Nature Needs Half

Launched in 2015, the Quick Response Biodiversity Fund (QRBF) is a signature program of the Nature Needs Half. The QRBF recognizes the urgency of critical land acquisitions to secure habitat for threatened and endangered species. Our goal is to ensure that any globally significant land deal - one that protects one - if not the last - home for rare and endangered species has access to the necessary funds. We are extremely rapid in our response and we are set up to be selective in helping purchase areas of truly global significance - often tropical areas that host a disproportionate amount of the world's biodiversity. We rely on an advisory board of some of the world's leading conservation biologists, who provide real-time assessments of land acquisition proposals. In August of 2017, the Leonardo DiCaprio Foundation announced that it would join our effort and provide $1M in funding to QRBF to fund 30 projects over the next 12 months.

Purchase of the Babaco ranch protected a property where 11 individual jaguars had been detected since 2010. (Photo: Northern Jaguar Project and Naturalia)

Northern Jaguar Reserve Expansion

The QRBF grant to the Northern Jaguar Project (NJP) concerns a land purchase in northeastern Sonora, Mexico, which extends the privately owned Northern Jaguar Reserve by 5,000 acres. The target species protected is the northernmost population of jaguar. As the major threat in the region is poaching, NJP works with local communities to protect jaguar on and around their properties as well as the Reserve that is under their management.

Protecting a Key Tract in the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta for the World's Rarest Wildlife Species

The QRBF grant to the American Bird Conservancy concerns a land purchase in northern Colombia, which will expand the El Dorado Bird Reserve, an Alliance for Zero Extinction site, by 148 acres. The property is considered the single most important parcel to acquire in order to prevent the extinction of the Santa Marta Parakeet and is also home to the Santa Marta Bush-tyrant and the Santa Marta Warbler. The major threat to the property is deforestation.

Photo from the top of La Cumbre property, now protected and managed by ProAves.

Expanding the Chucanti Nature Reserve

The QRBF grant to Fundación "Adopt a Panama Rainforest" concerns a land purchase in Darrien Province, Panama, which extends the 1,000 acre Chucanti Nature Reserve by 100 acres. The target species protected are the Endangered Great Green Macaw and Baird's tapir. The property also protects other rarities such as giant anteater, Harpy eagle, Great Curassow, jaguar, and a number of undescribed frogs, salamanders, snakes and a couple of plants new to science. The major threat is forest clearing and pesticide use.

Cerro Chucanti is an isolated massif in eastern Panama that rises from sea level to nearly 5,000 feet in elevation. The geographic isolation has allowed the flora and fauna to differentiate such that it contains a number of rainforest species found nowhere else on earth. (Photos: N Rowe and A Varma)

Besides protecting the only home of El Oro parakeet (above), forests in this region protect 338 species of birds and 52 amphibians and reptiles, 1/3 of which are endemic. (Photo: D Wechsler)

Expanding the Buenaventura Reserve

The QRBF grant to the Rainforest Trust concerns a land purchase in southwest Ecuador, which extends Buenaventura Reserve by 1,616 acres. The target species protected are El Oro parakeet and the El Oro Tapaculo, both of which depend on the Reserve for their survival. The property also protects other rarities such as Ecuadorian white-fronted capuchin, mantled howler monkeys, and Hoffman's two-toed sloth. The major threat is forest clearing for cattle grazing.

Increasing Protection of the Choco Rainforest

The QRBF grant to the American Bird Conservancy concerns a land purchase on the Pacific slope of the Western Cordillera of Colombia, which extends the Tanagers Reserve by 906 acres. The target species protected is the Endangered Gold-ringed Tanager. The property also protects other rarities such as the Choco Vireo, Cloud-forest Pygmy Owl, Black-and-gold Tanager, and Giant Antpitta. The major threat is expansion of cattle pastures.

The Black-and-gold Tanager is one of the target species at the reserve. (Photo: ProAves)

The long-limbed salamander

San Isidro: a new reserve in the Cuchumantanes Mountains of Guatemala

The QRBF grant to Global Wildlife Conservation concerns a land purchase in northwestern Guatemala, which will create the first protected area in this forested mountain range. The target species protected are a number of unique and threatened amphibians, including the Finca Chiblac Salamander, long-limbed salamander, Morelett's black-eyed treefrog. The major threat is clear-cutting.

Coastal Ecuador Forest Corridor Connectivity Project

The QRBF grant to Saving Species concerns a land purchase in the Manabi Province of North Coastal Ecuador, which will purchase a 102 hectare parcel and connect two important, existing protected areas - the Jama-Coaque Ecological Reserve and the Bosque Seco Lalo Loor Reserve. The target species protected are the Ecuadorian blue glass frog and the Ecuadorian white-fronted Capuchin monkeys. The major threat to the parcels if they are not protected is forest conversion.

A young, white-fronted capuchin monkey

Geometric Tortoise Reserve Expansion

The QRBF grant to the Turtle Conservancy concerns a land purchase in Western Cape Province, South Africa, which will expand an existing protected area by 600 acres. The reserve expansion will create the Geometric Tortoise Preserve and preserve the largest formally protected population of the highly endangered Geometric Tortoise, while also protecting floristically diverse fynbos habitat. The major threat is that forest fire will destroy the tortoises and their habitat before a reserve can be created and a fire management plan introduced.

A geometric tortoise

Leuser Ecosystem - the Suaq Belimbing River Preserve

The QRBF grant to Global Conservation concerns a land purchase on the island of Sumatra, Indonesia. The purchase of this approximately 2500 hectare riparian strip will help expand the Suaq Orangutan Center and protect endangered megafauna such as the Sumatran elephant, orangutan, and tigers. Securing the preserve will prevent human settlement and plantations from spreading out and carving up indigenous forests. Global Conservation will match the grant from QRBF.

Orangutan mother and baby