Posts Tagged ‘human well-being’
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Nature’s Cures
[caption id="attachment_2490" align="alignright" width="300" caption="Rosy periwinkle (Catharanthus roseus) - Madagascar plant from which cancer cures are derived."][/caption] Across the globe, ecosystems, plants and animals are rapidly disappearing. As these wild lands, waters and species are destroyed, vast libraries of organic compounds potentially useful to medicine are also lost forever. Almost all survivors of cancer and other serious illnesses have natural compounds from rainforest plants and other wild species to thank for their recovery. As a member of the Alliance for Global Conservation, CI is dedicated to spreading the word about the immeasurable benefits that biodiversity provides for human health–for both today and ... -
In the News: Will Dolphins Help Us Cure Disease?
We often hear about new medicines being discovered in inconspicuous frogs, plants or deep-sea mollusks, but here comes a story that shows that even big creatures that have been right under our noses for ages can still hold interesting (and useful) surprises. In a recent BBC News article, scientists found that bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops truncatus)—the back-flipping, front row-splashing, always-smirking denizen of many aquariums around the world—may hold potential insights to finding cures for type 2 diabetes which affects millions of people worldwide. Now think about this for a minute: dolphins are big and photogenic and pretty well-studied, yet we’ve only just discovered ... -
Rainforests: Seeing is Believing
This week I am in Costa Rica with various CI colleagues. We are taking part in a workshop and are lucky enough to be staying along a protected national rainforest. This protected land is part of a growing effort by the Costa Rican government to safeguard its most precious treasure: tropical rainforests. As I walk through the dense jungle, I am wandering along narrow paths that are used by the various indigenous peoples who live nearby and consider this jungle their home. Although today is a rainy day and the rainforest (today very aptly named) is covered in a heavy fog, ... -
Extra! Extra! The New Issue of Team Earth Magazine Has Arrived
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 ... -
Cerrado Project Update: Voices from the Field
While Fernando and Artur were planting trees on a farm in Mineiros (see last Thursday’s blog post), I spent a couple of hours collecting some video footage and interviewing local stakeholders. I had the opportunity to talk to Renato Alves, project coordinator of the NGO Oréades, CI-Brazil´s local partner. In the video below (in Portuguese), he explains the carbon project. Mirella Domenich is the communications manager of Conservation International Brazil. After filming the video above, she joined in to help plant many native trees! VIDEO: Renato Alves explains the carbon project (em português)[flv:http://blog.conservation.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/02/Mineiros_entrevista_Renato.flv 511 287] Em português Enquanto Fernando e Artur plantam sementes de árvores ... -
On World Wetlands Day, Recognition for Abrolhos Marine National Park
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 ... -
CI’s Response to Climate Change Skeptics
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 ... -
Pollinators in Peril
As the global extinction crisis continues, we are constantly discovering new ways in which the world’s many species interact with our own lives, even if we don’t realize it. The loss of one species can have consequences far beyond the simple absence of one kind of ant or frog. Case in point: the global decline of wild pollinators—bees, butterflies, and other insects. Survival of wild, native insect pollinators is not just a matter of concern for insect lovers like me; it’s also an issue for food production worldwide. Pollinators are in decline for a wide variety of causes, including loss of ... -
Support for Species
The most recent version of the IUCN Red List (published in November 2009) revealed that species extinction continues at a dangerous rate. More than 17,000 species—36 percent of the total of number of species assessed—are currently threatened with extinction, a startling number which underscores the need for immediate action. This week in Paris, the United Nations is holding one of several celebrations and conferences to launch the International Year of Biodiversity, drawing attention to the escalating plight of the world’s species as countries prepare for the Convention on Biological Diversity’s October meeting in Nagoya, Japan—a meeting which will set new ... -
CI Partner Wildlife Works Pioneers Kenya’s First GOLD Level REDD Project
In 2005, CI’s Verde Ventures program helped to finance the establishment of Wildlife Works’ eco-factory in Rukinga Kenya as a critical piece of the long term vision of Wildlife Works. Founded in San Francisco in 1997, with an innovative mission based on “consumer-powered conservation,” Wildlife Works aimed to use revenue from the sale of sustainable products to finance wildlife protection efforts in Kenya and around the world. 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 ...
