TGO readers help choose project for conservation funding

TGO magazine has teamed up with the European Outdoor Conservation Association (EOCA) in order that TGO readers can help choose a conservation project worthy of funding in 2013. 

EOCA is a conservation organisation made up from an ever expanding group of outdoor brands and retailers within the European outdoor industry, formed to raise money to put directly into conservation projects worldwide. Eight new members at the start of 2013 has taken the total number of members to 92. Since its inception in 2006 EOCA has raised over €1 million for conservation, and funded 46 projects in 27 different countries. 100 per cent of all monies raised by the organisation go directly to the conservation projects chosen by its members and the general public.

Conservation organisations can apply for up to €30,000 for specific projects – and EOCA would like our readers to help choose one of the projects it will fund this year.

All you have to do is go online at: www.tgomagazine.co.uk/EOCA or outdoorconservation.eu/project-voting-category.cfm?catid=5 any time between 14th and 28th March, read each of the proposed projects and cast your vote for your favourite project.

You can find out more about EOCA and the conservation projects it has already supported at www.outdoorconservation.eu.

THE PROJECTS

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Save Iglekärr’s Old Growth Forest, Sweden

(nominating member Klättermusen)

Iglekärr’s Old Growth Forest (about 70 ha) is located about 30km north of Gothenburg, a remnant of a once much larger mixed woodland forest, the oldest parts being around 150 years old. Twelve red-listed species and 40 different indicator species have been identified, suggesting a very high conservation value of the forest. It borders the Ekliden Nature reserve (80 ha), and if both forests were protected this would almost double the protected area and give species more room to live and breed. Naturarvet needs to raise SEK5.5 million to buy the forest by 31st December 2013, ensuring it will thereby receive absolute protection and can never be sold, logged or in any other way commercially exploited. Each Euro saves one square metre of forest. Public access will be granted once the forest is saved and Naturarvet will work with local conservation groups to develop information signs and trails.  

Restoring Scotland’s Caledonian Forest

(nominating member Bergans of Norway)

The Caledonian forest was once widespread in Scotland yet today only one per cent remains. Abernethy RSPB reserve is the UK’s largest remnant of Caledonian forest stretching for 53 square miles in the spectacular Cairngorms National Park. It is home to 4,500 species, 20 per cent of which are nationally rare, including capercaillie, Scottish wildcat and red squirrels. This reserve has around 100,000 visitors a year who enjoy the walking, quiet recreation, spectacular landscapes and exciting and wildlife opportunities. This project will focus on re-connecting Abernethy to its neighbouring Caledonian forest, Glenmore, through the planting of 30,000 native trees to re-establish a huge wildlife corridor that can support more rare wildlife. 

Makay Conservation Project, Madagascar

(nominating member Mountain People)

Until recently unexplored, the 4,000km2 Makay massif in Madagascar with high plateaus, inaccessible mountains and deep, hidden canyons has played host to three scientific expeditions which have discovered over 2,000 endemic animal and plant species, several endangered species and Madagascar’s only known cave paintings. Most of these unique natural habitats are imminently under threat due to uncontrolled forest clearing for example. An official protection status and urgent sustainable conservation measures are required. As well as reforestation, scientific and educational programs, this organisation, which works for the conservation of the area, aims to implement a regulated adventure and naturalist ecotourism in the area in order to bring in local income and jobs, as well as ensuring any developments are carried out in the most sensitive manner. This project intends to develop eco lodges, campsites, guiding offices, wildlife observation platforms, as well as to inform the local guides. The project also aims to make sure all tourism operators and their clients abide by a code of conduct to ensure minimal impact. Finally, the organisation is working to obtain national protected status for the region and UNESCO World Heritage site recognition.

Ivindo National Park, Gabon

(nominating member Wild Roses)

Tropical forests are rapidly disappearing all over the world, causing dramatic biodiversity loss. In Africa, no more than eight per cent of the original forest remains. Gabon is one of the few countries where most of the pristine forest remains. There is a high level of endemism in the forests and therefore deforestation implies a high risk of loss of species. The Ivindo National Park in Gabon is an area of dense rainforest crossed by the Ivindo River with its magnificent waterfalls. It is home to lowland gorillas, over 430 bird species, forest elephants and chimpanzees. In order to protect this forest from future threats, this project aims to train local people to gather information on its biodiversity to demonstrate its importance. It will also develop a sustainable ecotourism industry (providing camping and walking, trekking, biking and pirogue trails) which will give the forest a value to local people, generating employment and income associated with forest conservation.

Discover Târnava Mare, Romania

(nominating member Vaude)

The Târnava Mare landscape is one of the last great high-nature landscapes surviving in lowland Europe. Its many valuable habitats have evolved in association with traditional low-impact agriculture, and they harbour a vast diversity of flora and fauna including many threatened species. It is also an amazing historic cultural landscape: 800 years of management by Transylvanian Saxons is still visible in well-preserved villages and fortified churches. This landscape depends on the survival of the small-scale farming communities who created it and who manage it today. Despite 85,000 hectares being declared a Natura 2000 site in 2008, the region is under great pressure from poverty and abandonment due to lack of economic prospects, and migration of young people to the cities in search of work. The ADEPT Foundation carried out a pilot project in 2011, demonstrating how a mountain bike network can be a catalyst for multiple benefits to the local economy, and therefore to the surrounding landscape, by attracting visitors to the area. Under this proposed project, ADEPT will work with locals to build 15km of mountain bike trail, linking three villages and involving 70 green tourism providers, five schools and hundreds of small-scale farming families. The project will also develop and promote a tourism strategy for the area so that results are sustainable in the future.

Mountainbike Trail Schoorlse Duinen, Netherlands

(nominating member Bike and Trekking Magazine)

The existing mountain bike trails in the Schoorlse Duinen, Netherlands, have been severely damaged in the last few years through the actions of a pyromaniac. The 50 hectares of burnt trees will be cut in 2013 in order to change this area of forest back to so called ‘grey walking dunes’. This area is a Natura2000 site, and this action will benefit rare mosses, grasses, mammals and other flora and fauna in the area. Seven of the existing 15 kilometres of mountain bike trail will turn into grey dunes. The area is one of the most popular in the Netherlands for mountain biking because of the stunning scenery, challenging track and accessibility, but access needs to be controlled to keep visitors off sensitive areas and minimize impact. The project will establish a new 12 kilometres mountain biking routes in the covered forest area enabling the original area to return to grey dunes.