Rare Pride Program Manager Annalisa Bianchessi recently made a site visit to a Pride campaign just starting up in Mauritius. These dream-like islands dotted in the Indian Ocean off the coast of Madagascar teem with unique reptiles and other endemic species. Annalisa blogs about the islands, it’s rich history of biodiversity, and how the nations Pride campaign is working with local partners to ensure sustainable conservation on Mauritius.

Leader if the Mauritius Pride campaign Cathleen Cybele of the Mauritian Wildlife Foundation (MWF) with a little green friend.

Amongst the many places one could go to learn about environmental conservation Mauritius is perhaps the ultimate destination. Not only was it once home to the DoDdo, a flightless bird whose disappearance has sparked imagination all over the world – the nation has become an emblem for the power and responsibility that humans carry in determining the fate of other species. It is also a place where extinction and conservation continue to be two very concrete possibilities.

Let me set the scene for you:

In the Southeast of Mauritius there is a small islet named Ilot Chat (Island of the cat). Surrounded by the massive Indian Ocean, it is seemingly no bigger than the average American porch, yet it was the home of two threatened reptile species: the lesser night gecko and the Durrell’s night gecko.

The colorful ornate day geckos, the “flagship” species of this Pride campaign.

Neither of the two species had arrived here on their own account. Their residency was the result of an experiment of some well intentioned ecologists who wanted to see whether the two species could co-exist before undertaking a larger scale restoration project. All had gone well for several months and the geckos had reproduced up to the 4th generation. Then, one day, the scientists arrived to the islet to find that there was not a single gecko in sight. Instead they were greeted by round bellied rat who beamed at them with content. This single rat had managed to wipe out the entire population of the two species of geckos.

Luckily these populations had been part of an experiment and were not the last ones of their kind. Still, the story illustrates how damaging and ruthless the introduction of invasive species, like the rat, can be.

Reptiles in Mauritius were not always threatened. Once upon a time they were amongst the most numerous inhabitants of the island. They were so successful that they constituted the building blocks of a unique world: an entire ecosystem based on reptiles! Through a process, which in ecology is referred to as adaptive radiation, they had come to occupy all different roles of “society” from predators to prey, from pollinators and seed dispersers to giant herbivores. This is because, with the exception of fruit eating bats, there were no mammals in Mauritius. Then, with the arrival of man in the 15th Century everything changed.

The men who first set foot on the island quickly brought about both the accidental and deliberate introduction of invasive species such as rats, monkeys, deer and pigs. This combined with the more recent threat of habitat destruction (mainly due to development) has meant that today few of the reptiles that constituted this unique ecosystem survive on mainland Mauritius. Several went extinct; others have disappeared from the mainland but survived on some smaller islands and islets of the coast of Mauritius.

Mauritius’ Bay of Mahebourg still hosts four endemic species of reptiles, including the Ilot Vacoas Bojer’s skink. This reptile is thought to be a subspecies found only on Ilot Vacoas, an islet only 1 Hectare in size! As well as the looming threat of the introduction of invasives (including rats, shrews, and snakes) some of the main threats to the reptiles found in the Bay is caused by recreational activities of unwary tourist visiting the islets.

It may come as a surprise that besides the dropping of litter the lighting of barbecue fires can also have a significant detrimental impact. This is not only because of the risk of fire to the vegetation, but also because of the heating of the rocks used by the reptiles for shelter and nesting. Unbeknownst to tourists, dozens of eggs lay in the crevices of the rocks, which immediately fry once heated. This act threaten the Bojer’s skinks greatly, which only lay a few eggs a year.

Luckily for the reptiles the extinction of the Dodo on Mauritius has brought this island to the attention of many conservationists. Amongst them are the members of the Mauritian Wildlife Foundation (MWF) the oldest conservation organisation of the island. The Foundation has saved several species from the brink of extinction including the Mauritian Kestrel – which, during the 1980s, was one of the rarest birds in the world with only a couple of breeding pairs left.

The campaign is on its way! Above, a  MWF volunteer working with Cathleen interviews a street vendor about her relations with the flagship species.

Today the Foundation has teamed up with the National Parks and Conservation Services (NP&CS) to take on the protection of the endemic reptiles of the Islets in the Bay of Mahebourg. As well as a substantial restoration program run as part of a Darwin Initiative, the Foundation will be running a Rare pride Campaign to try and mitigate the threats caused to the reptiles by recreational activities.

The flagship species will be a charismatic ornate day gecko belonging to the Phelsuma family, a group that is incidentally also a favourite prey of the Mauritius Kestrel. Having had the pleasure to visit Mauritius and work with many of the MWF staff, including the charismatic Campaign Manager Cathleen Cybele, I am looking forward to this campaign’s progress.

Photographer Jason Houston recently went to the opening of “Human/Nature: Artists Respond to a Changing Planet,” a program co-sponsored by Rare along with the Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego and Berkeley Art Museum in Berkeley, Calif. The opening was held in San Diego on Aug. 17, and gathered a wide range of contemporary artists and conservationists all pondering: Can contemporary art inspire conservation? Read Jason’s insights on the event and the Human/Nature project (formally titled “Rare Art”). 

view more photos from the exhibit!

I was first introduced to Rare in 2004 when Brett Jenks, Rare President & CEO, called , the magazine where I work as picture editor, to talk about a new program: “Rare Art”. He had big ideas of sending a group of contemporary artists around the world to experience some of the most interesting, biologically important, and critically threatened environments. They would be inspired by the people and places they visit and they would make art. This art would become a traveling exhibition hosted at prestigious contemporary arts museums across the country, bringing the emotional, visceral impact of art to conversations about conservation, and bringing the issue of conservation to new and different audiences.

Rare President and CEO Brett Jenks speaks to contemporary artist Dario Robleto at the project’s opening in San Diego.

He sounded crazy. Not only was the scope and scale of such a project huge for a non-arts organization, but this sort of proactive, collaborative residency program and its related practical agendas is an unusual arrangement in the art world at odds with the independent spirits and conceptually inquisitive approaches of most contemporary artists.

But here we are now, four years after it’s inception, at the opening of “Rare Art,” which has become “Human/Nature: Artists Respond to a Changing Planet.” Eight of today’s leading contemporary artists visited eight UNESCO world heritage sites, bringing back inspiration and creating work born of their individual experiences. This group show opened Sunday August 17th, 2008 at the Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego.

The artists (and places) featured in this show are Mark Dion (Komodo National Park, Indonesia), Ann Hamilton (Galápagos National Park, Ecuador), Iñigo Mnglano-Ovalle (El Vizcaíno Biosphere Reserve, Mexico), Marcos Ramirez ERRE (Three Parallel Rivers of Yunnan Protected Areas, China), Rigo 23 (Atlantic Forest Southeast Reserves, Brazil), Dario Robleto (Glacier/Waterton International Peace Park, United States and Canada), Diana Thater (iSimangaliso Wetland Park, South Africa), and Xu Bing (Mount Kenya National Park, Kenya). The art ranges from performance and installation to sculpture, drawing, and video.

Some of the work is directly responsive to conservation subjects and issues, while other pieces are more broadly conceptual, related to the artists’ impressions and their personally developed sense of the places they visited. The result is a diverse collection of work exploring value and loss; awe and appreciation; concern and collaboration; and, in all cases, personal and creative connections to the forests, salt flats, glaciers, oceans, and their cultures that many of us have come to know in one way or another in much more literal and traditional ways.

A question posed in the statement accompanying the show is, “Can art inspire conservation? Can conservation inspire art?” The answer to the second part is obviously ‘yes’. The first part has yet to be answered. These works are not, as participating artist Dario Robleto put it, the typical public service announcement style of environmental art. They are focused more deeply on the bigger pictures, and related more tangentially as values-based inquiries that explore the quality of the relationships we have with the natural world. None of the works present explicit calls to action—that would defeat the point. But all present a challenge to the viewer to consider themselves and the natural world in which we live, and to reflect on the complex and interdependent nature of that relationship.

Human/Nature is open at the Museum of Contemporary Art in San Diego until February, when it then travels on to the Berkeley Art Museum in Berkeley, Calif. Click here for a slide show of the preparations and opening events.

Rare Pride Indonesia’s first ever Social Marketing Workshop was conducted on July 9-10, 2008 in Bogor, Indonesia. Rare’s team in Bogor write about the workshop and how they’re inspiring conservation in Indonesia.

A participant ponders what methood he will take to improve conservation efforts during the workshop.

“Building Conservation Constituents: The Use of Social Marketing to Achieve Conservation Goals,” was attended by 46 enthusiastic participants. The participants were drawn from government agencies, area NGOs who were either perspective partners or leaders for future Pride campaigns. Some partner organizations included Yayasan Orangutan Indonesia (Indonesian Orangutan Foundation), Sumatran Orangutan Society -  Orangutan Information Center (SOS-OIC), WWF Malaysia, Yayasan Pekat, Yayasan Titian, Natural Recources Conservation Center North Sumatera, Ujung Kulon National Park, WCS Marine Indonesia, FFI Aceh, and Yayasan Seka.
 
Rare staff introduced the participants to its goals for conservation impact through social marketing, speaking about previous projects and building local constituents by using a social marketing approach.

Agus Wiyono, a Pride alumni, presented on his experience to workshop participants giving additional perspective. 

The workshop enabled participants to immerse themselves in what a Pride campaign would be like. From project planning, to the campaigns “theory of change” the participants were shown the theory behind Pride and the tools to implement lasting conservation. 

The participants went home with new ideas in their minds. Despite the tight schedule, no participants showed less enthusiasm then when the day started. The participants claimed that they really look forward to working with Rare and making some significant changes in conservation!

Agustina Tandi Bunna, known as Ebe, is a Pride Campaign manager living in Borneo, Indonesia. Ebe works with her collegues of TNC Berau, Indonsia to support the development of land use  for four villages in the area. Her campaign, now in the initial implementation stages, plans to address habitat loss. In her region of the world forests are converted into oil palm plantations by both local communities and companies for profit. Read how Ebe is engaging local community members to join her campaign, and  how she  is getting the message out through popular music.

Mastaniah is a teacher who lives in the small village of Muara Lesan on the island of Borneo, Indonesia. Born and raised in this village, Mastaniah chose to be a teacher so she could help educate the community. One of her talents is playing musical instruments and singing. When she was a child Mastaniah was a popular singer in Kelay sub-district on Borneo. When she heard the Pride campaign needed a song she jumped at the chance to compose one for the Sungai Lesan Protected Forest.

While composing the song, Mastaniah worked collaboratively with Eddy Sudianto, a guitar player for over 20 years. They composed a dangdut song. Dangdut is a common genre in music in Indonesia and is influenced by India and Malay folk music. According to the pre-survey, dangdut music is one of the top favorite music genres of the local community. The song is entitled “Uttan Lindung Sungai Lesan untuk Anak Cucunta’ which means protect the Lesan River Forest for future generations. It is planned that the song will be translated into the local languages of the villages surrounding the Lesan River protected area.

Mastaniah and Eddy sing the song they wrote about the Lesan River protected area.

If you listen you can hear Mastaniah and Eddy Sudianto sing:
“Let’s embrace the protected area for our future
For our own children and grandchildren
Take care of the Lesan’s forest
So it will stand forever … “

Photographer Jason Houston recently visited the Pride campaign of Alejandra Paredes in the Quijos Valley, Ecuador. At this location water is the main point of concern. Read about Jason’s journey and gain insight on why “water is more valuable than gold.”

This was my 5th site visit to photograph and otherwise document the people, places, and programs that make up a Rare Pride Campaign. I’ve been to Nicaragua (out of which came a feature photoessay in Orion magazine) as well as Mexico, Kenya, and Seychelles. My task is to come, observe, and come back with stories to tell. A task most easily done if I can find straight and easily comprehendible throughlines—something I can share with staff or pitch to an editor with a clear and catchy hook, and that relates not only to the specific situation I’m witnessing, but also in more general ways to conservation issues around the world. This trip was to Ecuador to see the work of Alejandra Paredes Aguilar in the Quijos Valley on the eastern slope of the Andes. The issue here is water and that there’s not always enough of it, which seems simple enough. But, like water issues everywhere, it’s not that simple here.

Felipe with kids during a school visit in Santa Rosa, Ecuador, to teach about water conservation

At first it seems unlikely that water could be a problem here. Everything is lush and green and wet. It rains year-round (and right now most everyday), and annual rainfall is measured in hundreds of inches. Even the “dry” months can get over a foot of rain. Waterfalls pour from the sides of the surrounding hillsides, forming tributaries then rivers that then join each other, gaining strength and tumbling wider and more rapidly towards the Amazon. But even with this abundance, the water supply is threatened.

In Quito, the capital of Ecuador and our entry point to this region, we saw graffiti on the first day (a common form of unfiltered expression in a country like this where much media is repressed and/or state controlled) that read, “El agua vale más que el oro”, or, “Water is more valuable than gold.” Quito gets all of its water for its nearly 2 million people from the rivers draining these high volcanic ridges of the Andes. This water comes from the upper reaches of the many rivers that run into the Amazon Basin, where it is intercepted and pumped up over the mountains. The “threat,” from Quito’s perspective, is to the consistent supply. Conservation from this perspective means making sure there is enough to continue to supply Quito’s needs.

Graffiti in Quito, Ecuador that says, “Water is more valuable than gold”.

From the other obvious perspective, that is, for the people of the Quijos Valley, it is more complicated. There are many of the classic water issues here—contamination from agricultural pesticides and herbicides, pollution from solid and liquid household waste, the impact of runoff from the towns, and landslides and erosion in the deforested hills, etc. But the biggest issue for people of this valley is sustaining supply. There are times when the rivers here run low, forcing towns in this valley to ration water to specific times of the day. It is partly that Quito is taking a significant portion of the water but it is also that local agricultural practices like deforesting hillsides for crops and cattle is reducing the area’s ability to absorb and hold water to carry them through the drier parts of the year.

Cattle grazing and deforestation due to agriculture reduce the land’s ability to hold water during the dry season.

So the issues really exist on two levels. On the one hand there are local problems with the water quality and supply for both people and nature. Some of this is due to infrastructure and some to behavioral choices where addressing them will help improve much with regards to water in this region. But equally important, and with at least as much impact on the area, is the fact that much of the water headed through this region is permanently removed. It leaves the Quijos Valley just as it begins its journey and is pumped up over the mountains into a different watershed.

Hydropower and drinking water infrastructure in Palpallacta, Ecuador, diverting water from the uppermost reaches of the Quijos, Valley and the headwaters of the Quijos River to supply water to Quito, Ecuador. Quito, the capital of Ecuador and a city of nearly 2 million people, gets all of it’s water from the eastern Andes regions, including the Quijos Valley.

Questions of the morality and sustainability of big cities are obviously beyond the scope of a project like Alejandra’s, but they are what necessarily come up and they are important. A project like her Pride Campaign here in the Quijos Valley will do good for the people. They will be inspired and learn to care for one of the world’s most valuable resources, improving their health, the quality of life in their communities, and the state of the natural environment along the way. But—and of equal importance—what it must also do is raise the public’s awareness of the situation, and force the necessary conversations on how to appropriately balance the resource demands of a city like Quito with long-term sustainable development of the resource rich areas like the Quijos Valley.

Gladman Chibememe, a prospective Rare Pride campaign manager, attended Rare’s social marketing workshop at the Mweka College of African Wildlife Management in Tanzania this April. Below are his thoughts on the workshop, learning about Rare’s pride program and why he feels Pride and social marketing can help achieve sustainable conservation.

 

It was indeed a great pleasure and an enlightening experience to be at Tanzania’s Mweka College of African Wildlife Management in the company of more than 20 conservationists committed to make a difference in their communities and local environments. The diversity of the participants and high level of the event was depicted in the delivery of the course points which added to the richness of the workshop.

I learned a lot at Mweka—from the social marketing module to hearing from the other participants.  I learned that social marketing is a modern tool for delivering conservation messages in a strategic and more comprehensive way. This workshop exposed me to various skills which include:

• The ability to engage in results and causal chain processes.
• Understanding the concept of audience segmentation—without targeting specific audiences one cannot be an effective communicator.
• Acknowledging the need to focus on behavior and attitude change as critical aspects of a sustainable conservation campaign.
• Accepting the reality that not all threats are critical—effective communicators identify exact conservation threats. This is “no easy task” and involves a rigorous process of engagement.

I must confess that this was a unique opportunity that brought real knowledge which is Rare to obtain. I think that it’s only when you know this that you have knowledge.

Confucius says that when you know a thing—recognize that you know it. And when you don’t know that you know it—you have knowledge. Thus, I know that before attending the Rare social marketing course at Mweka I did not know about social marketing; therefore, I now have knowledge.

This is precisely why I think running a Pride Campaign in my community will help change the attitude and behaviour of the people in my community. For those of us coming from protected areas such as the Great Limpopo Transfronteir Park Conservation Area (GLTPCA) in the southern African countries of Mozambique, South Africa, and Zimbabwe, we perceive environmental communication and education as both a moral and legal requirement. The 5th IUCN World Parks Congress, Recommendation 5.32 paragraph 2 (i) mandates member states and relevant organizations to, “…use communication tools to build the capacity of local communities to promote the sustainable use of biodiversity in the context of protected areas.”

The challenge for all of us who attended the workshop at Mweka is how we will translate what we learned into action. For Schumacher (1975), “An ounce of practice is generally worth more than a ton of theory.”  In short, talking is good but action is better and therefore I’ll gladly wait to see the results of the April 2008 workshop.

Lois Morrison, conservation supporter and friend of Rare, recently joined Rare on a trip to Crooked Tree Wildlife Sanctuary in Belize.

February 1, 2008

World Wetlands Day, an annual celebration and promotion of international wetlands, was the perfect backdrop for Rare’s visit to the village of Crooked Tree and Crooked Tree Wildlife Sanctuary in Belize. Nearly ten years ago the Crooked Tree lagoon became Belize’s first wetland area added to the Ramsar List of Wetlands of International Importance. The extensive lagoon area experiences dramatic seasonal shifts in water levels. The resulting mosaic of freshwater and terrestrial habitats provides refuge for an amazing diversity of native plants and animals, including the rare and endangered Jabiru Stork.

Lois Morrison, enjoying a boat trip in Belize 

The group visiting Crooked Tree included Rare Board Members, Rare staff, guests, and representatives from the National Audubon Society. We were hosted by staff and trustees of the Belize Audubon Society. Our morning began with a birding trip. My group explored the sanctuary by boat. Thanks to the expert staff from the Belize Audubon Society and the Bird’s Eye View Lodge, we logged around 70 different species of birds, including the small, brilliantly colored Vermilion Flycatcher, the Bare-throated Tiger Heron, and the majestic Snail Kite.  

Although the birding was phenomenal, highlights from the Crooked Tree visit included the people, their stories and first-hand insight into the evolving methodology and increased rigor that is being applied to initiate a Rare Pride campaign. We had an opportunity to meet with some members of the community and learn about the Belize Audubon Society to better understand the context for the new Rare Pride campaign in Crooked Tree. Most importantly, we met Olivia Carballo-Avilez, the manager for this Pride campaign. Olivia walked us through the systematic methodology she is piloting to develop her campaign’s work-plan. Everyone was impressed and energized to support Olivia, her partners, and the community in its successful implementation.

Olivia’s Jabiru Mascot with local school children. 

Our time at Crooked Tree ended with World Wetlands Day celebration events. School kids from the community were creating arts and crafts, going on nature walks, and exploring the lagoon by boat. This event is where the Crooked Tree Pride campaign’s new mascot – the yet-to-be-named Jabiru Stork –made its debut.

Rare Course Manager, Hari Kushardanto, got a chance to visit Rare Pride Campaign Manager Agus Wiyono in East Java Indonesia, and see the band Suket Teki perform.

Camat,  a young man from Dayurejo Village, never thought he’d be recognized because of a conservation song. This long haired young man was simply motivated by a challenge from Rare Pride Campaign Manager Agus Wiyono of the Kaliandra Sejati Foundation, who asked him to make a conservation song about protecting the Grand Forest Park from forest fires, something that often happens in the area. In the beginning, Agus was in doubt that this young man and his band could make a song because they’re not professional musicians. They make their daily living as farmers, grass harvesting workers, or in other agricultural jobs. Playing music was only a hobby for them.

Camat, the song’s composer from the band Suket Teki [Photo by: Hari Kushardanto/Rare]