On the edge autumn 2016

RESTORING AND PROTECTING HABITAT Recently everyone was gripped with Olympic fever, and Team GB undoubtedly did us proud.

Durrell also has much to be proud of when it comes to our work in Brazil, and we’ve been breaking records of our own…

Together with our local conservation partner, the Institute for Ecological Research (IPÊ), we have been busy planting trees, and after fourteen years of hard work, the largest reforested habitat corridor of Brazil’s Atlantic Forest is now complete.

With 1.4 million trees planted, the corridor is more than 700 hectares in extent and links key areas of remnant forest. The aim is to reconnect the remaining sub-populations of one of Durrell’s focal species, the Endangered black lion tamarin. A second corridor is now underway. This work has been supported by Durrell and our Cans for Corridors campaign which converts recycled aluminium cans into cash to fund the reforestation.

Since conservation efforts began, the black lion tamarin has been down-listed from Critically Endangered to Endangered on the IUCN Red List – conservation efforts in Brazil, led by our project partner IPE, really are making a difference.

The Durrell Index is our flagship tool that measures our conservation performance by monitoring and evaluating what works. This is essential in conservation in order to allocate resources effectively and invest funding into programmes we know will have an impact.

Protecting threatened habitats, as well as restoring habitat, is another of our key actions and one of the Durrell Index indicators by which we track progress. To date, across our projects around the world, we have been responsible for placing an area equivalent to 500,000 football pitches under legal protection.

To find out more about Durrell’s habitat restoration and protection projects and to learn how we measure our conservation performance visit www.durrell.org/index To learn more about our Cans for Corridors campaign visit www.durrell.org/support/cans/ 23