The Sponsor a Hectare map as of 21 April 2026; each rectangle represents 100 sponsored hectares

The Saving Marion Island’s Seabirds: Mouse Free Marion (MFM) Project’s Sponsor a Hectare scheme has been updated on the website this week.  The scheme’s Honour Roll reveals that, by 21 April 2024, 13 592 hectares have been sponsored, representing 45.3 % of the target of 30 000 ha.

The sum raised to date has come from 2717 individual sponsorships, most from people who have recognized the necessity of supporting the eradication of Marion Island’s introduced House Mice that are killing many of the islands threatened albatrosses and petrels.

Clicking on sponsor names highlighted in bold on the roll leads to MFM News articles giving information on the person or body that made the sponsorship.

It is important to note that the Sponsor a Hectare scheme aims to raise R30 million, which will form only a part of the total cost of the project.  The MFM Team is working hard to raise the major part of the required funding by a number of other means, both within and outside South Africa.  Nevertheless, every hectare sponsored helps us towards our goal and is greatly welcomed.

You can help by making your sponsorship of one hectare or more – or by making a repeat sponsorship.  Hectare sponsors can also help by spreading the word to their colleagues, friends and families.  The MFM Project Team is deeply grateful for the support from all our hectare sponsors.

John Cooper, News Correspondent, Mouse-Free Marion Project, 22 April 2026

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A Grey-headed Albatross stands on its nest on Marion Island, artwork by Lea Finke of Artists & Biologists Unite for Nature (ABUN) for World Albatross Day 2020, after a photograph by Stefan Schoombie

The Mouse-Free Marion Project is a registered non-profit company (No. 2020/922433/08) in South Africa, established to eradicate the invasive albatross-killing mice on Marion Island in the Southern Ocean.  The project was initiated by BirdLife South Africa and the South African Department of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment.  Upon successful completion, the project will restore the critical breeding habitat of over two million seabirds, many globally threatened, and improve the island’s resilience to a warming climate.  For more information or to support the project please visit mousefreemarion.org.