Donations have been flowing into World Land Trust's (WLT) Big Cat Appeal since the start of Big Cat Big Match Fortnight on 1 October 2014. 

With just one more day of the fortnight to run, a combination of public donations and matched funds pledged in advance brings the appeal total to £310,000, but more donations are urgently needed as the appeal target is £500,000. 

WLT Patron Sir David Attenborough is backing WLT's Big Cat Appeal, which will fund habitat conservation for Bengal Tigers in northern India as well as territory for big cats in other parts of the world. 

“Tigers are magnificent creatures. It would be a tragedy of truly monumental proportions if they were to be lost to the world. Not only that, it would be totally inexcusable on our part but if we don't act fast to provide them with suitable territory to live in, they will disappear. We mustn't let that happen,” said Sir David, who is actively encouraging the public to donate during Big Match Fortnight. “If you make a donation during the first two weeks of October it will be matched pound for pound and will go straight to saving tigers and other threatened big cats” he said. 

WLT Council member Bill Oddie is also a champion of Big Cat Big Match Fortnight. In a short video he urges donors to give before the end of Big Match Fortnight, which closes on 15 October 2014. 

All funds raised will go towards conserving big cat habitat. One of several projects that will receive funding from the Big Cat Appeal is the Chilkiya-Kota Corridor for Bengal Tigers in northern India. 

Once Big Cat Big Match Fortnight has finished WLT will still be urgently raising funds to reach our target for the appeal, but 15 October is the last date that donations will be matched pound for pound. 

John Burton, WLT Chief Executive, said on WLT's 25th anniversary: “After 25 years of conservation success in countries as diverse as Belize, Paraguay and India, we know that WLT's model of land purchase and protection is making it possible for big cats to survive in the wild in Latin America and Asia. We aim to raise £500,000 for the Big Cat Appeal so that we can continue to support big cat conservation in countries where we already have programmes and in other parts of the world such as Iran and Vietnam, where we are developing exciting new partnerships.” 

For more information on World Land Trust, visit www.worldlandtrust.org 

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For more information please contact:

McCluskey International

 Judy McCluskey / Sarah Salord / Jessica Meins

T: 020 8747 2170 E: worldlandtrust@mccluskey.co.uk

NOTES TO EDITORS

About World Land Trust (WLT)

World Land Trust (WLT) is an international conservation charity, which protects the world's most biologically important and threatened habitats acre by acre. Since its foundation in 1989, WLT has funded partner organisations around the world to create reserves, and give permanent protection to habitats and wildlife. The mission of the World Land Trust is: To protect and sustainably manage natural ecosystems of the world; To conserve their biodiversity, with emphasis on threatened habitats and endangered species; To develop partnerships with local individuals, communities and organisations to engage support and commitment among the people who live in project areas; To raise awareness, in the UK and elsewhere, of the need for conservation, to improve understanding and generate support through education, information and fundraising. 

Big Cat Appeal

Donations to WLT's Big Cat Appeal will be used strategically to allow WLT's worldwide partners to extend existing reserves and to create wildlife corridors between protected areas. Funds will also be used to support WLT's Keepers of the Wild programme, which supports the employment of wildlife rangers in reserves created with funding from WLT, all of whom are ensuring the safety of big cats in their reserves. Make an online donation.          

World Land Trust's Big Cat Conservation Success

The Trust's founding project was launched in 1989 in the Rio Bravo area of Belize, where thanks to WLT 110,000 acres of rainforest were saved from development.  Today, the highest density of Jaguars in Belize is found in the Rio Bravo Conservation Management Area, which now measures more than 250,000 acres (4 per cent of Belize's land mass). 

Jaguars are also increasing in reserves in Paraguay's Chaco-Pantanal, where WLT has supported conservation for the past decade, and in Mexico's Sierra Gorda, where WLT has funded land purchase since 2007. Further south, Pumas are once again thriving in Guapi Assu Reserve in the Atlantic forest of Brazil, supported by WLT since 2005. And, at the tip of the South American continent, signs of Pumas are being found regularly at Estancia la Esperanza, a 15,000 acre reserve which WLT helped create in Patagonia in the early 2000s. 

In Asia, since 2003, WLT has supported Wildlife Trust of India in protecting wildlife corridors used by Bengal Tigers. More recently WLT has been funding habitat protection programmes in the South Caucasus in order to provide a safe haven for the endangered Caucasian Leopard. In 2012, camera-traps supplied by WLT recorded the first images of a Caucasian Leopard in Armenia since 2007.

Big Cat Big Match Launch

WLT launched Big Cat Big Match Fortnight in London on Tuesday 30 September with special guests Vivek Menon, Executive Director of Wildlife Trust of India, Dr Isabelle Lackman, Co-Director of Hutan, and Mahboobeh Shirkhorshdi representing Iranian Cheetah Society. More about the launch. 

Big Match Fortnight 2013

In 2013, WLT's Big Match Fortnight raised £725,000 to create the Keruak Corridor for Orang-utans in the rainforest of Malaysian Borneo in partnership with Hutan an NGO based in Kinabatangan.