This quarter we are supporting WWF's Climate Crisis Fund.

For 60 years, WWF has worked to help people and nature thrive. As the world’s leading independent conservation organization, WWF works in nearly 100 countries. Its mission is to create a world where people and wildlife can thrive together. To achieve this mission, WWF seeks to help transform the future for the world’s wildlife, rivers, forests and seas, pushing for a reduction in carbon emissions that will avoid catastrophic climate change, and pressing for measures to help people live sustainably, within the means of our one planet.

Our donation will go to the Climate Crisis Fund, which has four core pillars that will help fight climate change – protecting the Amazon, conserving and building resilient polar regions, protecting and restoring natural habitats, and advocacy and calling for change.

Plantlife is a British conservation charity working nationally and internationally to save threatened wild flowers, plants and fungi. Plantlife owns nearly 4,500 acres of nature reserve across England, Scotland and Wales and has over 14,000 members with HRH The Prince of Wales as its Patron. Plantlife’s team of dedicated conservation experts work with landowners, businesses, conservation organisations, community groups and governments, pushing boundaries to save our rarest flora and ensure familiar flowers and plants continue to thrive.

The wildlife of our countryside needs a healthy vascular system of ecologically functional corridors. This can be made possible by managing our road verge network more sympathetically for nature. Plantlife launched its road verge campaign in 2013 to raise awareness and increase understanding of the vital role verges can play in nature’s recovery.

Our donation is helping to shift this campaign into the next gear by directly supporting research into the use of grass cuttings for bio-energy, the development of AI technology to survey roadside wildflowers, and to better understand the ecological effects of different methods of verge management.

The Sussex Wildlife Trust has been a voice for nature conservation and restoration for the last 60 years, advocating the benefits for nature and people of having an environment rich in wildlife. Sussex Wildlife Trust’s nature reserves are some of the best places for nature in Sussex. Sitting at the heart of iconic landscapes, they are also key to the future of nature in Sussex. These are the places from which nature will be able to recover.

The Sussex Wildlife Trust’s nature reserves encompass over 5000 acres of land across the whole of Sussex and include saltmarsh, shingle beaches, chalk cliffs, downland, heathland, meadows, woodland, sandstone outcrops, river valleys, wetland and grazing marsh.

In order to ensure the continued health of the nature reserves, they are subject to a robust monitoring regime requiring regular mapping of habitat over time to show the effects of management and climate change. Our donation will go towards drone technology to map the reserves more efficiently and accurately, identifying thermal hotspots, and tracking the coverage of problematic vegetation.

British Divers Marine Life Rescue (BDMLR) was formed in 1988, when a few like-minded divers got together in response to a mass mortality of common seals in the Wash area of East Anglia, to do what they could for the rescue effort in response to the Phocine Distemper Virus epidemic that resulted in thousands of deaths.

Since 1988, BDMLR has been involved in the rescue of marine wildlife after every major marine disaster, including the Braer shipwreck in Shetland, the Sea Empress grounding in Milford Haven, and the Napoli shipwreck in Dorset. Seal rescue has remained a major component of the BDMLR’s work, with medics rescuing animals in all seasons around the UK.

Our donation will contribute towards the costs of construction and kitting out of a brand new, purpose-built seal pup hospital in Cornwall. The building has been carefully designed to ensure an optimal environment for the pups during their first stage of rehabilitation.

OnePlanet was established in 2015 to partner with indigenous communities to build a more sustainable, empowered, and just future through community-based projects, outreach, and technical assistance. They are currently working to help empower and support the Maijuna indigenous group of the Peruvian Amazon in the effective protection and management of the Maijuna Kichwa Regional Conservation Area. This protected area is made up of 391,000 hectares of biologically diverse and culturally important Maijuna ancestral territory. It is currently threatened by a government road project and development corridor focused on oil palm plantations that would ecologically devastate this currently roadless area and put the cultural survival of the Maijuna at great risk. The Maijuna have not been consulted about this project and are adamantly against it.

Our donation will help OnePlanet organize and fund trips to the city of Iquitos (capital of the Peruvian Amazon) for Maijuna federation leaders to pressure the government to halt the planning of the road and development corridor and to help raise awareness in Peru and beyond about the plight of the Maijuna and their ancestral lands.

Wiltshire Wildlife Trust was set up in 1962 to campaign and take action to protect the natural environment, working to create a sustainable future for wildlife and people. The Trust is the only organisation in Wiltshire which is concerned with all aspects of the environment. The county is unique in its diverse natural resources and its rural contrast with the vast urban space of major towns and cities such as Swindon and Salisbury.

The Trust has been pioneering in its approach to landscape scale nature restoration and preservation. In addition it has championed the inclusion of people as part of nature's recovery, and nature connection to support people's wellbeing. Wiltshire Wildlife Trust’s work is varied, with over 20 different streams of activity including farming, species monitoring, forest schools, land management, water enhancement, education and well-being programmes.

Our donation has contributed to Wiltshire Wildlife Trust’s marsh fritillary appeal, which raised £49,200 since February 2021 through a public appeal to help save the endangered marsh fritillary butterfly. This was the final amount needed to match a grant from Biffa Award, to purchase 44 acres of land at Upper Minety, North Wiltshire. The land will quadruple the size of the Trust’s existing nature reserve at Emmett Hill and provide vital habitat for the rare, but once flourishing, marsh fritillary butterfly. Work will begin immediately to make changes to support the butterfly’s long-term recovery. A key part of the Trust’s plan is the introduction of devil’s-bit scabious, the preferred food of marsh fritillary caterpillars. In addition to our donation, Nature Picture Library also spent a day at Upper Minety Meadows, planting 750 devil’s-bit scabious plants. Read all about the experience here.

The Sahara Conservation Fund (SCF) was established in 2004 to address the largely ignored and catastrophic wave of extinction threatening the large bird and mammal fauna in Africa. The mission of the Sahara Conservation Fund is to conserve the wildlife, habitats and other natural resources of the Sahara and its bordering Sahelian grasslands.

Our donation will help fund SCF’s work in monitoring vultures in Niger. One of the most misunderstood birds of prey, vultures, through feeding on carrion, provide humanity with an immeasurable service. SCF’s teams in Niger and Chad monitor six species of vulture, all of which are priority species for conservation, to assess threats to these declining populations. In Niger, this research confirmed that Egyptian vultures complete impressive migrations from Europe to overwinter in West and Central Africa. Conversations with local communities revealed that the use of vulture body parts in traditional medicine posed the greatest threat to their long-term survival. In response, SCF initiated an awareness campaign to explain the importance of these majestic birds to local populations, especially targeting traditional medical practitioners to reduce this threat.

Our donation will contribute to the cost of purchasing binoculars and funding the use of a vehicle for the monitoring work.

Goongerah Wombat Orphanage aims to care for orphaned, sick and injured wombats for a complete and successful release back into the wild. Most of the orphans that come into care have lost their mothers due to vehicle collisions. The orphanage aims to replicate the lifestyle they would have received with their mother as much as possible, to promote a successful release back into their natural habitat.

Our donation will go towards rebuilding the Orphanage from the devastation the Bushfires have caused. The plan is to build new working enclosures and a dedicated care facility, whilst continuing to provide ongoing care and support to released orphans and those that have found themselves without a home or a plentiful food source.

Avon Wildlife Trust was founded in 1980 as a charity to safeguard Avon’s precious green spaces and was Britain’s first urban wildlife trust, focusing on people and wildlife habitats in Bristol, Bath and other urban areas across the region. Since then their work had extended to urban and rural areas across the West of England. They continue to champion urban wildlife, promote landscape-scale conservation, manage 30 nature reserves, and stand up for wildlife against inappropriate development and other threats. They also work to influence decision-makers, both locally and nationally, to put nature and wildlife at the heart of policy and strive to inspire people of all ages to connect with nature.

Our donation contributed to Avon Wildlife Trust’s badger vaccination programme, demonstrating a more humane and cost-effective alternative than culling to reduce the spread of bovine TB in badgers. In addition to our donation, Nature Picture Library also spent a weekend helping the team vaccinate 12 badgers. Read all about the experience here.

Fauna & Flora International (FFI) is the world’s oldest international conservation NGO, founded in 1903, currently working in over 45 countries. FFI has been working extensively in Vietnam since 1997 focusing on conservation of globally threatened primate species. The programme currently works to conserve eight primate species in Vietnam, including all five that are both endemic and critically endangered. The programme covers four gibbon (Nomascus) species and is the largest gibbon conservation program in the region.

In 2002, FFI rediscovered the Cao Vit gibbon (Nomascus nasutus) in Cao Bang province, northern Vietnam. Since then they have worked to engage local people in species and habitat protection and monitoring, and local stakeholders in decision making, raise awareness among local communities, provide environmental education at secondary schools, support sustainable livelihood development in the buffer zone, and facilitate transboundary collaboration between China and Vietnam. With intensive and consistent support from FFI, the Cao Vit gibbon population has approximately doubled since the initial population survey was carried out.

Our donation has funded the purchase of a camera to assist with monitoring populations of the Cao Vit gibbon in Cao Bang province.

Wildlife Victoria has been providing a wildlife emergency response to native wildlife in the Australian state of Victoria for over 30 years, helping sick, injured and orphaned native animals. Wildlife Victoria's rescue service relies on a network of rescue and transport volunteers, veterinarians and licensed wildlife shelters and carers who accept animals into their care for rehabilitation and release. They receive over 88,000 calls for help each year, and assist more than 50,000 individual animals - even without the bushfires.

Our donation will go to Wildlife Victoria's bushfire appeal to assist wildlife shelters, carers and rescue groups in fire affected areas. This will help rebuild facilities that have been lost, and also with the costs of medical supplies and treatment for all of the extra animals that will need care now and in the long months of rehabilitation ahead. Wildlife Victoria are also assisting groups to provide food to surviving wild populations until their habitat regenerates, and is funding carers of orphaned Grey-headed Flying-foxes, whose already threatened population has been badly affected by the bushfires and the extreme heat events in Australia this summer.

Founded in 1994 by Lisa Hywood, The Tikki Hywood Foundation is a non-profit rescue, rehabilitation and release organisation. It strives to bring recognition, awareness and sustainable conservation action to lesser known endangered species, such as the highly endangered pangolin. The Foundation aims towards sustainable and holistic management of ecosystems, as outlined in their mission statement: “Utilising conservation and education as stepping stones towards a future where humans live in harmony with wildlife”.

Our contribution will go towards the manufacture of pangolin boxes which are essential in the rescue and rehabilitation process. These specially designed pangolin boxes are used for secure and safe transportation and denning.

The International Otter Survival Fund is dedicated to the conservation and protection of the world's 13 species of otter. They work globally with local communities to educate, inform and encourage the protection and conservationof otters. Through a number of projects - research, reducing illegal trade, rehabilitation and education - IOSF is raising the profile of otters and ensuring that more is done to conserve them.

One of IOSF's programmes is their rescue and rehabilitation centre on the Isle of Skye. Here they care for orphaned and injured otters from across the UK and Ireland with a view to their eventual release. To date, they have cared for over 200 otters. Each otter cub stays with its mother for between 12-15 months and therefore cubs stay with IOSF for the same period of time, which costs around £1,600 per cub up to release, including vets’ bills, food and bedding.

Sumatran Orangutan Society (SOS) works to protect Sumatran orangutans, their forests and their future. They work in collaboration with partners in Sumatra to deliver appropriate and science-based conservation initiatives and carry out advocacy work to create a global movement of people and organisations who act to prevent Sumatra’s orangutans and other wildlife going extinct.

Protecting Sumatra’s forest ecosystems

Deforestation is the greatest threat facing orangutans, so protecting their habitat is crucial. SOS develops and delivers strategic projects and campaigns to support the protection of the remaining primary forests of northern Sumatra. By building partnerships with other NGOs working internationally and in Sumatra, they ensure that the impact of their campaigns is magnified. Along with their partners, SOS lobbies governments and companies to push for action to protect Sumatra’s forests.

Nature Picture Library’s donation will contribute to their vital collaborative campaign work. Most recently, SOS has been active in the campaign to protect Tapanuli orangutan habitat in the face of a disastrous hydro dam project which would condemn the species to extinction and risk the lives of around 100,000 people who also live around the Batang Toru forest.

We supported Tsavo Trust's Big Tusker project. Tsavo Trust's aim is to conserve the vast wilderness of the Tsavo Conservation Area, that encompasses Kenya’s biggest Protected Area, is home to Kenya’s largest elephant population, several iconic Tuskers, and is one of the few truly wild places with significant wildlife left in Africa. This national heritage is under threat and faces multiple challenges including wildlife crime, climate change and habitat loss. Tsavo Trust works on a unique strategy, in partnership with Kenya Wildlife Service and other partners on direct wildlife conservation projects as well as engaging specific local communities in the stewardship of community conservancies.

Big Tusker Project

Historically, elephants carrying tusks weighing in excess of 100lbs (45kg) per side were known as “hundred pounders” and were much sought after by hunters and poachers alike but also by many visiting tourists to Kenya. Today, at least 8 of these giant bull Tuskers remain in Tsavo, and it is their protection from ivory poachers (alongside the protection of other impressive emerging bulls (at least 20 of them) that will be the “hundred pounders” of the future) that provides the rationale behind the Big Tusker Project. There are also at least 5 iconic cow Tuskers with tusks reaching the ground. The Tsavo Conservation Area arguably holds the last remaining sustainable population of large “Super Tuskers” on this planet today. If they are not secured now they could be gone forever.

Tsavo Trust’s Big Tusker Project works in full collaboration with the Kenya Wildlife Service, other conservation and research partners, conscientious corporations and many individual supporters. This monitoring is carried out by Tsavo Trust’s Aerial Unit providing regular “eyes in the sky” working in tandem with ground protection teams who provide “eyes and ears” on the ground.

We supported Bristol Schools Nature Reserve. Since launching in June 2017, BSNR.club has set up mini nature reserves in six schools in Bristol, which are now being used by staff with a variety of regular outdoor education sessions. They have covered primary, secondary, private, state schools and one that was previouslyin special measures. Their next aim is to increase the overall number of schools to 20 (and then 50) in the Bristol area. By creating a network of small reserves, the aim is to significantly increase biodiversity in the city.

Our donation will pay for the creation of an A1 poster that summarises the project and the benefits it brings to wildlife and school communities. This will be used to describe the project to schools and will act as a reminder about the aims when BSNR starts working in a given school.

We supported Action for Swifts and Swift Conservation. According to the BTO Breeding Bird Survey, Swifts declined in the UK by 53% between 1995 and 2016. The main cause of this decline is believed to be loss of nest sites. We supported two small volunteer groups working to conserve the UK swift population, Action for Swifts and Swift Conservation, both of which were involved in the first ever UK Swift Awareness Week which ran from 16-23 June 2018.

Action for Swifts is a volunteer group working to reverse the decline of Swifts by generating designs and ideas, trialling those ideas in local projects followed by documenting them on their website as case studies. Many of their projects involve the construction and installation of artificial nest-boxes and nest sites. Our donation will contribute towards the cost of a 10-chamber colony box at Trumpington Meadows Wildlife Trust reserve near Cambridge. Swift Conservation was founded by Edward Mayer in 2003 and has pioneered an approach to swift conservation through talks, advice and volunteer co-ordination, much of it focused on the creation of artificial nest sites. Our donation will help support this work in raising awareness of the problems facing swifts and providing practical solutions to assist their survival.

We supported Hookpod’s Projeto Albatroz. Fifteen out of 22 albatross species and 6 out of 7 marine turtles are threatened with extinction. Death on longline fishing hooks represents the most critical threat to their survival. The Hookpod is a new invention which protects these vulnerable species from becoming hooked and drowned on longline fishing hooks. It works by covering the barb of the baited hook during setting, sinking down through the water to a depth of 20m, before a patented pressure release system opens the device and releases the hook to begin fishing.

This project aims to export and free-distribute 6000 Hookpods to the Brazilian longline tuna fleet, operating in the rich waters off the southern coast of Brazil. This is a high seabird and turtle bycatch area. It is estimated that undertaking this project will protect around 1700 albatrosses from a needless death. Hookpod will also work with local charity Projeto Albatroz to provide observer cover on the vessels, ensuring their correct deployment and use. Turtle bycatch will also be monitored, which is anticipated to be reduced by 80-95% by the use of Hookpods, meaning many hundreds of marine turtles could also be saved by this project.

Our donation will cover the purchase and import costs to Brazil of 100 Hookpods. On the basis of standard bycatch rates in Brazil and the effectiveness of the Hookpod in reducing this, proven over four years of trials, we can estimate that this number of Hookpods, over their standard working life of two years, would prevent the accidental bycatch of 22 albatrosses and an estimated 50-100 marine turtles.

We supported Trees for Life which is restoring the ancient Caledonian Forest and helping to bring back the wildlife that depends on it to the Scottish Highlands. The Caledonian Forest once covered a large part of the Highlands as extensive stands of majestic Scots pines, interspersed with birch, rowan, juniper and aspen trees, but has now been reduced to just a tiny fraction of its former range. Most of the surviving forests now consist of old trees reaching the end of their lifespan, with no new trees replacing them because of overgrazing by deer and sheep. Urgent action is required to conserve and extend these forests before it is too late.

Red squirrels are one of our most iconic species, but have disappeared from much of the UK due to competition from non-native grey squirrels and habitat loss. The north-west Scottish Highlands contain an abundance of suitable red squirrel habitat and the region is free from grey squirrels. However, as it is separated from current red squirrel range by large areas of open ground, reds cannot recolonise it naturally.

The Reds Return project will help to secure the future of red squirrels in Scotland by capturing small numbers from their strongholds around Inverness and re-establishing new populations in their former range in north-west Scotland. Our donation will go towards the supplementary feeding required for squirrels to thrive in their new forest home after being translocated.

The Vincent Wildlife Trust is a charity engaged in innovative mammal research and conservation, with a focus on Britain and Ireland. For over 40 years, the Trust has made major contributions to the conservation of mammal species, including the pine marten, otter, dormouse, water vole, polecat and the bats. Today, the Trust continues to concentrate on the needs of mammals of conservation interest, with current work centred on the pine marten, polecat, stoat and the rarer bat species. The Trust manages nearly 40 nature reserves in England, Wales and Ireland, most of which are horseshoe bat roosts.

The Vincent Wildlife Trust's Pine Marten Recovery Project aims to restore a viable pine marten population to Wales and England. Over the last three years 51 pine martens have been brought from Scotland, where they are thriving, to mid-Wales where they were on the verge of extinction. The martens are taken from Forestry Commission Scotland land under licence from Scottish Natural Heritage and relocated in woodland owned by Natural Resources Wales. The animals are radio-tracked during their first year to monitor their movements. From March onwards, radio-tracking of females is ramped up a gear so that the denning sites of any breeding females can be located. Remote cameras help this process of detective work.

The project’s major partners are the People's Trust for Endangered Species (PTES), Chester Zoo and Woodland Trust, with support from Wildlife Vets International and the University of Exeter. Money donated by NPL will be used to towards the purchase of remote cameras to help monitor the pine martens once their radio collars have been removed.

The Hebridean Whale & Dolphin Trust has been leading the way for theconservation of whales, dolphins and porpoises in the Hebrides for over two decades. HWDT research has critically advanced the understanding of the whale and dolphin populations that visit seasonally or are resident within Scotland’s west coast seas.

Based on the Isle of Mull, in the heart of the Hebrides, HDWT works directly with local communities to ensure whales, dolphins and porpoises are protected and valued throughout Scotland’s west coast. Each year their specialist research vessel, Silurian, travels thousands of nautical miles, monitoring Hebridean seas, to increase our understanding of cetaceans and the threats they face, and bringing marine education to life through their unique floating classroom.

Our donation will enable HWDT to upgrade computer equipment for use in education work with remote island schools and the engagement programme at the Hebridean Whale and Dolphin Centre.

We supported Reptile and Amphibian Group for Somerset, a small grassroots group dedicated to the conservation of reptiles and amphibians in the county. Originally set up by the Somerset Wildlife Trust as one of its specialist groups, RAGS now operates independently but works closely with the Trust on various projects. Most of their work involves surveying for reptiles and amphibians, keeping a database of records to map the distribution of reptiles and amphibians across Somerset and monitoring important populations regularly to react swiftly to emerging threats. They also provide advice to land owners and managers on the conservation of these animals and undertake practical conservation tasks such as scrub clearance and pond restoration.

Our donation will contribute towards the restoration of a pond in the Mendip Hills. The Mendip Ponds Project aims to restore at least 14 Mendip ponds over the coming year, enabling crested newts to return to parts of the hills from which they have disappeared.

Wild Shots started its educational outreach programme in November 2015. The project aims to engage young South African people from disadvantaged communities in wildlife and wild places through photography. Based in Hoedspruit, the programme is aimed at government school children in villages bordering the Kruger Park. The vast majority of these children have never visited a national park or reserve before. In the first 12 months, 15 programmes have been run with 158 student graduates.

Our donation will fund a residential weekend for 8 students. The course will consist of 2 days of classroom sessions with DLSR training and a game drive in a wildlife reserve. Cameras will be provided for the sessions and for the visit to the reserve. The workshop will be followed by a discussion session for the students to review their work and talk about what they’ve learnt. The students will be presented with certificates and prints of their photographs and the school will receive a camera so that the students can continue to use their new skills.

This quarter we supported North Devon Bat Care, a small bat rescue organisation started in 2013 expecting to rehabilitate 30 bats a year, which grew very rapidly, due to the much higher levels of bats needing support. So far in 2016 over 100 bats have been rescued from the North Devon area and the larger flight pen which was opened in April 2016 has allowed a further 75 bats, some from as far away as Bristol, to come for rehabilitation and flight training before being returned for release. The rescue and rehabilitation centre is run by mother of four Samantha Pickering who just wanted to give something back to nature, with help from local volunteers. Her ongoing educational work and fundraising stands help to keep the bat rescue operational and to keep local awareness levels high.

Our donation will purchase a new incubator to help Samantha to rear orphaned bats.

This quarter we supported World Land Trust's Olympic Forest Appeal, which aims to raise £40,000 to protect a vital parcel of Atlantic Forest in the year of the Rio de Janeiro Olympic Games in Brazil. This land will form the Olympic Forest Reserve and will be incorporated into the existing reserve areas owned and protected by WLT's Brazilian conservation partner, Reserva Ecologica de Guapiacu (REGUA). The Atlantic Forest is a global conservation hotspot as one of the world's most diverse, but most threatened ecosystems, with just seven per cent of the original forest remaining.

World Land Trust (WLT) is an international conservation charity, which protects the world's most biologically important and threatened habitats acre by acre. Since its foundation in 1989, WLT has funded partner organisations around the world to create reserves, and give permanent protection to habitats and their wildlife.

This quarter we supported the Cornish Seal Sanctuary, Europe’s busiest seal rescue centre. Every year the sanctuary rescues and releases over 50 injured or abandoned seal pups during pup season.

The Sanctuary started in the winter of 1958 when a baby seal, only a few hours old, was washed up on the beach at St Agnes. Ken Jones lived with his wife just one hundred yards from the beach; he picked up the pup and took it back to his small garden. Each year Ken found that there was an increasing need for seals to be rescued, and word of his Sanctuary quickly spread. For several years he took care of many seals at his home, until he moved to Gweek in 1975 to be able to extend his care.
The seal rehabilitation process starts with a phone call from the public after spotting a seal in distress. Upon taking this call, the animal care team rushes to the aid of the seal to assess the situation. If the seal is injured, the team carefully loads them into a specially designed cage and transports them back to the sanctuary.
On arrival, they will initially be placed in isolation from the other pups for a few days, to ensure they have no contagious diseases and to keep them calm. They then spend the required amount of time (on average around six weeks) in the seal hospital, where they will learn how to feed themselves. Following this process, they are then moved to the nursery pools. Here they get used to swimming in larger waters and being in close contact with other seals. Once they have adjusted to this, they will be moved in to the convalescence pool with adult resident seals, where they must learn to fight for their fish. The average rehabilitation time for a pup is around four to five months. Assuming all goes well, the pup will then be released back into the sea.

The Cornish Seal Sanctuary works closely with British Divers Marine Life Rescue and Cornwall Seal Group.

Our donation will go straight to the animal care team and help to fund the seal pup rescue and rehabilitation work.

We supported The Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA), which was established in 1984 to investigate, expose and campaign against illegal trade in wildlife and the destruction of our natural environment. EIA uses pioneering investigative techniques to expose the negative impacts of environmental crime upon climate, biodiversity, ecosystems, species and communities. Working undercover to expose international environmental crime, EIA has directly brought about changes in international laws and the policies of governments, saving the lives of millions of rare and endangered species and putting a stop to the devastating effects of environmental criminals in destroying habitats.

Our donation will help fund investigations to document the illegal trade in tigers and other Asian bigcats , deploying undercover investigators into the markets where tiger skin, bone, teeth and claws are sold, to gather information on the “who, what, when, how and why” of the trade. Based on their analysis of the findings, EIA will disseminate key information to law enforcement authorities to help guide them in their efforts to protect tigers and other Asian Big cats.

We supported the work of Buglife. Buglife’s aim is to achieve sustainable populations of invertebrates and halt extinctions. Buglife works to achieve this through promoting the importance of invertebrates and raising awareness about the challenges to their survival. The organisation works on the development of legislation and policy to protect invertebrates, develops and disseminates knowledge about how to conserve them and supports conservation initiatives by other organisations in the UK, Europe and worldwide. They also undertake practical invertebrate conservation projects.

Our donation will contribute towardstheir work in St. Catherine's Valley, near Bath. This is partof the West of England B-Lines project to create a network of wildflower habitat linking existing wildlife areas from the west to the east, and from the north tothe south, linking the Cotswoldswith the Mendips, cities to the countryside, and the coast to the hills.

This quarter we supported the work of Devon Wildlife Trust, which has been working to bring native European Beavers back into local wetlands for over 5 years now. Following some very impressive findings from a fenced trail in West Devon, Devon Wildlife Trust was granted a licence by Natural England to legitimise the wild-living beavers on the River Otter and study their impacts in a lowland English river. A small group had been living on the river for a few years. When they were shown to be breeding in 2014, Defra officials proposed to round them up and remove them, and DWT applied for a licence for them to stay. On Monday 23rd March 2015, the first of the health screened beavers were returned to the river, complete with ID numbers and ear tags, and a 5 year period of research and public engagement work began.

Established as a registered charity in 1962, the Devon Wildlife Trust is the only independent organisation concerned with all aspects of wildlife conservation in Devon and a member of The Wildlife Trusts partnership, a nationwide network dedicated to the achievement of Living Seas and a Living Landscape in the UK. The Devon Wildlife Trust has around 32,000 members and 50 nature reserves throughout the county totalling over 3,000 acres. It is closely involved in land and marine management, wildlife surveying, conservation policy and education.

This quarter we supported the work of the Monk Seal Foundation, the leading non-profit dedicated to protecting the Hawaiian monk seal from extinction. Founded in 2011, the Foundation has grown from a few passionate volunteers to a state-wide organization. The mission remains the same: to preserve the critically endangered Hawaiian monk seal. With only 1,100 seals remaining, the species’ population is at a crucial tipping point. The Foundation works hard daily to ensure their survival for future generations to come.

Our donation will contribute towards the work of the monk seal response teams on the Islands of O’ahu and Moloka’i. The response network consists of hundreds of trained volunteers who protect seals that have hauled out onto a beach to rest or pup and also engage in outreach and public awareness efforts to educate the community about monk seals, their natural role in the Hawaiian archipelago, their critically endangered status and current conservation efforts to save them.

We supported the work of WASIMA (Watu, Simba na Mazingira, which means People, Lion and Environment), a community-based conservation project started in August 2011 in the Rukwa-Katavi regions of Tanzania. Its main objective is to halt non retaliatory lion killings in Katavi National Park. The motive behind this project is the traditional practice by Sukuma, the agro-pastoralist ethnic group whose youths engage in illegal lion killings in Katavi National Park. Sukuma tradition rewards a lion killer's bravery with gifts of cattle,on the assumption that the lion was killed to prevent livestock loss. Nevertheless, actual verification of livestock loss is not required, only evidence that a lion was killed. These rewards provide strong economic incentives to kill non livestock-predating lions.

Our donation will contribute towards the purchase of a vehicle to enable WASIMA to pursue its vital work in the area surrounding Katavi National Park, delivering an awareness programme and training seminars, and empowering a grassroots movement among villagers to institute village by-laws that render lion hunting, and the rewarding of lion dancers, illegal.

We supported the work of Société Audubon Haïti, which was founded in 2003 by a group of professionals concerned about the degradation of the natural resources of Haïti and about the need to protect them. It was named after the famous American ornithologist and painter Jean-Jacques Audubon, who was born in Haïti in 1785. The society's mission is to conserve the biodiversity and natural ecosystems of Haiti through research, education, outreach and national/international partnerships. Société AudubonHaiti is focused on helping Haitian citizens improve their quality of life by conserving the natural areas of the island.

Haïti is recognised as having amongst the highest number of threatened frog species in the world, numbering 45 species known to science. Our donation will contribute towards educational materials for primary schools in the Massif de le Hotte Key Biodiversity Area and support the training of teachers and community leaders in the unique natural heritage of Haitian frogs, their ecological importance and conservation needs.

We supported the Bee Cause campaign of Friends of the Earth to save Britain's bees and our donation will contribute towards the creation of Bee Worlds.

The Bee Cause – part of Friends of the Earth's campaign to save Britain's bees. In 2012 Friends of the Earth launched The Bee Cause to help save Britain's bees. Together with a diverse range of partners, they called on the Government to act by adopting a comprehensive Bee Action Plan. http://www.foe.co.uk/bees

Creating habitat for bees– the Bee Worlds project As part of the Bee Cause campaign Friends of the Earth has supported community groups and others to create their own bee-friendly habitats called 'Bee Worlds'. Friends of the Earth supplies wildflower and grass seeds and the groups find a site; prepare the ground, sow seeds and maintain the site for at least two years. So far a range of organisations, such as schools, colleges, hospitals and youth groups have helped create or planover 150 sites. For more information visit: http://www.foe.co.uk/what_we_do/bee_worlds_39332

Friends of the Earth is an environmental charity that unites, inspires and empowers people to respect the natural world and the life it supports. Friends of the Earth enables people to act together to ensure that the wellbeing of people and our planet drives our decisions and our behaviour, by engaging people in efforts to protect the environment and promote sustainable development at a local, national and international level.

We supported the work of Save the Elephants, which aims to secure a future for elephants in a rapidly changing world. Pioneers in cutting-edge science,their research provides vital insights into elephant behaviour, intelligence, and long-distance movement. With elephant populations now in crisis, STE has marshalled its resources to stop the killing, stop the trafficking, and stop the catastrophic demand for ivory.

Our donation will be used to run the Mobile Conservation Education vehicle for 6 months, bringing film and interactive education to primary school children in the Samburu area of Kenya.

We supported the work of the Tolga Bat Hospital in Queensland, Australia, which works for the conservation of bats and their habitat, caring for upto 1000 bats per year and 100 permanent residents.

In the 1980s, large numbers of Spectacled flying foxes in the Atherton Tablelands of Queensland Australia began dying mysteriously, but it was not until the 1990s that the cause was traced to a parasitic tick, which provokes a paralysis that begins in the legs of the bats but then affects the heart and lungs unless early treatment is begun. With the aid of volunteers an emergency hospital was opened, followed in 1997 by the world-class Tolga Bat Hospital, founded by Jenny Maclean. A team of dedicated volunteers works around the clock during the bats' breeding season to treat those adults that can be saved and rear the orphans, which are eventually released back into the rainforest.

Our donation will support the work of the new Education Centre, which aims to inform the public about bats and in particular to counter negative attitudes regarding flying foxes.

We supported the work of The Sloth Sanctuary a sloth rescue and rehabilitation centre on the Caribbean coast of Costa Rica. Run by Judy and Luis Arroyo, the centre is dedicated to the conservation of sloths through rescue, research and education.

One of the biggest problems faced by the centre is the re-introduction of hand-reared and rehabilitated sloths back to the wild. Sloths are one of the least studied mammals and many of the details of their daily lives, such as natural diet and habitat preference, are a mystery. Our contribution will go directly towards the Sloth Backpack Project, which involves tagging and monitoring the daily activity of wild sloths usinga 'Daily Diary'. The device is fitted like abackpack to the sloths, and using VHF radio transmitters and GPS tags allows their movements tobeprecisely recorded.

Through the use of these backpacks, the researcher team hope to gain a better understanding of the sloths' daily behaviour patterns including diet, ranging patterns and reproductive systems. This information will also hopefully provide the necessary scientific knowledge to give hand-reared sloths the best possible chance of survival when they are returned to the wild, as well as being used to develop conservation strategies to better protect existing wild sloth populations.

NPL photographers Roland Seitre and Suzi Esterhas have both visited The Sloth Sanctuary and their images are available from Nature Picture Library - check out our gallery and story pdf to find out more.

We supported the work of Project Seahorse, a marine conservation organisation founded by Zoological Society of London in 1996 and committed to the conservation and sustainable use of the world’s coastal marine ecosystems. Led by seahorse experts Dr. Amanda Vincent and Dr. Heather Koldewey, Project Seahorse supports marine conservationmore broadly, generating cutting-edge research and highly effective conservation interventions, usually in collaboration with other researchers, governments, and local communities.

Our contribution will be allocated to the Danajon Bank project in the Philippines, where over the past 15 years, Project Seahorse has been involved in the creation of 35 marine protected areas and gathered one of the world’s most comprehensive, long-term datasets on any marine ecosystem in the world. Using this data to study how reef habitats, fish species, and seahorse populations thrive — or struggle — with and without protection, Project Seahorse has been able to monitor reef health and take direct conservation action to protect one of the Philippines’ rarest and most ecologically significant ecosystems.

Project Seahorse has collaborated with the International League of Conservation Photographers to undertake a photographic survey of this rare and endangered double coral reef system, one of only six in the world and one of the richest marine habitats in the Pacific Ocean. NPL photographer Claudio Contreras was one of the photographers who took part in this expedition and his images from Danajon Bank are available from Nature Picture Library.

We supported the work of BirdlifeMalta. We sent renowned bird photographer David Tipling to photograph migrating birds and the threats they face during the 2013 peak spring migration through Malta. BirdLife Malta is the country’s largest and oldest environmental NGO, founded in 1962 as the Malta Ornithological Society. The organisation has been fighting against illegal hunting and trapping of birds in Malta for half a century, successfully lobbying for the creation of Malta’s first Nature Reserves and Bird Sanctuaries, as well as legal protection for many bird species and important areas for birds. Our donation will contribute to their work in monitoring and documenting illegal spring hunting in Malta and enforcing bird protection laws. To view David Tipling’s images on bird migration and hunting in Malta and other Mediterranean islands, click here.