Baraza

Category: Emergencies, Forests, Gorillas, Trade, wildlife | Date: Oct 10 2008 | By: baraza

We are all been glued to the depressing headlines every day about the housing crisis, economic credit crunch, collapsing banks. On the bright side we are witnessing an unprecedented level of global cooperation to manage bailouts and rescue packages to save the worlds’ economies.I don’t think I’m alone in wondering how come we couldn’t get this level of cooperation on global climate change. Surely it is having an even greater impact on global economies.

The current financial news focuses on industrial nations of North America and Europe but here in Africa (and I’m sure it’s similar in other developing countries) we are already feeling the impact. We’re experiencing massive inflation which affects us all. Yesterday I heard about a middle class Kenyan family who are now feeding their children on anything that fills their stomach. Although they are a well educated couple, they cannot afford to balance their children’s diet. It’s a vicious cycle – the kids will be undernourished, will perform poorly at school. This will cap their own prospects and limit their capacity to escape poverty.

So, we are reacting to the financial crisis because it affects each of us individually. We approve the bail out rescue packages, and have allowed our governments to take billions of dollars from our taxes to rescue failing financial institutions.

Many environmentalists and conservationists are amazed that we can galvanize global coordination to prevent a global financial crisis; and furious that the same countries couldn’t come together and agree on a rescue package to address other global crises like climate change and poverty in developing countries.

This story appeared today on the BBC website and it stirred me to write this post because while the financial situation may be a global crisis, it is nothing compared to the unfolding environmental crisis . A new report by TEEB (The Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity) informs us that are racing towards catastrophic damage to our economies because of what how we are destroying biodiversity and ecosystem services.

What are ecosystem services and how dependent are we on them?

Our very existence is tied to ecosystems.

They clean our water and air; give us fertile soils; provide us with building materials and clothing (timber, cotton); pollinate our crops (bees); store carbon and stop the world from over-heating. The list goes on.

33 Billion - the annual value of these ecosystem services in US Dollars

16 Billion – the annual value of the global economy

In this study by Robert Costanza and others  of 17 ecosystem services in 16 biomes, the value of ecosystem services that are not already captured in economic markets is US $15 – 54 Trillion (that’s twelve 0’s!) with an average of US $33 trillion. They emphasize that this is a minimum estimate. To put this into perspective remember that the Global economy is worth about US $16 trillion – half of what nature gives us for free.

To make this real, consider pollination services – without pollinators like bees, we would have virtually no vegetables and of course no honey! The value of pollination of our commercial crops is estimated to be US $216 billion every year. We can survive without bees, of course but imagine if we had to do all that pollination by hand!

It is this value that we do not capture in our economic evaluations. These ecosystem services are considered free public goods! There are no markets and no prices. We simply don’t count them in our national economies and they don’t feature in our economic planning.

We are trashing our ecosystems and losing a host of free services

By 2050 11% of the natural areas remaining in 2000 could be lost to agricultural expansion, the expansion of infrastructure, and climate change.

Almost 40% of the land currently under low-impact agriculture could be converted to intensive agricultural use, with further biodiversity losses

60% of coral reefs could be lost - even by 2030 - through fishing, pollution, diseases, invasive alien species, and coral bleaching due to climate change.

And climate change is exacerbating this problem.

What are the global financial implications?

In an interview here, the lead author of the TEEB report Pavan Sukhdev warns that “the fisheries that are basically going to die out in 40 years time don’t just mean $80 to 100 billion worth of lost fishing income, but also lost protein for the world’s billion poorest people”.

Nearly one-third of the world’s fisheries are severely depleted, and some have suffered complete collapse, such as the Grand Banks cod stocks off Canada’s eastern coast. If current trends continued, we will have no commercially viable marine fisheries left within fifty years.

The loss of biodiversity will have serious repercussions on the world’s economy. The TEEB report predicts we are losing forest ecosystem services at a rate of between $2 trillion and $5 trillion per year. This is the combined value of their services, including cleaning water and absorbing carbon dioxide. The situation will worsen with time as our natural stock is depleted, and we lose the services they provide. It’s a little like losing the interest from an investment, as you eat into the capital. Except that the value of the services a forest provides, is worth many times what we would make if we were to chop down the timber and sell it on the open market.

We tend to undervalue things that we get for free.

We understand the value of those things that we spill our sweat for. The TEEB report suggests that we have flawed economic analysis and we’ve been making policy mistakes. Because environmental services are ‘free’ their loss often is not detected by our current economic incentive system, losses due to deforestation, unsustainable harvesting, habitat destruction etc will continue unabated. To add salt to this wound, the world’s poor are most at risk from the continuing loss of biodiversity, as they are the ones that are most dependent on the ecosystem services that are being degraded.

How big is the problem?

Between 1900 and today we have destroyed 50% of the worlds wetlands. In addition 30% of the our coral reefs are damaged and 35% of our magroves deforested. Extinction rates are now 1000 times greater than they should be and the IUCN states that 70% of the worlds plants are in jeopardy. This is already affecting food, water and health. By 2050 7.5 million square kilometers be lost – that’s the size of Australia.

The TEEB report suggests that the cost of the loss of biodiversity today dwarfs the current financial crisis and that we urgently need a rescue package for environment.

You can read the full TEEB report here or the executive summary here.

Bailing out ecosystems

We know that our very well being is totally dependent upon these “ecosystem services” and that we are hurtling towards a crisis, and yet we are not even talking about any sort of rescue package for ecosystems. No one has dared quantify how much that would cost us.

However, the TEEB report warns that if we do not adopt the right policies, the current decline in biodiversity and the related loss of ecosystem services will continue and even accelerate. Some ecosystems are likely to be damaged beyond repair. With a “business as usual” scenario, by 2050 we, or our children and grand children will be faced with serious consequences.

I agree with Corey, the TEEB report is “Yet more evidence that we have to stop the extinction crisis“

Although it sounds horrendous, we mustn’t see this situation as hopeless. Ecosystems are far more robust than banks and economies. If we lose millions of dollars in ecosystem services by chopping down a forest, we can recover that value with a relatively small investment in forest restoration.  It’ll take years but nature also has her own inbuilt repair mechanisms. We can help her to speed up the recovery by planting, protecting and managing the restoration.

Here’s an example of what can be achieved after only 30 years of forest restoration in Africa.

Tree planting with nitrogen fixing casuarina after open cast mining has stripped all the surface soil and rock at Lafarge in Mombasa Kenya

30 years later the restored ecosystem provides many services - cleaning water, producing fish, carbon sequestration, wildlife habitat, recreation and income generation. It is a global showcase and should be replicated and scaled up. You can see more about this amazing place here

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Tags: biodiversity, rescue plan, TEEB report, wildlifedirect

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Category: Gorillas | Date: Sep 26 2008 | By: baraza

The First Ever Kids Gorilla Summit event attracted huge publicity and started on time despite the driving rain, and over 200 children participated in the First Gorilla Summit.

On stage were Lucy Spelman, Peter Greste, Craig, Isabella and Juliana Hatkoff, Richard Leakey and I. We took questions and showed slides and films to a captivated audience.  Billy Di Michelle from Scholastic was an amazing coordinator and Trevor Nielson was the very able Master of Ceremonies.

I think it was  a huge success because these kids were very focused and submitted hundreds of ideas to help solve the crisis facing mountain gorillas.  At 1 pm the event ended and every child went home with a bag of goodies that included the signed books as well as a T-shirt.

The event ended with huge applause. Each of the six schools also got a massive baby gorilla toy that they will name and film the naming ceremony, and an Act Pact - a massive commitment that they will sign.

This is what I felt like  doing just after the Launch of Miza

Course that isn’t me, but I do feel quite ‘high’. These were school kids in Central Park - they were having such enormous fun it was contagious that we couldn’t help taking photos. I hope they join us in this cause to save Mountain gorillas and make a commitment.

If you couldn’t watch the event, you can still enjoy it and submit your commitment on the Scholastic website here.

We are so proud of the success of the event which would not have been possible with out the support of Scholastic, Turtle Pond, the Mountain Gorilla Veterinary Project, the Rwanda Film Center, President Clinton, Jack Hannah, Anderson Cooper, ACF (UK) and all the rangers who are out there every day saving gorillas in Uganda, Congo and Rwanda.

Now we need to ensure that these commitments are upheld and the event leads to real actions that make a real difference for mountain gorillas throughout their range. Join us, download the commitment here, sign a commitment, send in your ideas and questions, become part of the solution.

More photos of the event are coming soon!

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Tags: Anderson Cooper, Bill Clinton, Craig Hatkoff, Jack Hannah, mountain gorillas, Peter Greste, richard leakey, Scholastic, wildlifedirect

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Category: WildlifeDirect news | Date: Sep 23 2008 | By: baraza

Greetings friends. In my first 24 hours in New York I met Bill Clinton, a very funny city vagrant, four children from Rwanda and a minister, a Rwandan film maker, and three tiger cubs and their keeper plus golden retriever nanny.

I’ll upload more pictures later but thought I’d leave you with  this photo of the team meeting Bill Clinton which was the highlight. The children from Rwanda and USA are in the Scholastic Press Corp and are preparing for the big event on Friday ‘the first ever Kids Gorilla Summit“. Children from around the world have been sending in questions that will be answered on Friday by a panel. This unique Scholastic event gives childrens a challenge to help save mountain gorillas. It will be live broadcast through schools in USA. To watch the 1 minute animations called gorillasodes made by children from Rwanda and USA watch here

I’ll be bringing  more news and pictures from New York over coming days.

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Tags: Bill Clinton, Gorillas, Gorillasodes, Miza, mountain gorillas, Scholastic, wildlifedirect

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Category: Gorillas | Date: Sep 17 2008 | By: baraza

Though it was announced back in June  the launch of our newest childrens book is actually taking place next weekend in New York. The book is part of a campaign that was born out of a commitment to action made at the 2007 Clinton Global Initiative shortly after last summer’s tragic massacre of ten mountain gorillas in the Democratic Republic of Congo’s Virunga National Park. The campaing includes the publication of Looking for Miza: The True Story of the Mountain Gorilla Family Who Rescued One of Their Own (Scholastic Press), and the creation of a multi-platform and standards-based educational initiative that will teach children, teachers and parents about the gorilla crisis.

All of the authors and photographer Peter Greste will be in New York for the launch. We will give you details about the events that will be taking place in case you’d like to attend.

I was very pleased to read the first book review on Amazon.com

“Moving, inspiring, informative, beautifully illustrated, and very, very important. This is a true story about one family of mountain gorillas, living in the Virunga National Forest (currently occupied by rebel army forces) and their attempts to return a lost orphan to their fold. “Miza” will engage your mind and steal your heart. You cannot ignore the plight of these magnificent creatures whose lives hang in such delicate balance, threatened by deforestation, poaching, and infection and war. Their innocence, so similar to our own, is poignantly and simply stated: “When gorillas feel safe, they play.”

Another review is on Eco Childs play here.

Craig Hatkoff, my friend and co-author of the book  wrote a moving piece about how this project came about on the scholastic website

“When we first started the Looking of Miza project, the only photograph we had of Miza was the picture that now appears on the back cover of the book. It was a photo of just an eye peering through a bush, snapped by Peter Greste last summer. It was the only photo Peter could get of Miza, who was still traumatized from her ordeal of being lost in the jungle. Park rangers Diddy and Innocent confirmed it was Miza by her distinct and now-famous nose print. With only that one photo in our possession, we agreed with Scholastic to do the book even if we couldn’t get any other pictures of Miza because of the importance of telling Miza’s story and raising global awareness of the mountain gorilla crisis”.

This article goes on to show how a book cover is so important, and how much effort it took to get the “right” book cover.

If you have the book  and have read it, please tell us if you like it - or if you don’t.

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Tags: Craig Hatkoff, gorilla, Looking for Miza, Paula Kahumbu, Scholastic, Turtle Pond, wildlifedirect

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Category: Gorillas | Date: Sep 12 2008 | By: baraza

Last month, US and European Union diplomats warned that despite a peace deal that was signed in January, the situation in eastern DR Congo was becoming increasingly tense and that all sides were rearming and that fighting would soon beak out. Their prediction came true, heavy fighting broke out on 28 August.  Tens of thousands of people are again fleeing - Pierre posted numerous photos illustrating this in the gorilla blog here.

Clashes have occurred on the main road between Goma and Bukavu, the capitals of North and South Kivu, respectively. The UN has 17,000 peacekeepers in DR Congo. The unit called Monuc, is the largest peace keeping force in the world! They are supposed to monitor a 2003 peace deal to end a conflict that drew in at least eight other African countries.

Black lines represent movements of people in the 1990s, red lines are more recent movements in the 2000s. Tents are IDP camps.

Rwindi and Kibirizi are just south of Lake Edward. Fighting is occurring right inside the Virunga National Park.

According to the BBC, “Monuc, have mobilised to block the advance of troops loyal to General Laurent Nkunda. The head of the Monuc in DR Congo, said that his forces had intervened using force to assist the DR Congo Armed Forces re-establish their position.

“We used force to send out a strong signal to say that we shall not allow the CNDP (Gen Nkunda’s forces) to occupy Nyanzale,” he said.

Yesterday diplomats based in the DR Congo made a rare joint appeal for the army and rebels to stop fighting in the east. The statement was signed by representatives of the UN, African Union, EU and the US demanded that all forces return to the positions they held last month.

The diplomats’ want all sides, including the Congolese army to stop all movements . , except for those undertaken alongside Monuc against the FDLR (Army for the liberation of Rwanda which is made up mainly of Interharamwe and armed forces of Rwanda)  - a different rebel group based in the area.”

To me, one of the saddest fall outs of this war is that children make up 30 per cent to 50 per cent of the fighting forces in eastern Congo. Boys are used as soldiers and porters, girls become sex slaves. According to UNICEF, only 4 in 10 children in the region have been enrolled in school

THIS IS MADNESS!!! WHY WHY WHY?

I’ve struggled to find some sense in what is going on in Eastern Congo ever since I joined WildlifeDirect. The best sugestion  I can find, is that the FDLR leaders are accused of fleeing to DR Congo after taking part in the genocide of Tutsis and moderate Hutus in Rwanda more than ten years ago.

Most people agree that their presence in DR Congo lies at the heart of years of recent unrest. Gen Nkunda, believes he is protecting Hutu’s from these killers who are also known as the Interharamwe. He has previously refused to disarm, accusing the army of working with the FDLR against Tutsis who live in the region.

If this is true then the solution is almost impossible to envisage. Nkunda claims to be protecting Congolese Tutsi’s and in doing so is keeping the ruthless killers from returning to Rwanda. But he is also illegally occupying some places in eastern Congo where his militia  and those of the Congolese army keep pushing against each other. Both sides are guilty of atrocities too painful to describe here.

So what can be done? What if we just remove the Interharamwe to a neutral country? Would this unleash a lasting peace? How could it be done? There are nearly 20,000 of these people. Who would have them?

We’d love to read your thoughts. What do you think?How can peace be achieved in eastern Congo?

Here are some related news stories and web sites with additional information

United Nations News Center

Intstitute for Envirinmental Security

BBC News online http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/7610913.stm

Global Security: Timeline of violence in Eastern Congo

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Tags: eastern DR Congo, gorilla blog, MONUC, Virunga National Park, wildlifedirect

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Category: WildlifeDirect news | Date: Sep 10 2008 | By: baraza

We want to stay in better touch with all our supporters and friends and have just created a dedicated Facebook cause for WildlifeDirect. Please join us - and tell your friends to join us too! Click on the icon below to go to our cause.

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Category: Zahoor Kashmiri | Date: Sep 09 2008 | By: baraza

A new blog for Kashmiri It has been a week since Zahoor Kashmiri left us, and we are still grieving, and receiving outpourings of grief over his tragic death which we wrote about here and here. We have received hundreds of messages, through the blogs, on phone, in texts and through other sites.

One of the last photographs taken of Zahoor Kashmiri in Ethiopia. Photo Yirmed Demeke 

We have set up the blog in his name here Kashmiri’s Wildlife Rescue Fund and a number of donors have already committed to support the new fund for wildlife veterinarians. We hope that this fund will make a significant contribution to wildlife rescues in Africa. Please visit the blog, check out the photograph album on the right, and leave us your comments on what you’d like to see on this blog. One suggestion is that we establish a memorial for Kashmiri in Ethiopia and in Kenya. I personally love the idea.

Other big news is that Rosy, the crowned eagle has had his (yes he’ a boy) cataracts removed successfuly and new lenses put in. This is an amazing story - he is over 30 years old and is the first crowned eagle in history to have this operation. Crowned eagles are the most powerful bird of prey in Africa and are disappearing fast. Rosy who was rescued as a chick with  a broken wing can never go back to the wild, but he’s doing more than his fair share of breeding having produced 12 chicks with his “wife” Girl. All have gone back to the wild. The cataract operation will hopefully restore his eyesight and breeding potential. We are so proud and privileged that WildilfeDirect helped to make this possible.

You can read about this historic operation and follow the progress of Rosy’s recovery on Simon Thomsett’s blog.

Launching “Looking for Miza” in New York! We (Peter Greste, Richard Leakey and I) are really happy to be coming to New York again later this month to launch our new book “Looking for Miza”. The details will be coming out shortly - but order your copy of Miza now from Amazon here and come get it signed. Tell all your friends too! It’s already number 2 in childrens books about apes and monkeys(!) but so far there are no product reviews on Amazon yet.

There is a host of exciting events being planned around the launch of the book so keep tuned to this blog to find out more.

Want to be the first reviewer? Send your customer review to Amazon when you get a chance.

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Tags: Looking for Miza, Miza, Wildlife Rescue Fund, wildlifedirect, Zahoor Kashmiri

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Category: Uncategorized | Date: Aug 19 2008 | By: baraza

Joy just sent me this story about baby turtles losing their way and ending up in a seaside restaurant. Luckily for them, turtles are not eaten in Italy and the stranded babies were released back into the sea. But this story serves as a reminder about how vulnerable these amazing animals are.

The problem caused by artificial lights has been  documented in Kenya where turtle conservation groups like the Lamu Marine Conservation are working night and day to save turtles.  Meanwhile the Born Free Foundation have also reported tagging turtles while Nimu from the whale sharks blog has sent out an appeal to save Chelonia, an Australian based turtle conservation organization.

If you love turtles  please contact these different blogs and tell them!

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Tags: chelonia, Lamu Marine Conservation, Turtles, whale sharks, wildlifedirect

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Category: WildlifeDirect news | Date: Aug 12 2008 | By: baraza

Hello again everyone, we are back from an intensive few days of strategic business planning. Phew what a marathon!

Business planning can be frightening. It’s at times like this that one prepares oneself for the worst - a consultant telling you that you’ve got your plans back to front, your vision is impossible or your plans out of date and that THINGS HAVE TO CHANGE! But to hear the consultant, congratulating us for WildlifeDirect’s innovative and effective approach to conservation  was more than a relief. It gave us a renewed burst of energy and excitment. Not least was Richard Leakey who has always believed in the power of the general public in responding to emergencies if they have access to the right information.  He admitted rather sheepishly that he has never been absolutely sure that his idea could work though. So you can imagine how he took the news, he was grinning ear to ear as he listened to the consultant report on the great potential we have and advising on the way forward. As it turns out, most of what has been recommended was already thought of, much wasn’t ever implemented as we were not sure …. but now that we have seen the analysis and projectionsn we can push forward and break new ground. It is so exciting.

Isaac, Arisa (the cat-like dog from Turkana), Mary and I debate the vision of WildlifeDirect. We had the retreat at Dr Leakey’s house in the rift Valley where we had to work intensively in groups - the location is spectacular, the weather perfect for working outdoors, it was easy to get distracted by the splendid views, yet it was probably the most constructive planning time that we have had in months. The entire WildlifeDirect team participated and it enabled us to digest the outcomes of the various surveys and analyses that have been ongoing for a few months now.

David and Masumi in deep thought. A number of important decisions were made and we are really excited with the plans ahead - we will continue to do what we do well, while focussing on developing and sustaining our organization by building our team and securing sustainable funding for our core costs. We will also improve our website platform and facilities to make it easier for you readers, donors and friends as well as blogger. In terms of geographical focus, we will be investing in a major expansion over the next two years through the East and Central African countries of DR Congo, Rwanda, Tanzania, Uganda and Burundi to support the conservation of Africa’s most biologically important and diverse landscape, the amazing Albertine Rift.  Species like chimpanzees, elephants, gorillas, okapi, lions, monkeys, birds and fish in diverse habitats including lakes, swamps, forests, mountains and savannas.

Shelley, from the consulting firm TCC flew out from the USA for the retreat meeting most the WildlifeDirect team for the first time. Here she is with Mary, Maina and David. We have a huge amount to of work cut out for us and hope you enjoy helping us to achieve it!

Even though I knew that I had to focus only on planning, I felt totally cut off for those few days away from the blogs. It helped me think about the big picture, but it made me feel rather blog-homesick. Getting back to the blogs was like christmas - and there is a piece of news I was so excited to read on return - that Simon Thomsett’s effort to raise funds on his blog for an eye operation on a Crowned Eagle has already raised over $1,000! This is fantastic news and I called Simon to tell him. He was on his way to the eye clinic with Rosy who I could hear calling pityfully in the back seat. I’d like to thank you all for making it possible for us to help people and projects like Simon and Rosy.

We have had 2 months of overcast weather so the first day of sun was a great sign for us. In the evening we watched the sunset over the Great Rift Valley ……perfect!

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Tags: business planning, crowned eagle, richard leakey, Simon Thomsett, wildlifedirect

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Category: Uncategorized | Date: Aug 05 2008 | By: baraza

I’ve just spent a couple of hours with Simon Thomsett talking about Rosy, a male Crowned Eagle that was brought in for care in 1977 with a broken wing. At that time Simon Thomsett was just a boy - today 32 years later, they are still best of friends.

Crowned eagles are the most powerful African bird of prey and are  critically endangered in Kenya.  Rosy matured and became one of the most famous breeding eagles in Africa. He married “Girl” in 1992, producing a total of 12 chicks to date. This is the only such breeding and release project in Africa, and released young are already breeding in the wild. Their story is a model for captive breeding of other forest eagles, and is documented in one of our WildlifeDirect blogs http://simonthomsett.wildlifedirect.org . Indeed, the breeding and release of these forest eagles has helped plan and execute similar projects elsewhere, such as with Harpy Eagle release programmes.  The pair, now in their thirties are still in good breeding condition but Rosy needs help.

They last bred successfully in mid 2005. In mid 2007 Simon noticed cataracts in both of Rosy’s eyes, and by April 2008 he was having trouble getting around his breeding pen. By June this year he was unable to fly anywhere both his eyes are now totally opaque. Unless treated Rosy will certainly die.

There is only one specialized eye unit for animals in Africa at the Animal Eye Hospital but we cannot send Rosy for the operation as the species is so endangered that Kenyan CITES bureaucracy is too slow for us to respond to the emergency in time. Rosy is rapidly getting worse, and he must be operated before September.

We at WildlifeDirect are doing everything we can to help Simon and Rosy. Eye operations are risky - Rosy will be examined by human eye surgeons on the 8^thAugust where his eyes will be measured for intraocular lens  so that new lenses can be made in USA and then sent to Kenya. The operation to insert the new lenses is our biggest challenge. We do not have experts in this country to conduct the operation and so we’re helping Simon find the veterinary expertise needed to conduct the cataract operation as soon as possible here in Nairobi.

As you can imagine, this is a risky situation for so valuable an eagle, it could go wrong, he could go completely blind, or even die, and so we are trying to get the worlds best veterinarian to handle the operation.

Please help us support Rosy and restore his eyesight - visit Simons blog and make a donation to help pay for a vet to travel to Nairobi.

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Tags: cataract operation, crowned eagle, Simon Thomsett, wildlifedirect

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