Help Save the Mountain Gorillas

The Gorilla Organization is an international NGO working to save the world’s last remaining gorillas from extinction. Whether you choose to join in the GREAT GORILLA RUN, London’s best all-costume charity fun run, track gorillas and raft the Nile on the Great Gorilla Adventure, the Gorillas need extraordinary people like you and my niece Nikki (who is an international political analyst living in London) to help save an incredible species.

Nikki is part of the world of furry-fun people united in their desire to see our ‘Big Furry Cousins in the Forest’ survive for generations to come.

Left: Nikki preparing for the 2009 Great Gorilla Race

Today, gorillas are threatened, not due to a demand for their meat or their infants, but due to a demand for the lush forest in which they live. For the poverty-stricken communities around the gorilla habitat, it is the gorilla forest that provides them with many of their fundamental human needs. But, sadly, the collection of basic resources such as water and firewood is destroying the gorilla habitat and, in turn, the gorillas.

Right: Nikki (No 541, in the pink tutu) working hard to save the Gorillas!

The Gorilla Organization understands that if gorillas are to have a realistic chance of survival in the context of Africa's significant challenges, conservation and poverty alleviation need to happen side-by-side. And so they work with local communities to find alternative resources to those found in the forest, lessening encroachment into the gorilla habitat and lifting local people out of poverty. Their grass-roots approach to gorilla conservation is sustainable, holistic and has a long-term effect.

Left: A Mountain Gorilla (photogaph taken by Nikki's Dad and my brother-in-law, Ian Cockerill, who is on the Board of the Leadership for Conservation in Africa)

The project types that the Gorilla Organisation are involved in include:

Conservation and Research: Without the forest the gorillas will not survive. Understanding the threats and protecting the forest is the first step to saving the gorillas.

Education: Africa's children of today are the conservationists of tomorrow. Giving local people knowledge of environmental issues is building a future for gorillas.
Development: Empty stomachs have no ears. Protecting the gorilla habitat starts with helping African people in need.

Left: Nikki out of her gorilla kit and as she really is

Why don't you go ape and help save the Mountain Gorillas from extinction?

Every single Pound / Euro / Dollar/South African Rand helps! So, click here to sponsor Nikki and help her reach her target donation.

If you can't sponsor her yourself, you can still help by re-tweeting her sponsorship page or linking to it on your Facebook. 

You can also visit Sam the Gorilla's Great Gorilla Race page and browse the hilarious photos of London, City of the Apes!

(Text and information about gorillas from the webpage of The Gorilla Organisation)