climate change, Partnerships, Science

European Parliament Hosts Blue Carbon Policy Working Group

Posted by | 01.27.2012 | No Comments |

Mangroves in Madagascar. (© CI/ photo by Sterling Zumbrunn)

Research indicates that coastal ecosystems such as mangroves, salt marshes and seagrass beds can store up to five times more carbon than many temperate and tropical forests, yet these vital environments are being destroyed and degraded at a rapid pace.

Conservation International and the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) continue to work together to coordinate the Blue Carbon Initiative, the first integrated program with a comprehensive and coordinated global agenda focused on mitigating climate change through the conservation and restoration of coastal marine ecosystems. Earlier this month in Brussels, the Blue Carbon Policy Working Group met for the second time at the European Union Parliament.

At the Brussels meeting, Blue Carbon policy and science experts discussed the role of coastal ecosystems as carbon sinks, the potential economic value of coastal carbon and the growing importance of Blue Carbon activities for the European Commission.

Struan Stevenson, a member of the European Parliament and chair of the Intergroup on Climate Change, Biodiversity and Sustainable Development, made the following remarks regarding the issue of climate change and the role of coastal ecosystems as an important piece of the solution:

We cannot afford any longer to overlook the critical role of our oceans. Without the essential ecosystem service they provide, climate change would be far worse. Oceans are our Blue Carbon sinks. Keeping them in good shape could be one of the most important things that we could do to keep climate change under control. But to achieve this we have to reduce the rate of marine and coastal ecosystem degradation.

Despite the vital role of marine and coastal ecosystems in mitigating climate change, International and European policy makers pay too little attention to Blue Carbon. It is almost an unknown and too often overshadowed issue in the European decision-making process. I am convinced that preserving and restoring coastal and marine ecosystems should be fully integrated in all climate change mitigation strategies and biodiversity policies at international and European levels.

I would like to thank the Intergroup and Mr. Stevenson for hosting last week’s workshop and for providing their insight and support in this effort. The partnerships formed in Brussels will be important to ensure Blue Carbon policy is incorporated into international efforts mitigating global climate change. I look forward to the next meeting of the International Blue Carbon Initiative, which will convene the Science Working Group in March in Costa Rica.

Dr. Emily Pidgeon is senior director of strategic marine initiatives in CI’s Global Marine division. To learn more about the Blue Carbon Initiative, download this fact sheet (PDF–309.11 KB).

Communities, Culture, species

How Species Surveys Help People

Posted by | 01.26.2012 | No Comments |

Earlier this week, Trond Larsen described his experience participating in a Rapid Assessment Program (RAP) survey of southwestern Suriname. Today, CI-Suriname Executive Director Annette Tjon Sie Fat discusses what the RAP results will mean for Suriname’s people.

The 2010 Suriname Rapid Assessment Program (RAP) team — 53 scientists, students and indigenous Trio people working together to document biodiversity in the region. (© Piotr Naskrecki)

Whenever we at CI talk about our RAP surveys, we tend to focus on the amazing biological results of these assessments — and rightly so. However, this particular RAP in Suriname was not only unique because of the 1,300 exceptional species that were found, 46 of which are new to science. It was also special for the team at CI-Suriname for being the third and last in a series of training RAPs, which aimed to strengthen the capacity of Surinamese scientists and students to carry out biological field assessments.

Situated on the northeast coast of South America, Suriname is the greenest country on Earth, with more than 90 percent of its land area under forest cover. These forests harbor a wealth of biodiversity, protect some of the world’s most pristine freshwater sources, absorb carbon from the atmosphere and provide other benefits for people near and far.

Suriname’s population totals about half a million people, with nearly 80 percent living on the coast. There is currently very little capacity available in the country to conduct scientific field studies, and few professionals with high-level degrees and experience to provide training in the rapidly evolving environmental development areas of climate change, ecosystem service markets, biodiversity conservation and forest cover monitoring.

In our series of trainings, the first group of scientists and students was introduced to the RAP methodology during a week-long training at the Brownsberg Nature Park in June 2008, which is easily accessible by road from the capital of Paramaribo. The second, two-week survey in 2009 took the students to Raleighvallen in the Central Suriname Nature Reserve, an area that had been previously studied, but can be reached only by river or small airplane. The third and ‘real’ RAP paired each student with a scientist and took the team to a remote and rugged area in southwestern Suriname, where they joined a team of local indigenous people and had the opportunity to share knowledge and expertise. (See the RAP team at work in the video below.)

The expedition set out from Kwamalasamutu, a village of about 1,000 inhabitants near the Brazilian border. This community made up of members of eight indigenous groups — predominantly Trio — is physically isolated and the only transport connection is by small charter plane. The high cost of air transportation results in a limited supply and high prices for everything, including education and health supplies, and restricts the potential of the community to develop income-generating activities.

Several years ago, the village leaders of Kwamalasamutu declared an 18,000 hectare (44,500-acre) no-hunting area around a number of caves, where hundreds of petroglyphs were discovered in 2000. They called the area the Iwaana Saamu-Werehpai Sanctuary; CI-Suriname then helped the community to set up an ecotourism lodge in the sanctuary, and to develop rules and regulations for the use of the area.

Annette Tjon Sie Fat

This RAP survey indicated that the no-hunting rules the Trio developed are working — there is more wildlife inside the sanctuary than the surrounding areas. The RAP recommendations will be used to improve the original rules and regulations of the sanctuary — and help CI-Suriname and the local community to further develop ecotourism in this area for more adventurous tourists who enjoy trekking through the rainforest to explore the natural world.

Annette Tjon Sie Fat is the executive director of CI-Suriname.

In the Field, News, species

Fishing for New Species in Suriname

Posted by | 01.24.2012 | 7 Comments |

In 2010, CI’s Trond Larsen joined a team of scientists in southwestern Suriname for a Rapid Assessment Program (RAP) survey. The results, announced today, include the discovery of more than 40 species new to science. Here on CI’s blog, Trond recounts one day on the expedition. 

Coprophanaeus lancifer — the largest dung beetle species in the Neotropics — observed by scientists working with CI's Rapid Assessment Program (RAP) in Suriname in 2010. The species is not new to science. Both males and females of this species possess large head horns which they use to fight other beetles over food and mates. (© Piotr Naskrecki)

After lugging 97 kilos [214 pounds] of canned sauerkraut deep into the heart of the Surinamese rainforest, I decided it was my duty to catch a fish or two. Of course, I pretended to be motivated only by scientific research, and jokingly promised to deliver a new species for the fish biologists on the expedition. As our native Trio guide steered the dugout canoe away from camp, the setting sun illuminated a giant kapok tree, crowned by the brilliant rainbow of a passing thunderstorm. We scrambled onto a pair of large boulders in the middle of the river and I tossed a hook baited with a chunk of piranha into the water.

To reach each survey location, the Rapid Assessment Program (RAP) team in Suriname took to the water — traveling in dugout canoes, often loading or unloading the boats and manually pushing them through shallow stretches. It was risky, but the researchers avoided the dreaded stingrays for which the Sipaliwini River is named. (© Piotr Naskrecki)

I breathed in the musty air and began to tune into all five senses, which had been dulled by too much time in Washington, D.C. Clouds of aquatic insects rose wispily from the river’s surface, taking to wing after months of life underwater. Deep, throaty croaks of gladiator frogs (among the world’s largest tree frog species), punctuated the songs of thousands of crickets and katydids. A spectral pair of glowing yellow eyes danced eerily amongst the dark trees at the water’s edge. I recognized the lights as the sexual display of a large male click beetle, one of thousands of insect species in the region, many of which remain undiscovered by scientists.

Just as I watched a meteoroid’s fiery plummet into the Earth’s atmosphere, I felt a quick tug at the fishing line in my hand and instinctively yanked back. I excitedly pulled in a striped catfish with long whisker-like barbels. The fish specialists informed me that while the catfish was not new to science, it was a new species for our current expedition. The specimen was preserved for the museum collection, leaving my dinner plate free for extra sauerkraut atop my rice that evening.

Altogether our expedition discovered over 40 previously unknown species, including fish, a frog, katydids, damselflies, water beetles and my own specialty, scarab beetles. CI’s RAP has led expeditions like this for over two decades, uncovering hundreds of new species, but we have a long way to go and not enough time. It’s imperative that we understand which species exist and where they live if we are to prevent them from becoming extinct, a problem facing thousands of species globally. RAP works to fill this knowledge gap, sending teams of scientists to remote but critically important field sites around the world.

Turnip-tailed gecko (Thecadactylus rapicauda) observed during CI’s Rapid Assessment Program (RAP) survey of Suriname in 2010. Not new to science, the species’ large eyes have vertical elliptical pupils and no eyelids. (© CI/Photo by Trond Larsen)

Conserving biodiversity is also fundamental to maintaining healthy ecosystems and the many services that nature provides to people. Consequently, on this RAP expedition we worked closely with the local indigenous Trio community and with Surinamese students. This was a fantastic opportunity for the scientists to benefit from the Trio’s tremendous wealth of knowledge regarding their natural environment, and also for the Trio participants and students to learn about scientific methods used by biologists.

Working together, we were able to develop important strategies for sustainable management of natural resources, which is essential for the Trio people who rely heavily on their surrounding rivers and forests for food. By training students and engaging local communities, RAP expeditions can help to ensure the preservation of healthy ecosystems for many generations to come.

Trond Larsen is the director of CI’s Rapid Assessment Program (RAP). Learn more about the Suriname RAP — and see more photos — on the expedition page.

Corporate, Partnerships, Science

ECO Classroom: Helping Science Teachers Inspire the Next Generation

Posted by | 01.23.2012 | 1 Comment |

Northrop Grumman Chairman, President and CEO Wes Bush and Conservation International Chairman and CEO Peter Seligmann announcing the launch of ECO Classroom, an innovative professional development program for public middle and high school science teachers. (© Northrop Grumman)

At Conservation International (CI), we work to protect biodiversity, ensure food security and reduce the impact of climate change every day. And every day across the United States, middle and high school science teachers work to educate the young people who must continue this work to save our planet.

To effectively engage students in science education, we need teachers who are excited and informed about the subjects they teach. This is why CI and the Northrop Grumman Foundation have collaborated to create ECO Classroom — an exciting professional development opportunity for American public middle and high school science teachers in Costa Rica.

It is widely acknowledged that insufficient numbers of students are currently entering into science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) fields. Innovators in these fields are crucial to safeguarding natural resources, increasing agricultural production and providing sustainable energy solutions. We must engage young minds and motivate students to enter STEM fields to become the next generation of environmental stewards and innovators. That’s where ECO Classroom comes in.

ECO Classroom’s summer program will take place at the Volcan Barva TEAM site in Costa Rica. The Tropical Ecology Assessment and Monitoring (TEAM) Network is a partnership among four institutions — CI, the Missouri Botanical Garden, the Smithsonian Institution and the Wildlife Conservation Society — with 17 field sites in 15 countries throughout the tropics. TEAM brings together scientists from all over the world to collaborate on field research of tropical forests.

ECO Classroom’s participating teachers will learn about field data collection methods based on the TEAM protocols — climate, vegetation and terrestrial vertebrates — to learn about biodiversity, carbon sequestration and the impacts of climate change. TEAM staff have collaborated closely with Northrop Grumman staff to design the program, which will lead 16 middle and high school science teachers through the Costa Rican rainforest where they will be immersed in field and classroom work — interacting with local scientists and exploring the unique flora and fauna of this beautiful corner of our planet.

Applications for the program will be accepted until March 15, 2012. Learn more in the video below, and download the application on Northrop Grumman’s website.

We look forward to reviewing applications and to an exciting first year of this unique program!

Morgan Cottle is the TEAM project manager.

In the Field, Science, species

Primate-Watching: Building A Conservation Movement

Posted by | 01.20.2012 | No Comments |

CI celebrates its 25th anniversary this month; since 1987, we have been committed to conserving nature — including our planet’s incredible biodiversity — for future generations. Today on the blog, CI’s president and seasoned primatologist Russ Mittermeier reflects on years of studying our closest living relatives — and envisions expanding the conservation movement with the help of primate-lovers worldwide.

Russ Mittermeier holding a black indri (Indri indri) captured with a tranquilizer gun for genetic studies and immediately released. Eastern rainforest region of Madagascar, Anjanaharibe-Sud Reserve. (© Mireya Mayor)

You’ve heard of “bird-watching,” the hobby, sport or even obsession that occupies the free time of millions of people around the world and has become a multi-billion dollar industry. You may have even heard of bird life-listing, where individual birders keep lists of the number of species they’ve seen in the wild. But what about primate life-listing? Maybe not … I’m one of the only people who does it.

As a hard-core field biologist focused mainly on primates and reptiles, I have always been a bit envious of the phenomenal dedication and interconnectedness of bird-watchers, be they Ph.D. level researchers, enlightened businessmen or backyard amateurs. If you want to travel to another country to see birds, you have many options. You can join a high-priced birding tour led by an amazing guide; you can go it on your own using one of hundreds of excellent bird field guides covering every imaginable geography; or you can visit a website and find a birder in your country of choice, who will be more than happy to show you “his” or “her” birds. This far-flung birding community is truly a global force, providing a wealth of data for conservation efforts and often contributing to remote human communities who benefit in many ways from periodic bird-watcher visits.

I had been following the bird-watching community from afar, occasionally trying to use field guides to identify what I saw (it’s not easy!), and enjoying the company of birding colleagues who often joined me on expeditions to many different parts of the world. But it wasn’t until my oldest son John, now 26, entered the realm of the fanatics at age 10, that I truly began to appreciate the potential that this community held for conservation. He is now working on his Ph.D., has seen nearly 4,000 bird species in the wild in 100 countries, and has left me in the dust in terms of his avian field skills.

Primates like this black-and-white ruffed lemur (Varecia variegata) are a major tourism draw in Madagascar. (©CI/Photo by Russ Mittermeier)

During John’s first week of prep school at Phillips Exeter Academy in New Hampshire, he went to a small pond behind one of the dorms to see what kinds of birds he could find, and saw a purple gallinule. A common bird in the southern U.S., this was only the fifth on record for New Hampshire. Excited, John posted on a birding website, and within days hundreds of New Hampshire birders had descended on the pond to tick this species off their state lists! Wow — that is power.

From that moment on, I decided that if the birders could do it, so could the primatologists. I have been studying nonhuman primates — the great apes, gibbons, monkeys, lemurs, lorises, galagos and tarsiers that are our closest living relatives — for well over 40 years now, and have always kept a list of species that I have seen. But following my son’s experience in New Hampshire, I decided that the time had come for “primate-watching” and “primate life-listing” to finally become serious endeavors.

More than 90 percent of all primates are found only in tropical rainforests, the richest and most diverse terrestrial ecosystems on Earth. Primates are the most visible mammals in these forests, and they have long served as important symbols for tropical forest conservation, especially in the last few decades as these forests have suffered immense pressures from agribusiness, logging, mining, flooding by huge hydroelectric dams, the wildlife trade and bushmeat hunting.

Primates are not nearly as diverse as birds, which number at least 10,000 species and are found in almost every imaginable environment. But with some 670 species and subspecies — a growing number, as we discover new species every year — primates are sufficiently diverse and exciting to make the challenge of seeing them all in the wild a really daunting one.

Why should we bother to “primate-watch”? First of all, it’s a lot of fun. It takes you out into nature, sometimes very far into remote and little-explored forests, and exposes you to wonderfully rich and diverse parts of the world that otherwise you might never see. What’s more, by recording the information that you see and sharing it with others, you can further our scientific understanding of these unique creatures. Who knows — you might even find a species new to science, as I have done on several occasions.

But most importantly, by being a primate-watcher you can make a significant contribution to conservation. Nonhuman primates are the most endangered large group of mammals, with nearly half considered threatened at some level, and one in three falling into the International Union for Conservation of Nature’s (IUCN) Critically Endangered and Endangered categories. Some are down to a few dozen or a few hundred individuals. And if you took the all the remaining individuals of the Top 25 Most Endangered Primates (a list we produce every couple of years), you wouldn’t fill all the seats of an average college football stadium. By visiting remote parks and reserves, you interact with local human communities, contribute to their economies and show them that the world appreciates and values what they have in their backyards. And when you come home, you are so pumped up that you get your friends to share in your enthusiasm and maybe even join the ranks.

Although I have been doing this for more than four decades now, I have only seen about 350 of the 670 different kinds of primates. Still, I think my list is by far the biggest, and it has taken me to some amazing places. In the process, I have made many contributions to primate and rainforest conservation, both financial and scientific, and through CI we have produced a range of different field guides and other products to facilitate identification of primates in the wild. Since the late 1970s, I have chaired the Primate Specialist Group of the IUCN’s Species Survival Commission, working with a wide range of colleagues to prevent the extinction of these wonderful animals.

Russ Mittermeier

But perhaps my greatest contribution has been to share my enthusiasm with local people, including hunters and slash-and-burn farmers — showing them that what they have is truly special and that their resources and assets are both appreciated by the world and essential for their own future.

I still have a long way to go … so why don’t you join me? I will soon be launching a website for primate-watching and primate life-listing, and I would be happy to share with you how to join the team. And if you want some of our field guides, pocket guides, videos, and other products, just check out our website and let us know.

Russ Mittermeier is the president of CI and chairman of IUCN’s Species Survival Commission Primate Specialist Group.

Publications, Science, species

To Alleviate Poverty, Biodiversity Conservation is Critical

Posted by | 01.19.2012 | 5 Comments |

A girl carries yams at a market near Caye Michel in the Massif de la Hotte, Haiti. Pollination and other ecosystem services are essential to maintain the world's agricultural systems. (© Robin Moore/ iLCP)

This week, a paper entitled “Global Biodiversity Conservation and the Alleviation of Poverty” was published in the journal BioScience. The study marks the first global estimation of biodiversity benefits and ecosystem service flows from habitats to humans. CI Vice President of Conservation Priorities and Outreach Will Turner — the paper’s lead author — summarizes the study’s biggest findings.

In 1961, as Yuri Gagarin became the first human in space, ground control heard the awestruck cosmonaut utter, “The Earth is blue.” Mere minutes aloft, Gagarin’s perch afforded him this simple perspective — one that four thousand years of earthbound scientific inquiry had yet to offer.

Sometimes we need a global view to see the big picture.

Working in international conservation, I know that nearly all conservation efforts are local. The success of any project or program largely hinges on how well it addresses the needs and constraints defined by a place’s people, institutions and conditions, and how well it engages those people and institutions in creating solutions.

We know, for example, that biodiversity and conservation provide many benefits — often known as “ecosystem services” — to human communities, and that poor communities in particular are often critically dependent on these services. Forests and wetlands purify water, woodlands are the sources of pollinators that keep croplands productive, and so on.

But in linking development and environmental conservation, we’re sometimes operating more on assumptions than tested principles. How much could ecosystem services really be benefiting poor communities? Are these communities in places where they could profit from payments for stewarding resources that others depend on? How valuable are the benefits of ecosystems on a global scale, and could they really be worth the cost of conserving the natural landscapes that provide them?

These maps reveal the overlap between regions that provide the most value for poor communities and those that are priorities for biodiversity protection. (maps courtesy of Will Turner)

To answer these questions, we needed to take a step back and look not at individual case studies but the whole globe at once. Over the course of several years, I and my colleagues at CI, NatureServe, National Fish and Wildlife Foundation and the University of Wisconsin-Madison developed a global map assessing the benefits that natural ecosystems provide to poor people [see above]. This required that we first take the unprecedented step of mapping, for all Earth’s land area, the flows of ecosystem services from the ecosystems that provide them to the people that benefit from them.

We began with simple models for different services, from the short-distance flights of pollinators, to services such as water supply and nutrient cycling that follow complex patterns as river networks flow downstream over the Earth’s surface, all the way to the global benefits of forests for atmospheric CO2 concentrations.

What we found surprised us. Here are some of the highlights:

  • Pollination, erosion control, water supply, and other ecosystem services provide benefits worth an estimated US$ 1 trillion per year to poor communities.
  • The world’s top conservation priority areas (which make up less than a quarter of the Earth’s land surface) provide more than half of the planet’s terrestrial ecosystem services. The benefits these areas provide are more than triple the estimated costs of protecting them.
  • Ecosystems of high value for biodiversity conservation and supporting poor people occur in many regions, with some of the greatest overlaps in the tropical Andes and Amazon; many parts of sub-Saharan Africa such as coastal West Africa and Madagascar; and much of South and Southeast Asia, from the Himalayas through Indonesia and Papua New Guinea.
  • Markets and financial mechanisms that compensate local populations who take on the responsibility of protecting and sustainably managing nature at its source — such as Payments for Ecosystem Services or Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD+) — have the potential to provide a 50 percent increase in benefits to poor communities — delivering up to an additional US$ 500 billion per year to the people who need it most, many of whom earn less than one dollar a day.

This last finding is particularly important. To begin with, it captures the idea that developed and developing economies cannot continue to ask the world’s poor to shoulder the burden of protecting these globally important ecosystem services for everyone else’s benefit without compensation in return. But it also means that natural ecosystems can go beyond providing essential “in-kind” benefits to poor communities now; if access and markets are appropriately structured, these ecosystems could also be the basis for considerable additional income.

Will Turner

So what should we do with this information? The next step is to show a clear path forward for sustainable development, linking poverty alleviation and conservation in a blueprint for the institutions that govern societies and drive economies.

Nature may not send us a bill, but it’s clear that its essential services and flows, both direct and indirect, have concrete value.

Will Turner is CI’s vice president of conservation priorities and outreach. Download the paper in BioScience (PDF – 330.90 KB).

species

Photographing the Planet’s Rarest Species: Q&A with Joel Sartore

Posted by | 01.18.2012 | No Comments |

At CI, we know that iconic species can be a powerful tool to engage the public in conservation issues. National Geographic magazine photographer Joel Sartore knows this too; that’s why he’s taking “The Great American Zoo Trip,” photographing as many endangered animals as possible to show what’s at stake in terms of species extinction and to get people to care while there’s still time to save our planet’s wealth of biodiversity. CI’s Molly Bergen recently caught up with him to find out how the project’s been going.

Snow leopard at the Miller Park Zoo. (© Joel Sartore/National Geographic)

Q: Why did you decide to take “The Great American Zoo Trip”? What are you hoping to achieve through these photographs?

A: For the past five years or so, I’ve been working on the Biodiversity Project, an effort to photograph as many animal species as I can on black and white backgrounds, mostly at zoos and aquariums. I’ve got more than 1,800 species now.

Because the animals are isolated in the photos, there’s no way to judge size, which gives an endangered mouse as much weight and importance as a snow leopard. I’d really like the public to understand that every creature has its own beauty, that they’re thinking beings who have a basic right to exist on the planet with us. I’d also like viewers to understand that many of the species they see are either now or will soon be at great risk of extinction as humans spread out and consume the Earth’s remaining habitats and resources. As animals ourselves, it’s folly to think that we can drive everything else to extinction without grave consequences for ourselves.

Q: What’s the favorite animal/species you’ve photographed so far on this trip?

A: I really liked the Damaraland mole rats. They’re eusocial, meaning they maintain a very complicated caste system, one of only two species of mammals to do so. Per colony, they have soldiers, workers and a single breeding pair. They looked like aliens, but in a very cute way.

Endangered grey gibbons will not be seen in captivity much longer; there are too few in captivity to keep their population sustained and too few in the wild to bring more in. With limited space and funding, zoos must make hard choices every year in deciding which species to breed and which to let go, or 'phase out'. (© Joel Sartore/National Geographic)

Q: Which species did you find to be the easiest to work with? What about the hardest?

A: Any turtle is usually the easiest because they don’t move much. The hardest, by far, were the chimpanzees at the Sunset Zoo in Manhattan, Kansas. I didn’t get a shot. Not only did they try to throw their poop on me, but they shredded my nice white background before they even walked on it. It took just seconds. At least I got a little video out of the deal.

Q: What was the most “underrated” species you photographed — an animal that you previously hadn’t thought much about, but gained a greater appreciation for through this project?

A: The grey gibbon of Borneo [see photo above]. At the Miller Park Zoo in Illinois, there were two that I photographed. I was amazed to find out they were going to be “phased out” (translation; let go extinct) because there were fewer than the minimum 50 needed to sustain a captive breeding program, and there were no longer enough in the wild to bolster a captive breeding program. As we go forward in time, zoos will be forced to make harder and harder choices as to what species to save. There’s simply not enough room in the world’s captive facilities to save them all. A very sad situation indeed.

There is still time to save most of the world’s species, but we have to be moved enough to try. That’s where The Biodiversity Project comes in. People will only save what they love, and a key first step is for them to meet “first hand” all the species that are at risk.

climate change, In the Field, Partnerships

Team Earth: CI’s New Storytelling Approach

Posted by | 01.17.2012 | No Comments |

Ausencio, one of the many coffee farmers working with CI in Chiapas, Mexico. Learn more about him in our Team Earth Chiapas story. (© Cristina Mittermeier)

As a member of CI’s communications team, I’m often asked, “What do you guys do, exactly?” Working at an organization with over 900 staff and field offices in 27 countries, this can be a difficult question to answer in a few sentences. Forest protection, species discovery, latrine-building, fisheries management, improvement of large-scale business practices … all of these and more are elements of what CI does, though they by no means tell the whole story.

This desire to better explain CI’s successes and challenges has been the impetus behind Team Earth, our new storytelling project. By focusing on different geographies in which we work, we aim to tell short stories about our many kinds of partners — stories that provide a taste of who these people are, how CI works with them to get global results … and how the work we do together is relevant to you.

For our first feature story, “Chiapas: Coffee, Climate and Conservation in Mexico,” I traveled with a team of photographers and filmmakers to Chiapas, a rainforest-covered state in southern Mexico that produces most of the country’s coffee. Chiapas is currently home to about 121,000 coffee farmers, 90 percent of whom grow their crop on less than 5 hectares (12 acres) of land. However, shifting weather patterns attributed to climate change are taking a toll on coffee production — a trend that researchers predict will only worsen in the coming decades.

Hosted by the wonderful CI-Mexico staff, we talked to shade-grown coffee farmers in the mountaintop villages of the Sierra Madre. We visited a coffee warehouse in the bustling capital city of Tuxtla Gutiérrez, and discussed the international carbon market with partner organizations. We watched spider monkeys ascend steep canyon walls and listened as farmers described their personal experiences with climate change at a CI-organized Coffee Forum meeting. The result of these and other experiences in Chiapas is this collection of written stories, photos, video and other material that highlights just a few of the millions of people around the world doing amazing things to tackle the environmental challenges we face.

We hope our Team Earth stories will give you a better sense of what we do, how it relates to you — and what you can do to join Team Earth. Explore Team Chiapas — and be sure to give us your feedback here on the blog or on CI’s Facebook page.

Molly Bergen is the managing editor on CI’s communications team.

In the Field, species

New Amphibian Captive Breeding Center Opens in Madagascar

Posted by | 01.13.2012 | No Comments |

A frog (scientific name Guibemantis pulcher) in Madagascar. In order to build their husbandry skills, technicians at the Mitsinjo captive breeding facility are starting with non-threatened frogs before moving to more rare species. (© CI/Photo by Nirhy Rabibisoa)

As a herpetologist in Madagascar, I’ve spent 17 years researching wild amphibians and reptiles in my home country. During this time, I’ve witnessed the habitats of these unique animals shrink due to pressure from forest clearing, bushfire, slash-and-burn farming, mining, oil exploration and road construction.

More than 99 percent of Madagascar’s amphibians are found nowhere else on Earth, and according to the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), one-quarter of these species are classified as threatened with extinction.

The Mitsinjo amphibian captive breeding facility in Andasibe, Madagascar. (© CI/Photo by Nirhy Rabibisoa)

Fortunately, we now have a critical resource to help the frogs fight back: a new amphibian captive breeding center.

Implemented by Malagasy authorities, IUCN’s Amphibian Specialist Group and the Mitsinjo Association — with support from CI and other NGOs — the Mitsinjo captive breeding facility was constructed in response to the growing threat of the chytrid fungus that has decimated amphibian populations worldwide. Although chytrid has not yet been detected in Madagascar, seven of the country’s amphibian species are already designated as Critically Endangered, and therefore at high risk of extinction if disease outbreaks should occur. The amphibian center will establish captive populations of the most threatened species as a reserve in case the fungus reaches the island.

Amphibians provide many important services to humans, such as controlling insects that spread disease and damage crops, and helping to maintain healthy freshwater systems. In 2008, CI-Madagascar organized the development of the Sahonagasy Action Plan (SAP), a national plan for amphibian conservation. This plan emphasized the emerging threat posed by the chytrid fungus and the need to develop the capacity within Madagascar to detect and monitor the disease, and to develop in-country breeding facilities for disease-free frog populations. Captive breeding will also help to combat the combined action of habitat destruction, illegal and unsustainable collection for the international pet trade, and the impacts of climate change.

The facility currently houses about 33 frogs representing six species from the Andasibe region. Until now, no one in Madagascar had the knowledge or capacity to breed these frogs in captivity. As a result, we will first focus on breeding common species that have similar habits and habitats to threatened species as we build our husbandry skills. Once we can master captive-breeding techniques, we will deal with the more threatened species. This captive breeding program also provides an opportunity to gather information on the life history of these frogs.

A Critically-Endangered frog (Mantella aurantiaca) in Madagascar. (© CI/Photo by Nirhy Rabibisoa)

There are many challenges to this kind of work. Besides the strict hygiene standards and the risk of disease transmission between the frogs, feeding the frogs is an especially difficult skill to learn. Live food is critical for the frogs’ survival, but it can be difficult to determine the precise quantity and nutritional balance that the animals need. This skill is, of course, crucial for the success of the center. Our captive breeding specialist has so far trained six technicians on caring for live frogs.

We are still in the early stages of this project; eventually, we plan to develop educational programs that will showcase the value of Madagascar’s frogs and their habitats to local people, and generate money through ecotourism.

In the coming year, we hope to increase the number of species bred at the facility — bringing us a step closer to safeguarding the future of these fascinating creatures.

Nirhy Rabibisoa is amphibian executive secretary at CI-Madagascar.

climate change, Partnerships

Hats Off to Guyana’s Outgoing President Jagdeo, A Forest Champion

Posted by | 01.12.2012 | No Comments |

Guyanese President Bharrat Jagdeo and CI President Russ Mittermeier at a 2008 event. (© CI/Photo by Sterling Zumbrunn)

The Kansas-sized country of Guyana, formerly known as British Guiana and the only English-speaking nation in South America, held elections on November 28, 2011, and voted in a new president, Donald Ramotar. This marked the end of 12 years in office for President Bharrat Jagdeo, under whose leadership Guyana became a global leader in calling attention to the incredible importance of tropical forests in the global battle to mitigate climate change. I would like to pay tribute to him here because what he has accomplished in the global arena has been truly exceptional and should be brought to the world’s attention.

I have been working in the Guiana Shield region of South America for 36 years now; as a rainforest specialist, I was attracted to this part of Amazonia because of its vast expanses of pristine rainforest, the largest extent of undisturbed rainforest anywhere in the world. Conservation International (CI) has had programs in Guyana and the neighboring country of Suriname since 1991, and we first met with President Jagdeo shortly after he took office in 1999. He was only 35 at the time, but we were impressed from the first moment with his intellect, his charm and his willingness to listen and learn. Over the next few years, we developed a real friendship, and I could call him on his personal line any time the need arose — a rare thing for a head-of-state these days.

Aerial view of Iwokrama Forest, Guyana. (© Pete Oxford/ iLCP)

In October 2006, I paid another visit to President Jagdeo, one that turned out to be very important for Guyana and for the world. At the time, the global community was just starting to realize that tropical rainforests play a key role in mitigating climate change, with about 16 percent of all greenhouse gas emissions coming from the destruction of these wonderfully rich and diverse ecosystems. From this realization emerged the concept of “avoided deforestation” — the basic idea that if cutting down these forests contributes to climate change, we should stop cutting them down. This concept later morphed into another of those clumsy acronyms that inhabit the jargon of international conventions — REDD+, or Reduction in Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation — but the idea remained the same.

The idea behind this concept was to compensate countries with high deforestation rates for reducing or halting forest destruction. However, the problem was — and still is to some extent — that this system didn’t take into account the more than 30 percent of all remaining tropical forests which are in countries that, for one reason or another, have kept their forests intact. There aren’t many of these — Guyana and Suriname lead the list, joined by a handful of other countries like Bhutan in Asia and a few countries in Central Africa. In 2007, I and several of my CI colleagues co-authored a paper highlighting the importance of what we called High Forest Cover, Low Deforestation Rate (HFLD) countries. We pointed out that rather than excluding them from the REDD+ process, we needed to reward them and put them at the forefront of REDD+ discussions.

But we needed an articulate and visible spokesman, and happily we found one in President Jagdeo. We met with him for an hour on that day in October 2006, and he immediately grasped the importance of the issue, inviting us to come back a few days later to talk to his cabinet.

From that moment on, he took on the mantle of leadership for continually and forcefully speaking on this issue whenever the opportunity presented itself — at U.N. climate conventions in Bali, Copenhagen and Cancun, and at a wide variety of other global events. He did press conferences on the issue with CI board member Harrison Ford, with prime ministers and presidents, and with key figures in the business world.

Along the way, he also designed and launched a Low Carbon Development Strategy for his country, one of the first of its kind and certainly the first for an HFLD country. And this became so appealing to the international donor community that in 2009 the Norwegian government made a $250 million commitment to his Strategy. When asked why his country — a long way from the tropical forest world — had made such a commitment, Norwegian Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg stated in good vernacular English, “It’s a no-brainer.”

But one thing was still missing. Guyana has long been the only country in the Americas without a formal protected area network and the accompanying legislation. Yes, they made a “gift to the world” in 1989 with the creation of the Iwokrama Reserve, a 371,000-hectare (916,760-acre) protected area designed to demonstrate sustainable forest management. With the help of CI, the country also created one of the first indigenous community-owned conservation areas in the world, a huge 625,000-hectare (more than 1.5 million-acre) pristine area in southern Guyana now owned by some 250 Wai Wai people. But there was still no real protected area network.

To resolve this, President Jagdeo again showed his leadership. In June 2011, the Parliament passed the National Protected Areas Act, and in October they signed into law the first two parks under this act, the magnificent 611,000 hectare (1.5 million acre) Kanuku Mountains Protected Area in the interior of the country, and the 125,000-hectare (309,000-acre) Shell Beach Protected Area along the coast, one of the most important sea turtle nesting beaches in the Americas.

Russ Mittermeier

We were delighted. For us, this culminated 18 years of work with several governments, but most especially with the government of President Jagdeo who, with these protected areas created in the final months of his presidency, cemented his legacy and his place in history.

We have high hopes that his successor, President Donald Ramotar, who just took office last month, will carry this forward, and continue Guyana’s leadership role among the forest-rich countries of the world.

Russ Mittermeier is the president of CI.