Conservation International Blog

In the Field, Science, species

Through the Magnifying Glass

Posted by Leeanne Alonso | 02.08.2010 | No Comments |

© CI/Piotr Naskrecki

© CI/Piotr Naskrecki

As the saying goes, it’s the little things in life that really matter. Literally. I’m talking about the millions of tiny creatures that go unnoticed each day by most of us.

Dr. E.O. Wilson and David Liittschwager’s recent article in the February issue of National Geographic Magazine, “Within One Cubic Foot,” really brings these creatures to life for us. The close-up photos of hundreds of colorful and spectacular species bring this microscopic world to our eyes.

In just one cubic foot, Liittschwager documented an incredible array of biodiversity: more than 600 individual organisms in a coral reef in French Polynesia, 90 species in the Fynbos of South Africa, 32 fish species and over 100 clams in a river in Tennessee (USA) and over 500 insects representing 100 species in a Costa Rican cloud forest.

To me, this diversity is fascinating but not too surprising. As an entomologist working for CI’s Rapid Assessment Program (RAP), I have closely studied hundreds of one meter square plots on the rain forest floor, many containing over 30 ant species per plot. Our RAP team scientists document the diversity of remote and unexplored parts of our world, consistently revealing hundreds of species new to science, most of them from this realm of miniature creatures. It’s truly exhilarating for us to explore and study these tiny organisms, knowing that most of what we’re looking at has not yet been described by science and may not even have been seen by humans before!

The diversity of these little animals is the foundation of life in the forest and on the rest of our planet. They serve essential functions by breaking down dead and decaying material, acting as predators and prey, pollinating plants and sustaining the chemical processes that keep us all alive. In the article, renowned entomologist and biodiversity expert (and my Ph.D. advisor), Dr. E.O. Wilson points out that “without the smooth working of all this linkage, the biosphere would cease to exist”. In his book, “The Creation” (2006), Dr. Wilson explains, “People need insects to survive, but insects do not need us. If all humankind were to disappear tomorrow, it is unlikely that a single insect species would go extinct, except three forms of human body and head lice…but if insects were to vanish, the terrestrial environment would soon collapse into chaos.”

I am excited to see this intriguing story in National Geographic and hope that these spectacular photos help to bring these creatures more attention and respect.  If you’d like to see more photos and stories of this fascinating world, I highly recommend reading the book “The Smaller Majority” by my good friend and colleague, Dr. Piotr Naskrecki.  His macro-photography is beautiful and the stories of the small but dominant creatures of the earth are a must read.

Learn more about the discoveries made on our RAP expeditions.

Leeanne Alonso manages CI’s RAP program.

conference, marine

Dr. Greg Stone Reports from the World Economic Forum

Posted by Greg Stone | 02.05.2010 | No Comments |

© New England Aquarium
Last week, Dr. Greg Stone—leader of CI’s Marine Program—attended the 40th annual meeting of the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos, Switzerland.
On arriving in Davos, I was greeted by the snow-capped peaks in the lovely, icy villages of Davos and Klosters, the two towns where the meeting takes place. I was involved in a number of panel discussions and workshops on sustainability and finding solutions to the global commons, as well as ocean-themed evening events, but for me the most important session was to present an overview of some of the solutions that can help to mitigate the threats to our oceans.

My studio session, “Facing a Sea Change,” focused on reversing the damage that has been done to the oceans and how we should build on recent successes. I was the third participant, following Tony Haymet from Scripps Institution of Oceanography and Eric Sala from National Geographic.

During my 10 minute talk, I made the case for the oceans, highlighting some solutions to counteract the wide ranging and damaging threats. These solutions were focused in two areas: oceanscapes, which is a large-scale method of managing ocean areas which often encompass a number of different countries and stakeholders, and the establishment of an “Ocean Health Index” which can be thought of as a “Dow Jones Index” for the oceans—a way of measuring ocean health at various locations.

It is especially exciting to see the oceans getting notice at such a high level event as Davos. As the world recognizes that maintaining healthy oceans is good business, these vital ecosystems are taking on a larger role in the global agenda.

The WEF is a Swiss-based, independent nonprofit organization that works internationally. This year, the meeting’s theme was a call-to-action—”Improve the State of the World: Rethink, Redesign and Rebuild”. WEF’s meetings are often attended by world leaders and top-level economic and business-minded decision makers. This year saw such notable speakers as French President Nicolas Sarkozy, former U.S. president Bill Clinton, Microsoft Head Bill Gates, and film director James Cameron. JWQX7JBAV82P

In the Field, Science, species

Hiroshima, the Cold War, and the Giant Salamander of Hope

Posted by Rob McNeil | 02.04.2010 | No Comments |

Rob McNeil and a giant Japanese salamander

Rob McNeil and a giant Japanese salamander

Last week I was in Japan looking for giant salamanders (Andrias japonicus), and for two days I stayed in the charming and bustling city of Hiroshima.

Visiting Hiroshima for the first time is a peculiar experience. As a 36 year-old who grew up in fear of nuclear Armageddon during the 1980s, the word Hiroshima evoked two frightening images for me: a mushroom cloud and the shattered dome of the one building that still stood after the attack. The human horrors that those images captured were so frightening that I experienced them as a feeling of deep fear at the bottom of my stomach.

Extraordinary Creatures

The extraordinary creature that I was in Hiroshima to visit seems strangely relevant to my teenage picture of Hiroshima. It looks like the sort of terrifying mutation that all those 1950s sci-fi movies implied that the atomic age would unleash on us – a giant salamander, 100,000 times the weight of a normal salamander, with a bite that could take off a limb (or a finger at least).

But these salamanders are not mutants, created by a gamma ray burst in 1945. They are in fact ancient animals that have lived in the beautiful streams around Hiroshima for millennia.

The fear of nuclear Armageddon, thankfully, no longer haunts me, but as a person living through the biggest extinction crisis since the age of the dinosaurs, I still feel that nameless dread sometimes. It seems that humans simply can’t grasp that the biological systems that support the creatures that we are wiping out are also the ones that support us. And as our carelessness leads to the loss of more and more of the building blocks of ecosystems, we make our own future all the more precarious.

Reasons for Hope

But every now and then, I see a ray of hope, and the giant salamanders of Hiroshima are one of those rays.

Salamanders, for those of you who aren’t thinking about animals every day are amphibians, and amphibian species are being lost at a truly alarming rate – at present a third of all amphibian species are threatened with extinction.

Amphibians play a host of roles in an ecosystem, and from a human point of view, a key one is keeping insect populations in check – reducing the risk of insect-borne diseases. So if amphibian populations collapse, we may see an increase in human diseases.

A key reason for the decline in amphibian populations – along with human-induced habitat loss – is a fungus called Chytridiomycosis that can wipe out entire species, but recent research has shown that the Japanese giant salamander has lived with this fungus for hundreds of years without becoming ill.

So this extraordinary creature may hold a key to preventing the disease in other amphibians, which may in turn, help to protect humanity. Pretty cool.

So as Japan prepares to host the Convention on Biological Diversity this coming fall – a major conference that brings nations together to try to slow or stop the loss of their plants and animals – we should make sure that we think about this weird looking, cold-blooded beast, and consider what unquantifiable benefits all of the other species at risk may end up offering us as well.

Rob McNeil is the Director for Media Strategy at Conservation International.  For more on this, check out the two great BBC  News pieces from that Japan trip:  “Close Encounters with Japan’s “living fossil” and Giant Salamander: Human  Threat, Human Promise.

Giant salamander: Human threat, human promise

Communities, In the Field, NGOs

Yacuri National Park

Posted by Emili Utreras | 02.03.2010 | 1 Comment |

A new protected area – Yacuri National Park – has been created on the Ecuadorian side of the Abiseo-Cóndor-Kutukú Conservation Corridor. The park protects the headwaters of important river basins that are a major freshwater source for southwestern Ecuador and northwestern Peru. The protected area – 43,090 hectares (106,478 acres) of páramo and cloud forest ecosystems – will increase connectivity between the Podocarpus National Park (Ecuador) and the Tabaconas Namballe Santuary (Perú).

The park is located within the “Bosque y Vegetación Protector Colambo Yacuri” southern block, which is characterized by shrubby páramo vegetation (42.6 percent), high evergreen forest (22 percent), dry scrub from Southern Andes (15.1 percent) and cloud forest (15.1 percent). It is a convergence zone of warm currents from the West as well as dry and warm humid currents from the East, which combined with the topography and geographical location make the area high in plant diversity.

The area has a high value for the presence of faunal species like the spectacled bear (Tremarctos ornatus), the tapir (Tapirus pinchaque) and the chonto (Northern Pudu), whose presence suggest that the areas still maintain adequate conditions for the survival of these species.

The creation of Yacuri National Park is a joint initiative of the Ecuadorian Ministry of Environment, CI-Ecuador and Fundación Arcoiris (a local partner, based in Loja). Thanks to this alliance, we have worked together to develop the technical information needed to establish this new protected area in southern Ecuador.

Emili Utreras is the Communications Specialist for Conservation International Ecuador
Read this post in Spanish Read more…

In the Field, marine

On World Wetlands Day, Recognition for Abrolhos Marine National Park

Posted by Isabela Santos | 02.02.2010 | No Comments |

© CI/photo by Sterling Zumbrunn

Today, as we celebrate World Wetlands Day, we are very happy to share the news that the Abrolhos Marine National Park—a critical protected area for biodiversity conservation on the northeastern coast of Brazil—was designated a Ramsar site, joining the global list of Wetlands of International Importance.

World Wetlands Day marks the date of the signing of the Convention on Wetlands in 1971, in the Iranian city of Ramsar. The so-called ‘Ramsar Convention’ is an intergovernmental treaty that embodies the commitments of 159 member countries to maintain the ecological character of their wetlands and to plan for their sustainable use. There are 1,886 Ramsar sites already designated, with a total surface area of more than 185 million hectares (457 million acres).

The Abrolhos park contains 88,250 hectares (more than 218,000 acres) within an area that contains the highest marine biodiversity in the Southern Atlantic, including complex and unique ecosystems that range from highly endemic coral reefs to extensive areas of well-preserved mangroves. The park’s coral reefs are a safe place for the growth and reproduction for many marine species, especially commercially important fish.

In spite of its social, economic and environmental diversity and importance, the long-term protection of the Abrolhos region still faces huge threats, such as illegal and over-fishing, shrimp farming, exploitation of oil and natural gas near protected areas and sedimentation from coastal deforestation. Nevertheless, we are positive that the park’s new designation as a Ramsar site is a key step that will help CI, partner organizations and local communities call attention to this critical region, attracting the investments and conservation agreements necessary to enlarge the protected area and safeguard the livelihoods of hundreds of communities reliant on local fisheries.

CI-Brazil’s marine and environmental policy teams are proud of our contribution to the park’s Ramsar designation, having offered science-based data to support the site’s nomination. The Abrolhos Marine National Park is the 11th Ramsar site in Brazil and the second one supported by CI in the country. Last May, we were glad to announce that the private reserve Fazenda Rio Negro (Rio Negro Lodge), an official protected area owned by CI-Brazil in the vast Pantanal—considered the world’s largest wetland—in central western Brazil, was also designated a Ramsar site.

Culture, In the Field

A Lens on Daily Life in Brazil

Posted by Mirella Domenich | 02.01.2010 | 2 Comments |

© Mirella Domenich

© Artur Paiva
© Marina Biancalana

This morning I had the pleasure of receiving by e-mail a video prepared by the photographer Adriano Gambarini from a photography workshop he carried out for the Cerrado-Pantanal and Environmental Policy teams from Conservation International-Brazil.

Sitting here in the Brasília office, it made me reflect on those moments and remember what we learned.

The workshop took place in the city of Pirenópolis in the state of Goiás, about 180 kilometers from Brasília.

During three days, I, Artur, Andrea, Fernado, Marina, Téti, Yuri and the local partners Hugo and Renato shared experiences about photography and wandered through the Brazilian savanna known as Cerrado. We observed the local flora and fauna, met with local communities and, above all, photographed – a lot.

The workshop constantly tested us as we learned how to handle the equipment, to look at the scenes through several angles and to learn more about ourselves and our colleagues.
Altogether, we took more than a thousand pictures, using CI-Brazil’s Nikon professional equipment and our own automatic equipment.

From now on, we feel more prepared to document field excursions and to register every little piece of the country were we work. We are all very motivated!

If we have the opportunity to visit remote places, meeting people whose unique stories are not often told, then we have the obligation to share it with others, be it for education, denouncement or to inspire change.

Next week I, Artur and Fernando will go to Mineiros, in the state of Goiás, with the aim of planting over six thousand native seedlings. The pictures will be posted here – don’t miss them!

Mirella Domenich is the Communication Manager for Conservation International Brazil
Read this post in Portuguese Read more…

Event

A Groundbreaking Birthday

Posted by Molly | 01.28.2010 | 3 Comments |

Family in La Amistad. © CI/ photo by Haroldo Castro
Twenty-three years ago today, CI was founded by a group of dedicated conservationists who believed that true sustainability of the Earth’s resources depended on a combination of rigorous science, local knowledge and the informed and engaged participation of people all over the world.

La Amistad. © Conservation InternationalFor its first major project, CI set out to protect 728,000 hectares (1.8 million acres) in and around La Amistad International Park on the border between Costa Rica and Panama. Partially funded by McDonald’s, this initiative emphasized local community participation in economic growth, seeking not only the conservation of biodiversity, but also the protection of the watersheds essential for Costa Rica’s hydroelectric development and other benefits to human well-being.

Today, CI has grown to include over 30 country field offices with over one thousand government, business and nonprofit partners worldwide. In the last five years alone, we have engaged countless communities in conservation efforts, discovered more than 400 species and helped increase global protected area coverage by 63.6 million hectares (nearly 250,000 square miles – an area the size of Texas).

As we reflect on how far we’ve come, CI is focused on the future. We will continue to work for the protection of the natural ecosystems which form the building blocks of all life on Earth so that humanity and all life can continue to thrive.

Science, climate change

CI’s Response to Climate Change Skeptics

Posted by Michael Totten | 01.28.2010 | No Comments |

© Carr Clifton/Minden Pictures

Last week, the Times U.K. published an article about reported errors in scientific data compiled by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). CI’s Michael Totten responds.

Healthy skepticism is an excellent scientific tool and virtue; uncovering errors and any other mistakes, omissions, misinterpretations, analytics, methodologies and outdated knowledge is most welcome by the scientific community.

I count myself as a strong skeptic. I wrote a column a few years ago asking whether advocates of taking action to mitigate climate change may have won the battle but ultimately lose the war, as groups try to claim that their solutions should be the first and best things to do regardless of cost, risk or relative effectiveness.

Hence, just as patriotism is the last refuge for scoundrels, so are climate solutions the last refuge of pork barrel scoundrels. We see government officials rolling out tens of billions of dollars for advancing fast breeder reactor technology, geoengineering of the oceans, skies and land, while ignoring the cheapest options like energy efficiency and REDD+.

Skepticism applies to both sides of the argument—to climate deniers, cynics, critics and opponents as well as proponents of costly and risky solutions.  Web sites like www.realclimate.org and www.climateprogress.org are managed by a number of the world’s top climate scientists and do a great job at debunking the deniers’ misinformation, as well as owning up to mistakes that scientists have made, as with the Himalayan glacier melt date.

At the end of the day, there is overwhelming confirmation being derived from so many different independent scientific disciplines that even a few mistakes here and there do not make any real dent in the conclusion that climate change is real, serious, and only getting worse.  After all, the fact that the Himalayan glaciers are going to take longer to melt than the IPCC Fourth Assessment Report indicated is hardly a game-changing insight; they will still melt, it will just take longer. One could hold up similar counter-examples, noting that the IPCC Report also mistakenly underestimated sea level rise and Arctic and Antarctic ice melt (both occurring faster than the IPCC thought would happen this century).

Whether one looks at paleoclimate data (derived from a myriad of disciplines encompassing the geosphere, atmosphere, biosphere, ocean chemistry, etc.), computer simulations, experimental research, mathematical models or real-time and long-term series observations of natural world dynamic changes (land and water ecosystems), the results reinforce previous findings to such a significant degree that no denier, cynic or climate opponent has been able to put forward an alternative interpretation of all this scientific data. Rather, their role has been to play sleuths in making sure the data is accurate, and as they turn up possible mistakes, it is readily embraced by the scientific community to be checked and either verified or shown to be a false misinterpretation of the data.

From this vantage point, climate change cynics are actually providing a service; unfortunately, they only glean the crumbs of potential errors, failing to see or acknowledge the immense edifice of confirmation evidence.

Michael Totten is Chief Advisor for Climate and Water in CI’s Center for Environmental Leadership in Business (CELB).

Corporate

smALL business needs nature to thrive

Posted by Andrea Wolfson | 01.25.2010 | 1 Comment |

Unless we protect nature, ALL businesses – small and large – will not thrive.

That’s the message that CI’s Chairman and CEO, Peter Seligmann, delivers this week to an online network of small business owners.

CI’s Center for Environmental Leadership in Business (CELB) has launched a partnership with FedEX that will focus on efforts in China to:

  • fight climate change by sequestering significant amounts of carbon through reforestation efforts,
  • create local job opportunities in earthquake-affected areas in southwest China
  • and secure the long-term survivability of the giant panda.

CI has been pioneering projects like this for over 20 years, and the partnership with FedEx has provided CI the opportunity to bring this message to American Express’ OPEN Forum, an online community designed to help small businesses grow.  Because uniting business and conservation priorities is good business, Seligmann was asked to contribute to the Forum on what actions small business owners can take to “go green,” including joining Team Earth.

Read Peter Seligmann’s full message.

News, climate change

I Say It Is The Moon That Shines So Bright

Posted by Manuel Oliva | 01.22.2010 | 2 Comments |

A small group of Senators are introducing legislation to block the EPA from regulating greenhouse gases, reported Juliet Eilperin in the Washington Post today.

In the play “The Taming of the Shrew” Katharina gave in and accepted that the sun was the moon, even though she knew it wasn’t so. We are asked to do the same, to ignore the facts and ignore the need for us to act on climate change.

On her website Senator Murkowski (R – Alaska), who is leading this legislative effort, asserts that EPA regulation is bad for U.S. businesses. Although it might seem cheaper to allow the dumping of pollution into our waters and air, and destroy our natural resources – it isn’t. In the long term we will pay a much higher price.

The mission of the EPA is to protect our health and our environment. Maybe we should let them do their job.

Manuel Oliva is Director of U.S. Climate Policy at Conservation International (CI).