Guest post series 'Almost gone ...' by Scott Bright (@Speciesguy)
The Cassowary Has A Great Purpose!
One day, I became fascinated, and I'm sure you will to, with exploring different parts of the world. And as fate would have it, I clicked on one of the strangest places on earth as far as animals go, "Australia!" The species that captivated my attention was a bird called the Southern Cassowary. They weigh in at one hundred and fifty pounds or more! That's right, you read correctly. Just take a peek at one! And man do they look prehistoric! I found a great video for you to see one up close.
Here is what's so valuable with this bird. It's called a keystone specie. Just what does that mean in layman's terms? Well, it's responsible for replenishing rain forest. Just how can a bird be so responsible for that task? Good question. I have 800+ books for your child and you to explore! What Is your favorites species kids? Just type them in and explore. Click here to start your child's learning.
Boy, Can They Eat Fruit!
This bird can eat fruit whole and then run all over the forest and drop the seeds whole. The result? Trees happen in a matter of weeks! I'm telling you, don't try this at home, this bird is a professional.
Just One To Four Thousand Left
So why does anyone need to be concerned about this species? If this bird goes extinct, what's to happen with the forest? I'm sure you can put 2 and 2 together. Other animals count on the cassowary. This species' forest habitat is becoming fragmented. Some caring people of Australia have put up signs for cars to slow for cassowary traffic; if only the people in the cars will slow down.
True Story
My journey began when I pulled up to my computer and read about this large bird. Hours went by and i got more and more passionate about the cause of saving it from extinction. Yeah, a global awareness had to be developed. So here's the deal. We are all in this together to make a difference. If you see an organization online that wants to preserve Cassowaries, make a donation to their precious cause.
I know if the people of world take an interest in the 16,000 species on the verge of extinction, we can turn this around. As for myself, I'm picking another part of the world to focus on. After all, the animals of Africa need to have the spot light on them too. I've written other interesting things to read about to make a difference. Once again, it's all part of the tapestry my friend. This and all other species truly are in a race against time, and it will have to be all of us working together if we're going to turn things around.
Guest post series 'Almost gone ...' by Scott Bright (@Speciesguy)
The aye- aye needs our help
I recently discovered a species from an island located at the bottom right of South Africa, Madagascar, called the Aye Aye. Isn’t that a strange name for an animal? It’s a nocturnal lemur that eats seeds and grubs. I felt quite moved to share about what’s going on with them. The only place on earth that they exist is on is on this isolated island of Madagascar. The species needs some worldwide focus at this time.
Folklore
The people of Madagascar have some strong folklore in place. It depends which people you talk with on the island. Because some people there think it is a good omen to see one. But some believe that if an aye- aye points at you with its middle finger, you will die. So, they are killed at sight. Come on! It’s only a seed and grub eating nocturnal lemur.
Foraging method is ingenious
Their method of foraging food is pretty amazing. Their middle finger is three inches longer than the other fingers and it taps quite rapidly on trees to look for grubs. Hey, someone has to be assigned to the task. I wonder how many years of evolution did it take for them to figure out this behavior? A Woodpecker does the same thing, only with their beak. Personally, I think they have the un kept hair of Einstein, so they have that going for them! Lets try to do our best to share information about this rare animal.
No beauty contests
As you can plainly see from the picture, the only beauty contest they you could consider entering them in would be in October. But beauty is in the eye of the beholder.
They are being bred
Whew! This is good news. I’m glad there are people out there that know the time to breed this animal is now. Else they will be lost to us forever!
Aye-aye in the media
I found a video of a baby aye-aye that has been bred in the U.K. Its name is Kintana (meaning star in Malagasy). The aye-ayes are also flourishing at the Duke Lemur Centre in the US. More cool videos about various endangered species that I handpicked plus some interesting and informative blogs are showcased on my website.
Launch Passion For Endangered Species
I’ve started a cause for endangered species on Facebook. It’s a place for kids to learn plus dialog with each other. Please share this with your kids. I just started the cause and am asking for your help. Come on kids!
Lewis Pugh talks about his record-breaking swim across the North Pole. He braved the icy waters (in a Speedo) to highlight the melting icecap. Watch for astonishing footage -- and some blunt commentary on the realities of supercold-water swims.
I have written about the speaker, Willie Smits, and his incredible work in sustainably replanting the rainforests in Samboja Listaria before. It was in connection with the RTR09 fundraising campaign that I was volunteer blogging for at the time. I had watched this talk that time but I didn't start the TED Tuesday till much later. So today I'm sharing that fascinating talk with my readers. And also a few words from my previous post about him,
What made Dr. Smitts stand out as different from others for me was his reaction to the audience’s claps when he mentioned that there were a 1000 Orang-utans in the conservation centre he ran. The audience found this an impressive achievement and began clapping. Dr. Smitt immediately interrupted, “No, no, no! Wrong!!! This is an indication of our failure to sustain their natural habitat.” This told me that here was someone who really cared about the ecosystem and not about his achievements in saving it.
By piecing together a complex ecological puzzle, biologist Willie Smits has found a way to re-grow clearcut rainforest in Borneo, saving local orangutans -- and creating a thrilling blueprint for restoring fragile ecosystems.
Nature, animals, humankind ... make the connection. That is the tagline of this award-winning documentary film (@EarthlingsMovie on Twitter) about the suffering of animals for food, fashion, pets, entertainment and medical research. I would like to share a few lines from their homepage that describe the documentary, its impact and its making.
“Considered the most persuasive documentary ever made, EARTHLINGS is nicknamed “the Vegan maker” for its sensitive footage shot at animal shelters, pet stores, puppy mills, factory farms, slaughterhouses, the leather and fur trades, sporting events, circuses and research labs. The film is narrated by Academy Award® nominee Joaquin Phoenix and features music by platinum-selling recording artist Moby. Initially ignored by distributors, today EARTHLINGS is considered the definitive animal rights film by organizations around the world. ..... Nation Earth was established to produce documentary films on socially urgent issues. EARTHLINGS, released in 2005, was the company's first feature film and is the first of a documentary trilogy. The company is currently at work on the second instalment, UNITY, which will explore the unifying force of consciousness found in nature, animals and humankind. UNITY is scheduled to be completed in 2009.”
Now I must warn my readers, as does the trailer of the documentary at the start, the footage in the documentary is very graphic. I had to stop watching the trailer half way through. But that is exactly the kind of “shock treatment” impact needed to get anything past our thick skulls. I’d say it is appropriately named “the Vegan maker” as it will not be surprising if you feel squeamish eating any kind of meat after you’ve watched this documentary. However, my view about this whole issue is very different from most people (as it is on many other topics like human history).
If we look around, we see that food chains exist on our planet, one species being dependent on the other for their dietary needs. Plants don’t consume any other species but simply CO2 and use sunlight. But from there upwards, someone consumes someone else, be it the herbivores, carnivores or omnivores. Nature has designed us all to consume one or the other of our fellow earthlings. So then how are us humans different? We should not feel bad about eating other earthlings for our nutrition. However, there IS a difference between us and all the other species that we have morals. The lion doesn’t think of the deer’s suffering before digging his sharp teeth into its tender flesh. But nature has given the ability to understand other earthlings’ suffering. Shouldn’t we be using that ability when dealing with other earthlings?
I know what you are thinking. You’re thinking, “So you’re telling me, it is OK to kill the animals only if we do it in a way that they don’t suffer?” Yes, that’s exactly what I am saying. One species killing and consuming the other is a law of nature. Because if you say I don’t want any killing to be done at all for my needs, then you’d have to stop eating! Now you’ll say, “I’ll turn vegan/vegetarian/herbivore.” So my question is, just because you don’t see blood pouring out of a tomato or a banana doesn’t scream and protest when you detach them from the plant, you categorise that as “not killing” them? Think about it. Aren’t we being biased in our definition of violence and killing? So I don’t get this whole point of being Vegan. You are still eating someone ... they’re just not as animate as some others whom us omnivores eat. Being herbivore or carnivore or omnivore is everyone’s choice. But no one should fool themselves in thinking they’re helping the planet by choosing to be herbivores. You're still using plants and animals for other purposes than food. If you really want to help the planet, strike a balance. Us humans have made this mistake too many times. We go all out in doing something and then when the ecosystem is out of balance due to it, we chose to completely stop doing it and feel proud of ourselves for stopping. No, that’s not how the Earth works. She wants a balance of everything. And all we’ve given here over and over again are extremes.
Because of our inherent intelligence, we have worked out ways of using our fellow earthlings for more than just nutrition. We make everything, from all sorts of basic commodities to absolutely unnecessary embellishments out of these species, plants and animals. So using these earthlings for food is only a part of our reckless consumption. What needs to stop is being reckless, not the consumption. What needs to stop is cramming of cows and pigs and chickens into “inhumanly” small spaces because we just need more of them. What needs to stop is making their life hell when they’re alive even if we are eventually going to kill them. What needs to stop is killing of snakes and seals and whales and tigers for the use of their respective body parts till only the last few of them remain on this planet. What needs to stop is capturing of animals from the wild and their confinement into cages for our entertainment, their abuse while being trained to do “acts” that nature never intended them to do. We need to acknowledge the right of other species to flourish on this planet and be able to live a good life. There are 6 billion of us on this planet. That’s a big number when it comes to making a difference ... only if we chose the right direction.
Update (12 Jun '09): Two of my blogger friends, Linda MB Hughes and Sandip Sen, got inspired by my blog post and have written their own posts about the movie and their feelings after watching it. Must reads!
I'm sharing with my readers two interesting links that I came across through David Kinnicutt (@HD_EcoDave) on Twitter. Both links are to do with one of my favourite topics, ancient knowledge. These examples of traditional advanced knowledge of two different indegenous people from different continents point to an advanced society that had a different way of life than us. They were definitely muh closer to nature than us but not primitive as we like to think.
Indigenous Australians have long held their own seasonal calendars based on the local sequence of natural events. The Australian bureau of meteorology has these calenders on their website along with the knowledge of the aborigines about the various seasons etc.
Deep in the Surinamerainforest, an innovative conservation group is working with indigenous tribes to protect their forest home and culture using traditional ethnobotanical knowledge combined with cutting-edge technology. Key to the process is bridging the generational gap between indigenous elders and youths: the shamans provide the younger rangers with the historical and cultural information needed to add critical details to the maps.
I would strongly recommend my readers to click on both links and read on about this amazing treasure of knowledge that the past has provided these simplistic people.
So far I’ve written 11 blog posts for the ‘Replanting the rainforests’ (RTR09) campaign by Eco Preservation society that aims towards sustainable management of replanted rainforests. The campaign started about 3 weeks back with the aim of raising $100K towards the abovementioned goal and culminates 4 days after the Earth Day on 26th April. The material I wrote about touched upon various aspects of the campaign ranging from why there is an urgent need for action, what are the methods employed for sustained management of the replanted forests and what other conservation projects (saving near-extinct species) it will support. There is much more that can be written about the topic of conservation and its need.
The importance of the rainforests to our planet cannot be justified enough. They’re the lungs of Earth in a reverse sense that they absorb about fifth of the carbon emissions pumped out by humans. Creating “dis-incentives” for tropical deforestation will help sustain those forests which in turn will help us combat the rapid climate change that the planet is experiencing currently. In spite of all the benefits the planet and humans have from them, rainforests are in crisis today. The reasons for deforestation are varied and their plight is grave. People predominantly grow commercially viable plants, like Palm trees for their oil, in the rainforest area which disrupts the balance of this delicate ecological system. Fate of some really unfortunate forests, like those of the Amazon, is now deemed irreversible. The green house gases emitted by our industrialised civilisation are making the matters worse. The scientists are now conceding that the Earth is most likely facing the 6th mass extinction which will see almost half of the known species of flora and fauna disappear in the next century.
However, all is not lost yet if we wake up on time and take action. We need to find solutions to the problems we created on this beautiful planet. And more and more people are coming up with some great solutions. Replanting the deforested areas is one of the solutions that have been around for a while. However, what is needed is sustainably managed rainforests which will only be possible with the involvement of locals in the affected areas. Important people like the Prince of Wales are now involved in this process and making the populace sit up and take notice. There’s also some hope for the Amazonian rainforests after the scientists revised their estimates of ‘irreversible fate’ for them. However, all these projects can only go ahead with sufficient financial support. It is important that ‘we the people’ start taking an initiative and provide strong financial support for such work. Instead of depending on a few thousand politicians and bureaucrats around the world, let us, the rest of the 6 billion, take action. $10 from each one of us will ensure a huge investment for our future on this ‘little blue planet’ while not asking too much from us. Give a gift of $10 (using the Chip-in widget in right hand column on my blog or RTR09 website) to your planet and secure your and your children’s future! Lets reach the mark of $100K in next 2 days and show our solidarity towards our world.
Planet Earth, your children and I thank you profusely for your contribution!
Continuing on from last two days, today we come to the last segment that gives overview of the 2009 Earth Day pilot projects undertaken by EPS. Each of the projects is connected to the critical issues identified and employs unique methods to achieve the goal.
· Reforestation of Borneo rainforests for saving the habitats of endangered Orang-utans · Reforestation in Costa Rica (Playa el Rey) to provide adequate habitat for its endangered Mono titi monkeys · Reforestation in Belize rainforests to save the Jaguar habitat
Hence all three projects will employ similar methods, such as Tree avalanching, ecological forestry etc., to achieve slightly different goals. The basic idea behind these reforestations is to give back the endangered species their habitat. Loss of favourable habitat is one of the foremost reasons for dwindling numbers of these species. Hence, RTR 09 campaign aims to raise $1M by Earth day (April 22nd, 2009) in order to undertake sustainably managed reforestation at these locations around the world. It is called ‘Give a gift to your planet’ because this is the least we can do to present something valuable to our mother Earth on her birthday, the Earth day. So I sincerely request all my readers to donate at least $10 each toward this great cause. This will also be an investment for your children’s future!
Yesterday we saw what critical issues have been recognized for RTR 09 that need urgent attention. The one needs to invent or research methods that will help improve the conditions. Eco Preservation Society (EPS) has managed many successful campaigns/projects using their distinctive methods for years.
· The main focus of RTR 09 (and all EPS reforestation projects) is sustainable management of permanent rainforest habitats. This is different from other reforestations which do not have a long-term goal of sustaining what has been planted. · In order to save majority of the rainforests exist today, locals in Papua New Guinea have been introduced to ‘ecological forestry’ and educated in the benefits of rainforests to the planet and to themselves. Involvement of locals is essential in long-term sustainability of the ecosystem. · Tree avalanching has been described as “the financial engine to reforest the planet” and is a technique regularly employed by EPS for rejuvenating the rainforests in crisis. This approach redirects the financial revenue from reforestation towards multiplying the resources and acquiring more land for forestation. · One of the great examples of how our ancestors had knowledge that can be a solution to problems today is the rediscovery of Biochar/Agrichar technique. This carbon-negative soil-enhancer was used in the ancient El Dorado to raise crops in a naturally mineral-poor soil.
Each of the above mentioned methods are unique in their own sense, very different in approaching the problem and finding the solution. These methods have been effectively used in many areas by EPS. Tomorrow I will give you a brief overview of some of their projects. I’ve already introduced you to them individually in my earlier posts. But this time you will get to see the coherent, whole picture.
So far I have written in detail about various aspects of the Eco Preservation Society’s (EPS) Replanting the Rainforest (RTR 09) campaign in each of my posts for last couple weeks. However, along with the details, the “big picture” is also important. I think that is especially true about RTR 09 because when one puts all the pieces of these various projects in various countries together, does the real importance and uniqueness of this campaign become apparent. Therefore, for the next three days I’m going to give my readers an overview of three essential aspects of RTR09 that make the campaign complete.
First important feature is identifying the critical issues that need urgent attention. Since the ecosystem all over the world is so out of balance today that numerous places, species and environmental attributes jump to ones attention. However, eventually one has to focus on only a few of them at a time and improve those. It is vital to make unique choices as choosing to work on something that’s already being taken care of is waste of resources (which are limited when it comes to eco-conservation projects). A key element to RTR 09’s reforestation program is that they have targeted their projects to locations that have an essential need in terms of expanding critical wildlife habitat. I’m listing their projects below and placing the links for interested readers to follow them up. The variety of locations and species incorporated in these projects show the true worldwide extent of the campaign.
Once the issues that need to be worked on are identified, next step is to invent or research methods that will help improve the conditions. EPS has successfully done so for many years and that is the topic of tomorrow’s post.
My last couple posts about 'tree avalanching' and 'ecological forestry' are concerned with what goes on above the ground. Today’s blog post is about soil conservation and regeneration. And not just that but also about one of my other favourite topics, ancient knowledge. Our ancestors invented and used Biochar, charcoal created by heating biomass (plants) under low oxygen conditions, to enrich their agricultural land by carbon sequestering. Biochar enhanced soil, called Terra Preta (dark Earth), has been found in vast areas of the Amazon basin, Ecuador, Peru, parts of West Africa, the South African savanna and late Roman Britain. And after 2500 years, it is still regenerating the soil it has been added to! Slash and burn policies so prevalent and destructive in topical rainforests around the globe could be easily converted to sustainable practices that end deforestation and create rich pockets of fertile land. This land will not only produce abundant crops, but will create “sinks” that draw carbon from the atmosphere to clean the air and minimize methane and nitrous oxide emissions from the soil. The article and the video on RTR09 website explain the production and working of Biochar (or Agrichar as it is called in modern day soil scientists). If you are a farmer or just anyone trying to neutralise their carbon footprint in Australia, the video gives some pointers to Agrichar productions plants and people who have successfully used them here.
There is also a 45 minute BBC documentary from the series Horizon, called ‘the secret of El Dorado’, the video of which is embedded on the Eco Preservation Society’s blog. It tackles the much-asked question, was El Dorado real?, from a different perspective. Based on the current research, scientists have deemed the central Amazonian soil to be inappropriate for serious agriculture. Without intensive agriculture how would there be a large civilisation? However, the video unfolds the story of Clark Erickson, who found unnatural criss-cross lines and isolated mounds of forests with signs of large, permanent human habitation in the Bolivian savanna. These were agricultural lands of the ancients, boosted by use of Biochar, to support civilisations of thousands of indigenous Amerindians. There have been conferences on the usefulness of Biochar lately and people have started taking notice. However, a lot needs to be done before politicians would start taking notice of this wonderful, ancient, carbon-negative (not just neutral) technique as one of the steps towards countering global warming.
Due to the major demand for tropical hardwood, millions of acres of rainforests are being razed to ground every year. The perpetrators of this crime against the Earth and the humanity are only concerned with short term profit. Hence they never take time to replant what they have destroyed. Some are slightly more considerate and grow tree plantations that are planted with only one type of tree over and over again. They are not real forests due to their lack of biodiversity. However, the Eco Preservation Society tells us about a systems for harnessing that demand in a way that benefits the rainforest and the communities within them. Ecological forestry in Papua New Guinea and Willie Smitt's work in Samboja Lestari are a couple of illustrious examples. Another one, “Tree Avalanching, is a simple but powerful concept of leveraging the value of harvested trees to buy more land and plant more trees. Instead of pocketing the profits from the sale of SUSTAINABLY harvested hardwoods, we use the profits to buy more land, create more jobs, and plant more trees.” To read more about this reforestation technique and about various other eco-conservation projects undertaken, please visit the websites of the Eco Preservation Society and their Replanting the rainforest campaign.
There are also a few very informative and thoughtful articles contributed by various people on the RTR website that deal with various aspects of rainforests and their benefits to the planet. I'm simply giving the links here and highly recommend my readers to follow those links for more.
I’m back with information on some more incredible ecological initiatives to share with you. As I continue blogging for the RTR09 campaign, I keep on coming across newer and newer people and organisations dedicated to conservation of nature. And I keep thanking myself for taking up the volunteer blogging opportunity :). Today’s post is about an ecological forestry project in Papua New Guinea involving the locals and empowering them. A small post on Eco Preservation society’s blog introduced me to it. There is a 10 minute video that summarises the project and brings you face-to-face with the people that made it happen. In the 80s, Papua New Guinea had the largest surviving rainforests in the southern hemisphere. However, the multi-national logging companies were quick to move in and 90s saw the most reckless logging activity in these areas. The laws were ignored, ecology was disregarded and people robbed of their promised monetary compensations. Then a volunteer organisation from Australia made its appearance and over next 11 years, it strove hard and succeeded in stopping the logging and preserving the rainforests. The organisation was Rainforest Information Centre (RIC) that trained the locals in ecological forestry, provided them sawmills and made sure the MNCs didn’t get a foothold in the area. The ecological forestry was based on the fact that if the locals used sawmills called “wokabout mills” to log their own timbre, they only logged a small portion and hence didn’t damage the ecosystem. Also, the timber produced earned the loggers higher monetary rewards than what the MNCs were offering them. Hence the locals preferred wokabout logging, in turn saving the forest. So like vaccine introduces the disease on smaller scale to prevent large scale infection, logging a few trees ecologically prevented devastating deforestation. The Earth and the earthlings, both were happy!
The logged trees were also replaced by replanting the new ones. With major commitment and contribution from locals like Sasa Zibe, a method for replanting the trees that mimicked the natural forest was developed. This made sure the ecological balance was maintained. After 11 years of dedicated voluntary work, RIC has now transferred the responsibility to the able locals like Sasa who even today carry on in their footsteps, making the forests richer. To give the locals a sense of achievement, a very traditional graduation ceremony is held at the end of training. The spectacle of this ceremony makes a very interesting ending for a well-made video :).
When I visited the RTR09 website today, it was a pleasant surprise to see the donations being bumped up by a $1000 with just one more contribution. I hope the blogging campaign will bring exponential growth in awareness and contributions in the days to come.
There has been a lot of effort put into raising people's awareness about the issue of climate change. The issue presents itself under many names, global warming, deforestation, carbon footprint, extinction of species, to name only a few. Whatever the name, the aim of all these awareness campaigns is to educate people in what we have been doing to this planet and now, what we need to do in order to keep it in a state of supporting life. RTR09 is one such campaign that promotes 'sustainably managed replanting' of rainforests. Because unless we are able to sustain the regrown plants for a long time, they're going to be logged for wood and fuel again and again, making all reforestation efforts futile. Also, it is very important to replant the right kind of trees in a given area. They need to be suitable for that particular climate and soil. Therefore, planting economically profitable plants, like palm trees, in place of grzed-down rainforest is not going to be helpful. Well, it might be helpful for humans in short term but definitely not for the environment.
There isn't much time for us to get our act together and get it right. We must act NOW, which might already be too late for some parts of the world. A study presented at the Copenhagen conference suggests that eventhough we might be able to keep the temperature rise to 2 degrees Celcius, that will still irradicate 20-40% of Amazonian rainforests! Let us sincerely hope that we learn our lesson NOW and make sure the whole world doesn't go hurtling along an irriversible path of ecological disaster.
I cannot say how glad I am that I decided to be a volunteer blogger for the RTR09 campaign. If I didn’t, I don’t know if and when I would have come across this great example of nature-care and dedication that is the Samboja Lestari rainforest project started and taken to success by Dr. Willie Smitts. Dr. Smitts is conservationist who works at the complicated intersection of humankind, the animal world and our green planet. His early work in Indonesia as a forester educated him in the interdependence of these three biospheres. The irresponsible encroachment of humans onto the rainforests and orang-utans’ habitat inspired him to take up the tough task of leading a sustained reforestation project. The Orang-utans, whom he calls “thinkers of the forest”, are intelligent species with ability to think, reason and emote like us. He chose an area, Samboja Lestari, in east Borneo which was ecologically much deteriorated and would need a lot of thought, work and dedication to bring the reforestation to fruition, literally. This was done with the purpose of demonstration that if this area can be reforested, any area can be.
Willie Smitt recently gave a talk at the TED (Technology, Entertainment, Design) conference. I was able to watch the video of this talk through the RTR09 campaign website and it was one of the most impressive talks I’ve ever heard. What made Dr. Smitts stand out as different from others for me was his reaction to the audience’s claps when he mentioned that there were a 1000 Orang-utans in the conservation centre he ran. The audience found this an impressive achievement and began clapping. Dr. Smitt immediately interrupted, “No, no, no! Wrong!!! This is an indication of our failure to sustain their natural habitat.” This told me that here was someone who really cared about the ecosystem and not about his achievements in saving it. There are many such and more impressive things about his talk. I can’t list them all here so I’d strongly suggest you watch and listen to him for yourself.
In an unjustifiably short summary, the forest in Samboja Lestari, reduced to wasteland by slash-and-burn agriculture of the locals was resurrected by their own efforts under the able guidance of Willie Smitts. He gives the details of how ‘a recipe’ for sustained reforestation was developed, giving reasons for choosing certain plants and trees to be planted at certain time. It is a very educational presentation. The focus was on imitating the nature and creating ‘multi-layer’ ecology, with different species of trees instead of ‘monoculture’. Locals were educated and involved in this process which led to sustainability of the forest. Samboja Lestari is not only a vibrant ecosystem, with numerous birds and animal species thriving, but is also a climate-changer and rain-machine for the nearby area. Temperatures have dropped, forest fires declined significantly and a permanent rainfall zone created around the area. The locals have adopted a “democratic” control system to ensure no further logging takes place in the forests. It is a truly inspiring story of what us humans can do for the planet (and therefore, for ourselves) if we are determined and dedicated.
Guest post series 'Almost gone ...' by Scott Bright (@Speciesguy)
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