World Land Trust - US
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
 |
This article may require cleanup to meet Wikipedia's quality standards. Please improve this article if you can. (December 2007) |
World Land Trust - US [formerly World Parks Endowment] was created in 1989 as a non-profit organization that funds local organztions to buy land to protect rainforests and other critical habitats in the tropics. It is affiliated with World land Trust in the UK, and both organziations are dedicated to minimizing their costs in order to allow donated funds to flow to real habitat conservation projects on the ground. Most purchases are made at an average of only $100 an acre. Since its founding, WLT-US has saved over 700,000 acres (2,800 km²) of land -- 62,500 acres (253 km²) purchased outright and over 600,000 acres (2,400 km²) created as governmental protected areas.
Main projects:
REGUA Rainforest, Brazil R.E.G.U.A. (Reserva Ecologica de Guapiaçu) protects one of the last stands of tropical rainforest left in the severely depleted Atlantic Rainforest (Mata Atlantica) in Brazil and is situated about 80 km NE of Rio de Janeiro.
Cosanga Valley, Ecuador World Land Trust-US is working with the owners of Cabanas San Isidro and other conservation-minded people in the Cosanga Valley of Ecuador to buy forested lands that are for sale at reasonable prices (about $100/acre). These lands are covered by Andean cloud forests, and host many endemic, rare and endangered species.
San Rafael, Paraguay WLT-US is helping Gyra Parguay buy land (at $100 an acre) in the San Rafael Reserve located in southeastern Paraguay, and considered to be one of the two most important tracts of Atlantic Forest remaining in Paraguay. More than 310 bird species have been recorded there, 11 of which are globally threatened and 17 of which are near threatened.
Currently it has now saved 250,000 acres of rainforest.
