SPRINGMAGAZINE

EXCLUSIVE MAGAZINE FOR WWF SUPPORTERS ISSUE 35

THE FLIGHT TO SAVE OUR WALLABIES

Will you please help us fly more of our most threatened wallabies to safety?

The critical mission to move black-flanked rock-wallabies from Western Australia’s Wheatbelt region to Kalbarri National Park was a success.

Thanks to supporters like you, these beautiful, endangered wallabies are bounding across Kalbarri’s rugged, red landscape once again.

With predators under control and native vegetation returning, we know Kalbarri is a place where our vulnerable wallabies can regain their grip on survival.

Moving our rock-wallabies is the best chance we have of saving them from extinction. Now we need your urgent help to do it again.

Please donate today so we can move more precious wallabies to Kalbarri early next year.

You gave hope to rock-wallabies by helping WWF move a group of them to a new home in Kalbarri National Park.

Your donation will be used to:1 Choose the right wallabies to move

2 Continue to protect Kalbarri from predators

3 Fly the next wallabies to Kalbarri

4 Track and monitor wallabies in their new home

EXCLUSIVE MAGAZINE FOR WWF SUPPORTERS ISSUE 35

LIVING PLANET – SPRING 20161800 032 551 WWF.ORG.AU

2 DONATE NOW AT WWF.ORG.AU

I’m very excited about the launch of WWF’s bold Save at least 21 species by 2021 plan. It’s a long-term blueprint to protect Australia’s most threatened species.

Animals like our endangered rock-wallabies, who you’ve already given new hope by relocating them to Kalbarri National Park. Today I hope you’ll act to move even more of our precious wallabies to safety.

I know what’s possible when people like you stand up for the conservation causes you believe in.

I recently asked for your help to buy a shark fishing licence and take an enormous fishing net off the Great Barrier Reef. Your response was so incredible that we’re hoping to be able to take two of these nets off our Reef for good.

Thank you so much for working with WWF on the frontline to fight for our fragile natural world.

You’re saving our amazing animals

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Dermot O’GormanCEO, WWF-Australia

A love of nature has shaped Elizabeth Storrs’ powerful legacy.

Elizabeth’s love of nature began early in life.

From the age of three she stepped from her back porch right into Cheetham Park, a semi-natural public reserve in England, where her father worked as a gardener.

Within the Park was a densely wooded valley, which to this day remains a Royal Society for the Protection of Birds nature reserve.

“The back doors of our cottage were inside the Park, so our splendid isolation was complete once the big gates were closed.

The Park became my playground, and weekends were especially exciting, when I would be allowed through the locked gate into the bird sanctuary. There I spent hours tagging birds, repairing nests and helping the warden to record domestic and migrant species.”

In the extraordinary life that followed, Elizabeth lived in Swaziland, Hollywood and outback Australia.

“I have lived and worked on five continents, long before poaching, forest clearing, mining and climate change were crucial issues.

I have interacted with wild orang-utans, explored Africa’s numerous national parks, wandered through the wild areas of the United States of America, had close encounters with kiwis and visited remote corners of Australia.

What a privilege!”

Elizabeth has chosen to leave a donation to the future protection of the natural world which, throughout her life, has been her playground.

“As long as you keep national parks going, as long as you retain the Barrier Reef, as long as you keep the harpoons away from the seals... I mean, there’s so much to be negative about that we must think positively.”

If you are considering leaving a legacy to WWF, please contact Christine Robinson on: 02 8228 6822, free-call 1800 032 551 or email: bequest@wwf.org.au

AN EXTRAORDINARY LIFE. AN EXTRAORDINARY GIFT.

EXCLUSIVE MAGAZINE FOR WWF SUPPORTERS

ORANG-UTANS SAFE – THANKS TO YOU

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In Borneo’s Sebangau National Park, one of the world’s largest populations of endangered orang-utans stood to lose their lives and homes in the smoke and flames of peat fires.

But WWF supporters responded valiantly, and you helped avert crisis in three ways:

1. ‘Re-wetting’ the forest Decades of unsustainable logging have drained Sebangau forest, turning its once-swampy peatlands into dried-out peat.

This burns very easily and the flames can take months to put out.

With your support, WWF teams have been racing to block the logging canals that are still draining water from the forest.

This has put life-giving water back into the peat floor, making Sebangau less vulnerable to the fires sweeping through the country.

2. Replanting the forest WWF supporters like you are helping us to restore the huge areas of Sebangau that were torn down for timber. With your help, we’re growing and planting the trees that up to 9,000 orang-utans and many other threatened species depend on for food and shelter.

3. Equipping our local fire-fighters People like you helped to fund vital fire-fighting and safety equipment for WWF teams and their local partners in Borneo. That’s made it easier for them to put out the flames threatening Sebangau’s precious forests and orang-utans.

The battle isn’t over Sebangau’s magnificent orang-utans are safe for now. But we must keep up our critical restoration work – or risk losing the orang-utans you’ve saved in more forest fires this year and into the future.

Visit wwf.org.au/borneoappeal to help protect your orang-utans from the next deadly season of forest fires.

Huge fires devastated Borneo last dry season. But your support has helped to keep the orang-utans of Sebangau forest safe.

4EXCLUSIVE MAGAZINE FOR WWF SUPPORTERS LIVING PLANET MAGAZINE SPRING 2016

© NATUREPL.COM / ALEX MUSTARD / WWF

A YEAR IN REVIEW: THESE ANIMALS SAY “THANK YOU”Your support of WWF this past year has made an incredible difference for so many beautiful, threatened animals around the world.

Here is a rundown of what caring people like you have achieved for some of our most vulnerable species.

TIGERS

• Wild tiger numbers have increased globally for the first time in a century, with close to 3,900 recorded.

• WWF carried out our first-ever tiger survey – a crucial step to seeing how close we are to our goal of doubling wild tiger numbers by 2022.

ORANG-UTANS

• WWF secured almost one million hectares of sustainable forestry concessions in Borneo, providing refuge for your majestic orang-utans.

• We’re helping the local communities who live near orang-utan forests find sustainable ways to make a living – as part of our work to reduce poaching.

• Our on-ground teams can regularly survey orang-utan forests, to learn more about their homes and the threats they face.

Your kindness has given every one of these precious animals a fighting chance of survival. You’re amazing – thank you!

TURTLES

• WWF achieved a ban on dumping of dredge spoil in the Great Barrier Reef’s waters.

• We have the tools to study how turtles are being impacted by Reef pollution.

• The Queensland Government put in place three net-free zones to protect beautiful turtles and other fantastic species like the snubfin dolphin.

• Traditional Owners have been caring for their Sea Country and have been trained on turtle research and monitoring.

• We built a predator-proof sanctuary that’s rescued rock-wallabies in Western Australia’s Wheatbelt region from the brink of extinction.

• We moved 23 black-flanked rock-wallabies from the Wheatbelt region to a new home in Kalbarri National Park.

ROCK-WALLABIES

PYGMY ELEPHANTS

• WWF are tracking elephants so we can better protect what is left of their forest homes.

• We are working with governments to create safe forest corridors and protect critical areas of forest against unsustainable clearing.

• We are teaching local communities how to live alongside the elephants that stumble onto their plantations in search of food.

• We are working with local people to promote sustainable livelihoods like ecotourism.

• We planted 3,000 seedlings in a critical habitat near Perth. Most of those seedlings are well on their way to becoming the trees that will sustain these amazing birds.

BLACK COCKATOOS

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He has one horn, weighs 58 kilograms and his mum adores him.

This gorgeous baby one-horned rhino is here because of caring supporters like you. You helped WWF and our partners to move his mum and four other female rhinos to Bardia National Park in Nepal. He’s the first offspring of what we hope will become a second viable population of this precious species.

The arrival of this baby is part of an even bigger success story for rhino conservation in Nepal. After two years without rhino poaching, Nepal now has 645 greater one-horned rhinos, the highest number it’s ever recorded.

You’re giving rhinos a future. Thank you.

IT’S A BOY! YOUR BABY RHINO©

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5 LIVING PLANET MAGAZINE SPRING 2016

BRUSH-TAILED ROCK-WALLABIES: Brush-tailed rock-wallabies are dark, with a big bushy tail. They’re sometimes described as ‘shadowy’.

They have especially adapted padding on their feet. It’s like the tread of a tyre, and allows them to grip rocks and the almost-sheer cliff faces they leap across.

BLACK-FLANKED ROCK-WALLABIES: They have a reputation for being shy, but they’re curious, too. WWF’s Rebecca Boyland says if you stand quietly at the bottom of an outcrop, they’ll come out of hiding to take a look at you.

The agility of these animals is gravity-defying and incredible. They can jump up a sheer cliff face in only a couple of bounds.

Your support is giving both these species of rock-wallabies a better chance of survival. Thank you.

THE ‘SPIRIT’ OF A PLACE“Rock-wallabies give you a sense of there being a spirit to the rocky outcrops and country they live in. They tend to dart in and out; watching you – even if you can’t see them.”Darren Grover, Head of Species Conservation & Indigenous Partnerships, WWF

Cover photos: HEADER IMAGE © DARREN GROVER / WWF-AUS MAIN IMAGE © NATUREPL.COM / STEVEN DAVID MILLER / WWF-AUS

All photos from the WWF photographic library have been kindly donated by photographers for WWF use, and cannot be reproduced or provided to external parties.

www.fsc.org © 1996 Forest Stewardship Council

© 1986 panda symbol and ® WWF is a Registered Trademark

WWF-Australia, GPO Box 528, Sydney NSW 2001 T 1800 032 551 F 02 9281 0369 wwf.org.au

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LIVING PLANET – SPRING 20161800 032 551 WWF.ORG.AU

When did you first hear about WWF? I’ve worked in forest conservation and sustainable land use for over a decade, and WWF has always been very prominent.

They struck me as a great organisation to work with, long before I was fortunate enough to line up a job with them in 2012. WWF has a lot of credibility around the world because they’re consistently driven by science and solutions.

What’s the best bit about your job? I get to exercise my brain. The problems we’re tackling, and the solutions we’re developing, are never straightforward. WWF is committed to finding solutions that are not only good for the environment, but for people and economies too.

When it comes to protecting forests, this often means a complicated mix of sustainable land use practices, rather than locking forests up.

So I’m dealing with complex issues like land tenure, governance, social equity and international supply chains.

What’s the biggest challenge? What makes my job so interesting is also the greatest challenge – complicated problems and solutions.

As the issues become more complicated, I have to work further and further away from the forest.

I’m often in boardrooms or dealing with political processes on the other side of the world.

This is the only way WWF can have the kind of impact that’s needed, but it can make it hard to measure and communicate the work we’re doing in a way that’s simple and clear.

How do you explain your job in layman’s terms? I say that I try to influence the conservation and sustainable management of forests across the world.

I do this by helping companies, governments and consumers to make good choices, and to recognise that forests are worth much more than just the timber in the trees or the land on which they stand.

What’s your favourite animal or bird? Globally, I can’t go past the snow leopard.

They’re so majestic. I’ve never seen one in the wild, but I used to love visiting the snow leopard enclosure at Taronga Zoo. The snow leopard is a priority species for WWF, so I’m hoping I can get involved and see one!

Locally, I can’t go past the kookaburra. Such a unique look and sound. You can’t get more Australian than a kookaburra.

WWF conservationist Tim Cronin shares with you the thrills and challenges of his job – and explains why he sometimes can’t see the forest for the trees.

WHY I LOVE WHAT I DO©

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