Appeal to raise money for World Land Trust’s Buy an Acre appeal to celebrate Sir David Attenborough's 95th Birthday.  Pencil drawing by Ben Locke.

*** Money raised (up to £5,000) will be doubled by Ecclesiastical Insurance ***

14th June Update

On 14th June I sent a final letter to Sir David with the name and messages from everyone who donated through this Just Giving page. The total at this point was £2,900, which will be doubled by Ecclesiastical to £5,800 saving 58 acres of threatened rainforest on behalf of Sir David.

6th May Update

On 6th May I sent a card to Sir David with the name in of everyone who donated through this Just Giving page (up to 2pm on the 6th May).  I also included a page showing the comments that had been added and explained how many acres of threatened land had been saved on his behalf.  The total at this point was £1,302, which when matched by Ecclesiastical totaled £2,604, meaning 26 acres will be saved.  This page will remain open until the end of May, with matched funding still available on funds raised (up to £5,000). I will send Sir David an update at the end of May with the final total of acres saved, with details of the names and comments of people who have donated since his birthday card was sent.

Original Story

When I saw a video of Sir David recently talking about the state of the natural world, it made me think about how he must feel about the damage that has been done to the environment during his lifetime.  He has obviously been very lucky to see so many of nature's wonders, but having seen them first hand the loss of habitat and the species that live there must have an even greater impact.

I have Sir David to thank for my love of wildlife, having been inspired by his many documentaries over the years and I wondered what I could do to say thank you.  The only idea I could think of was to give money to charity to protect some of the natural world that he loves.  When I discovered that his 95th birthday is coming up in May, I decided this was the ideal occasion to do this and also set up this fundraising page for others who might like to do the same thing.  I will be making use of donation matching from Ecclesiastical Insurance for money raised up to £5,000, helping people's donations go further.

Having previously raised money for one of the charities that he is a patron of - World Land Trust, this seemed like a perfect cause to support again.  World Land Trust is a UK charity that funds the purchase of threatened habitat around the world, which is then owned and looked after by local conservation partners.  Sir David is quoted on their website as saying  “The money that is given to the World Land Trust, in my estimation, has more effect on the wild world than almost anything I can think of.”, so I’m sure he will approve of the choice of charity.

All money raised will go to World Land Trust’s Buy an Acre scheme.  For each £100 raised, one acre of land will be purchased and protected, whether it is a wildlife corridor linking isolated reserves or tropical rainforest threatened by deforestation.  For decades now, Buy an Acre projects have helped to protect high-biodiversity areas which are home to threatened wildlife – the programme has saved habitat for the world’s most northerly Jaguar population (Jaguar del Norte reserve, Mexico), the globally threatened Tucuman Amazon parrot (El Pantanoso, Argentina), newly discovered Magnolia and glass frog species (Manduriacu, Ecuador) and the biggest mammal migration on Earth (Kasanka, Zambia).  The Buy an Acre schemes currently running are saving rainforest in Brazil and Argentina.

The benefits extend beyond biodiversity alone.  Buy an Acre projects also help to tackle climate change, ensuring that carbon is kept locked away rather than released as CO² into the atmosphere as trees are cut down.

For more details of World Land Trust’s Buy an Acre Appeal, see their website: https://www.worldlandtrust.org/appeals/buy-an-acre/

Thank you for any donation you are able to make.

Andy Langley