Conservation donations from Honeyguide in 2024

Honeyguide’s conservation donations in 2024 totalled £5705 (£4530 in 2023). This blog summarises the donations during the year. Our running total for donations is at the end of this blog. 

Most of the donations come from £40 per person included in each holiday’s price, topped up by Gift Aid for those who are eligible. In several cases there are additional donations from Honeyguiders included within the sums sent; for Valencia in March there were two additional donations from group members.

Little bittern caught, ringed and released by ringing group Pit-Roig in Valencia, March 2024 (photo by Julie Durdin). More photos here from this holiday.

·  February, Extremadura: £330 sent to SEO (BirdLife Spain) in Extremadura.

·  March, Valencia: £630 sent to bird ringing group Pit-Roig

·  April: Crete and Lesvos combined: £1370 sent to Hellenic Ornithological Society (HOS, BirdLife Greece).

·  May/June, Danube Delta: £500 sent to SOR (BirdLife Romania)

·  June, Picos de Europa: £930 sent to Zerynthia, a butterfly conservation NGO in Spain.

Marsh fritillary Euphydryas aurinia beckeri, on acanthus-leaved carline-thistle, Picos de Europa.

·  June/July, Bulgaria’s Western Rhodopes: £450 sent for survey and monitoring of Rhodope lilies (more information here.).

·  August, guided walk at Hickling Marshes raised £125 for Norfolk Wildlife Trust. Another guided walk in August, at Plumstead and Holt Country Park, donations totalling £400 were kept as useful unrestricted income in the Honeyguide Charitable Trust.

·  September, Falsterbo: £550 given to BirdLife International’s Flight for Survival campaign.

·  October, Spanish Pyrenees: £820 sent to SEO Aragón (BirdLife Spain)

Honeyguiders in a field of Rhodope lilies, 29 June 2024. Honeyguide has funded survey and monitoring here since 2012. 

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 were all through the Honeyguide Wildlife Charitable Trust, through which we can claim Gift Aid and increase our charitable activity.

During the year, the Honeyguide Wildlife Charitable Trust received a bequest from the estate of the late John Durdin. The Trust’s trustees are considering how best to use this money, though for practical reasons it may be some time before this happens.

The £5705 donated this year brings the running total for all donations to £155,517 since Honeyguide started in 1991.

Chris Durdin