Back in October, we posted a story about a new technological tool called Cybertracker that is being used by indigenous San communities in southern Africa to track and monitor wildlife.

Last week, Botswana’s largest daily newspaper published another story on the CI-funded project, providing new insight into the lives of the trackers as they deal with long treks, staggering temperatures and potentially dangerous animals on a daily basis.

The life of a tracker is difficult, but its benefits outweigh the challenges. The Cybertracker project provides a rare employment opportunity for local people, encouraging them to continue the millennia-old cultural tradition of animal tracking and improving wildlife monitoring methods which are critical to maintaining healthy ecosystems and species.

Read the full story here.

Where can you find stunning photographs and inspiring stories highlighting CI’s work around the globe? What does it mean when CI says we are taking our activities to a whole new scale?

It means this—Among other things, the new issue of Team Earth will:

• summarize the outcomes from December’s United Nations meetings in Copenhagen, and examine the next steps we must take to tackle climate change;
• explore how partner organizations in southern Africa are working with CI to save elephants while improving human livelihoods;
• reveal CI’s ambitious new plan to save the world’s oceans; and
• visit the forests and farms of Tanzania, where CI’s TEAM Network and the Gates Foundation are joining forces to revolutionize agricultural practices while conserving essential ecosystems.

It’s a busy time, and an exciting one. Take a moment. Take a look.

Now, thirteen years later, Wildlife Works has expanded from selling clothes and accessories to selling something that is more vital to life on Earth, yet also harder to see: carbon. Last month, Wildlife Works Carbon’s REDD (Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation) project in Kenya’s Kasigau Corridor became the first REDD project in Africa to achieve the GOLD level validation under the Climate Community and Biodiversity (CCB) Alliance’s REDD Standard.

The Kenya project and its designation is a milestone for the expansion of REDD throughout the global carbon marketplace. It serves as a model for other African communities across the continent to conserve threatened natural resources, and provides direct financial incentives, helping them combat the effects of climate change and pursue sustainable development.

A contract with South Africa’s Nedbank will allow the project participants to sell the Voluntary Emission Reductions that the Kenya project generates; this new source of income is bringing relief for many community members stricken by drought and poverty, and has already created new job and educational opportunities for local people.

CI is proud to partner with Wildlife Works, and we will continue to support their efforts to integrate conservation and development for a more sustainable future.

At that time, the only way to get to Monrovia was with the UN peacekeeping mission or on one of the Nigerian carriers, all of which overbook and work on a first-come, first-serve basis. After two days of trying to catch a flight from Cote d’Ivoire, where I had been meeting with partners, my new friends and I realized we were not going to get a flight in time. So we loaded up a truck and started on a 21 hour journey from Abidjan to Monrovia.

Two images are etched in my memory from that trip. The first was just 20 minutes after we drove across the log bridge and border posts crossing into Liberia. We drove by a UN personnel carrier stopped in the middle of the road. There was a bullet hole through the windshield right about where the driver’s eye level would have been. Welcome to Liberia!

The other image was when we got to Monrovia. Just about every building we passed was completely burned out, a dark shell of concrete. And there were kids, so many kids filling these buildings and streets with nowhere and no one to go to. I had worked in Africa for a decade, but this was the first time I really had a hard time finding the positive in a situation. No one should have to suffer through this.

Then I began to get to know our Liberian partners and staff, and learn about what they were doing. Forests had helped finance the conflict, but these people were engaged in a revolutionary plan to help Liberia gain greater control of those forests and use them for human well being. When we had crossed the border and my passport was stamped, the border guard scolded me. “What Liberia needs is for people to quit coming and taking all of our resources, leaving nothing here!” I learned how CI country director Alex Peal and his team were working closely with local leaders to help them develop their own organizations, providing them with the funding they needed to improve their communities. I saw women putting new coats of mud over the bullet holes on walls, painting welcome greetings for new shops and restaurants. Liberia was moving forward, and its people wanted partners to assist.

“I can smile, having seen how far Liberia has already come. It is easy for me to be optimistic about the future.”

Four years and five trips later, Liberia and CI are still moving forward. There are no longer UN checkpoints every 10 minutes or so; security is increasingly handled locally; programs for education, business development and women’s empowerment are moving forward. The president is convincing investors to join in on Liberia’s development.
Sanctions on timber were lifted, thanks to the adoption of the regulations and plans that CI helped author. Partners we used to fund are getting the grants that we used to apply for. The burned-out buildings have mostly been renovated and now house new businesses. The streets are no longer filled with orphaned kids, but busy people working to earn a livelihood.

The entire development community here is turning over. Now government partners of Liberia are developing programs focused on five to ten years as opposed to three to five.

Many of the new faces coming in express their reservations about how far Liberia has to go. Yet I can smile, having seen how far Liberia has already come. It is easy for me to be optimistic about the future. Certainly serious challenges remain, but Liberia has already moved further than I would have thought possible four years ago. I feel lucky to be opening a new office and revising the next steps on a path defined years ago – to conserve Liberia’s natural heritage as a fundamental principle of development. It is indeed an exciting time to be in Liberia.

Eric Coppenger is the Director of Resource Strategy in the Africa and Madagascar Field Division of Conservation International.

This is the case for many in East Africa, which is now plagued by the worst drought in nearly 50 years. The failure of the last two anticipated rainy seasons has led to rivers drying up and worse, a lack of fresh grass growth to feed domestic cattle, sheep and goats as well as wildlife. All of these animals are suffering equally with carcasses strewn everywhere, and sadly many rural people are also teetering on the edge of starvation.

The situation has been compounded by the steady destruction of the region’s highland forests which act as water catchments and regulate the flow of water from forests into the streams and rivers, like a sponge. Early indicators of environmental stress included water and power shortages in the main towns and cites as a result of reduced hydroelectric power. But the real culprit is the reduction in forest cover has happened over recent decades through illegal exploitation of forests’ reserves.

A 20- minute documentary about CEPF’s efforts to protect what remains of the incredibly rich montane and coastal forests of East Africa.

During this extreme year, people are realizing the true value of the services provided by these forests. The seriousness of this drought has lead to recent calls to reverse the situation by compensating people who voluntarily move out of the previously-forested areas and instigating reforestation programs. But any real change will take years to show any effect.

We are all hoping that the rains come early this year to ease this dire situation.

John Watkin is a Grant Director for CEPF, a CI joint venture that provides grants to nongovernmental organizations to help protect vital ecosystems.

This was my immediate reaction upon receiving the Commander, Star of Africa distinction from the President of Liberia, Madam Ellen Johnson Sirleaf.

I had worked directly for my country for over 20 years (1970 to 1990 as a forester and a conservationist) and indirectly for 18 years. During the civil war, I fled and became a refugee in southern California, where I worked with colleagues to maintain momentum for conserving Liberia’s remaining rainforests and restoring its conservation program once the war was over.

In 1986, Liberia established its first non-government conservation organization, the Society for the Conservation of Nature in Liberia (SCNL); however, it was soon disrupted and then dismantled during the war years. To maintain the SCNL’s focus on conservation, a sister non-government conservation organization known as the Society for the Renewal of Nature Conservation in Liberia (SRNCL) was established in California. The SRNCL became the main source of information on the forest and wildlife situation.

It maintained conservation momentum by publication of a quarterly newsletter called the Pepperbird, named after the garden bulbul (Pycnonotus barbatus). The garden bulbul is a common bird that frequent gardens; its local name is “the wake-up bird.” The newsletter published information on the Forestry Development Authority (FDA) wildlife staff and their condition during the war, maintaining a flow of important information about Liberia’s unique biodiversity.

SRNCL made its first expeditions to Liberia prior to and after the 1997 general elections that brought Charles Taylor to power. SRNCL made several other expeditions to Liberia and succeeded in reactivating the parent organization, Society for the Conservation of Nature in Liberia. The SCNL in turn worked with the Liberian government to restore nature conservation activities at the FDA and at Sapo National Park.

Under my leadership, The SCNL encouraged the government to ratify several international environmental conventions including the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD).

The resumption of conservation activities in Liberia at the time encouraged Fauna & Flora International and Conservation International to work in the country, and I am very proud to have received President Sirleaf’s recognition for this work.

Alexander L. Peal is the Country Director for Conservation International-Liberia

Diego Suarez is a picturesque natural harbor in northeastern Madagascar.

Towering above it is Montagne de Francais, a large mountain covered in pristine forest, which shelters dozens of rare species and protects the region’s watershed.

Uncontrolled demand for wood-based products and charcoal threatened to wipe out millions of acres of forest, and in turn threaten the health of local people by disrupting their clean water flow. The unchecked destruction of the forests also threatened the survival of endangered species including local species of lemurs and geckos.

CI worked with the community to help to protect the region’s fragile balance of life. Alongside local partners and the government, we helped establish a new protected reserve called Complex Ramena.

Today we discourage logging by providing alternative sustainable livelihoods for the people there.

Right now, locals are planting fast-growing non-native acacia for charcoal production, and are welcoming tourists who have discovered the incredible beauty of the area. View our stunning slide show >>

Today the people of Diego Suarez have a new respect for their home and the forest that is so vital to their – and our survival.

CI is working to implement this model for conservation in dozens of countries where forests are threatened.

IN DEPTH: Read more about our work in Diego Suarez and Montagne de Francais

But despite these challenges, there is opportunity.

Forests once ravaged by conflict have started to heal. And people once crushed by poverty and unemployment are on the mend.

The danger is that meeting the immediate humanitarian needs of the country in the short term could sacrifice sustainable development needs over the long term – potentially fueling conflict, as was the case in the past.

That’s where CI’s innovative Conservation Growth Poles program comes in. We are helping the people of Liberia revive both their economy and their environment.

Liberia is home to half of the Guinean Forests of West Africa and many threatened species including the pygmy hippopotamus and white-breasted guinea fowl. Without sufficient information and alternatives for rural people, hunting and forest loss will destroy this remarkable biological wealth. Further, the destruction of Liberia’s forest systems will lead to the loss of valuable ecological services that provide greater stability in the lives of the rural poor.

CI is working with the government of Liberia to use emerging international carbon markets to put Liberia’s forests to work for the country’s population over the long run. Carbon markets provide financial incentives for activities that reduce carbon emissions – like preventing the burning and clearing of forests.

Global forest carbon markets have the potential to generate tens of billions of dollars annually and provide forest-rich nations with access to sustainable financial resources.

CI believes that Liberia is poised to play a critical international role as a champion for forest carbon’s role in biodiversity conservation, climate change mitigation and economic development.

Learn more about the future in the forests.

Frank Hawkings is Head of Africa Programs at Conservation International.

At Conservation International, we’re turning this equation around – making sure that people have the necessities they need to thrive so that they can and want to protect the Earth and its resources.

Rarely is the connection between human health and nature more obvious than in the relationship between people and fresh water. Fresh water must be readily available, clean and suitable for agriculture, washing, and – perhaps most importantly – human consumption.

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), approximately 94 percent of the nearly two million annual diarrheal deaths can be attributed to unsafe drinking water and inadequate sanitation.

In response, CI and our partners helped families in Madagascar – an island rich in animals and plants found nowhere else on Earth – construct more than 2,900 latrines and 2,800 waste pits in more than 30 rural communities.

By linking protection of the Earth to positive human health outcomes, we made conservation attractive to these local communities.

An outreach and education program complemented our efforts, as did traditional reforestation projects, which have helped reinstate watershed services such as water purification through natural filtration systems.

At Conservation International, we are replicating this core idea – that human health and environmental protection go hand in hand.

Learn more about how we’re making protecting the Earth tangibly beneficial to communities around the around the globe.