May 2013

How Can Cambodia Sustain Its Freshwater ‘Fish Factory’?

CI marine biologist Les Kaufman spends most of his trips to the “field” near, on or in the ocean. But this week in Cambodia’s Tonle Sap region, he’s in for something different. Les is part of a team studying the interactions between one of the world’s largest freshwater fisheries and the people who depend on it.

fish in Cambodian marketplace near Tonle Sap

A combination of native and exotic fish caught in the Tonle Sap, for sale at Siem Reap marketplace. (© CI/photo by Les Kaufman)

As our plane zoomed in over the lake, we could see the vast lake floor spreading from horizon to horizon. At the moment, the lake’s low water levels were settled into the deepest fifth of the land it occupies during flood season. The waters were dotted by stilted and floating villages; vast rice systems ringing the lake stretched from its floodplains to year-round terra firma.

The monsoons are just beginning anew, so the afternoon sky is bedecked with big boomers (thunderheads) all about. Tonle Sap — the Great Lake — is a monstrous engine of rice and fish, diversity and life. CI is here, working with our Cambodian partners, to stem the disappearance of this world.

Blighted by poverty, corruption, climate change and dams, yet buoyed by tradition and deep national pride, Tonle Sap — the largest lake in Southeast Asia — has been aptly called the beating heart of Cambodia. We want to see it keep on beating.

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May 2013

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Zimbabwean Students Hold Walkathon to Protect Nature

Rory Parkinson

If we are to make conservation central to sustainable development in the future, we must instill a conservation ethic in our children. Here’s an inspiring story from a teacher in Zimbabwe, whose school is doing just that.

student walkathon fundraiser in Harare, Zimbabwe

Second graders at Harare International School in Zimbabwe line up before starting their walkathon, which raised money for two environmental causes of the students’ choosing. (photo courtesy of Rory Parkinson)

As a second-grade teacher, there is nothing more rewarding for me than seeing children take action in response to what they have learnt. I was privileged to witness this firsthand several months ago when the grade 2 classes at Harare International School participated in a sponsored “walkathon” to support two very worthy causes chosen by the students: protection of rainforests in the tropics and rhinos in Matobo, Zimbabwe.

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May 2013

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Can Consumer Goods Companies Achieve Zero Deforestation by 2020?

Joanne Sonenshine

A version of this post was originally published on the Guardian Sustainable Business blog.

Liberian boy carrying bucket of oil palm fruit. In its effort to reach zero net deforestation by 2020, the Consumer Goods Forum is focusing on improving practices in the production of four commodities, including palm oil. (© CI/photo by Rob McNeil)

The flurry of excitement in 2010 around the Consumer Goods Forum (CGF) announcement that its 400+ members would work together to achieve zero net deforestation by 2020 was palpable. Those of us in the climate community had the “aha” moment we had been waiting for — finally the private sector would join us in combating one of the fastest-growing contributors to climate change: deforestation.

With the endless commentary on how global population will topple the 9 billion mark by 2050, how food production must grow by an astounding 70% to meet the growing need and how only one in six people have access to clean water, these companies were committing to making a crucial investment in how our planet mitigates and adapts to climate change. The NGO community was abuzz with what we believed to be a monumental milestone — everything seemed to be on the right track.

It’s been over two years since that commitment was announced, and my confidence in its significance has not waned. However, with the exception of a quick injection of activity around Rio+20 last June — when the U.S. government pledged to help the CGF with its commitment — many companies are still scratching their heads and wondering where to begin. Meanwhile, deforestation continues to wipe out an area the size of Costa Rica year after year.

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Apr 2013

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Video: Collecting Species Data in Uganda

Molly Bergen

Badru Mugerwa — the subject of the short film “Badru’s story — sets up a camera trap in Uganda. (© Benjamin Drummond)

A few months ago, Human Nature posted a blog about the Tropical Ecology Assessment & Monitoring (TEAM) Network reaching a major milestone: the collection of their 1 millionth camera-trap photo of wildlife. That blog remains our most popular post so far in 2013.

Here’s some more good news for TEAM: A short film produced for the TEAM Network will be screened at the Mountainfilm in Telluride Festival. The film, “Badru’s Story,” follows the TEAM site manager in Uganda’s Bwindi Impenetrable National Park as he gathers field data that is helping us better understand the threats to biodiversity in the world’s remaining tropical forests.

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Apr 2013

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In China, Ocean Film Screening Aims to Inspire Next Generation of Conservationists

Jia Qi

Manta rays in Indonesia. The main film showcased at the BLUE on Tour event in Beijing features the first person to earn a Ph.d. in studying manta rays. (© CI/photo by Sterling Zumbrunn)

For many centuries, China chose to isolate itself from the rest of the world, showing little interest in the ocean and what lay beyond it. However, the crowded auditorium at a recent marine film screening at Beijing Normal University shows that the Chinese perception of the ocean has changed dramatically in recent years.

This event was part of the country-wide campus tour of BLUE On Tour, a traveling film festival organized by CI-China. All of the films in the tour are recipients of BLUE Ocean Film Festival awards, which honor the world’s best ocean films.

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Apr 2013

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Recap: Peter Seligmann’s Twitter Chat

Chris Coletta

Flower (genus Protea) in South Africa. (© CI/photo by Haroldo Castro)

“What on Earth did we do before Twitter?”

That’s a question I found myself asking on Earth Day, when I sat down with CI’s chairman and CEO, Peter Seligmann, for a Twitter chat with supporters.

It wasn’t CI’s first-ever Twitter chat. But it was Peter’s. And as we sat in his office — reading the questions that came in, with Peter giving thoughtful answers and me typing them up to the best of my ability — I was struck by the feeling that it was just cool. Here was the CEO of one of the biggest conservation organizations in the world, and he was taking questions from everyday folks, around the world, who just wanted to know more about how CI is protecting our planet.

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Apr 2013

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Cloud Forest Protection Critical To Keep Tropical Dams Running

Dr. Leonardo Sáenz

Cloud forest in Macaya Biosphere Reserve on the Massif de la Hotte, Haiti. Rampant deforestation across the country has led to a host of environmental and social issues, including a decline in the performance of the Péligre Dam, Haiti’s largest. (© Robin Moore/ iLCP)

As the global population surges, dams have been increasingly adopted as a way to keep up with skyrocketing demands for water and energy. To date, there are more than 50,000 large dams in around 165 countries; another 300–350 are currently under construction.

Despite our growing reliance on dams, we still have much to learn about how they work. The degradation of forests and other ecosystems has often being linked to reservoir degradation, which reduces dam performance. However, the real value of natural ecosystems on the effectiveness of dams has rarely been quantified.

As fast-developing nations like Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, Sudan, Cambodia and China continue to expand dam building, our need to better understand the role of nature in maintaining and improving dam environmental performance has never been more pressing.

I have spent much of the last decade trying to understand the contribution of cloud forests to dam effectiveness. During this time, I’ve found that while cloud forests only cover 5% of the watersheds that contribute water to tropical dams, they filter around 50% of the available surface water that flows to those dams.

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Apr 2013

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CI Photojournal: Nature Meets Culture in South America

Molly Bergen

Every year on April 22, Earth Day is celebrated with nature hikes, beach cleanups and numerous other gatherings designed to help people get back in touch with nature.

But in some of the most beautiful and vulnerable places around the world, every day is Earth Day. With the current threats to the planet — climate change impacts, continued deforestation, pollution and many more — communities have no other option but to fight every day to protect nature and make sure it can continue to provide all of us with its vital benefits for generations to come.

We recently held a photo contest for CI staff, asking them to use their photos to tell a story about the inextricable connections between people and nature.

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Apr 2013

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Restoring the World’s Oceans, One Bite at a Time

Dr. Boris Worm

The Seascapes Workshop is a CI-led annual event that rotates between seascape locations and brings together marine practitioners from at least 10 countries. The 2013 Seascapes Workshop recently took place in Costa Rica within the Eastern Tropical Pacific Seascape (ETPS), a collaborative marine management program between Costa Rica, Panama, Colombia and Ecuador. Dr. Boris Worm, a marine biologist and guest at the workshop, shares his field experiences while in Costa Rica.

Boris Worm dives with CI's Elizabeth Selig off the coast of Cano Island in Costa Rica.

The Seascapes Workshop in Costa Rica was a welcome reprieve from the harsh realities of the Canadian winter. It was also a unique opportunity to gain firsthand insight into CI’s Seascapes Program and the seascapes approach — an innovative strategy for marine conservation and management around the world.

This program has helped to establish large, multiple-use ocean areas collaboratively managed by local decision-makers in four of the world’s most valuable marine regions. Ever since traveling in 2010 through the Bird’s Head Seascape in West Papua, Indonesia, I have been curious about the program and what it can achieve.

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Apr 2013

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In Tanzania, Nature Provides Unseen Value for Farmers

Sara Barbour

A Tanzanian woman carries a heavy load of firewood for cooking. Cutting down trees for fuel is a major contributor to deforestation in Tanzania’s Tabora region, but farmers often have little choice. (© Benjamin Drummond)

What role does the environment play in the livelihoods of African farmers?

Consider this example, drawing from data collected and aggregated by our Vital Signs pilot project in Tanzania. According to the 2010 National Panel Survey, over 70% of farmers surveyed in Tanzania’s “Southern Agricultural Growth Corridor” earned US$ 183 or less in annual household revenue from agriculture.

But farmers also get services from nature for free — protein from wild meats, nutrients from healthy soil, energy from fuelwood, etc. If the environment is degraded, farmers instead have to pay to get these services from an outside source. By adding up the yearly cost of meat from local markets, fertilizer and electricity, we found that the annual value of their household benefits from nature is greater than the amount they earn from agriculture.

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