Breathe News

In a ceremony hosted by Holger Bismann, the Managing Director of Patagonia Europe and President of the EOG Association of Conservation, presented the Breathe Foundation with a the confirmation of a grant for work to be undertaken on a reforestation project in the Brazilian Atlantic Rainforest. Accepted on behalf of the Breathe Foundation by General Manager, Drew Stevenson, the grant enabled work to be commenced on the project in association with local partner, the Atlantic Rainforest Institute based in Itacaré, Brazil, focussed on the protection and reforestation of 700,000 m2 of Atlantic Rainforest.  

Founded in 2006, the EOG Association for Conservation is an initiative from the European outdoor industry with the objective of protecting wild areas. This Association with 65 member brands from the Outdoor Industry is designed to harness the incredible power of our industry and to raise money to donate to grass roots conservation groups. The Association funds projects that protect threatened wild areas for their habitat and recreational value. The projects must focus on specific issues and root causes, involving direct citizen action, that eventually build public involvement, consensus and support.

The recipients of EOG Association for Conservation 2010 grants were:

Breathe Foundation – Rainforest Restoration (Brazil) – The Atlantic Rainforest in Brazil is less than 7% of its original size and has been identified by UNESCO as one of the five highest biodiversity hotspots in the world. Farming, illegal logging and poaching is pushing this area towards ecological collapse. The main focus here is guardianship, reforestation and education. The 10 year goal is to reclaim 700,000m2 of forest, creating an intact ecological corridor which will then be protected via Brazilian Environmental law. The main aims are building an education, management and meeting centre adjacent to the forest, acquiring of identified priority land positions to create ecological bridges and farmer allotment allocation, planting the initial area with seedlings, and identifying the next priority land purchase. Nominated by Messe München.

World Pheasant Association – School Extensions in return for Forest Protection (Nepal) – Pipar is a rhododendron forest in the Annapurna Conservation area and home to 5 out of 6 of Nepal’s Himalayan pheasant species. Since 1983, the WPA has worked closely with the village of Karuwa, helping to resource teaching facilities, staff and equipment in return for the villagers’ using the forest only as they have always done, for their own needs, and not for commercial gain. The pheasant population has since remained stable and is a novel way of supporting educational needs for the locals whilst at the same time promoting the conservation of an important area for biodiversity. This project will build extensions to 2 local schools and monitor biodiversity in Pipar and adjacent forests. Nominated by Berghaus.

World Land Trust – Elephant Corridors (India) – There are 88 corridors throughout India that are critical to the long term survival of the Asian Elephant. These are unprotected lands between fragments of protected areas and increasingly human dominated, resulting in high levels of human-wildlife conflict (loss of crops, buildings and even life). Securing corridors involves sensitising local communities to the option of voluntarily relocating outside the conflict zones to safer areas, with their own land and improved housing. It also leaves areas to regenerate naturally, and provides continued refuge for elephants together with a huge variety of wildlife including tigers. This project will prioritise seven corridors in Corbett National Park and introduce the concept of establishing elephant corridors to local communities and key conservationists. An individual donor has committed to match funds raised, thus doubling the Association’s grant award to EUR€60,000. Nominated by Nikwax.

Global Nature Fund – Mangrove Swamp Restoration (Sri Lanka) – Mangrove forests are unique habitats found in brackish estuaries and coastal areas, their habitat shared by vast numbers of salt and freshwater creatures as well as sea and land organisms, with extensive root systems protecting against tidal waves and erosion. Over the past 100 years, about 50% of the world’s mangrove forests have been irrecoverably lost. The Madampa Lake Wildlife Sanctuary is facing threats due to uncontrolled activities such as land reclamation, dumping of household/ industrial waste and logging of mangrove trees for timber/firewood. The aim is to increase local understanding of the importance of mangrove ecosystems through long term education, community mangrove conservation programmes and planting over 10,000 seedlings to reforest 6 acres of a destroyed mangrove area. Nominated by Messe Friedrichshafen.

The Bumblebee Conservation Trust – Pembrokeshire Bumblebee Path Project (UK) – The UK’s bumblebees have suffered huge declines due to widespread habitat loss. Bumblebees are major pollinators of a majority of wildflowers and many agricultural crops. If they continue to disappear, these plants will set less seed, resulting in sweeping changes to the countryside with catastrophic knock-on effects for other wildlife. The trust aims to conserve them by returning wildflowers to the countryside, striving to raise awareness, protect important bumblebee sites and engage with landowners to create flower-rich habitats. This project will create wildflower-rich habitat to support rare bumblebees along a new 10km section of path in the Pembrokeshire National Park. By connecting key sites, this attractive route through spectacular scenery will help prevent the national extinction of the shrill carder bee. Voted for by readers of Trail magazine (18,652 votes in total!)

For more information on the work of the EOG Association for Conservation, please click HERE.