World Land Trust
At Media Bounty we take our environmental impact seriously, which is why since we launched in 2008 we have been funding the purchase of critically threatened rainforest habitat through the World Land Trust - buying one or more acres for every client campaign undertaken.
World Land Trust, whose patrons include Sir David Attenborough, helps purchase and save land in partnership with local NGOs to protect habitats and their wildlife in perpetuity. WLT is currently supporting urgent land purchase and protection, working with in-country partners, in Brazil, Argentina, Paraguay, Ecuador, India, Kenya, Mexico and Borneo.
So far, Media Bounty is proud to have helped protect in excess of 200 acres of habitat across a number of WLT’s projects.
In 2012 we will specifically be supporting project partner Grupo Ecológico Sierra Gorda (GESG) within the Sierra Gorda Biosphere Reserve, Central Mexico.
At an amazing one million acres, the Sierra Gorda Reserve is believed to be one of the largest community-run natural protected areas on Earth. Working with 100,000 inhabitants across 638 communities, GESG are involved with a variety of activities from land purchase to education to recycling. Sierra Gorda is a biodiversity hot spot holding 15 different vegetation types, all six species of cat found in Mexico (including jaguar and margay), as many as 327 species of bird, and plants new to science, with more constantly being discovered. The great variety of ecosystems within the reserve include evergreen and deciduous tropical forest, shrubs and cacti, oak forests, pine forests and cloud forests.
Although the area is a reserve much of the land is still privately owned; threats include conversion of land for cattle ranching, illegal hunting, mining and timber extraction along with urban expansion.
The work of GESG is a great conservation success story, with the local communities very much at the heart of its success.
For more information and links to videos and photos from GESG: http://www.worldlandtrust.org/projects