There is little doubt that industry plays a major role in this destruction and that industry must also play a major role in reversing the trend of irresponsible deforestation. Last spring, Nestlé was the first global consumer goods company to become a member of The Forest Trust (TFT),  a non-profit organization dedicated to supporting product and supply chains that bring about sustainable development. Working with TFT, Nestlé defined the Responsible Sourcing Guidelines, “a set of critical requirements to guide the Nestlé procurement process and to ensure compliance with the Nestlé Supplier Code.”

A year has passed since Nestlé announced its partnership with TFT and its commitment to helping suppliers become No Deforestation ones and Greenpeace  is crediting Nestlé with “making a serious attempt to raise the bar when it comes to corporate action against deforestation.”

The good news is that the trend appears to be catching. Recently Golden Agri Resources (GAR), a major supplier of palm oil, committed to stop clearing areas designated High Carbon Storage (HCS), peat lands and areas of High Conservation Value. The bad news is that despite the good work of TFT, pressure from Greenpeace, and commitments from major organizations like Nestlé, deforestation is still happening at a rapid pace. Asia Pulp & Paper (APP)who are owed by the Sinar Mas Group, the same parent company as GAR, continues to strip vast acres of Indonesian rainforest every year; including the habitat of the endangered Sumatran tiger.

It is only with the intense pressure of people power that the good news will eventually outweigh the bad news. As Greenpeace noted in their press release “people power in action is a beautiful thing.”

Along with the usual spots such as Madagascar, the list includes the California Floristic Province, where the Mediterranean-like climate provides a home to the last individuals of the rare California condor, as well as the giant sequoia, the planet’s largest tree. VanDusen Botanical Garden in Vancouver has some young giant sequoia, and they’re majestic trees.

Forests cover only 30 percent of the planet’s area but are home to 80 percent of the world’s land animals and plants, reports Conservation International. The group writes that forests are being destroyed at an alarming rate to give room to pastures, agricultural land, mineral exploitation, and sprawling urban areas, but by doing so we are destroying our own capacity to survive.

The display’s pictures are worthy of National Geographic’s reputation. Overall, it’s a beautiful but sad collection.

Columbian conservation groups Fundacion ProAves and El Grupo Ceruleo have partnered with the American Bird Conservancy (ABC) to develop and publish a conservation plan for the Cerulean Warbler, according to Surfbirds News.  The action plan will address the challenging issues involved in the conservation of this unique bird species whose range spans many political and geographic boundaries.  The Warbler breeds in the deciduous forests of the eastern United States and Canada in the summer, returning to its non-breeding ground of South America in the winter, explains The Environment News Service.  Alarmingly, the Warblers have lost 80 percent of their population due to habitat loss and fragmentation across their geographical range.

The ABC and Fundacion ProAves intend to use economic and ecological tools and incentives to reduce the loss of shade-grown coffee farms, to promote a protected areas network using the warbler as an umbrella species, and to restore and enhance habitats.

The Environment News Service also reports that the Armonia/Loro Parque Fundacion recently purchased over 2,800 acres of savanna and rainforest in the Beni Savannas, in an attempt to save the Blue-throated Macaw.  Now that the land is saved, conservation activities such as using nest boxes, conducting habitat research requirements, and starting up ecotourism, will be done.

Meanwhile, back in the US, Audubon Vermont’s Forest Bird Initiative aims to protect neo-tropical migratory birds in the Atlantic Northern Forest of Vermont through integrating science, education and public policy to conserve habitats.  According to National Geographic’s Global Action Atlas, the Forest Bird Initiative identifies, monitors and stewards a network of important bird areas (IBA) which support a significant number of breeding forest birds to maintain viable populations of endangered bird species.  After all, it is the responsibility of human beings to ensure that the Cerulean warbler and other species fly home safely.

As well, the video shows 22 Kemp’s Ridley turtle babies that were released into a safe part of the Atlantic shore.   As I wrote in this blog’s May 5th article Conserving Turtles, Kemp’s Ridley turtles are the world’s most endangered turtles/tortoises, and live only in the Gulf of Mexico.

Altogether, over 700 turtle nests are to be relocated.  The turtle rescue group is represented on the video by volunteers and a couple of spokespeople from the US Fish & Wildlife Service and the Institute for Marine Mammal Studies.  The video is an interesting inside look at a conservation operation, thanks to National Geographic and Videographer and Field Producer Fritz Faerber.

The Chair and Vice Chair of the IWC, backed by Japan, Iceland and Norway, wanted to reverse trends and make commercial whaling legal again, according to National Geographic’s NatGeo NewsWatch.  Luckily, non-whaling countries led the way in saying NO to the proposal to legalize commercial whaling and approve killing quotas in an international whale sanctuary around Antarctica.

You’d hope that after the Sea Shepherd Society and some leading North American media have shown the barbarism of whaling, coupled with our knowledge that whales are intelligent and increasingly rare animals, re-legalizing whaling would not be under consideration.

Native claims complicate matters such as this, and Greenlanders have been allowed to kill 200 of the common minke whale, but also 19 of the endangered fin whale, according to Repeating Islands.com.  Add Humpbacks to the list – this year, Denmark offered to trade nine fin whales for nine humpbacks.  Repeating Islands, a Caribbean based news service, is concerned that if this continues it may impact humpback whale watching in the Caribbean.  Sadly, some of the whales end up as meat on supermarket shelves rather than frolicking in the sea.

An estimated 1.5 million whales were killed in the 20th century, and now some species such as the blue whale are threatened with extinction.  With Japanese whaling ships killing whales in the Antarctica sanctuary, and then selling the whale meat, things need to change.

The Whaling Commission has postponed, for one year, making a decision about re-legalizing whaling.  Let’s work with NGO’s, such as the International Fund for Animal Welfare, to ensure that whales that are still alive on our planet are preserved.

The Award seems to have expanded since then and now include landscapes, flora, communities at risk, and Puget Sound at Risk.  They kindly post some of the winner’s photos online, and you can visit them at their website.

If you’re going to be anywhere near the Seattle area this summer, you have until September 6th to visit the display of Award winner’s photographs.  The exhibit is at the Burke Museum, who is also kind enough to put a sampling of the photographs online.  Burke’s selection is the same quality that I saw in Alberta, and it is exciting to see them in real life (versus online only).  I mean, have you ever seen a photograph of a beluga whale or seal or giraffes look like that before?!

That’s not to say that looking at cool wildlife photographs online is anything less than fun.  There’s a display of 99 of the best wildlife photographs as showcased by the National Geographic at Cool Pictures/Cool Stuff.  National Geographic is a world leader in photography, and their best of the best shows it.

Altogether, each and all the photographs show us what an incredible world we live in.

Enjoy!

When finding a reliable list of online wildlife webcams that are all working became harder than it should be, I thought of reversing my search.  And yes,  there are Crittercams that show you the world from the animal’s point of view.  For a donation to the National Geographic of between $26 and $210, you can order a copy of a Crittercam DVD filmed on the back of either an elephant, humpback whale, gray seal, loggerhead turtle, or a white shark.  Hopefully you’re reading this in either Canada or the US, because the DVD’s will only be shipped to addresses in those two countries. 

Through another page, there’s a short video of a crittercam riding the back of a leopard seal into the waters of Antarctica.  As well, you have an opportunity to virtually construct a critter cam.

If you scroll down this page, on the right hand side near the bottom is a link that opens to a virtual tour of the Crittercam Exhibition.  It has been touring since August 2007, and will continue to tour around the United States until January 2012.  There’s an online virtual tour of the exhibition that is fun, and is like the next best thing to being there.

Meanwhile, the three day World People’s Conference on Climate Change and the Rights of the Mother Earth wrapped up in Cochabamba Bolivia.  This conference largely grew out of how so many NGO’s were barred from any official dialogue at Copenhagen.  Over 30,000 people participated in Bolivia and the conference resulted in a wide recognition that a world referendum is needed on climate change, a climate justice tribunal, and the protection of the rights of Mother Earth.  Several people blogged about the conference.   Hopefully they will accomplish an agreement at the summit planned to be held in Mexico later this year.  Their bottom line is that they want to establish a legal framework for protecting our increasingly threatened natural environment and raising the global consciousness about Mother Earth, on which we all depend for life.

Now that so many people are on board, what are some of the things we can do going forward?  This being the Friday File, what’s fun?

Sustainability can be fun if we take the right attitude to it.  My current stainless steel travel mug is decorated with zebra stripes with a pink border, and I love using it.  Look at lists of things we can do, such as on Earth Day’s website, and make a fun version of it.

If you’d like some inspiration, check out National Geographic’s website that shows some fun ways that Earth Day has been celebrated over the years.

And sometimes activities can be fun just because we’re helping our home planet and making a difference.