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Involving Communities in the Fight Against Wildlife Crime

Conservationists are not crying wolf there really is a global wildlife crisis and many animals will disappear from their natural habitats within our lifetimes.

Occasionally wildlife issues wrest the headlines from other crises and there are a few fleeting moments in the lime-light to make the case that protecting nature is not a luxury but essential for securing the future of the planet's inhabitants human and animal.

One such headline-making topic is wildlife crime. Estimates of the illegal trade in wildlife products for 2009 of as much as U.S. $20 billion placed it fourth behind the trafficking of drugs, people and arms in terms of value for the criminal gangs and terrorists masterminding it. Wildlife crime is no peripheral issue; it leads to political, economic, social and environmental instability, undermines the rule of law, destroys human livelihoods, and lays waste to our natural heritage.

"13062235_10153730474828370_4007093864308166425_n" The plight of elephants is well documented and the international community is responding through the appropriate channels. The Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Fauna and Flora (CITES) established in 1973 regulates, monitors and, in some cases, prohibits international trade in animals and plants. The Convention on the Conservation of Migratory Species of Wild Animals (CMS) signed in 1979 aims to preserve those animals that cross borders on their annual migrations.

With the issues capable of attracting attention in the highest echelons of government and institutional architecture in place, why then does the problem persist? What are the missing ingredients for an effective solution?

What is needed is a more “bottom up” strategy where conservationists join forces with local people. Where such approaches are tried, they work. With communities on board, seeing tangible benefits for their local economy and environment, the tables can be turned on the poachers. Crimes are no longer seen as minor transgressions. With local communities acting as advocates for conservation, pressure can be exerted on politicians to allocate resources to protecting wildlife, and on courts to start imposing penalties that are real deterrents.

"13239471_10153792884468370_5934086633637940520_n" Among those tangible benefits is secure and sustainable jobs. Wildlife tourism is a great money-spinner from safaris to whale-watching and generates significant foreign currency earnings and employs thousands of people. The challenges are significant those actually doing the dirty work receive only a fraction of the $2,000 per kilo that ivory commands as a finished product in Asian markets, but still a fortune for a poacher who sees no alternative offering similar rewards.

"10377449_10152324181758370_2259959871726388410_n" The experience of CMS indicates that the best approach is to involve local communities, following the rules of engagement developed by the World Conservation Union's Sustainable Livelihoods Specialist Group. CMS has financed projects based on the fundamental principles of ensuring that benefits accrue to the community (and that compensation is paid for loss of crops or livestock to predators) and that local stakeholders assume responsibility for implementing agreed measures.

One project bringing together all key governmental and civic stakeholders aimed at protecting the Cross River Gorilla, Africa's rarest great ape found on the Cameroon-Nigeria border. Local inhabitants' understanding of the need of using forest resources sustainably was enhanced through the establishment of ten “Village Forest Management Committees” to encourage participation in the management of the local environment. As well as focusing on raising awareness of young people, the project also included training in alternative livelihoods such as beekeeping.

In Gourma, Mali, a project for protecting elephants built communities' capacity to manage their resources effectively, one element being setting up vigilance networks where local people assume an active role in tackling poaching. Not only does this protect elephants, but it also provides employment to the young people in the community.

At their most recent Conference of the Parties (Quito, 2014), CMS Parties adopted the Central Asian Mammal Initiative, to conserve Saiga Antelopes, Argali Sheep and Snow Leopards. After the loss of 200,000 Saigas to a devastating disease last year, efforts to protect this species have to be redoubled, not least by combating poaching. Male Saigas' horns are much prized in traditional medicine, but most illegal taking is done to satisfy local demand for the animals' meat. In the Ustjurt Ecosystem, home to the antelopes, the Association for the Conservation of the Biodiversity of Kazakhstan has equipped a yurt which tours the region and from which information material on sustainable livelihoods, business plans, employment opportunities and micro-loans is distributed.

In Tajikistan, CMS is working with the NGO, Panthera in the Pamir Mountains where five community-based conservancies have been set up for Snow Leopards, to address illegal trade and human-wildlife conflict. Providing predator-proof corrals for herdsmen's livestock has helped eliminate retaliatory killing of the cats.

"SONY

We cannot turn Africa into a continent of beekeepers that was a solution suitable for unique local circumstances; we can, however, devise innovative ideas that prevent local people from turning to poaching and convert them to the cause of conservation. It is in the hearts and minds of people at the grass roots as much as with ministers in the corridors of power and poachers in the field that the battle against wildlife crime has to be fought and won.

Dr Bradnee Chambers is the Executive Secretary of the United Nations Environment Programme's Convention on the Conservation of Migratory Species of Wild Animals.

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Can students change the face of business?
What happens when you give eight bright young entrepreneurs the freedom and resources to change the way we approach sustainable business?

They create something revolutionary, while making established businesses sit up and take notice.

Over the northern summer, DNV GL gathered a team of students from a range of studies at the company headquarters outside Oslo, Norway. They were given six weeks to create a digital platform to drive awareness of the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), while creating value for both business and society.

The result is Wembo - a two-part digital platform designed to enable businesses and consumers to do their part in reaching the Global Goals through transparency, collaboration and sharing.

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Four of the eight dedicated summer students in 2016 with the new Wembo app, from left: Marthe Sogn Lien, Alexander Gaugstad, Ingrid Bye Løken, and Stefan Elston.

What is Wembo?

Wembo consists of two digital products: an online dashboard called Wembo Analytics for businesses, and a smartphone application called Wembo Go for consumers.

Wembo Analytics is a web portal that will enable companies to share, monitor and improve their sustainability performance across every link of a product's supply chain. The information is then analyzed by DNV GL's data center that will provide companies with a score of how sustainable their production is. A company could see how it measures up against competitors, and select suppliers based on their sustainability scores.

The Wembo Go app lets consumers scan and compare to products side by side, choosing the product with the best sustainability score. This could be based on things like labour practices, or how far a product has travelled for processing and packaging. The aim is to encourage more sustainable consumption by letting consumers see the global impact of the products they choose.

"Before I started working on the project I didn't really grasp the size of the negative impact we humans are having on the planet. I hope Wembo can contribute to a more sustainable future", explains Stefan Michael Elston, a graduate student from the Norwegian School of Economics (NHH).

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The team presenting Wembo at DNV GL head office, from left: Stefan Elston, Eivind Harris, Ingride Bye Løken, Simen Hexeberg, Erlend S. Harbitz, Marthe Sogn Lien, Johan Jørgen Grav and Alexander Gaugstad.

Backing youth in business

When companies like DNV GL hire interns, the standard assumption is that we're going to teach them about the world of business. With our summer project, we turned this completely around. Instead we gave the students the opportunity to teach us what to do. I am convinced that giving young digital natives this kind of opportunities and responsibility will be a key factor for success in the accelerating technological shift that is happening today. As a company, this approach is extremely valuable. It helps us stay flexible, creative and keep us energized.

It's also a boon for the students: partnering with a global company and working on something that has real-world significance puts them a step ahead in the competitive graduate market.

I am truly impressed to see what the students have created over just six weeks. At DNV GL, we aim to enable sustainable business models and encourage industries to see the opportunities and the value of being transparent. Wembo fits right into this approach. Over a short period, these students have given us a tool to help the world reach the UN Sustainable Development Goals by year 2030. They really are members of 'Generation S'; the custodians of tomorrow who understand the power of sustainability to create positive change.

The combination of big data analysis and transparency Wembo provides could very well be the key to unlocking a safe and sustainable future.

You can read more about Wembo here, or check out the prototype for yourself.

"2016-08-22-1471876997-4808033-wembo3.jpg"

Johan Jørgen Grav shows how Wembo connects to the UN Global Goals

-- This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website.

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The Role Of Government In Rebuilding After Disasters
People are losing their homes to floods in Louisiana and the Midwest and forest fires in California. It is not just heartbreaking to see people have their homes and life savings destroyed in an instant; it is a problem that calls out for a government response. I have written many times about the need for dedicated federal funds for the reconstruction of homes and communities destroyed by nature or terror. This will require a dedicated revenue stream, or what we used to call a tax, to generate these funds. The facts are that our population is growing, we live in places we never lived before, and we depend on energy, transport, water and waste infrastructure to live a modern lifestyle. We are more vulnerable to the impact of a storm than we were before our homes became hosts to the technology of comfort. Everyone watches the disasters on TV, feels bad, figures it can't happen here, and use their remotes to switch to the Olympics. But many can't flip the channel; they are living with the disaster and are desperately trying to find a new \home for their family.

The fundamental job of government is to provide security and safety for its people. Natural disasters may be predictable to some degree, but they are unavoidable. What is avoidable is the sense of economic hopelessness that follows these events. The community can't replace the memories and mementos of the past, but it can rebuild homes, schools, libraries, roads and other institutions. It's too bad that government can't support religious institutions because they are so valuable in the aftermath of loss, but the constitution really does forbid it.

In last week's New York Times, Campbell Robertson and Alan Blinde reported that:

In Louisiana, severe weather can often seem a trauma visited and revisited. But the disaster unfolding here this week fits into a recent and staggering pattern in more than half-dozen states, where floods have rolled out at such a scale that scientists say they might be a once-every-500-or-1,000-year occurrence. The cumulative, increasingly grim toll, from Maryland to South Carolina to Louisiana to Texas, includes scores of lives and billions of dollars in economic losses.

What were once rare occurrences have become commonplace. You could argue that we should build out communities in places less prone to flooding, but there are no such places. Even deserts occasionally get hit with sudden downpours. In addition to the flooding, we see growing impact from forest fires. California's Blue Cut fire has caused 80,000 people to evacuate their homes. According to Nick Strayer of the New York Times:

The size of wildfires has grown steadily for more than 30 years. In 1982, the average fire covered less than 25 acres. Today, the average wildfire burns about 100 acres...The federal government spent $202.8 million to fight fires in 1986. Last year, it spent $2.1 billion. One cause of the longer seasons is environmental: The warming climate has melted snowpacks earlier, increasing the length of time that forests dry out and become vulnerable to burning.

There is no question that with 39 million or so people living in California, many are living in places that were unpopulated a generation ago, and so a fire might have burned in some remote location 50 years ago but would had little impact on human communities. That increases the probability that people might be in the pathway of destruction, but frankly, that's the point. More and more extreme weather events are taking place, and we are more likely to suffer damage form those events.

It's time for a policy response that provides reconstruction insurance, so that along with a federal disaster declaration, funds become immediately available to rebuild homes, facilities and infrastructure. There are a lot of ways to generate revenue for such a trust fund. There are even more ways to create a lock-box system that ensure the money can't be diverted or influenced by political considerations. I would tax gasoline to fund this. Our federal gasoline tax is quite low when compared to other parts of the world, and a disaster surcharge could be set annually based on the needs of the previous year. We get lucky, the tax goes down; we get hit a lot, the tax goes up. But with a dedicated trust fund in place, when a twister carries your home to the Land of Oz, the state of Kansas shows up the next day with a check for you to rebuild your home. They also provide another check for temporary housing. If you're a landlord with renters, the same deal applies.

The disaster will be just as miserable, but the aftermath can be made predictable and less wrenching by a national insurance system that cleanly and efficiently funds reconstruction. Here in the northeast, we continue to live through the horrific follow-up of Superstorm Sandy. First, our congressional delegation had to beg their colleagues for funding. Then began a long and complex process to determine who was eligible for aid and to ensure there was no fraud in the process. Years later, people have still not returned to their homes.

Observing this failure of government response after Sandy and seeing the representatives in the Midwest and South resisting funding reconstruction, I warned that they would be next. And now they are. The ideology of a do-nothing government is an obstacle to taking the action needed. There are plenty of reasons to be cautious when designing a big new federal program--I get that. But how many more miserable people will we need to see before we act? How many lives and family savings are we willing to sacrifice before we design an approach to fund reconstruction?

The American dream of hard work and reward is under siege. That is part of what is fueling the political insurgencies of this presidential year. Reconstruction funding is an appropriate role for government because pricing disaster insurance is nearly impossible and no private firm will take this risk. But our community is stuck with somehow paying for the cost of reconstruction.

The news media covers the drama of first response to disasters, and our capacity to predict and respond to disasters has improved over the past several decades. But once the cameras depart and the media trucks have driven away, the devastated communities are left on their own. As the number, severity, and impact of these storms grow, the ad hoc response to them will become increasingly unacceptable. I can't say that I expect any of our elected officials or presidential candidates to advocate for a reconstruction trust fund, but some form of creative response by government is desperately needed.

-- This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website.

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Clinton's Transition Team: A Corporate Presidency Foretold
Like other Bernie Sanders delegates in Philadelphia a few weeks ago, I kept hearing about the crucial need to close ranks behind Hillary Clinton. "Unity" was the watchword. But Clinton has reaffirmed her unity with corporate America.

Rhetoric aside, Clinton is showing her solidarity with the nemesis of the Sanders campaign -- Wall Street. The trend continued last week with the announcement that Clinton has tapped former senator and Interior secretary Ken Salazar to chair her transition team.

After many months of asserting that her support for the "gold standard" Trans-Pacific Partnership was a thing of the past -- and after declaring that she wants restrictions on fracking so stringent that it could scarcely continue -- Clinton has now selected a vehement advocate for the TPP and for fracking, to coordinate the process of staffing the top of her administration.

But wait, there's more -- much more than Salazar's record -- to tell us where the planning for the Hillary Clinton presidency is headed.

On the surface, it might seem like mere inside baseball to read about the transition team's four co-chairs, described by Politico as "veteran Clinton aides Maggie Williams and Neera Tanden" along with "former National Security Adviser Tom Donilon and former Michigan Gov. Jennifer Granholm." But the leaders of the transition team -- including Clinton campaign chair John Podesta, who is also president of the Clinton-Kaine Transition Project -- will wield enormous power.

"The transition team is one of the absolute most important things in the world for a new administration," says William K. Black, who has held key positions at several major regulatory agencies such as the Federal Home Loan Bank Board. Along with "deciding what are we actually going to make our policy priorities," the transition team will handle key questions: "Who will the top people be? Who are we going to vet, to hold all of the cabinet positions, and many non-cabinet positions, as well? The whole staffing of the senior leadership of the White House."

Black's assessment of Salazar, Podesta and the transition team's four co-chairs is withering. "These aren't just DNC regulars, Democratic National Committee regulars," he said in an interview with The Real News Network. "What you're seeing is complete domination by what used to be the Democratic Leadership Council. So this was a group we talked about in the past. Very, very, very right-wing on foreign policy, what they called a muscular foreign policy, which was a euphemism for invading places. And very, very tough on crime -- this was that era of mass incarceration that Bill Clinton pushed, and it's when Hillary was talking about black 'superpredators,' this myth, this so dangerous myth."

That choice [Ken Salazar] means the oil and gas industry just hit a political gusher.

Black added: "And on the economic side, they were all in favor of austerity. All in favor of privatization. Tried to do a deal with Newt Gingrich to privatize Social Security. And of course, were all in favor of things like NAFTA."

As for Hillary Clinton's widely heralded "move to the left" in recent months, Black said that it "was purely calculated for political purposes. And all of the team that's going to hire all the key people and vet the key people for the most senior positions for at least the first several years of what increasingly looks likely to be a Clinton administration are going to be picked by these people, who are the opposite of progressive."

In that light, Salazar is a grotesquely perfect choice to chair the transition team. After all of Clinton's efforts to present herself as a foe of the big-money doors that revolve between influence peddlers and government officials in Washington, her choice of Salazar -- a partner at the lobbying powerhouse WilmerHale since 2013 -- belies her smooth words. That choice means the oil and gas industry just hit a political gusher.

On both sides of the revolving doors, the industry has been ably served by Salazar, whose work included arguing for the Keystone XL pipeline. His support for fracking has been so ardent that it led him two years ago to make a notably fanciful claim: "We know that, from everything we've seen, there's not a single case where hydraulic fracking has created an environmental problem for anyone."

Salazar is part of a clear pattern. Clinton's selection of Tim Kaine for vice president underscored why so many progressives distrust her. Kaine was among just one-quarter of Democrats in the Senate who voted last year to fast track the TPP. When he was Virginia's governor, Kaine said that "I strongly support" a so-called right-to-work law that is anathema to organized labor. A few years ago he faulted fellow Democrats who sought to increase taxes for millionaires.

Clinton announced the Kaine pick while surely knowing that many progressives would find it abhorrent. A week beforehand, the Bernie Delegates Network released the results of a survey of Sanders delegates showing that 88 percent said they would find selection of Kaine "unacceptable." Only 3 percent of the several hundred respondents said it would be "acceptable."

The first big post-election showdown will be over the TPP in the lame-duck session of Congress. Clinton's spokesman Brian Fallon reiterated a week ago that "she is against the TPP before the election and after the election." But her choices for running mate and transition team have sent a very different message. And it's likely that she is laying groundwork to convey anemic "opposition" that will be understood on Capitol Hill as a wink-and-nod from a president-elect who wouldn't mind "aye" votes for the TPP.

Blessed with an unhinged and widely deplored Republican opponent, Hillary Clinton may be able to defeat him without doing much to mend fences with alienated Sanders voters. But Clinton's smooth rhetoric should not change the fact that -- on a vast array of issues -- basic principles will require progressives to fight against her actual policy goals, every step of the way.

-- This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website.

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National Parks Mission Accomplished At 65!
OMG!

The first day of my 66th year, I woke up early to write my blog saluting the National Park System on the 100th anniversary of its caretaker agency, the National Park Service. I planned to write about my top five favorite national parks ( Grand Teton, Denali, Badlands, Kingsley/Timucuan and Everglades) using the vivid descriptions from being there to excite others to visit.

Then I opened the first email, and found my mission already accomplished in this podcast produced by my friend Natasha Milne from Australia and who I have still to meet. Natasha and her collaborator Dr. Barbara Royal are the inspiration behind 101 Reasons to Get Out Of Bed, profiling 101 "planet heroes."

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Listening to the podcast, I enjoyed all over again the adventure, the mission, the challenges and successes that Frank and I with many allies have encountered through the years of striving to reconnect people with the vast swaths of nature in our national parks and public lands. Now I feel I NEED DO NOTHING ELSE other than share it with the world. Anyone who can resist the call to explore our public lands and actively engage in their enjoyment and stewardship must already be completely happy in their current situation and need try nothing new.

This week we'll find out if President Obama issues the Presidential Memo that the Next100 Coalition asked him for on the Centennial, calling for greater diversity in the park service's workforce and visitorship, and a more inclusive vision of the public lands system for the next 100 years. You can help by signing the petition here.

Meanwhile, Happy 100th Birthday this Thursday, September 25, National Park Service! Congratulations to all those who act in the spirit of love that I express in this podcast. Others who take it to heart might find that Americans of color are natural and necessary allies in the preservation of our precious natural, cultural and historical treasures so that we can hand them off intact to future generations. There is no other viable way.

-- This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website.

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Meatless Monday: Small Steps, Big Changes -- Gene Baur and "Living the Farm Sanctuary Life"
There was no plan, there was only "concern about animals and nature," says Gene Baur. "I wanted to do something positive it the world." He did. In 1986, he co-founded Farm Sanctuary. Now almost 30 years later, Farm Sanctuary is America's premier farm animal protection organization, a safe haven for factory farm animals abused and/or left for dead, and a transformative place for people, too. Farm Sanctuary offers education, outreach and the opportunity to rediscover our primal bond with animals.

"Farm animals are not that different from cats and dogs," says Baur. "They have feelings, relationships, respect and compassion." Their open affection remind of us our own humanity. And our responsibility. "We don't share our lives with animals just because we want to. We do it because we need them," Baur writes in "Living the Farm Sanctuary Life."

Co-written with Gene Stone, Baur's new book provides a little Farm Sanctuary wherever you are, with adorable farm animal photos, pleasing plant-based recipes from fab chefs and cookbook authors including Chad Sarno, even one from Baur. And of course, transformation.

There are stories about rescued farm animals, like a ewe named Hilda, Farm Sanctuary's first rescue and resident. Just as compelling are the stories of people whose lives have changed after close encounters of the animal kind, from a former pig farmer to Twitter creator (and vegan) Biz Stone. Baur's book also shows you how to to live according to Farm Sanctuary's five tenets:

Live and Eat in Alignment with Your Values
Engage in a Mindful Connection with Animals
Engage in a Mindful connection with Your Food
Eat Plants. . . for Your Health
Eat Plants. . . for the Health of the Earth

Taken together, it's a recipe for "compassionate vegan living. You can live and do well without meat." And it's easy. "Try Meatless Monday, substitute meatless meats for meats," Baur suggests. "Small changes lead to bigger changes."

One small change that's helped lead to bigger ones and greater vegan acceptance is the current state of vegan eats, more accessible and more delicious than when Baur went vegan in 1985. One thing hasn't changed in three decades. "Health," says Baur, "is the biggest driver." You want healthy? Hello, powerful plant-fueled athletes like David Carter, Rich Roll, Ellen Jaffe Jones, even Baur, who's been running marathons and triathlons to prove vegan and buff go together.

Farm Sanctuary's undergone other big changes. In addition to the original site in Watkins Glen, there's now two more animal sanctuaries in California. That's more than 500 acres of land for happy, healthy animals. Along with expanded acreage is expanded awareness. "It's an exciting time," says Baur. "People are starting to think about the impact of animal agriculture on nature and that's a very good thing. People want more mindful choices, there's more momentum than ever, a convergence of awareness. That gives me a lot of hope."

Now as it enters its third decade, Farm Sanctuary is working to reach more people, from the underserved to "people in urban places," as well as tying in to existing and emerging trends. They're all little steps which taken together "catapult it to the next level."

As Farm Sanctuary evolves, its goal remains the same. "To save animals' lives," says Baur. "One of the best ways to do that is by not eating them. They're our friends, not our food."

The Best Tofu Scramble You've Ever Had

Reprinted from Living the Farm Sanctuary Life by Gene Baur and Gene Stone, copyright 2015 by Farm Sanctuary. By permission of Rodale Books.

Baur's sole culinary contribution to his new book and a family favorite, an awesome, animal-free version of the "wonderful Sunday morning family breakfasts of bacon and eggs when I was growing up."

1 medium red onion, chopped
1 red, orange, or yellow bell pepper, chopped
3 cloves garlic, finely chopped
8 ounces sliced white mushrooms
1 pound firm tofu, rinsed, drained, and crumbled
1 cup nutritional yeast
1-1/2 teaspoons salt
1 teaspoon ground black pepper
1 teaspoon ground turmeric
5 cups fresh spinach

In a cast-iron skillet over medium-high heat, add about 2 tablespoons water and cook the onion, bell pepper, and garlic. Stir frequently and add a 1/8" layer of water (it will steam off) to prevent the veggies from sticking. When the onion is translucent, add the mushrooms. Continue stirring and adding water as necessary.

When the mushrooms boil down to approximately half their original size, reduce the heat to medium and add the tofu, nutritional yeast, salt, and pepper. Continue stirring frequently, mixing and adding water as necessary. When the tofu, spices, and veggies are mixed well and heated evenly, after about 5 minutes, add the turmeric and continue stirring and adding water to prevent sticking.

After the tofu attains a uniform yellowish color, mix in the spinach, which will boil down to a fraction of its original size. Then enjoy!

Serves 4.

Variations: Feel free to add other veggies or more of the veggies listed above, which will make the dish less protein dense. You can also add vegan sausage, like Tofurky or Field Roast, if you want a heavier dish.

This post originally ran on April 27, 2015.
More at soulfulvegan.com

-- This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website.

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