Well, we've thought hard about what we want for our wedding present. A wedding gift is supposed to be a significant and long lasting present that should help to set up a young couple for their long and happy life together, and perhaps pass on to their children after them. Good linen or cutlery certainly fits this bill, as would a beautiful picture or vase........ But when we really thought about it, the thing that we would love most, would improve our lives together and would hopefully give us something to pass on to our children would be a world that places more importance on the protection of our environment. Where people have a financial incentive to manage and protect wild places rather than only having the choice of whether to farm or to log.

So, we genuinely do not want any stuff at all, instead we would really like to raise £5000 to donate to the World Land Trust (www.worldlandtrust.org). This money will go directly to protecting 100 acres of Ecuadorian rainforest in the Rio Candelaria Reserve (www.ecominga.net/Candelaria.htm), which will be managed locally by Fundacian EcoMinga (or Eco Minger if you prefer). We would both be totally stoked and very grateful if we can meet this ambitious target.

Here are some useful facts about the area we want to protect......

100 acres = 1/40,000th of the size of Wales (hmmm, difficult to imagine!)
100 acres = 98 American Football pitches, or 50 Proper Football pitches or 5 Millennium Domes.
If you logged and concreted the entire area (which is not really the point of all this!) there would be enough space to park 95,000 Robin Reliants.
If the area were square you could lay 389 people of Dan/Jo height head to toe along one side. However, you could only fit 320 Peter Crouches along the same side.

For the wildlife lovers out there......

Ecuador supports an incredible diversity of birds; about 17% of the world's bird species live there and protecting rainforest habitats is crucial for their protection. The Ecuadorian rainforest is also inhabited by Jaguars, Tapirs, Ocelots, Capybaras and Monkeys and is very rich in plant life.

Thank you for all your support, and we hope to see you all in May!

With much love,

Dan and Jo.
x