Please Help Gorillas

Your gift could help bridge the funding gap for eastern gorillas.

Their situation was already desperate. The lowland subspecies had been haemorrhaging numbers to bushmeat poaching, and their mountain cousins were down to terrifyingly low numbers

Their silver lining was that gorilla-friendly tourism was providing a lifeline of funding, enabling rangers and local communities to offer a solid line of protection. There were real signs of hope.

But since the outbreak of COVID-19, gorilla-friendly tourism has effectively become a contradiction in terms.

With permits costing up to $1,500 per visit, the suspension of tourism will have huge financial implications for gorilla parks. The dramatic fall in revenue will reduce the park’s ability to pay frontline staff, including rangers. It could possibly also undermine local attitudes towards gorillas and their forest habitat if communities perceive that they are no longer benefiting from their presence.

We can’t let that happen. We urgently need your help to bridge the funding gap.

And that’s why we’re asking you to make a donation to keep them safe. By donating just £25, you could help pay for a first aid kit, essential to keeping our rangers safe as they patrol gorilla habitat regardless of tourism funding.

Please donate now and help get gorillas through this unprecedented time. We mustn’t let them pay the ultimate price for COVID-19.

Sir David Attenborough, gorillas and FFI

In 1979, following a personal plea from David Attenborough, FFI established the Mountain Gorilla Project using funds generated by its hugely successful appeal, launched the previous year to protect the dwindling population of these iconic great apes that the broadcaster had encountered during the course of filming his acclaimed Life on Earth series. Shortly after returning to the UK, David Attenborough was elected as a vice-president of FFI, a position that he holds to this day. The mountain gorilla population has risen from an estimated low of 250-300 individuals at the time of FFI’s intervention to over 1,000 today – virtually a fourfold increase.

Who are FFI?

Fauna & Flora International (FFI) is the world’s oldest international conservation charity. Over the last 100 years, we have been on almost every frontline of conservation and literally saved species from extinction. We work to protect plants and animals around the globe – never wasting enormous sums of money on excessive publicity or silly gimmicks – instead spending 94% of our income on charitable activities.