The World Land Trust

The World Land Trust (WLT) is an international charity (Reg. No. 1001291), based in Halesworth, a rural town in Suffolk county, UK.
Since its foundation in 1989 as the World Wide Land Conservation Trust, the World Land Trust has been working to preserve the world's most biologically important and threatened lands.
Since its foundation the World Land Trust has helped purchase and protects over 375,000 acres of threatened wildlife habitats.

The charity is run by a small number of staff and interns, an honorary President, an honorary treasurer and a council.

The chief executive officer, John Burton, has more than 30 years experience in international conservation, which includes working with Friends of the Earth, and over 12 years as chief executive of Fauna and Flora international.

His wife Vivien Burton has also worked for Fauna and Flora International for 7 years.
She has also been with the World Land Trust since its inception and has helped its development beginning in the early days when the charity focused its efforts in the Central American country of Belize.

The Broadcaster, producer and author Sir David Attenborough is also the World Land Trust Patron.

"The World Land Trust's policy of buying land is the most direct and certain road to conservation. It deserves the support of all who care about the survival of the wild places of the world." Sir David Attenborough.

Members of the Brand Stand Team with WLT Patron Sir David Attenborough (centre)
and WLT CEO John Burton (right)

Former England cricket captain, David Gower is also a patron and the Ornithologist and broadcaster Bill Oddie is a strong supporter of the Trust.

"Everyone's concerned about the threats to the planet but not that many people are actually getting down to doing something that really makes a difference. The World Land Trust is and that's why I give them my full support." Bill Oddie.

The World Land Trust - Mission

• To develop partnerships with local individuals, communities andorganizations to engage support and commitment among the people who live in project areas;
• To raise awareness, in the UK and elsewhere, of the need for conservation, to improve understanding and generate support through education, information and fundraising.
• Founded in 1989 to purchase land for conservation in Belize.
• Successfully helped save and protect 250,000 acres of tropical forest in Belize.
• Helped save 5,000 acres of rainforest in Costa Rica, which is now incorporated into Corcovado National Park.
• Awarded Lottery Grant for Special Needs development at its Education and Conservation Centre at Wyld Court Rainforest, Berkshire (now The Living Rainforest).
• Successfully raised funds to purchase and protect the pristine island of Danjugan, in the Philippines.
• Secured EU-funding of over £1-million for research into forestry and horticulture in Belize.
• Raised $380,000 to purchase and protect 15,000 acres of coastal steppe habitat in the Argentine Patagonia. The reserve has been granted the official status of Wildlife Refuge.
• Has helped purchase and protect 8 forest reserves in Ecuador, covering over 18,000 acres and protecting numerous species of globally threatened birds and other endangered or threatened animals and plants.
• Successfully obtained funding from the Department for International Development to produce an educational resource, Focus on Forests. This is available as printed booklets, available free of charges to homes and schools, as well as a website, www.focusonforests.org, which has since been awarded "5 star rating for educational usefulness" by Schoolzone and "Topmarks Excellent Site Award" by Topmarks Education.
• Collaborated with the University of East Anglia in creating a diploma course in Conservation and Project Administration, designed to equip the next generation of conservationists with essential theoretical and practical skills, as well as relevant work experience.
• Supported by leading conservationists including Sir David Attenborough and Bill Oddie.
• Supported by over 20,000 individuals over the past ten years.
• Supporters include British Airways (Environment), Tate & Lyle, Wade Furniture, Paul Mitchell Hair Care, Natural History Book Service, Nationwide Building Society and Enterprise Plants.

For more information please visit the World Land Trust's website at www.worldlandtrust.org.

BRIDGING THE GAP BETWEEN INDIGENOUS PEOPLES AND THE FOREST

THE THREATS

Recent reports from the United Nations and other sources have shown that despite gains, deforestation increased at an alarmingly sharp rate in late 2008. Despite a huge amount of publicity leading up through September/October of last year (2008) very little is actually being done to conserve the forests of the Amazon Basin, Malaysia, Indonesia and other tropical forests.

Deforestation accounts for over 20% of the global release of Greenhouse Gasses (GHGs). This contrasts sharply with all of the known cars and trucks on the world's roads today, which accounts for only 7% of total worldwide GHG emissions!

THE WORLD LAND TRUST'S ROLE

With this in mind, most will agree that the fight against tropical forest deforestation is the key battle in the global fight to turn the tide on climate change. While working with non-government organizations (NGOs) in all the countries of the Amazon basin and other tropical forest areas, the World land Trust is helping to create a network of safe havens for species of tropical plants, animals and other organisms found in no other place on Earth. Their key mission is to preserve the flora, fauna and other organisms found in these environments while finding workable solutions with local peoples who call these forests home.

THE STAKES

Local and Indigenous Peoples (LIPs) face a number of challenges from the long-term impacts of deforestation, which unfortunately, also provides many local people with short-term marginal incomes. This diatomic tug-of-war between short-term necessity to earn income and the ultimate long-term suffering imposed by deforestation and destruction of tropical forests is one of the central stumbling blocks that lay ahead if deforestation and ultimately global warming are to be stopped and reversed. For this reason and others, to enlist the help of LIPs in fair and ethical ways is not only a local goal, but an international necessity.

THE PEOPLE

Throughout the Amazon Basin there are an estimated 50 million Local and Indigenous people, living in a wide variety of ways that incorporate ever-increasing levels of modern influence on their lifestyles. The Amazon Basin is home to tribes of indigenous people, however few and decreasing in number, who still have not had contact with modern man due to the vastness of the forest.

However, conservative estimates show that within 20 years, over 40% of these tropical forests will be lost forever. By working with local people the WLT can help develop other income streams for them that emphasize sustainable use rather than short-term, destructive gain. In this way, the short-term need for income and a humane standard of living can be resolved with the long-term and global need to combat global warming by eliminating the maddening loss of tropical forests.

ABOUT THE AMAZON BASIN

The Amazon Basin encompasses a wide range of habitats and contains some of the greatest biodiversity in the world, including being home to one especially famous type of forest - the Rainforest. The Amazon Rainforest holds over half of the world's remaining rain forest, and is home to more than one third of all species on Earth. The Rainforest gets the majority of the attention because of the alarming rate in which it is disappearing (estimated to be cut in half within 20 years), although the Amazon Basin is also home to other ecosystems such as flooded forests, mountains, pastures, lowland swamps, all of which play host to a wonderful array of wildlife.

SAVING THE WILDLIFE

The rainforest reserve is home to hundreds of species of plants and animals which are becoming endangered and many are found nowhere else on the planet.
POSITIVE ACTION IN AMAZON

The World Land Trust is working hard to help save the jaguars, ocelots, woolly monkeys and all the other wonderful wildlife that depend on these forests.
HELP the WLT save threatened tropical forests in the Amazon, an opportunity for YOU to do something positive. Your response will make a real difference - these days it's hard to ignore that everyone's help is needed to succeed in curbing rainforest destruction and a large contributor of warming GHG emissions that threaten to throw world climate father out of balance with dire consequences.

www.worldlandtrust.org