5 wildlife adoption gifts for under £25.00

Wildlife adoptions are a great way for people to help raise money for wildlife. It’s a great way for wildlife organisations to raise money for the cause and helps to build up relationships between conservation and people. Unfortunately it does seem to be getting quite expensive and some people are being priced out of the market, especially in the UK.

Since I did my post on the top 5 wildlife gifts for Christmas this year I have had 5 or 6 emails asking me if I know of a good place to buy wildlife adoptions as gifts for people. They have had budgets of between £15.00 and £25.00 to spend but have not been able to find anything.

This post I hope will offer some remedy to that need for affordable animal adoption gifts. All the sites featured below offer wildlife adoption gifts below £25.00. I’ve tried to find sites that are the actual charities that fund projects rather than third party marketing companies. You have to be a bit careful because some wildlife and animal sponsorships will only have about 5% or 10% of your gift actually go to projects involving the species.

Previous Post : New hope for the critically endangered Sumatran tiger

New hope for the critically endangered Sumatran tiger

A new study has provided a rare glimmer of hope for the Sumatran tiger, the last subspecies of tiger still in existence in Indonesia.

Reports that tiger populations are declining in many parts of its range paint a bleak and all too familiar picture. Of the 13 tiger-range countries recognised today, the Indonesian archipelago has already lost two distinct subspecies from the islands of Bali and Java.

Reliably determining where tigers are present within dense tropical jungle is challenging because their secretive behaviour and excellent camouflage naturally make them difficult to detect. But, for the past three years, eight NGOs have joined forces to carry out the first ever Sumatra-wide survey, in collaboration with the Indonesian Ministry of Forestry.

Hariyo Wibisono of the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) and chairman of the Sumatran Tiger Forum, who led the project, said: ‘This survey is a milestone for Sumatran tigers. The results provide the most up-to-date and reliable information ever collected for this critically endangered species.'

The comprehensive study found that while more than 70 per cent of forest patches surveyed were occupied by tigers, its status varied greatly between the different landscapes.

Speaking about the newly created 3.3 million hectare Leuser-Ulu Masen landscape in Aceh Province, co-author Dr Matthew Linkie from Fauna & Flora International explained: ‘This study puts Aceh's previously unsurveyed forest firmly on the map as a global priority for wild tigers in Asia.'

Return of ivory trade as Britain backs China

China was given permission to become a licensed buyer of ivory yesterday, provoking widespread condemnation from environmentalists and politicians, who said the move was a grave threat to the future of wild elephants in Africa and Asia.

The British Government came in for fierce criticism after voting – as forecast by The Independent – for China at a UN meeting in Geneva, despite opposition from several African countries.

The Green MEP Caroline Lucas called the vote "a dark and irrevocable stain on the UK's wildlife conservation record overseas".

The vote, at a meeting of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (Cites), gives China the right to buy ivory auctioned by four southern African countries, South Africa, Botswana, Namibia and Zimbabwe.

Environmentalists claim that the entry of China into the market will provide a substantial opportunity for the laundering of illegal ivory, and provide the impetus for further poaching across Africa, where more than 20,000 elephants are illegally killed every year.

China is the centre of the world's illegal ivory trade, although the government is cracking down on it.

The vote on its approved buyer status was won by nine votes to two, with two abstentions. Britain voted in favour with Bulgaria, on behalf of the European Union. Australia and New Zealand voted against, and several African countries spoke out passionately against the move, including Kenya, Mali and Ghana.

However, it was defended robustly last night by Britain's minister for Wildlife, Joan Ruddock, who took ultimate responsibility for the UK position. Ms Ruddock said that China had now met the conditions laid down to allow countries to take part in the auction.

"In 2002 an international agreement was reached to allow African states to undertake a one-off sale of their legally held ivory stocks," she said. "Criteria were established for trading partners. The EU today accepted that China had met the criteria. Any other form of ivory sales remains illegal under international law.

"China has satisfied the Cites Standing Committee that it has established robust controls to manage the legally stockpiled ivory to ensure it is not exported from and is effectively monitored within China. This one-off sale is only from elephants that have not died as a result of poaching. China has shown itself willing to crack down on illegal ivory trading and we expect them to continue to do so."

Many of Ms Ruddock's parliamentary colleagues expressed anger and dismay at Britain's vote. Eliot Morley, one of Ms Ruddock's predecessors as Wildlife minister, said: "This strikes me as a very bad move. It does open the prospect of a return to the large-scale illegal ivory trade."

Howard Stoate, MP for Dartford and parliamentary private secretary to Estelle Morris when she was Culture minister, said: "It is outrageous. There is no justification for it whatever. I think it is a very retrograde step."

Ian Gibson, former Labour chairman of the Commons Science and Technology Committee, said: "Every animal lover in the country will abhor this decision. I just wonder what excuse Gordon Brown will give."

MPs were threatening to table a protest motion against the Government for supporting China in the vote. More than 150 MPs of all parties signed a cross-party motion calling for the Government not to vote for China to be given a licence to trade in ivory.

Environmentalists were even more critical. Allan Thornton of the Environmental Investigation Agency, which provided much of the evidence for the original ban in 1989, said: "This is a sad day for those who love wildlife and who believe that human society has an ethical responsibility to conserve species that are being destroyed by human activities."

Previous Post : Conservationists battle to prevent mass whale stranding