There are many things you can do to lessen your impact on our planet, we have dozens of guides and projects showing you how to do just that. But how about if you want to take more direct, instant action? Well here is one way you can offset your personal carbon emissions with a simple donation!

The Guapi Assu Reserve. Photo © Thor Ostbye

The World Land Trust is a registered charity which uses donations to buy acre upon acre of forest, both in the UK and in numerous under threat forests around the world. Now you might be thinking that buying an acre of rainforest sounds expensive, but for as little as £50, the trust can do just that. The minimum donation is actually £25, buying half an acre (or roughly 2023 sq. meters), a fairly large chunk of land we are sure you will agree.

Since its foundation in 1989 the World Land Trust has helped purchase and protect over 350,000 acres of threatened wildlife habitats in places as diverse as Kites Hill in the UK, to the Wild Lands Elephant Corridor in India. These protected areas are then maintained by local organisations.

The WLT chooses which areas to purchase by first looking at the biological diversity and the value of conserving such an area. They then look at the feasibility of buying in the chosen area. Things like the price of the land, the actual ability to buy it and if there is the capability to train local people to protect and maintain the forest in the future. Another thing they consider is whether there is any possibility of support for that area from another source. If so, the trust will look for an area in greater peril.

Several of the projects can even be visited should you wish to see the small bit of the world you have helped to protect. Conservation projects in Belize, Brazil, Ecuador, Patagonia, The Philippines, India and the UK can all be visited, and information for would be travellers is available on the website .

We at Make Green Easy are planning to buy an acre or two, and with Sir David Attenborough as patron of the charity, we will certainly be in good company. If you want to know more, or want to make a donation visit the World Land Trust website .