Great news for Conservation Heritage – Turambe!

The World Rainforest Fund has generously offered to match 5,000 USD in donations to Art of Conservation‘s offshoot organization Conservation Heritage-Turambe. Please support our team (Valerie, Innocent, Olivier, Eric & Eusebe) in Rwanda that we are so very proud of!

Following a lesson on proper hand washing and an introduction to mountain gorillas, the CHT team and students from Kagano Primary school pose for a photo. © Conservation Heritage – Turambe

For every dollar you donate to CHT via www.art-of-conservation.org/donate, World Rainforest Fund will match! Thank you to World Rainforest Fund for giving us this great opportunity. We need your help to reach our goal of 5,000 dollars, doubling our proceeds to CHT for a grand total of 10,000 U.S. dollars. CHT Conservation and Health Awareness programs have reached over 200 school children in 2014 and they would like the funding to reach many more students in need this year! You can follow CHT work on AoC’s blog and the CHT Facebook page.

Also checks marked “CHT” can be made out to “Art of Conservation, Inc.” and mailed to our U.S. Headquarters:
2118 High Street
Des Moines, IA
50312

For any questions please email info@art-of-conservation.org. And please consider forwarding this email to your family, friends and colleagues! Thank you very much! Murakoze Cyane!

Warmly,

Allison

Izilwane.org – The Bones of Extinction at the Ivory Crush

Izilwane.org – The Bones of Extinction at the Ivory Crush.

The Bones of Extinction at the Ivory Crush BY LYSANDER CHRISTO

Today, the problem is poaching. It is estimated that one elephant dies every 15 minutes. We lose thousands of elephants to poaching every year, mostly for ivory or new age medicines (that don’t work). They’re killing elephants to make cheesy little elephant sculptures. So people, those trying to protect the elephant, are trying to make a difference by crushing or burning illegal ivory seized from smugglers or poachers. At the ivory crushing event in Colorado in November, 2013, I was proud to be the only kid in attendance; my mom and dad want to educate me and to teach me respect for these great beasts, and so they brought me to this significant event.  Why did no one else bring their kid? Why did no one else want to share with their children this important message? I saw many things no one else saw. I saw elephants in the distance.

I feel sad that thousands of elephants are being killed … ivory is worth nothing … if you kill just one matriarch, one mother elephant, you take joy away from thousands of others. If you kill the mom of an elephant, that child will suffer and die unless it is adopted by another willing to take on its care. Thankfully, it is very common for an elephant to be adopted, but the scars of separation are still there.

One piece of ivory generally can come from a 20- to 60-year-old elephant, but now also baby elephants are being slaughtered, killed for a piece of ivory less than a foot long. Such small, delicate pieces come from a very young elephant that is maybe 10 years old, just a kid, like me.

We children, my friends and I, are usually right: Poachers must stop poaching; the numbers have to go down. If elephants are being poached at a rate of a hundred a day, I won’t be able to see elephants when I’m 18! I might never again get to see one of these awesome giants.
 
The elephants have entered my heart. We are killing them just to have trophies on the wall. It is not worth having trophies; it is like having a dead body under your bed. It is a bad feeling. People who want trophies either have no idea what’s going on or are psycho because they just don’t care. This is an age when people have to care about life. If there’s no life, there is nothing left to enjoy in the world.

I’m really stunned by how beautiful elephants are, and if we humans keep killing elephants, in 10 years there won’t be anymore. We will lose joy, we will lose wonder, we will lose everything to do with nature!

If children don’t get to know that elephants exist, they will miss the introduction to life.

All photos are copyright protected and may not be used without permission. All photos are courtesy of Cyril Christo.

Lysander Christo has travelled with his parents to Africa, Asia and the Arctic. Among his favorite animals are elephants, whales, lions, tigers, polar bears and horses! He is eight years old and lives in Santa Fe, NM. We all hope the ivory trade stops soon!

Wildlife Conservation Network Expo

Each year WCN brings together the world’s best wildlife conservationists to exhibit and speak about issues concerning endangered species around the world. In 2013 Jane Goodall, DBE will once again be the keynote speaker! Other attendees will include Sir Iain Douglas-Hamilton of Save the Elephants, Dr. Laurie Marker of Cheetah Conservation Fund, and the rest of the WCN Partners.

October 12, 2013
10am to 6pm
Mission Bay Conference Center
San Francisco, CA

http://wildlifeconservationnetwork.org/events/

SAVE THE DATE – November 22nd 2013 – New York City

Over The Mountains Of The Moon

Date: September 13, 2013
Author:  Julie Ghrist, Art of Conservation

Allison, Dr. Lucy, and I had a few quick hours of sleep at the pretty Cara Lodge in Georgetown before our charter flight took us into the interior of Guyana. This remote and sparsely populated landscape is where in the 16th and 17th centuries Europeans believed that there was a place of immense wealth known as El Dorado. Searches for this treasure wasted countless lives and drove at least one man to suicide. Now El Dorado is referred to as a source of untold riches somewhere in the Americas. At the bottom of this post you’ll find Edgar Allen Poe’s poem where he makes reference of El Dorado being located ‘Over the mountains of the Moon’.

Allison and Lucy boarding Trans Guyana Airways charter flight to the Northern Rupununi region of Guyana.

A bit tongue-in-cheek, we were not searching for pots of gold – instead we were on a quest to find eager schoolchildren ready to engage in AoC’s one-health conservation education activities as well as view heaps of beautiful animals in their own biodiversity-rich landscape. Guess what? We found it all and more!

Approaching Karanambu Lodge in North Rupununi from the plane. Photo courtesy of Lucy Spelman.

As I mentioned before, Art of Conservation is honored to have been invited by Lucy and the Trust to Karanambu. Lucy has shared stories about Karanambu for all the years I have known her. And Allison and I were really looking forward to meeting the famous Giant River Otter Lady, Ms. Diane McTurk!

The legendary Ms. Diane McTurk greets us. We are joined by Dr. Ilze. (From left to right: Lucy, Allison, Ilze, Diane McTurk)

Ms. McTurk was born at Karanambu. Karanambu is a 100-square mile former cattle ranch her family owned that is now a Managed Resource Protected Area or at least headed that way thanks to the collaborative effort of the Karanambu Trust and partners. Diane is known for her work in rehabilitating orphaned giant river otters to the wild since 1985. The pelt trade, natural trauma, and people taking them as pets are the main reasons why she has ended up with more than 40 otters.

Allison with Diane McTurk, the famous Giant River Otter Lady or Auntie Di as she is known by all the local Makushi Amerindians.

Before continuing to the lodge, Dr. Lucy was asked to make a quick house call to a sick bull calf. Marvin, a Karanambu staff member, was pleased to receive Lucy’s advise and after a few days the calf was feeling better.

Lucy and Diane treating Marvin’s sick calf.

This fabulous toucan is the first bird I saw in Guyana.

There may be as many as 600 species of birds in this area. The number of all animals species found here is high and includes species that are rare in other parts of Central and South America. Perhaps this is because of an integration of 4 ecosystem types: wetlands, savannas, rivers, and forests.

Salvador de Caires invites us onto his boat.

Our final stop for the day – Karanambu Lodge – requires a boat to get there. Salvador de Caires, who with his beautiful wife Andrea run the lodge with the nicest of hospitality, gets us there safely. More on Andrea and Salvador in my next post.

Lucy and Diane.

This is just a glance at the very beginning of our trip. I have lots more to share with you. Please stay in touch. And here is the poem.

Eldorado by Edgar Allan Poe

Gaily bedight,
A gallant knight,
In sunshine and in shadow,
Had journeyed long,
Singing a song,
In search of Eldorado.

But he grew old-
This knight so bold-
And o’er his heart a shadow
Fell as he found
No spot of ground
That looked like Eldorado.

And, as his strength
Failed him at length,
He met a pilgrim shadow-
“Shadow,” said he,
“Where can it be-
This land of Eldorado?”

“Over the Mountains
Of the Moon,
Down the Valley of the Shadow,
Ride, boldly ride,”
The shade replied-
“If you seek for Eldorado!”

iWorry | Say NO to ivory

iWorry | Say NO to ivory.

Last year up to 36,000 elephants were killed for their ivory. 1 life lost every 15 minutes.
At the current rate of poaching African Elephants could face extinction in the wild by 2025.

Join us as we peacefully march in 15 cities around the world on Friday 4th October.
You can also show your support by joining the digital march for elephants.

Support the DSWT’s iWorry campaign and be a part of a global effort to protect and preserve elephants.

iWorry is a campaign created by
The David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust (DSWT).

The DSWT is a front-line organisation working every day in the field to protect Africa’s wildlife and habitats. We are not traditionally a campaigning organisation, but the severity of the danger caused by the escalating ivory trade will only be countered if we all stand up for elephants together.

As long as there is a market for ivory, elephants will be cruelly killed for their tusks.

The DSWT iWorry campaign aims to raise awareness of the illicit ivory trade and it’s devastating impact on elephant populations. Demand for ivory has grown significantly in recent years. Presently, one kilo of ivory can be worth up to USD $2,000. The increasing value of ivory, frequently referred to as white gold has attracted the attention of organised criminal networks and ivory has even been used to fund terrorist organisations. It is estimated that up to 36,000 elephants are being killed annually to satisfy this growing demand.

  

The Trophy Hunter

THE TROPHY HUNTER highlights an important issue: the illegal wildlife trade and its role in the global extinction crisis. The video’s content may be difficult for some viewers.

Read more: http://news.turtleconservancy.org/2013/01/the-trophy-hunter/

Third Annual New York Wildlife Conservation Film Festival

Join WCFF for an Opening Night Reception & Fundraiser!

CITES welcomes call for probe into LRA involvement in poaching of African elephants

Juan Carlos Vasquez © http://www.unmultimedia.org

A call to investigate the alleged involvement of the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) in the poaching of African elephants has been welcomed by the UN agency dealing with stopping trade in endangered wildlife.

The call was made by the Security Council in a presidential statement on 19 December which condemned the destabilizing activities of the LRA rebels in Central Africa.

Juan Carlos Vasquez of the Secretariat of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) says the poaching of African elephants is becoming a serious problem.

“It’s becoming a very serious problem because now we are realizing that many of the crimes against wildlife in Africa are committed by organized crime groups with very sophisticated weapons, very well organized and with connections around the world to the black market that traffic in wildlife.” (Duration: 20″)

The CITES Secretariat says it is ready to support the investigation into the alleged involvement of the LRA in the poaching of African elephants.

Gerry Adams, United Nations.

Duration: 1’10″

Read more and listen to the interview: http://www.unmultimedia.org/radio/english/2012/12/cites-welcomes-call-for-probe-into-lra-involvement-in-poaching-of-african-elephants/