Honeyguide’s conservation donations in 2023 totalled
£4515. This blog is mostly to give news on the most recent donations, in autumn
2023, as well as the running total.
|
Cove at Binidali, Menorca, October 2023 (Chris Gibson). |
Our October holiday on Menorca – as for all our Menorca
holidays over nearly 30 years – supported The Grup
Balear d'Ornitologia i Defensa de la Naturalesa (the Balearic Ornithological
Group) – GOB Menorca for short. Our donation was £610, which includes Gift Aid
and an additional donation.
A
nice element while we are on Menorca is direct contact with GOB Menorca. I saw
this at first hand in October 2023, and it was the same for the group with
Chris Gibson in October 2023. Carlos Coll, President of GOB Menorca, came to our
base Matxani Gran along with Charlotte from GOB’s Farm Stewardship programme.
Carlos wrote to me to say:
“We had a wonderful evening with a really interesting group of
Honeyguiders. Charlotte spoke about the team she forms part of and explained
our Farm Stewardship programme which is growing every year.
At present this programme has become a bit of a flag-ship and
has created interest in many areas in and out of Spain. This time last year we
were invited to visit a NGO in Libano who are developing a land stewardship
programme and we came home filled with enthusiasm and very impressed with how
they are making such a difference both agriculturally and socially. Sharing
good practice is so important.
Thank you so much for Honeyguide’s very generous gift to GOB.
Donations enable us to continue with our all important work in creating
opportunities and balancing progress with sustainability. We are enormously
grateful.
I do hope you will be able to visit Menorca again and allow us
to show you how GOB is making a difference.
Also
in October, we sent also £100 to Norfolk Wildlife Trust after our North Norfolk break with
Rob Lucking.
|
Wells Harbour, north Norfolk, October 2023. |
Usually,
donations are sent after holidays have run, just in case something happens – learnt
from the experience of air traffic control issues in France. However, for Algarve
and Alentejo in Portugal this November, we made an
exception. In Portugal we lean on the advice of Domingos
Leitão for the choice of project to support: Domingos is both Executive
Director of SPEA (BirdLife Portugal) and our guide this year.
In 2023 we will be a sponsor of the 11th
Congress of Ornithology of SPEA, 22-26 November, in Ponta Delgada University
(Azores). This is a major science and conservation event that SPEA used to
organise every third year. The last time, the 10th, was in 2018, and
because of the pandemic, the 11th was postponed to this year. More
on: https://spea.pt/congresso-de-ornitologia-2023/.
In view of the dates, it made sense to commit early to this, and the sponsorship
– with others – shows on the website of the congress. With the benefit some
unrestricted funds in hand as well as knowing what November’s group will
contribute, the trustees of the Honeyguide Charitable Trust agreed to send €1000
(£886) to SPEA.
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Honeyguide donation to SPEA for 11th Congress of Ornithology. |
Other donations
in 2023:
February: £175
to Norfolk
Wildlife Trust, linked to Honeyguide local walks.
March: £630 to GREPOM (BirdLife Morocco) linked
to our Morocco holiday and £290 to SEO (BirdLife Spain) linked to our Extremadura
holiday.
April: £430 to
the Hellenic Ornithological Group (BirdLife Greece) linked to our Crete
holiday.
May: £290 to
BirdLife Salamanca for harrier protection, linked to our South of Salamance
holiday.
June: £820 to
Zerynthia, an NGO working to conserve butterflies in Spain, linked to our Picos
de Europa holiday.
July: £190 to
the RSPB on Mull, from our Mull group.
August: £94 to Norfolk Wildlife Trust,
from a Honeyguide
local walk at Hickling nature reserve.
Part
of the ethos of Honeyguide Wildlife Holidays has always been to contribute to
the protection of the wildlife that we enjoy, put into effect by donations to
conservation projects and organisations linked to our activities. These
donations are usually via the Honeyguide
Wildlife Charitable Trust, through which we can claim Gift Aid and increase
our charitable activity.
Adding this year’s
donations of £4515 to the previous total gives a running total of £149,797 donated to nature conservation since Honeyguide started in 1991.
Chris
Durdin