03/13/2026
TIER 4 IS COMPLETE! To Ecology, and Beyond!
Donate:
https://wildgreenfuture.org/collections/charity-battle-viii
Standings: https://wildgreenfuture.org
Learn:
https://www.wildgreenfuture.org/pages/charity-battle-faq
Tier 1 (COMPLETE!)
Staffing Conservation in the Amazon
$31,500
Alliance for a Sustainable Amazon (ASA) is working to ensure a secure future for the people and ecosystems of the Peruvian Amazon through collaboration with local communities and research into the ecology and wildlife of the region. They are a young but already accomplished organization, rapidly expanding in both size and impact.
To help sustain this growth, the last two years’ Charity Battles provided funding to contribute to ASA's staff salaries for positions including a lead naturalist, lepidoptera project lead, and assistant researchers.
In Tier 1, we are continuing to support the work of these natural resource professionals. It takes people power to conserve nature, and these positions have had an exponential effect on ASA's work, allowing them to bring even more capacity and expertise to their efforts.
Tier 2 (COMPLETE)
Reintroducing a Declining Butterfly
$19,426
The frosted elfin is a small brown butterfly considered to be rare and declining throughout its geographic range, which extends from New Hampshire and Wisconsin south to Florida and west to Texas. It is likely extirpated in several states and provinces of its former range, and is listed as a species of special concern, threatened, or endangered in 11 states. It occurs in small, localized populations, and its caterpillars specialize on sundial lupine and wild indigo. Extremely vulnerable to habitat destruction and fragmentation, frosted elfin populations have been lost from 7 of the 10 locations in Florida where they were present as recently as 2017.
The Daniels Lab at the Florida Museum of Natural History's McGuire Center for Lepidoptera and Biodiversity has over 30 years' experience in captive breeding of at-risk taxa, including the federally endangered Miami Blue Butterfly and Schaus' Swallowtail
Two years ago, Wild Green Future supported the augmentation of the Daniels Lab's frosted elfin captive breeding program with new individuals and diverse DNA from remaining wild Florida populations. Funds from Charity Battle VI also enabled the creation of a manual containing the comprehensive set of husbandry and breeding best practices for conservationists across the butterfly's range.
Last year’s grant supported the creation of a separate captive population with genetics from frosted elfins in Virginia to ensure the survival of that region's genetic variation. It also allowed for the collection of nondestructive tissue samples to enable further genetic analysis of the Virginian populations. Additionally, funding from last year's Charity Battle allowed the Daniels Lab to train natural resource professionals in Louisiana and Virginia on frosted elfin detection and population survey methods. This helped these state agencies to better monitor their local populations!
Every stage of this project has progressed successfully, and now we are reaching the most exciting step: reintroduction. Last year, the Daniels Lab began reintroducing the butterfly on protected lands it once occupied, starting with Ichetucknee Springs State Park in north central Florida.
In Tier 2, we are seeking funds to support the Daniels Lab's continued reintroduction efforts at Ichetucknee Springs State Park and the expansion to an additional site in the region!
Funding from Tier 2 will also help support post-release monitoring at the reintroduction sites, a vital step in ensuring the project's success.
Tier 3 (COMPLETE)
Facilities for Rainforest Conservation
$25,000
Alliance for a Sustainable Amazon (ASA) conducts most of its activities from its field station in the Peruvian Amazon, Finca las Piedras. Their location allows them to conduct research in the forest and to interface directly and organically with local communities, but the field station’s capacity to support staff and visiting researchers was limited by the lack of facilities in the region.
To help remedy this limitation, Wild Green Future has worked with ASA over the past five years to support the construction of resilient infrastructure, including solar panels, bathroom and shower facilities, a biodigester for waste treatment, new staff housing, expanded storage facilities, and necessary building maintenance and repairs at Finca las Piedras. We have also supported the construction of a new work and collections space in Puerto Maldonado, the nearest major city to the field station.
This year, Tier 3's infrastructure fundraising goals will support necessary work to improve the access road leading to Finca las Piedras. It will also support the further development of the work and collections space in Puerto Maldonado.
Tier 4 (Complete)
Conserving the Brazil nut corridor
$15,000
Most of the world's supply of Brazil nuts comes from the Madre de Dios department of Peru. Because Brazil nut trees are dependent on intact rainforest to complete their life cycle, the Peruvian government has designated family-owned concessions where most extractive activities are limited and the sustainable harvest of Brazil nuts can be maintained. As long as the Brazil nut harvest continues to support the concessionaires who live there, this globally-significant region of the Peruvian Amazon will remain intact.
At the request of local concessionaires, Alliance for a Sustainable Amazon (ASA) is working to ensure the sustainability of the Brazil nut harvest and by extension the survival of this essential piece of the Peruvian Amazon. They do this through the Brazil Nut Corridor Project.
Participating concessionaires are provided with workshops on the cultivation and planting of Brazil nut seedlings in forest gaps, and those who complete the program receive 80 Brazil nut seedlings for the lands they manage. Transportation assistance is provided when needed to attend the workshops, and concessionaires are given a guidebook created by ASA and a forestry expert in the region as a reference.
This year, ASA is continuing to expand the program, providing workshops for new concessionaires and checking in with participants from last year to see their progress. Wild Green Future has had the pleasure of supporting this excellent community-based conservation project since its start in 2021, and we are excited to provide continued funding through Tier 4 of the Charity Battle.
Current conservation goal
Tier 5
To Ecology, and Beyond!
Any funds donated beyond Tier 4 will support further Wild Green Future grants, projects, and initiatives. Learn more about what we've funded in the past by visiting our website,
https://wildgreenfuture.org
Confused?
The Charity Battle is a Wild Green annual tradition. Everyone divides into nature-themed gangs based on their favorite ecological interests and competes to see which gang can raise the most money for conservation through the official group nonprofit, Wild Green Future.
Donations of $10 USD or more get a sticker specific to the donor’s gang in the mail, and the gang that raises the most money by the end of the battle wins! Stickers ship globally.
Regardless of which gangs you choose, the donations will go towards the same causes. Gangs are not themed or based on the conservation projects (i.e. a donation to Bird Gang doesn’t go to a bird conservation group), but are instead a fun way for passionate nature fans to compete.
If you aren’t in a place to donate, you can still help by making memes for your preferred gang!
Memes are the driving force for the Charity Battle, and without them it wouldn’t be nearly as successful!
Learn about Wild Green Future and this year's goals at our website, linked above.
The donation round will continue from now until the big showdown on Friday, 3/13!
Picture courtesy of Court Harding
