Newsletter: New Film, "Defending Mirador National Park"

Dear Supporters and Friends,
 
It is with a heavy heart I write to you from California, where we are losing over a million acres of wildlands, forest and wildlife habitats to massive fires.  Our favorite and oldest park – Big Basin State Park – burned to the ground with only the strongest redwoods surviving.  People are dying and hundreds of thousands are displaced or have lost their homes on top of the Coronavirus pandemic.
 
While there is much to do to restore our parks here at home, our global parks are even more endangered in developing countries with few resources to battle wildlife poaching, illegal logging, man-made fires and illegal land clearing.  We need your support abroad and at home.

Sincerely,

Jeff Morgan

Executive Director, Global Conservation

New GC Film: “Defending Mirador National Park”

Global Conservation recently released a new video highlighting the urgent threats and our work to protect Mirador National Park in Guatemala. Watch the video above, and read more here.

News from the Field: 2019-2020 Project Progress – Global Park Defense

Borjomi National Park, Republic of Georgia

Since December 2019, Borjomi rangers have patrolled more than 70,000km on foot and more than 200,000km by vehicle.

Thanks to Global Park Defense, illegal activity in Borjomi has dropped over the past year. Forty cellular trailcams, provided by Global Conservation, have been monitoring illegal activity and wildlife in Borjomi since 2018. Images from these cameras have affirmed the incredible biodiversity of this park, which remains a stronghold for European megafauna.

This year, one of the highlights from these cameras was an image affectionately called “The Three Musketeers”, which captured three brown bears foraging together. Global Conservation is advocating for the expansion of BKNP and development of community-based tourism. Read more about Borjomi National Park.

Mirador National Park, Guatemala

US Senators have proposed a $50 million, 5-year Senate Bill for community-based park and wildlife protection. Arrests were made in 52 cases over the past year. Among others, Mirador Rangers, Community EcoGuards, and the Guatemalan Army and Police worked together with Mexican authorities to close down a major illegal logging syndicate working inside Mirador National Park. FundaEco also deployed a network of 100 trailcams to monitor predator and prey populations. Read more in the Mirador 2019-2020 report.

Mana Pools National Park, Zimbabwe

2020 began tragically with two young rangers, Ranger Mabharani and Ranger Tembo, being murdered by Zambian poachers while attempting to transport the arrestees to jail. These rangers lost their lives protecting Zimbabwe’s parks and wildlife, and will be remembered for their brave sacrifice. Our partners, Bushlife Conservancy, have been paying the rangers’ wives the equivalent of USD $200 a month since January, and have raised USD $4,865 to support them for the year.
 
Extensive ranger training had not occurred in many years until this year. In 2019, Global Conservation granted $20,000 to IAPF to provide training to lead rangers in field trauma care & survival, law enforcement, biodiversity conservation, and criminal investigations. Read more here.

GC Welcomes New Advisory Board Member

Rhett Butler is stepping down from the GC Advisory Board after being with us for 5 great years, since our founding. Thank you Rhett for your invaluable advice on so many GC projects, especially in Sabah Borneo. Rhett continues his leadership of Mongabay.
 
We are thrilled to invite Dr. Peter Raven to join us! Peter is one of the world's leading botanists and advocates of conservation and biodiversity, and is President Emeritus of the Missouri Botanical Garden. He has been working in Kalimantan, Indonesia for many years and knows how important communities and protection are for the conservation of wild places.

Behind the Scenes with Queen of the Carpathians

Global Conservation is producing a new short film: Queen of the Carpathians is an imagined conservation story about a young Ukrainian woman named Lydia who fights illegal logging, wildlife poaching, hunting, development and pollution to save her beloved natural heritage. Watch the teaser-trailer for Queen of the Carpathians above, and read more here.