There is a petition to save the Fund. The petition can be signed at http://www.savebbcwildlifefund.net/
Since the BBC Wildlife Fund was established in 2007, it has raised nearly £3 million and supports 87 projects around the world. Many of these involve highly endangered species such as the Sumatran rhino, Siberian tiger and Leatherback turtle – all of which will soon vanish without proper protection.
The Fund also supports projects in the UK and on species that struggle to get recognition but desperately need support such as cuckoos, Bechstein's bat, and raft spiders. Emphasis is placed on developing sustainable solutions which link conservation with the participation and improved well-being of local communities.
The iconic status of the BBC gives its Wildlife Fund a unique potential to raise the profile of conservation across the world. It has been widely acclaimed for its work in the field and there has been general dismay at the news of its intended closure.
The implications of such closure reach beyond the Fund itself. For the BBC, as an organization of global standing, to be seen to effectively turn its back on practical conservation sends the wrong signal to decision takers in governments and other institutions internationally who are deciding how much further to cut budgets for biodiversity during the current financial difficulties.
The BBC has built a wonderful reputation from its world renowned programmes on wildlife. In establishing the Wildlife Fund it recognized the opportunity this provided to give something back – and for millions of its viewers to appreciate the link between these programmes and the urgent need to engage actively in protection of threatened species... while there is still time!
What fate awaits those species and habitats supported by the BBC Wildlife Fund?
- 90% of coral reefs being degraded
- only 40 Amur leopard left in the wild
- the equivalent of 1 football pitch of rainforest felled every 2 seconds
- poaching of rhino horn in Africa soaring to new heights in 2011
PLEASE SIGN THE PETITION AT http://www.savebbcwildlifefund.net/
LATEST NEWS AT http://www.savebbcwildlifefund.net/latest.php