10 Years for One Cause

Just a few miles north of where runners started in Mui Wo, funds raised by MoonTrekker have been put to good use to restore lost oyster reefs in the beleaguered waters of Lantau Island.

Oyster reefs do much to benefit our seas and ourselves — from providing habitats for marine life to sheltering communities from the impacts of climate change — but have declined globally by 85 percent due to pollution, development and overharvesting. In Hong Kong, TNC is restoring the city’s once abundant oyster reefs by building bases from discarded shells and deploying them for young oysters to attach to and form new reefs, including along the sea wall of the Third Runway of Hong Kong International Airport. Despite only recently being deployed, biodiversity is already increasing on and around these reefs: a testament to how quickly nature can recover when given a helping hand. 

While runners were traversing the wilds of Lantau, critically endangered orangutans were sleeping safe and sound in their nests in the forests of Borneo, thanks to the hard work of runners.

In Kalimantan in Indonesian Borneo, 60 percent of its remaining high-integrity forests lie within abandoned timber concessions, which are vulnerable to illegal logging and land clearing. In 2023, TNC and our Indonesian partner, Yayasan Konservasi Alam Nusantara (YKAN) purchased a 44,400-hectare concession in East Kalimantan. Now, with help from MoonTrekker funds, we are setting aside ecologically sensitive areas for conservation and developing sustainable forest-based livelihoods for local communities like low-intensity logging, ecotourism and rattan production. In doing so, we are creating a model for sustainable forestry to benefit people and nature across Indonesia, and the world. 

Who could forget the tough final kilometres on the sands of Pui O Beach? Runners also helped save sea turtle eggs on the beaches of the Solomon Islands from being washed away by rising sea levels makes it feel even more worth it.

The Solomon Islands are an important nesting ground for critically endangered hawksbill and leatherback turtles. However, both species are hunted for their meat and eggs, while rising sea levels caused by climate change threaten to drown nests laid too close to the shoreline. With MoonTrekker funds, TNC is training local people as turtle rangers — especially women, who have traditionally been excluded from conservation — giving them the skills to find and relocate at-risk nests and providing an alternative livelihood to hunting.