the protection of 0 Acres
Habitat loss is the greatest threat facing wildlife worldwide. We believe that by protecting land, acre by acre, we are taking the best action to ensure a future for wildlife.
For every £100 donation to the Buy an Acre programme, one of our overseas partners will be able to purchase one acre of habitat and protect it in perpetuity for wildlife.
Habitat loss is the greatest threat facing wildlife worldwide. We believe that by protecting land, acre by acre, we are taking the best action to ensure a future for wildlife.
For every £100 donation to the Buy an Acre programme, one of our overseas partners will be able to purchase one acre of habitat and protect it in perpetuity for wildlife.
WLT works with its network of trusted conservation partners all around the world, who have been evaluated and visited to ensure that they have the experience, knowledge and good track record to create and protect wildlife reserves that you are helping them protect.
Our partners apply for Buy an Acre funding when opportunities to purchase wildlife-rich habitats arise at a cost of around £100 per acre. Donations to Buy an Acre are used for priority areas when land purchase has been negotiated by our partner. Every acre saved becomes part of a larger reserve protected in perpetuity by our partner organisation.
Click here for a printable PDF with information about this project.
We believe that land should be owned by local people, who know the land, the threats and the wildlife best. Our partners are experts in land conservation in their respective countries and work with local communities, employing local people. Many of our partners have outreach programmes to increase sustainable development around the reserves.
By placing the land in the ownership of our partner, they are also taking on the responsibility of ensuring the protection of the reserve and its wildlife. Threats come in various forms depending on the country in question but inevitably it is the Keepers of the Wild (wildlife rangers) who are at the coalface, preventing and recording threats as they occur.
Buying the land is the first crucial step. Once it is in the ownership of our partners, it cannot be purchased by other landowners who may want to clear the habitat for cattle ranching or agriculture. However, there are other threats that our partners have to actively safeguard against, such as illegal logging, cattle encroachment, poaching and fires.
This is where the work of wildlife rangers comes in. Rangers patrol the reserves to deter and detect poachers, monitor wildlife and maintain reserve infrastructure such as access roads, paths or visitor’s centres. WLT supports the important work of rangers through the Keepers of the Wild programme. Find out more »
For businesses and organisations:
You’ll receive a donation certificate confirming the threatened habitats you have helped us to save based on the amount you have donated.
For individuals:
For donations of £25 or more to Buy an Acre, you can request a personalised certificate. In addition, you can also donate as a gift on behalf of someone else.
Certificates sent by email will arrive immediately once you’ve donated and certificates sent by post will be processed within five working days
A few miles inland from the Caribbean Sea is a tropical jungle paradise that is home to toucans, tapirs, armadillos, frogs, and five cat species, including jaguars.
In 2018, our supporters helped secure 8,154 acres of this wildlife corridor through the Jungle for Jaguars appeal. Following on from this success, another 1,818 acres became available at the Buy an Acre price of £100 per acre. These two pieces of land provide a vital connection between existing protected areas managed by our partner, the Corozal Sustainable Future Initiative (CSFI).
In 2021, WLT joined an international consortium of NGOs to save the Belize Maya Forest, a 105,000 ha (260,000-acre) reserve adjacent to our first ever Buy an Acre project, the Rio Bravo Conservation Management Area. Buy an Acre supporters funded the protection of 512 ha (1,267 acres) in a reserve that forms part of the largest intact forest area remaining in Belize.
Sierra Gorda in central Mexico contains a matrix of different habitats with a broad spectrum of plant diversity.
In 2018, donations to Buy an Acre and Saving Mexico’s Ancient Forests appeal, together with generous support from Puro Fairtrade Coffee, funded the purchase of 2,106 acres. Our partner Grupo Ecológico Sierra Gorda (GESG) was able to extend three reserves in Sierra Gorda: Canon del Fresno (ancient oak forests), Hoya Verde (cloud and temperate forest) and Cerro Prieto Cerro la Luz (Oak, Cyprus, Juniper and Pine forests).
Barba Azul reserve is part of an incredible savanna landscape that floods every year, creating forest islands of Motacu Palms. These islands are an oasis for wildlife, providing food for the Critically Endangered Blue-throated Macaw and shelter for mammals such as Giant Anteater and Maned Wolf.
Without protection, these forest islands are threatened by logging, hunting and cattle ranching. In 2014 supporters to Buy an Acre funded 3,306 acres of a 14,827 acre extension which doubled the size of the reserve, now owned and protected by our partner Asociación Armonía.
Now named the Laguna Grande Sarstún Reserve, this is one of the most diverse projects ever supported by Buy an Acre.
A donation of £100 could have bought an acre of mangrove (feeding habitat for the Neotropical Otter), flooded forest (an important transition habitat) and mountain forest (containing hundreds of bird species).
Today Laguna Grande Sarstún is a haven for tropical wildlife, with 84 mammal species recorded including endangered species such as the Guatemalan Black Howler Monkey and Baird’s Tapir.
Since 2012, World Land Trust (WLT) has been working steadily with NCEcuador to fund the purchase and protection of land within the River Nangaritza valley, a complex mosaic of ecosystems including Amazonian lowlands, Andean foothills and Sandstone plateaus similar to Venezuelans “Tepuys” (table top mountains).
El Pantanoso Reserve is located within the northern Argentine Yungas forest and covers around 10,900 acres (4,400 hectares). The reserve is strategically important because it forms a corridor between Calilegua National Park on its southern border and Estancia Urundel, a large tract of contiguous sustainably managed forest.