The Sponsor a Hectare map as of 03 September 2026; each rectangle represents 100 sponsored hectares
The Saving Marion Island’s Seabirds: Mouse Free Marion (MFM) Project’s Sponsor a Hectare campaign has recently been updated on the website. The scheme’s Honour Roll reveals that 14019 hectares have been sponsored by 03 September 2026, representing 46.7% of the target of 30 000 ha.
The sum raised to date has come from 2761 individual sponsorships, reflecting the wide level of support for eradicating Marion Island’s introduced House Mice that are killing many of the islands threatened albatrosses and petrels.
Clicking on sponsor names on the roll that are highlighted in bold leads to MFM News articles giving information on the person or body making that sponsorship.
It is important to note that the Sponsor a Hectare initiative 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 balance of the required funding by several other means, both within and outside South Africa. Nevertheless, every hectare sponsored helps us towards our goal and is greatly welcomed.
You can contribute by sponsoring 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, 03 September 2026
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“Sakkie”, a free-roaming but pet cat at the Marion Island weather station, sometime in the 1950s. With the feral cats that descended from such pets now long gone following a successful eradication, attention has switched to removing the island’s other introduced mammal, the albatross-killing House Mouse.
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.
