Conservation Leadership Program
A conservation activity for Labor Day, the annual holiday that celebrates the economic and social achievements of workers, might be to watch a video about a program such as Birdlife International’s Conservation Leadership Program.
For 25 years, the Conservation Leadership Program has been sponsoring young conservationists to manage projects to help preserve some of the world’s most endangered species and habitats.
The video introduces people to some of the award-winning leaders of conservation projects in Brazil, Cambodia, and Kenya. It shows some everyday conservation working activities that give people an idea of what it is really like to work in the field.
Have a happy and safe Labor Day weekend!
Bicknell’s Thrush Conservation
A Conservation Action Plan for Bicknell’s Thrush has just been published, setting a course of conservation and research for the next five years for the little brown songbird with the speckled breast and swirling song.
The plan is to increase the Thrush’s global population by 25% over the next 50 years. The current population is 126,000 or fewer birds, which seems like a large population for a threatened species but apparently a small one for songbirds, suggests the International Bicknell’s Thrush Conservation Group.
The bird’s population has decreased by 15% in its breeding grounds in Nova Scotia and New Brunswick in recent years. Atmospheric pollution, climate change and loss or degradation of its forest habitats threatens it along its route and in its winter home in the Caribbean Greater Antilles.
The Conservation Action Plan’s focus is on partnering with timber companies and managers of public lands to preserve the Bicknell Thrush’s habitat, and conducting scientific research to monitor and predict the impacts on climate change on that habitat. These actions will also benefit other migratory birds and animals living in the Bicknell’s Thrush’s range.
cc IBTCG
The Plan is on IBTCG’s website.
If you happen to see a Bicknell’s Thrush, add it to eBird, an online checklist program that is one of the largest and fastest growing biodiversity data resources around.
The IBTCG’s fourth annual meeting, together with the Black-capped Petrel Working Group, will be held in Santo Domingo, DR on November 2-4, 2010. The meeting will focus on increasing the participation in conservation planning of Caribbean and North American partners for these two species and for all birds that migrate between the Caribbean and North America.
Tags: Bicknell's Thrush, bird, Black-capped petrel, Climate Change, Conservation, deforestation, eBird, migratory, plan, research
Agriculture and Biodiversity
It’s hard to ignore over 1 billion people. So although I like natural foods, I realize the importance of ethical agricultural research in helping to feed the over 1 billion people in our world who are hungry.
International agricultural research is designed to benefit the farmers, environment, and economies of developing countries, suggests the Crawford Fund. It’s an effective way to help people living in less developed countries, the majority of whom are living in rural areas and are dependent on the land for employment and their food security.
The Crawford Fund is an Australian NGO focused on raising awareness of the benefits of international agricultural research to developing countries. The Fund’s annual conference is billed as one of the very few international events that focuses on food security related to biodiversity, and sees value in both feeding and greening our world. The impact of climate change on both conservation and biodiversity will be addressed in the Fund’s 2010 event “Biodiversity and World Food Security: Nourishing the Planet and its People”, to be held in Canberra, August 30 to September 1.
The Crawford Fund conference’s definition of biodiversity includes “the plants that feed, clothe, house, and heal people; crops, aquatic and livestock species that feed us; insects that pollinate fields; the forests that are the lungs of the planet; and microorganisms that regenerate the soils that grow our food”. The concept includes finding solutions to climate change, species invasions, ignorance and neglect.
Conference speakers include the 14th Director of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (Professor Steve Hopper), and the Director of the National Museum of Natural History of the Smithsonian Institution (Dr. Cristian Samper).
Tags: agriculture, Australia, biodiversity, Crawford Fund, food security, hunger, research
Truth about Rhino Horn
My rhino article was a bit long, so rather than add this note to the article I’m creating a new article. An articlette, perhaps!
Rhino poaching is usually for the international trade in rhino horn, which is based on a belief that the horn contains medicinal powers. The horn is sawed off the still living rhino, which is then left to die. It’s a brutal poaching event. The reality is that the rhinos don’t need to be killed – they can be dehorned humanely. Conservationists sometimes dehorn rhinos to help save them. But poachers are only interested in the money.