"Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it's the only thing that ever has." Margaret Mead, American anthropologist, 1901-1978
But the 2021 hunt has opened, and IFAW are asking us all to sign a petition to Canada’s Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to get this event stopped once and for all.
IFAW says that the hunt is cruel and unnecessary. It’s time for the Canadian Government to stop funding the commercial hunt and invest in economic alternatives for those few fishermen who still take part in it.
They have a form you can use to send a message to Trudeau – there’s a personalised copy to make it more effective and you can actually personalise that. Though as they say, please be polite!
Its community forest programme there has gained momentum, as the Bamasobha community has been granted their community forest! This secures 29,142 hectares! Find out more about it here.
There are now over 100 community forests which are either established or applied for, in the world’s second largest rainforest. They total over 2 million acres!
Rainforest Foundation UK works in the two largest rainforests, the Congo Basin and the Amazon. The forests are spread over billions of acres but as we all know, they are threatened by illegal logging and mining. Destroy the forest habitats, and you also undermine the livelihoods of locals living there. You also destroy eco systems.
ForestLink fights illegal activities in the forest
So communities are important in the fight against illegal activities, and the Rainforest Foundation UK’s ForestLink monitoring system enables communities to send low-cost alerts about illegal logging. It’s been so effective that it’s been expanded to the Ivory Coast!
There was also a landmark conviction of eco-guards for human rights abuses which were committed in the Salonga National Park. It sends a strong message that abuses won’t be tolerated.
Rainforest Foundation UK says that much needs to be done to address the risks from a poorly designed UN plan to double protect areas within the next decade. It is working to “amplify the voices of those on the frontline of deforestation on the international stage” as the climate summit in Glasgow approaches.
National Trust volunteers have planted over 2,000 native trees there as part of a big conservation project.
Introducing the Stepping Stones project
Stepping Stones is a landscape-scale conservation project. It’s aiming to improve the area, restoring habitats and linking them together, thereby creating wildlife corridors.
Volunteers have planted wildlife-friendly saplings such as elder, holly, hawthorn and rowan. These trees will give nectar, berries and shelter for birds and other wildlife in the future and they will create a corridor that connects areas for wildlife.
Wildlife corridors are critical to wildlife
The idea of wildlife corridors is that wildlife can move through an area, because the corridors link up areas of habitat so they can get from A to B – almost like their own motorway network, or railway system.
This project is necessary because the area – like so many others – has lost many hedgerows and trees in fields. This is because of agricultural practices which have changed over time.
Patches of woodland have been cut off from each other – so species such as dormice get stuck in one area – they need hedgerows to move through an area. Less scrub and thicket have meant less breeding habitat for songbirds.
So planting long strips of native woodland – very wide hedgerows – have created new habitat which link up other areas.
This plan will help strengthen the network of woodland corridors
The ultimate idea is to strengthen the network of woodland habitat in the area. This really will help wildlife move about safely – they will have somewhere to nest and rest, too, and it will make the landscape look even more beautiful for us all to enjoy!
They need all of us to help join their fight to end bear poaching in Armenia and to rescue the bears who are left and waiting for us to help free them. They are being kept in terrible conditions.
IAR has been working with the Foundation for the Preservation of Wildlife and Cultural Assets (FPWC), their partners in Armenia. So far they have rescued over 30 bears.
IAR estimate that there could be as many as 50 more bears who are waiting to be rescued. They need all our help to set these bears free.
The brown bears are poached from the wild and then locked up in tiny cages. Usually their mothers are killed, and the little cubs are captured and sold into a miserable life. They may be kept in tiny squalid cages. They eat scraps, and drink dirty water.
Ade Adepitan looks at climate change and the impact it is having on the environment – however, he is also looking at some amazing people who are doing what they can to help stop the pace at which is progressing and/or help the species affected by it. He is looking for solutions to climate change around the world.
And he does touch on the fact he is flying around the world to bring this to us. But unless we all find out what is happening in various locations and how people and wildlife and nature are being affected by climate change, there won’t be a story to tell.
Solomon Islands
Ade starts off in the Solomon Islands and we see and hear first-hand from local people who are affected by rising sea levels.
Great Barrier Reef
Adi heads to the Great Barrier Reef, one of the wonders of the world – and a breeding spot for the green turtle. Because the world is getting warmer, so is the sand and that has meant that that nearly all the turtles being born are female. This presents a major problem because it means that there are very few males being born. Adi finds out about a project which is trying to cool the sand so that more male green turtles might be born.
One of the questions Adi asks is “how do we wean ourselves off fossil fuels?”
Rural Queensland
He visits rural Queensland, a heart breaking visit because of the draught, and the city of Sydney where an amazing woman from Sydney Wildlife is working hard to help all the bats which have been affected by the terrible wildfires.
Ozharvest
And he visits the incredible people involved in Ozharvest – they collect food which is due to be chucked from the supermarkets and take it to a market where people can get it for free, to save it being wasted. The young woman from Ozharvest says a simple thing we can all do is to plan what we need when we shop and buy just what we need. When you know that people are going hungry in the world, that fact is made worse by the amount of food being wasted elsewhere – and when you add how much that impacts on the environment and climate change, that makes things much worse.
Tasmania
Finally Adi heads to Tasmania where plants – giant kelp - are being planted under the water as they excel at sucking up CO2 and also they grow at an incredible rate. Their success is hampered by sea urchins so there is a project to try to encourage people to eat sea urchins so that we might gain control over them.
He also sees how wind power in Tasmania could be used to power some of Australia’s mainland cities/places through a cable under the sea.
We can turn things around
Finally, Adi meets one of Australia’s top thinkers on climate change, an ex-Greenpeace employee, Paul Gilding, who warns that the plant is on the verge of total collapse. He believes we can turn things around. The key, he says, is to eliminate all fossil fuels by 2030. Governments must have the strength to enforce it – and it is up to you and I, the people who vote them in, to put the pressure on and show them that they must get on with it.
Next week features Bangladesh and Bhutan – don’t miss it! BBC2 at 8pm, Sunday 18 April 2021.
