption gifts, cards, notelets, gifts for donkey lovers - so lots to choose from.