In 2014, Action for the Wild has chosen to support 21 projects. As with previous years, these projects are based all over the world, covering a wide range of species from elephants down to the Fisher's Estuarine Moth. Many of these chosen projects have received continuing support from Action for the Wild, as it is vital that such projects are supported over the long term to ensure they are successful. However, with the successful breeding of the red pandas at Colchester Zoo in 2013, we also wanted to celebrate our new arrivals by supporting a new red panda project.

The red panda is not doing as well in the wild as we all might hope. Increasing human populations are leading to greater exploitation and fragmentation of the red panda's forest home. The Red Panda Network uses community conservation to protect red pandas in Nepal. This is a win-win situation; it brings employment to remote villages, it protects the local community forests that have no state protection, it makes people proud of their natural heritage, it raises awareness and it provides good information on the status of the pandas.

In support of the Red Panda Network, Action for the Wild, along with other members of the European Endangered Species Breeding Programme, are providing donations to adopt a group of forest guardians. These local villagers are hired to protect and monitor the community forests. It costs around €1000 per year to train, clothe and pay a forest guardian. These guardians hold the key to the future of the red panda, so Action for the Wild is proud to be supporting this new project in 2014.



You can keep updated on all of Action for the Wild's conservation news on our Action for the Wild website here.

Blog image credit David Cundy.