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Land is bought in the name of local people or organizations to ensure long-term success.
By Shula Rosen
An Israeli nonprofit that crowdsources funds to purchase endangered habitats has safeguarded 100 threatened species across six countries in the past decade.
This is My Earth (TiME) has raised more than $580,000 since its founding in 2015, enabling the protection of 13 square kilometers of land worldwide.
These tracts have linked protected areas, created migration corridors, and provided territory for predators such as big cats and eagles.
One project near Belize City helped curb unsustainable fishing and dredging.
The initiative is the creation of Uri Shanas, a zoologist who studied at Tel Aviv University and Columbia University before joining the University of Haifa–Oranim.
He said his years of teaching about extinction convinced him to act. “At some stage, I started to think, hang on, it’s not logical that I should teach without doing anything about it,” Shanas told Times of Israel.
Membership costs a minimum of $1 annually, granting a vote in deciding which threatened habitats to purchase.
TiME now counts over 7,000 members and is running its 10th campaign. Each year, three projects are put up for selection, with donations divided according to the vote.
This year’s choices include 50 hectares of rainforest on Mount Sagyaan in the Philippines, threatened by loggers and developers, where conservation would protect the Higa-onon indigenous people and endangered wildlife.
In Colombia, voters are weighing land purchases to expand Los Magnolios nature reserve and to secure a corridor in the Putumayo Amazon, home to jaguars, Andean bears, and the dispossessed Embera Chami people.
According to the World Wildlife Fund, monitored wildlife populations declined 73% between 1970 and 2020.
TiME highlights that every donated dollar protects an average of 24 square meters of forest. A study conducted with the University of Haifa estimated each dollar spent on habitat yields $212.80 in economic value, with more than half benefiting local communities.
Land is bought in the name of local people or organizations to ensure long-term success. “Anyone who cares about nature won’t find a better investment,” said Shanas.
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