We are delighted to tell you that we have reached the target amount needed to buy the palm oil plantation! We’ve been overwhelmed by the support we’ve had for the appeal, and we’re so grateful for your generous contribution.
Reaching this target is a momentous occasion for us in many ways. It’s the most ambitious appeal we’ve ever run, so to have received such wholehearted backing from so many people has been vital. While the appeal has been running, we’ve received several reports of further human-wildlife conflict in the plantation we’re buying, further highlighting the urgency of the appeal. Now, this land will no longer be a danger zone for elephants, tigers and orangutans, and the Leuser Ecosystem forest just beside it will have a new buffer zone to protect it.
The next step will be to bring in the chainsaws and remove the oil palms currently growing on the land. Soon after that, the restoration team can begin building nurseries for the seedlings that will one day be tall rainforest trees. We’d love to keep you updated on this work, so please sign up to receive our regular e-news if you haven’t done so already.
Thank you again. Your donation has made a big difference for us, for forests and for wildlife.
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Research shows that people are 16 times more likely to read content online (whether that's an email, a Facebook post or a Tweet) if it has been shared by someone they know, rather than an organisation. We knew that shares on social media were a good thing, but we didn't know that sharing was quite this effective!
With that in mind, will you join in us in creating a forever home for orangutans? Will you share our Rainforest Home Appeal? The total currently stands at £857,705 - 98% of the amount we need. We have until 15th March to secure this soon-to-be rainforest for orangutans by raising the remaining £12,295, so it's vital that the appeal reaches as many people as possible. Will you share the appeal with your friends today?
With your help, we can do this. We want to write to you in March with the good news that we've secured this land for orangutans forever. You've seen how quickly our partners in Sumatra can take barren land and turn it into thriving forest. We can't wait to see the same thing happen to the 890 acres you're helping us to buy.
Thank you so much for sharing our vision of a future for orangutans in the wild, where they belong.
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With just a few weeks to go until our Rainforest Home appeal comes to an end on March 15th 2019, we are excited to bring you another update on our progress in raising the £870,000 we need to buy the land and ensure it has a future as a forest, rather than a lifeless plantation.
Thanks to the generosity of people like you, we have currently raised £816,030. This is incredible - we are a small organisation and we're astounded by the level of support we've received. It's clear that a lot of people care about the future of Sumatran orangutans and the other species that share their habitat, and that gives us hope.
As you might have heard, we are very fortunate in also having the support of some corporate partners who want to help us reach this ambitious goal. Lush released a second round of limited edition orangutan soaps across Europe just before Christmas and their Asia-Pacific campaign is underway right now. The #SOSSumatra products are flying off the shelves, and all the proceeds, minus VAT, will go towards the Rainforest Home appeal.
We want to make one final push to share this appeal online and make absolutely sure that we don't fall short of the total. Please encourage your friends, family and online networks to chip in.
With so much support behind us, we are confident that we will reach our target. We've seen how quickly our partners in Sumatra can take barren land and turn it into thriving forest, and we're so excited for the future of the 890 acres you're helping us to buy now. One of images below shows the 'before and after' of one of the other restoration sites we fund in Sumatra - the difference in just a few years is amazing!
Thank you again for your support. We couldn't do this without you.
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We're really excited to bring you the first report from this project, especially as it is going so well! Over on the Rainforest Home appeal page on our website, you can see that the campaign totaliser is now standing at a very healthy 57% of our final target. This is down to people like you, who care about the future of orangutans and their forests. Thank you.
We have until the end of February 2019 to raise the rest of the funds, and we are optimistic - we know that with our supporters behind us, we can make this happen! With this in mind, we are starting to think ahead to restoring the forest once the land purchase is complete. The first thing we will need to do is to clear the land of oil palm trees, using chainsaws to cut them down as quickly as possible. This will make room to build a tree nursery, so our restoration experts can start preparing compost and collecting seeds from the forest to begin the process of nurturing new trees.
You can help us make sure we reach this stage. Tomorrow, 27th November, is Giving Tuesday. Any donation made to us that day will be matched by Global Giving from their Giving Tuesday match fund, so your impact will be even bigger than usual. If you are able to, please give to our project on Giving Tuesday, and share the project with everyone you know. We can make this happen together.
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Project reports on GlobalGiving are posted directly to globalgiving.org by Project Leaders as they are completed, generally every 3-4 months. To protect the integrity of these documents, GlobalGiving does not alter them; therefore you may find some language or formatting issues.
If you donate to this project or have donated to this project, you can recieve an email when this project posts a report. You can also subscribe for reports without donating.