Help Restore Jinja Island!

Graham Hughes is organizing this fundraiser.

Donation protected

Hi friends! As some of you already know, I'm back on Jinja Island for a few weeks hoping to STOP THE SWAMPIFICATION of Jinja!

This is what the island used to look like:

....aaaaaand this is what it looks like now...

It's hard to believe it's the same island.

As a mangrove island, Jinja is very low-lying, and as such it is particularly vulnerable to climate change. When I first moved there, we'd maybe have a really high tide that covered most the island once a year, if that. But over the last ten years, these high tides have become more and more regular, and are now pretty much happening every week.

The thing is that this isn't rain water: it's salt water. And salt water kills pretty much every "land" thing it touches. Gone are the banana trees, the pineapple grove, the nonis and almond trees. I counted 30 dead palm trees when I arrived earlier this month. It's proper heart-breaking. The palms that remain are not in the best of health.

And yes, this is climate change in action.

BUT DO NOT FEAR! We have a solution. And don't worry, it's sustainable. You see, the tides are only a few inches higher than they used to be, so all we have to do is build a little wall out of stones and backfill with soil.

Easy, right?

Well... here's the problemo, amigos... we have to get the soil from the mainland to the island. Factor in labour and transport, it costs around £1 a bag.

That would be fine if we needed, say, a few dozen bags, or even a few hundred. But no. We need a few THOUSAND.

(For reference, there's about £300 of soil in this pic.)

So here's the big ask... would you maybe consider chipping in and buy some bags of soil for Jinja Island? 20 bags would be incredibly generous, 50 bags would be an absolute lifesaver... more than 100? Let me just say, I'll be in your debt forever!!!

You can follow my progress on Facebook... and I'll be posting updates on here as well.

Furthermore, for every £1 bag of soil you purchase for the island, I'll donate 25p to The Sea Turtle Conservancy here in Bocas Del Toro. That way you can help the endangered flora of Jinja Island whilst also helping the endangered fauna of Bocas Del Toro!