Alaska, USA: Save the Tongass National Forest

Posted on 8:00am Tuesday 2nd Oct 2018

Please can you help the Tongass National Forest, America's largest national forest? It's in Alaska.

I had an email this morning in my inbox from the Sierra Club, an organisation which was founded by conservationist John Muir in 1892.

The Tongass National Forest has been under a Roadless Rule protection in South East Alaska. The Trump Administration is going to remove that protection and allow clear cutting and road construction to go ahead. This could happen within the next couple of weeks if we don't put a stop to it.

The Sierra Club, which has protected 250 million acres, say that Senator Lisa Murkowski and her Big Timber-backed allies endorsed the deal – and it will cause untold environmental destruction.

Ways to get involved:

Donate

The Sierra Club is mobilising opposition to the agreement, pushing for people to be heard, and hauling the Trump administration back into court. They need donations to do this. The Sierra Club is ramping up legal and legislative teams and organising allies elsewhere, where similar deals will imperil forests and wildlife.

If you can donate, please do – and help the Sierra Club protect the last wild places from being criss-crossed by roads and clear cut.

Sign this Petition

The Alaska WIlderness League has a petition (which I think is for the US only because I couldn't sign it) asking the US Forest Service to continue its roadless protection of the area. Sign the petition with the Alaska Wilderness League here. You can also donate to help the League in its work.

It’s time to give nature and the natural world a break and for us all to stop destroying it and I'm talking world wide here, not just in one country.

Find out more about the damage the Trump Administration is ready to inflict on Alaska and how you can get involved at the Alaska Wilderness League's website here.

Please help Save Life for all Algarve animals

Posted on 9:00pm Wednesday 4th Jul 2018

One of Portugal’s largest animal sanctuaries is being built in the central Algarve.

The sanctuary will consist of 3 rescue centres, jointly able to offer refuge to 600 animals in all in the boroughs of Loulé and São Brás de Alportel.

The recently formed Animal Rescue Algarve is behind the project and British businessman and animal lover Sidney Richardson has launched Animal Rescue Algarve and brought the project to life.

“Our mission is to help abandoned and sick animals by providing veterinary treatment, neutering, socialising and re-homing them” Richardson explained.

Work on the Cabanita rescue centre should complete in October, whilst the second rescue centre was unanimously approved by the municipal assembly on Monday 25 June. This second centre should be completed within 8 months.

The third phase is waiting for approval from the local council.

ARA is very concerned that it treats animals with dignity, respect and comfort, so they are building a modern re-homing centre from scratch with an eco-friendly design. Even the sewage system is eco-friendly as all the waste from the dogs goes to a container that filers the detritus. This means the sanctuary can both save water and reuse it in other works.

The facilities will include a reception, veterinary practice with operating theatre, sections for puppies, adults and senior dogs, a quarantine area, a training ground to allow for interaction between volunteers and animals, and a cat shelter. Accommodation for employees and volunteers will ensure the rescue centre is efficiently run and surveilled around the clock. Volunteers from abroad can help with daily tasks in exchange for accommodation and food.

There are about 10,000 abandoned animals in Portugal and the sanctuary appreciates it cannot help them all and it pays tribute to the other rescue centres in Portugal are working with very limited resources to help animals.

Support will be needed to help the ARA with on-going income to help care for the animals and look after them, so donations and volunteers are very welcome.

And it wants to raise awareness of the importance of neutering in the local area and to allow the public to visit and volunteer to enable the animals to socialise with people. They hope to allow local school children to visit the shelter and see what work it does and how much love and companionship caring for animals can give people.

Richardson is doing an amazing thing by spearheading the project. He came to Portugal from Essex 25 years ago, attracted by the climate and lifestyle and his passion for golf. And 12 years ago, he rescued a dog who has become his best friend and changed his life. “Instead of leaving a substantial sum of money in my will, I decided to use some of it now and see this project through,” he says.

Which just goes to show there’s no point in waiting for the right time to help animals around the world. The right time is now to get out there and make a difference.

We wish the Animal Rescue Algarve sanctuary well. You can find out more here and donate here.

Animal Rescue Algarve is registered charity 514692049, and registered in the council of Loulé in Faro. Its registered name is Abrigo dos Animais and the charity name is Animal Rescue Algarve.

Please sign to save the Tapanuli Orangutan from a dam

Posted on 5:00pm Tuesday 1st May 2018

A new species of great ape was discovered a few months ago, living in Northern Sumatra in Indonesia.

Unfortunately, this species is already an endangered one. There are just fewer than 800 Tapanuli orangutans alive.

Sign here to help save the Tapanuli orangutan

Their prospects of survival as a species is plummeting because a Chinese state-owned company called Sinohydro is planning to build a hydrodam right in the middle of the Tapanuli orangutan population’s habitat.

If the company goes ahead, it will cut the orangutan population in two which will make it much harder for the species to survive. They won’t be able to connect.

It is expected that the building of the dam, plus the roads, tunnels and electricity lines needed to go with it, will cause the extinction of two of the three sub-populations and destroy the most important habitat.

The incredible thing is that the Indonesian government approved this dam but the orangutan is a protected species. The Indonesian law prohibits actions which harm a protected species so why this dam has been allowed to go ahead is a mystery.

Sign the petition today calling on the Indonesian government to save the Tapanuli orangutan and revoke approval of Sinohydro's Batang Toru dam!

You can find out more about the Sumatran Orangutan Conservation Programme here.

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