"Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it's the only thing that ever has." Margaret Mead, American anthropologist, 1901-1978
Did you know that the World Bank is involved in tiger conservation?
Who would have thought that all those financiers had a passion for our stripy four pawed friends?
Back in 2008, the World Bank joined the Global Environment Facility, the Smithsonian Institution, Save the Tiger Fund and the International Tiger Coalition (which represents over 40 non-government organisations. And the Global Tiger Initiative was launched. It’s led by the 13 tiger range countries.
In November 2010, leaders of these tiger range countries got together in St Petersburg in Russia. At this International Tiger Forum, they adopted the St Petersburg Declation on Tiger Conservation. And they endorced the Global Tiger Recovery Programme.
The goal of this programme was to double the number of wild tigers across their area by 2022. This would take the number of tigers from 3,200 to over 7,000.
Tiger Initiative
Progress has been made in many tiger range countries:
A 2 week hands-on training for over 800 wildlife conservation professionals was launched. These are from national parks and protected areas in South East Asia. The idea is that they share best practice which could help all the tiger range countries. What’s worked to increase the number of tigers? What hasn’t?
In India, population numbers of tigers have gone up just a whisker over 30% from 2010 to 2015
Nepal has done even better, with a 60% increase in tiger numbers between 2009 and 2012.
Crucially, livelihoods provided under the World Bank/GEF India Ecodevelopment Project led to a group of poachers giving up the practice in the Periyar Tiger Reserve, Kerala.
The Bangladesh Forest Department did a census of Bengal tigers, using the data they got to monitor the size and density of tiger populations in the Bangladesh Sundarbans.
30 Bangladesh forestry department officials undertook a certificate training course on wildlife management at the Wildlife Institute of India. Over 800 forest department officials have had in-country training.
34 subprojects have been implemented on habitat improvement, eco-tourism development and human-wildlife conflict mitigation.
So what challenges lie ahead for tigers??
Threats to Habitats and Connectivity will get worse with rapid infrastructure development and the investment in extractive industries
Poaching and Wildlife Crime Control, especially to monitor trends.
Capacity Building and making sure there are enough resources to boost current efforts and also to develop national centres of excellence.
Scientific Monitoring – results must be monitored so that the right interventions can be made. An example is pinpointing poaching corridors around the world.
Eliminating the demand for tiger products. .
Rebuilding Tiger Populations – it is vital to share current experience and knowledge on how to rebuild tiger populations.
Travel group TUI is running a programme to protect turtles. The travel group now has a target to save one million new-born turtles by 2020.
The TUI Turtle Aid programme has been created to protect the welfare of one million new-born turtles by 2020.
It is working with local organisations in Cape Verde, Turkey and Greece -‘Project Biodiversity’ and BIOS.CV on the islands of Sal and Boa Vista, Archelon in Greece and DEKAMER in Turkey. The project is expected to expand to other countries in the months ahead.
The project will pioneer innovative research and protection methods to help safeguard the endangered global sea turtle population.
Experts estimate that only one in a thousand baby turtles survives to adulthood, and the projects TUI is supporting is aiming to protect turtle nests on beaches and increase hatchling survival rates.
Out of the 7 species of marine turtle, 6 are considered critically endangered, endangered or vulnerable.
Threats to turtles:
Suffocation because they’ve ingested plastic bags;
poachers;
irresponsible beach use which leads to the destruction of turtles nests
killing of hatchlings
coastal development
climate change
illegal trade
Turtles in Cape Verde
The third largest loggerhead nesting populations in the world resides here. Five of the seven existing marine turtle species are in the Cape Verdean waters. The plan is to engage with the local community and local stakeholders. Local tour guides are taught about best practices and they give advice to visitors to help them holiday responsibly. Hotel partner involvement is vital to foster responsible beach use and waste management, and sustainable outings for tourist.
Turtles in Greece
Conservationists will work with local companies and the tourism industry on Crete anda in the Peloponnese to implement management measures on loggerhead nesting beaches. It is hoped that 60,000 loggerhead hatchlings will be born every year.
Turtles in Turkey
On Turkish beaches there are efforts to involve national and regional government, local businesses and visitors in the turtle-protection activities. A rescue centre will help care for injured turtles along the coast. The partnership will enable DEKAMER to develop international research and conservation porjects, including the satellite tracking of turtles, the sex ratio estimate of turtles under global warming and more.
Well done, TUI! Let's hope this really expands to other turtle sites.
It would be the dream of my life to make or win tons of money and be able to give it all to wildlife conservation and reforestation!
In late March 2018, philanthropists, governments and corporate leaders from Europe, China, the US and Africa pledged over $6 million to protect wildlife habitats at the end of an important conservation summit.
The Kavango-Zambezi Trans frontier Conservation Area borders Angola, Botswana, Namibia, Zambia and Zimbabwe. It’s home to over 220,000 elephants – and yet parts of this ecosystem are now under huge pressure from poachers. Forest elephants in Central Africa also suffer from high levels of killing.
Space for Giants is an international conservation organisation. It’s just co-hosted the Giants Club Summit, with Botswana’s Tlhokomela Trust.
The Giants Club has come together and galvanised new money for fast action.
So what did the Giants Club countries – Botswana, Gabon, Kenya and Uganda (plus other KAZA nations Angola, Namibia, Zambia and Zimbabwe) – achieve?
The Giants Club will work with national wildlife services and partner organisations to nominate people for the Ranger Award Programme of the Paradise Foundation. The award raises awareness about threats to Africa’s wildlife and the essential role that rangers play on the front line in conservation. Working together will mean more candidates will be reached.
A US$2 million grant given by the EU will be implemented by Space for Giants and the Tlhokomela Trust to train and mentor wildlife rangers sharing operational intelligence and resources across the border region
It will boost legal deterrants against poaching by making investigations and prosecutions stronger across the five countries.
The Giants Club aims to protect half of Africa’s elephants and their landscapes by 2020 by uniting political will, technical expertise and financial power to achieve its goal.
Founding members are the presidents of Uganda, Gabon, Kenya and the Tlhokomela Trust. 415,000 elephants live in these areas – over half of Africa’s remaining elephants.
The Giants Club’s members include financiers, international philanthropists and key influencers such as celebrities. Conservation scientists are the technical advisors. The summit brings people together to hear innovative ideas on how to protect elephants and their landscapes and it then negotiates finance and secures political will to increase the reach of the ideas.
Kenyan based Space for Giants works to protect Africa’s elephants from immediate threats such as poaching. It works to secure their habitats in landscapes which are under increasing pressures.
The fashion industry has joining forces with conservationists to help protect the Great Barrier Reef!
The Great Barrier Reef is located off the Queensland coast in Australia and it stretches a whopping 2,300 km.
It’s a very popular dive site and is also home to over 1,500 species of tropical fish and over 130 species of shark.
Sadly, over 93% of the reef is now thought to be affected by coral bleaching, caused by rising sea temperatures.
YOOX is a luxury online retailer. It’s partnered with the Australian designers We Are Handsome to create a range of swimwear and active wear. The YOOX Loves the Reef project is working to raise vital funds for the Great Barrier Reef Foundation, and a portion from all sales of the line will go to the charity.
The Foundation supports a variety of scientific projects and research into the fight against coral bleaching. Some aim to monitor and protect the species living on the reef, such as the green turtle or dugong. Others tackle the problem of reef damage through research into coral DNA whilst others develop artificial surfaces where coral can regenerate and grow.
Of course the reef brings in a lot of money to the area, too – over $6 billion a year, not to mention jobs through tourism, diving and scientific research.
So everyone will benefit if the reef can be saved.
It’s good to see industry and conservation working hand in hand.
If you're looking for a way to help plant trees yourself, here's a very easy way to do it! Choose the search engine Ecosia to search online for the things you want!
This short You Tube video tells you how Ecosia started. It explains why they are planting teres, and how they decide where to plant trees.
Their goal is to plant 1 BILLION trees and you can help every time you search online. So far, nearly 23 million trees have been planted already!
You can use Ecosia on a whole range of devices, such as computers, mobiles and tablets and help them plant more.
You only need to make a small change to have a big impact - the information about Ecosia is followed by an interview with conservationist Jane Goodall.
