In time for Endangered Species Day, a new report, from the Center for Biological Diversity, offers a powerful review of the effectiveness of the Endangered Species Act.

On Time, On Target: How the Endangered Species Act Is Saving America’s Wildlife takes an in-depth look at 110 protected species from all 50 states — from whales and sea turtles to foxes and whooping cranes — to determine how well the Act is working for them.

The results are stunning: 90 percent of the studied species are recovering right on time to meet recovery goals set by federal scientists.

The study is a potent rebuke of recent critiques by right-wing politicians who deem the Act a failure. In fact, it’s just the opposite. The Center found that, again and again, wildlife and plants from every corner of the country are being saved from extinction and placed squarely on the road to recovery by the Endangered Species Act.

On average, species recovered in 25 years, while their recovery plan predicted 23 years — a 91 percent timeliness accomplishment.

This report confirms the conclusion of scientists and auditors who assert that the great majority of species have not been listed long enough to warrant an expectation of recovery: 80 percent of species have not yet reached their expected recovery year. On average, these species have been listed for just 32 years, while their recovery plans required 46 years of listing.

The study’s findings are similar to a 2006 analysis of all federally protected species in the Northeast, which found 93 percent were stabilized or improving since being put on the endangered species list and 82 percent were on pace to meet recovery goals.

When judged in the light of meeting recovery plan timelines for recovery, the Endangered Species Act is remarkably successful. Few laws of any kind can boast a 90 percent success rate.

You can check out species in your area on this new interactive regional map of the 110 species.

Celebrate Endangered Species Day by sharing the good news as highlighted by this report, it validates the efforts of conservation and reinforces the effectiveness of the endangered species act.

The Center for Biological Diversity works through science, law and creative media to secure a future for all species, great or small, hovering on the brink of extinction.

Visit the website to discover natures diversity, and help the Center campaign for conservation.

 

Daniel J. Cox has been story-telling worldwide through his still photography for more than thirty years. His work has graced the cover of hundreds of magazines including National Geographic with two cover stories. He is a lead instructor and “Mentor” with the Popular Photo Mentor Series, is a Nikon “Legend” and is a consultant for Hewlett Packard Fine Art Printing.

In recent years, Daniel has seen the world of stills and video merge. New technology, stills, video and sound has allowed him to become a multimedia journalist. He uses this merger of media to help the non-profit conservation group, Polar Bears International, promote awareness of how climate change is affecting the polar bear’s arctic habitat.

We are privileged to have Daniel as a key contributor to Bare Essentials, sharing his considerable knowledge, exquisite images and passion for conservation with our readers.

Read features by Daniel J. Cox

“Garden of Ice: Exploring the Arctic Ecosystem” page 51
Bare Essentials Issue 21, September/October 2011

“Arctic Documentary Project: Preserving the Arctic for Future Generations” page 41
Bare Essentials Issue 25, May/June 2012

 

Click here to view the embedded video.

This video documents the rescue of a Sumatran tiger cub by the Wildlife Conservation Society-Indonesia Program.

Sadly, each year dozens of tigers across Asia share a similar or worse fate. Wire snares are impacting Asia’s already declining tiger population, estimated at fewer than 3,200 individuals.

Snares are set by poachers hunting food or targeting tigers for their skins and body parts that are sold on the illegal wildlife market. The demand is relentless and the tactics are ruthless.

To protect tigers and combat poachers, Panthera works with local and international partners to support Tigers Forever projects across the tiger’s range. The backbone of this effort is an army of field teams that patrol tirelessly to remove and prevent the setting of snares, and use tip-offs to track down and arrest poachers that set snares to kill wild tigers.

You can help protect tigers and other wild cats from snares set by poachers by donating to Panthera’s Remove a Snare campaign. Remove a Snare. Save a Life.

 

Using the wonder our children have for the world around them – we can foster a deep and growing appreciation of nature.

From this understanding a wealth of wonderful media has evolved – engaging children to be environmentally aware, through fun and interactive ways.

A Children’s Book With An Environmental Message!

‘The Little Wave – Part One’ by Stephen Lamoreaux is a 32-page, illustrated story, written in rhyme, about the journey of small wave that learns about mankind’s abuses of nature from creatures it meets along its journey. It is then determined to teach children to change their ways in order to preserve and protect the environment for present and future generations. Part Two will be released next year.

This powerful little book teaches us that abusing our planet does not come without consequences, but even the smallest changes can make a positive difference.

View a short video about the book

Available in paperback, as well as Kindle/Nook and other eBook formats through Amazon, Barnes and Noble plus various other booksellers around the world.

A Children’s Website Celebrating Natural Environments!

Coastal Care Junior is an online resource that produces news and resources tailored to a young audience of future conservationists. Inspired by the memory of Aguila who spent her short life in an exceptional natural environment – the powerful and pristine Atlantic Ocean. Her sandbox was a magnificent, vast, and unspoiled beach; she lived amongst its wildlife. The founding sentiment behind the site – every child should have the right to live in a “healthy” natural environment as Aguila did.

Children can explore the sand for a better understanding of coastal ecosystems or view the gallery for a visual reference illustrating human impact and highlighting treasures of the natural world.

A Role Model Named Rick!

The National Wildlife Federation created an online ecosystem for junior conservationists built around a central character ‘Ranger Rick the Racoon’. This takes interactive media to the next level, with games, apps, downloadable freebies lie ‘Ricky and Pals Adventures’ and so much more – delivered in vibrant colour by a really cute role model that kids can relate too.

Top Resources from Ranger Rick include…..

Ranger Rick’s Green Zone: here you can take a pledge, watch videos, create a silly story and help a family green-up their living space.

Ranger Rick’s Nature Notebook: encourages children to explore, observe and record nature (a downloadable pdf to start their first field journal).

The Rebus Postcard Game: your goal is to write a letter to your grandparents. Before you can do that, you’ll need to solve a few puzzles first. A rebus puzzle is a representation of words or phrases by pictures. The name of the pictures resembles the sound of the words.

More Links for Junior Conservationists!

Through The Lens: connects children to the natural world through photography, with guides on how to get started and galleries to inspire a wild eye. Also checkout ‘Ranger Rick’s Photo Contest’.

Endangered Species Program: features a series of games to expand children’s interest and knowledge of threatened species.

 

Click here to view the embedded video.

This video features Cynthia Moss, a world-renowned elephant expert and partner on IFAW’s Global Elephant Team. Cynthia has studied elephants in Kenya’s Amboseli National Park for more than 40 years. Her groundbreaking research has given the world a much deeper understanding of the social lives of elephants.

After surviving a terrible drought in 2009, Amboseli’s elephant mums are now helping deliver a baby boom to the park. In this video, Cynthia discusses the flood of new arrivals, how the tight bond between elephant mum and her growing baby is formed and the special ways that mum and baby communicate.

Learn about IFAW’s work Protecting Elephants.

 

Current Affairs with a Cool Interface

A connected world has obvious ‘positive advantages’ but when the influx of news is unfiltered (too much, same format) ultimately our passion for a cause diminishes and messages have less meaning.

Departing from mainstream media here are some curative websites for sourcing current news and educational resources relating to conservation.

SHFT is a multi-media platform founded by film producer Peter Glatzer and actor-filmmaker Adrian Grenier. Their mission is to convey a more sustainable approach to the way we live through video, design, art and culture. “Curating the Culture of Today’s Environment”.

Pinterest allows contributors to collate images and videos creating a scrapbook-style news hub. For all things environment checkout the Science & Nature category.

ARKive combines news with facts constantly updating their database to create the ultimate multimedia guide to the world’s endangered species. Includes endangered species videos, photos, facts & education resources.

Conservation International unites an action network with news from the field, sustainable solutions, tools and resources highlighting a multitude of conservation projects.

Center for Biological Diversity is another great site cluing people in to the latest campaigns, providing publications and other media focused on conservation.

Besides creative curation, news becomes more interesting and influential when it is relevant and accurate. The ability to search and access specific data from reputed sites fulfils this brief.

Here is a list of Searchable Science-based, Archival Aggregators

BiologyBrowser links to relevant scientific digital resources including data sets, images, videos, webpages, and current news.

Master Journal List by Thomson Reuters, allows you to search a database of all their scientific journals.

Expert Essays helps you find in-depth, explanatory information relating to citation databases and other information tools.

ScienceWatch is a free, comprehensive resource for science metrics and analysis.

Highly Cited is your expert gateway to the most highly influential scientists and scholars worldwide

ResearcherID is a registry to find collaborators, review publication lists and explore how research is used around the world!

Web of Knowledge offers the most sophisticated research discovery environment available. By implementing advanced technologies to the World’s most widely used and well respected citation databases, users can take advantage of the full potential of a truly integrated platform.

I could go on with my list, but half the fun is finding these gems of inspiration. Start searching, it will restore your passion for conservation and allow you to utilise media for a purpose.

 

The ability to grasp how our lifestyle choices affect the survival of a species, is key to encouraging consumer participation in conservation.

But, raising awareness requires creative strategies that unlike comprehensive or complicated statistical indicators, offer a visual representation of consumer impact.

The Doubling Time Calculator is a fun and easy resource which allows consumers to see ‘what impact their seafood selection has on fish and shark populations.

Do you want to know how fast the population of a fish, shark or ray species can recover from fisheries or other human pressures when it is no longer being caught or killed?

Use the Doubling Time Calculator to quickly get a general idea of how long it might take.

How Use the Calculator

Search fishbase.org to find the species you are interested in, once found scroll down to the bottom of the webpage to find the estimated doubling time category for that animal. Based on the category you can select the minimum, average* and maximum doubling time for that category in the calculator.

After that fill in how many animals you want in your initial population and how many animals you want in your final population. Then click calculate to find out how many years it would take for the population to grow to the specified number.

For example if we have 2 sharks with a very low doubling time it would take 14 years for the population to grow to 4 individuals. You can also use the dusky shark example to see how different estimates of the doubling time by different scientists might affect decisions regarding the conservation of this species.

Please realize that the doubling time calculator is only based on estimated doubling times and does not include other ecological factors such as animal density effects, food availability and etc. The tool is intended for fun and raising general awareness, for example that eating a sardine is not the same as eating a shark.

*The given average is the sum of maximum and minimum divided by two.

 

Win a 3 Night Stay for 2 at The Hacienda Chichen Resort ‘Mexico’s Eco-friendly Jungle Resort & Spa!’

As part of Bare Essentials ‘Wildlife Warriors Initiative’ in partnership with our friends at The Maya Foundation in Laakeech, we are pleased to offer Panthera’s supporters an opportunity to win a luxurious vacation at The Hacienda Chichen Resort in Yucatan, Mexico.

Hacienda Chichen Resort is Yucatan’s most innovating eco-Spa resort. Among luxurious haciendas in Yucatan, Hacienda Chichen is distinguished as the # 1 hacienda by many travel critics. This unique green boutique hotel is located in the heart of the Mayan city of Chichen Itza, Yucatan, Mexico. Hacienda Chichen has recently been named one of the Top 50 Wellness Destinations in North America by National Geographic its Yaxkin Spa has been selected in the Ten Best Eco-Spas of the World.

The 16th-century corn-colored hacienda was built by Spanish conquerors of stone “recycled” from Maya temples. Functioned as archaeologist accommodations in 1920s, the grounds feature a 200-acre jungle preserve and bird refuge; and is a 10 minute walk from a nearby archaeological park. Maya immersion: attend “sacred” rituals, sign up for cooking classes, submit to treatments at the holistic spa. Craft boutique donates profit to Maya Foundation. Environmental policies.

Proceeds from ticket purchases for this exclusive raffle will go to the field to support Panthera’s Jaguar conservation programs.

Read ‘PLAN JAGUAR’ a special feature on Panthera’s Jaguar Corridor in the May/June issue of Bare Essentials ‘Open Access’ Magazine.

Only 200 tickets available, so be quick and purchase your ticket today!

 

Did you know it can cost less than a dollar to kill a big cat?

A wire snare is cheap to make, easy to set and deadly for big cats. Whether used by local people hunting for food, or by highly organized poachers killing cats for their skins and bones, snares are used around the world to hunt wildlife. Snares almost always result in drawn-out, painful deaths due to infection or starvation.

The Story of Ngoye – A Snare Victim

As told by Panthera’s President, Dr. Luke Hunter

One recent victim close to my heart is a leopard called Ngoye. She is the central character of a project I started 10 years ago in Phinda, South Africa. Monitored intensively since she was a year old, Ngoye shared with us her life story. Over the years, Ngoye has been a successful mother to at least six leopard cubs, many of which have gone on to raise their own young; and her most recent litter of two cubs was born in the fall of 2011.

But this is where her story turns.

Last December we spotted Ngoye limping badly and bleeding heavily from her left paw. Her six month old cubs were nowhere to be seen. Tristan Dickerson (our Leopard Program Coordinator) made the decision to intervene and anesthetize her, discovering that she had become entangled in a wire snare. It had cut deeply into her paw, cutting off circulation and causing massive damage to the tissue. In the desperate fight for her own survival and with all sensation to the paw lost, Ngoye chewed off three of her toes to set herself free.

To save Ngoye’s paw, and her life, our team performed two surgeries over the course of a month. Ngoye remained in the wild, but we provided her with food and water, knowing that she would not be able to hunt while her wounds healed.

Several months have passed now, and the field updates are encouraging. She is moving without a limp and has begun to hunt for herself. While we were able to save Ngoye’s life, she was unable to fend for her two cubs. The snare cut their young lives short.

Ngoye’s story would have been very different had she not been part of Panthera’s study. There are many thousands of other snare victims around the world that are not so lucky.

Help protect Ngoye and other wild cats from poachers and their snares by donating to Panthera’s Remove a Snare campaign.

Panthera supports rangers and park guards who are the foot soldiers in this war removing and preventing the setting of these deadly snares.

Your donation can help Panthera in the following ways:

$50 provides patrols with wire cutters used to remove snares
$250 supports the salary of a snare patrol member for 1 month
$500 provides a 1 month supply of medicine to treat snare victims
$1,000 provides fuel for vehicles used by snare patrols to cover rugged terrain for 1 month

 

China’s Sichuan Province is famous for two gifts of nature—the iconic giant panda and a unique pepper that is one of the most important condiments in traditional Chinese cuisine. These two cultural icons may seem to have little in common but thanks to a new business model, peppers are now helping pandas.

It didn’t start out that way.

The sale of Sichuan pepper has long been a primary source of income for villagers living close to the Baodinggou Nature Reserve, which is home to 36 giant pandas and other endangered species. With most of the profit from pepper sales siphoned off by middlemen, locals were forced to make ends meet by collecting firewood and foraging for vegetables and medicinal plants from the wild.

As panda populations declined, the Chinese government took strict measures to protect the area and the forests became off-limits to communities. This led to growing resentment against conservation measures because locals were barred from an important supplement to their meager livelihoods.

In 2007, WWF introduced the struggling village pepper association to Carrefour, the second-largest retailer in the world. A year later, WWF helped the association—which aimed to produce sustainably-grown Sichuan pepper and help pepper growers keep a greater portion of the profits—upgrade to become the Sichuan Mao County Pepper Cooperative.

Since 2010, the pepper from the region has become part of Carrefour’s direct purchasing system. One of the biggest projects of Carrefour in China, the initiative helps local farmers improve their incomes and enhances the freshness and traceability of Carrefour’s products.

To date, the cooperative has sold more than 90 tons of pepper to more than 116 Carrefour stores in 32 cities around China. The project has benefited more than 1,300 families in Mao County. On average, each family’s income has increased about 500 yuan annually, which is 20% of their annual cash income. The Mao County residents no longer need to worry about where and how to sell their pepper.

WWF’s pepper project is a successful model for sustainable development in a biodiversity-rich landscape. Customers can buy good quality products and, at the same time, contribute to panda protection.

The farmer’s income security ensures the long-term protection of the giant panda’s home. The new environmentally friendly land use practices ensure sustainability so that the natural resources of the region will not be overexploited. It is also an example of the implementation of a good government policy that is supported by farmers, community organizations and businesses.

Through WWF’s holistic approach, people feel a spirit of optimism and cooperation, and the nearby panda populations have earned an improved chance to thrive.

Support the WWF with a symbolic Panda Adoption, and spread the word with a Panda E-Card.