A Tattenhall woman is taking part in the 3 Country Marathon to raise money and awareness for Borneo’s endangered orangutans.
Katie Piercy, 30, has been busy training in Delamere Forest and the Sandstone Ridge before the race which takes place along the shore of Lake Constance – central Europe’s third largest lake – and crosses the border from Germany to Switzerland and Austria.
It’s all in aid of the Borneo Nature Foundation, which helps protect, restore and research the tropical forests of Borneo.
Home to the last surviving Bornean orangutans, whose numbers have dropped by 50% in the last 60 years, these forests also shelter pygmy elephants, Sumatran rhinos and the clouded leopards, among other rare and many entirely unique species.
Yet the peatland forests which are home to these species are being lost at an alarming rate, with an area four times the size of Switzerland destroyed between 1973 and 2010 alone.
Deforestation and fires have destroyed large swathes of the tropical forests.
Katie explained: “Currently I work for the Cheshire Wildlife Trust on a peatland restoration project in Delamere, meaning I understand the importance of peatlands for wildlife.
“Whether it be the meres and mosses of Cheshire or the tropical forests of Borneo, peatlands are home to amazing species which we’ll quickly lose if we don’t protect their habitat.
“Converting peatlands to agriculture also means we contribute to climate change, as carbon is released into the atmosphere as the peat dries.”
Many conservations believe that the extinction of the orangutan in the wild could only be decades away.
If you’d like to support Katie and the Borneo Nature Foundation, visit her JustGiving page at www.justgiving.com/fundraising/k-piercy .
