International conservation charity World Land Trust (WLT) and TV Presenter Bill Oddie, attended the Armenian Street Festival in London on 3 August 2014, to promote the issues relating to endangered wildlife in Armenia's Caucasus region. 

The Caucasus covers more than 500,000 square kilometres and is an area of great ecological importance. Home to a wealth of wildlife including the Syrian Brown Bear, Bezoar Goat, Grey Wolf and the Caucasian Leopard, the festival provided the ideal platform to showcase the importance of protecting the threatened habitat and local wildlife, a quarter of which are considered endangered. 

Since 2010, World Land Trust has been supporting conservation projects in Armenia's Caucasus region in partnership with the Foundation for the Preservation of Wildlife and Cultural Assets (FPWC). Donations raised by WLT are instrumental in protecting threatened habitat in the region, including the purchase of land and providing grants to the Caucasus Wildlife Refuge (CWR) with the aim to extend the over 4,200 acres currently available. 

Funds also support local rangers through WLT's Keepers of the Wild programme, ensuring staff are on hand to tackle illegal hunting in the region as well as monitor animal populations and educate the local community through raising awareness of how poaching affects the local wildlife. 

In recent years, leopard populations have been devastated due to uncontrolled hunting and the destruction of local habitat, resulting in only 10-15 individual Caucasian Leopards currently left in Armenia. Consequently, WLT launched a special appeal 'Save the Caucasian Leopard' in 2012 and last year, a camera-trap placed in the Caucasus Wildlife Refuge recorded rare and historic video footage of an endangered Caucasian Leopard. 

To donate to Save the Caucasian Leopard Appeal visit World Land Trust. For more information on World Land Trust, visit www.worldlandtrust.org.      

[ENDS]

PHOTO CAPTIONS

Photo Caption 1 (from left to right): TV Presenter and Conservationist Bill Oddie shows his support for World Land Trusts' project in Armenia by attending the Armenian Street Festival with Kelly Jacobs, Education, Outreach and Training Manager at World Land Trust. 

Photo Caption 2: Still photo taken from video recording of a Caucasian Leopard in Armenia in November 2013, courtesy of Foundation for the Preservation of Wildlife and Cultural Assets. 

Photo Caption 3: Kelly Jacobs, Education, Outreach and Training Manager at World Land Trust, discusses the conservation projects with a visitor at the Armenian Street Festival.

For more information please contact:

McCluskey International  Judy McCluskey / Sarah Salord / Jessica Meins

T: 020 8747 2170 E: worldlandtrust@mccluskey.co.uk

NOTES TO EDITORS

About World Land Trust (WLT)

World Land Trust (WLT) is an international conservation charity, which protects the world's most biologically important and threatened habitats acre by acre. Since its foundation in 1989, WLT has funded partner organisations around the world to create reserves, and give permanent protection to habitats and wildlife. The mission of the World Land Trust is: To protect and sustainably manage natural ecosystems of the world; To conserve their biodiversity, with emphasis on threatened habitats and endangered species; To develop partnerships with local individuals, communities and organisations to engage support and commitment among the people who live in project areas; To raise awareness, in the UK and elsewhere, of the need for conservation, to improve understanding and generate support through education, information and fundraising.

About Armenian Street Festival London (ASFL)

The Armenian Street Festival London (ASFL) was founded in 2011 by the Primate's Office of the Diocese of the Armenian Church of Great Britain & Ireland and is an annual event held at Iverna Gardens in the Royal Borough of Kensington & Chelsea, with the aim of celebrating and promoting Armenian culture and heritage.