Today’s reptile is the Thorny Dragon, Moloch horridus (Australia) — as its name suggests, this Australian lizard’s body is dominated by intimidating spikes in order to look unappealing and fend off predators.
Occupying scrublands and deserts primarily, the Thorny Dragon’s coloration is perfect for blending in and feasting on ants, its main source of nutrition.
Photo Courtesy: statravel.co.uk
^ The face says it all ^
Photo courtesy: australiangeographic.com.au
On June 5, we’ll celebrate World Environment Day. This year UNEP focuses on Food waste/Food Loss. At Raxa Collective we’ll be carrying out actions and sharing experience and ideas. Come and join us with your tips to preserve foods, preserve resources and preserve our planet.
As a child, I was always told to finish eating my meals because there were starving children in poor and faraway lands that would gladly trade places with me. I could not exactly picture what that meant, and the rebelious part of me always wanted to stick a postage stamp on my plate and send it to these children. No one who grew up with such abundance, I think, could trade the fresh memory of a full meal for a clear picture of hunger.
Being from Texas (and proud of it, so don’t mess with that), with its long “bigger and better” history and wonderful mythology of abundance and its can-do certainty, I did not “get it”. Now, the hazy memories of those dinners and parental wisdom are coming into perspective with my ability to follow and understand news from around the world.
Many of my posts reflect my outlook to err on the upside of life’s circumstances. I try to drown out my inner (and often powerful) pessimism by surrounding myself with positivity and optimism. I find that this is a careful balance of being hopeful while remaining realistic. Today, when I was taking a break from my coursework, or the slightly negative part of my day, I watched an encouraging Ted Talk that I think demonstrates hopeful realism.
Johan Rockstrom suggests that the earth is at a point where major transformation must occur. He optimistically recommends that we use and continue to use crises as opportunities and local initiatives to transform and sustain life. Also, he makes a realistic statement that climate change is not our biggest problem only a symptom of our land use.
I found this talk engaging and thought-provoking. I agree that I transformation is soon to happen and I look forward to being a part of it.
Anyone who has ever been to ski slopes may have experienced small, pint-sized, infant skiers buzzing down the hills. As a veteran skier of 18-years, I proudly proclaim that I was once one of these daring children. 
However, I learned this past weekend that through the years I have lost this fearlessness when I was challenged to try snowboarding. I would love to boast that my first run was very similar to this video, but the aching of my entire body keeps me truthful as if to say, “Ha! You wish, Meg!”
Several times I met the side of the mountain and regardless of the many parts of my body that hit, the solid surface was resilient to my attacks; in fact, the bruises that continue to surface would argue that it fought back with increasing firmness. The absence of soft, powdery snow brought my awareness to this season’s lack of typical winter weather, and it drew my attention to the resort’s snow-making cannons. Continue reading
Guest Author: Robert Frisch
The burgeoning sport of rock climbing is an excellent example of how an adventure sport can propagate the conservation of natural areas through private sector initiatives. In the early days of the sport, climbers would hammer iron “pitons” into cracks in the rock as they ascended, and attach ropes to them in order to protect against falls. The pitons were not designed to be removed, and can still be seen on some of the classic climbs around the world. Visionary thinkers such as Yvon Chouinard (of the Patagonia clothing and gear company) were unsatisfied with the fact that with each new climb, permanent scars were left in the rock, and set out to devise other means of protection. Nowadays, climbers use removable “nuts” and “cams” that still protect against falls, but leave no trace in the rock. In fact, rock climbers have even set up organizations such as the Access Fund that participate in conservation and land protection initiatives. The sport has also helped to bring much needed revenue to rural areas as diverse as Slade Kentucky, Yangshuo China, or Sigsipamba Ecuador. Continue reading
When we started this site a few months ago we had the primary objective of sharing what was happening in our field work, starting with Michael in Kerala and myself in Nicaragua. Writing from Morgan’s Rock, or from Kerala, may have made the posts feel focused on only two locations. Others have joined in along the way, thankfully, so it is a much broader spectrum geographically and otherwise. Some of us are back on campus now, and our task remains the same: getting important ideas and examples related to entrepreneurial conservation, and community-based problem solving, out there in a creative forum.
I have decided to bring my work–at Cornell’s Lab of Ornithology and at Cornell Outdoor Education–as well as some of my “book learning” onto the page here. The main reason for doing the latter is to show that, to put it bluntly, we are not making this stuff up. Even on our most innovative days in the field, someone has thought about it or done it before, somewhere, sometime. And that is good news. So today I thought I would share a bit on the interplay between our basic tendencies and our better selves. Continue reading
Today we had a visit from a very important contributor, Mr. Vijaykumar Thondaman, the generous gentleman whose remarkable photography skills and passion for wildlife have furnished us with the ever-popular “Bird of the Day” series.
We forgot to snap a photo so we stole this one of Mr. Thondaman (left) with assistant Jayan
Sipping tea and chatting with Vijaykumar was not only an honor (in addition to being an accomplished wildlife photographer and naturalist, he is the nephew of the Late His Highness Raja Rajagopala Thondaman, the ninth and last ruler of the erstwhile Pudukottai State), but it was also an educational exploration of the feathered fauna of southern India. With a palpable passion for the subject, his ornithological knowledge is the consequence of a unique upbringing, as his father, Maharajkumar Radhakrishna Thondaman, maintained a mini zoo with blackbuck, sambar, chital, barking deer, four-horned antelope, foxes, crocodiles, pythons and wild and imported birds. More specific than his father’s captive collection was his small ornithological museum where Vijaykumar learned taxidermy at a young age. Vijaykumar grew up in the 100-acre campus of the New-Palace (the present Collectorate), which had a collection of rare trees and shrubs and wildly roaming peacocks, rabbits, partridges, quails, blackbucks and chitals, none of which exist there anymore. His love affair with wild-life, however, has been an indelible part of his life ever since. Continue reading
A recent article from the Cornell Hospitality Quarterly, titled “Hotel Guests’ Preferences for Green Guestroom Attributes,” caught my eye just a couple days ago. Written by Michelle Millar and Seyhmus Baloglu of the University of San Francisco and the University of Las Vegas, respectively (both institutions have well established programs in hospitality), the study analyzed a set of hotel room amenities/features and attempted to find out which ones guests thought were the most important. I was especially interested in this study—among the many studies on guestroom attributes—because I have some pretty strong opinions about the best things that hotels can do in their guestrooms to enhance sustainability.
Respondents ranked sustainable shampoo amenities among the most important attributes. Refillable shampoo dispensers, shown above, are widely used in cruise ships but have not yet gained traction in the majority of American hotels.
In 1621, Plymouth colonists and Native Americans gathered for an autumn harvest feast that set the precedent for today’s American Thanksgiving holiday. Thanksgiving traditionally brings families together (in-laws and all) to give thanks to the various aspects of their lives. Many memories are created and a cornucopia of food is shared. In my family, the holiday lingers until only the turkey carcass remains and the stuffing is amply stuffed into our bellies…a week later. See, we tend to err on the side of caution and over-prepare for the rare event that an extra ten people arrive to celebrate.
In one sense, Thanksgiving occurs every day in many restaurants—they over-prepare; however, restaurants are without the willing and unashamed stomachs of my family to eat their daily surpluses of food. As I mentioned in my previous post, much of this perfectly edible food goes to a landfill. Yet, food shelters are often unable to match their supply with their ever-increasing demand.
Increasingly, restaurants are 
turning to local Harvest Programs to provide an alternative to discarding surplus food. With food donation programs, restaurants and other food service businesses have the opportunity to reach more than just their customers. Programs provide social, environmental, and economic benefits to businesses.
Donating helps disadvantaged members of any community. A Hunger in America study shows that one in eight American families rely on donated food. This outreach helps employees contribute to a greater good knowing that they are helping members of their community. It also helps food pantries better match their supply and demand so restaurants can serve more than just the traditional customer. Continue reading
A few days ago I spoke with Varghese, the restaurant manager and head of the food and beverage department here at Cardamom County, who prides himself in running a tight ship and making sure that guests are at their happiest. Varghese is another long-time member of the Cardamom County family, originally arriving here eleven years ago, in 2000. Having taken a two-year hospitality course in Ravipuram in Ernakulam (the same district housing Cochi), at a school that has now shifted to become the Fort Munnar Catering College in the misty mountains of nearby Munnar, and training with Taj Group of Hotels, he arrived to fill the role of a restaurant supervisor.
Varghese told me about his Uncle Phillip who was one of the many well-educated people from Kerala who went over to a Gulf country, in this case being Bahrain. We talked about this brain drain, which Varghese mentioned had been going on since as early as the 1970s. The highly educated people and professionals of Kerala go in search of new opportunities, higher living standards, and money to send back home. Varghese also talked about Arabic being a language that is not too difficult to pick up, especially because of the difficulty and speed with which the native tongue of Malayalam is spoken. However, what is interesting to note is the stark contrast of climate between the Gulf countries and Kerala, the former being very dry, arid, and hot with the latter being humid and comfortably cooler especially at higher altitudes near the Western Ghats such as here in Kumily, Idukki. Continue reading
A recent article in TIME Magazine alerted me to how easy it is for us as consumers to shrug off the warnings of a changing world. I am guilty of it and I have caught myself, and hope that with this change I pledge to make, you might think about it too…
I’m humbled by the cognitive dissonance of knowing how sensitive the planet’s oceans are while hungrily indulging in sushi and fish filets with a comfortable negligence regarding their origins. Food choices like these, the effects of which are typically underestimated as a mere drop in the ocean, are proving to have a bigger ripple effect than we’d like to think. And it’s high time we all thought about the fish on our dish and just how it got there.
The article in TIME by Bryan Walsh reminded me of a memorable excerpt from a conversation between some friends of mine:
Q: “So what did porcupine taste like? Does it taste like chicken?”
A: “It tastes like… have you ever eaten donkey?”
As hysterical as it was for me at the time, it made me think, is the sometimes absurd variety of the human palate an evolutionary response to a scarcity of resources?
Ok so there’s no imminent extinction of livestock; there is many a happy cow in California, the UK alone consumes nearly 30 million eggs per day, and just look at New Zealand’s sheep-to-people ratio. But what about the animals we still hunt for sustenance? Continue reading
The wooden block is probably one of the simplest and most played with toys. However, this iconic block did something unexpected: it has been promoted amongst the complex toys of this generation and sure to last for many generations. With a little entrepreneurial conservation, Tegu has created a block that surpasses most expectations of a toy. It is educational and stimulates children’s creativity and unscripted play (as I mentioned in one of my previous posts), is heirloom quality, helps the planet and its citizens, and is so much fun that adults sneak off and play with them.
Tegu’s magnetic blocks are built to leave a legacy. They are complex, yet they don’t require any batteries or instruction manuals, just an imagination. The uniqueness of this toy is not just the functional (and inaccessible to children) magnet, but the series of events that follow each block purchase, called the Tegu Effect. Tegu gives every buyer the choice to either donate dozens of trees or donate schooldays for Honduran children. But it is not only the environment and children that benefit; as Tegu grows, the company creates living wage jobs for the Honduran factory workers, and with 65% of the population living currently below the poverty line Tegu offers the people a great opportunity. Continue reading
Earlier this year I would have thought blogging about plastic bags would be boring and quite redundant. I have heard and read of the dire effects plastic bags have on the environment countless times. And I am well versed in the “green tips” of bringing my own bag that are so prevalent. Intellectually, I realize that plastic bags…well, suck.
I heard the implications and I pride myself to be eco-savvy yet I still would often be caught red-handed with those pesky plastic bags on a few desperate occasions. Continue reading
In my last post, I claimed that only a small number of studies have been done on valuating eco-tourism as an ecosystem service. I was wrong. After some more digging around, I’ve discovered that a fair number of studies address this topic, though only a small number of studies actually evaluate specific regions of the world. One of the most interesting reports I stumbled upon was from the Journal of Environmental Management. In 1998, Susan Menkhaus and Douglas Lober, two researchers from Duke University, published a paper that focused on Costa Rican rainforests and their ecotourism value. If you’d like to read the whole thing, it’s titled “International Ecotourism and the Valuation of Tropical Rainforests in Costa Rica.”
Rainforests provide dozens of ecosystem services. In Costa Rica, they serve the booming eco-tourism industry.
By way of background, Costa Rica is a textbook example of effective management of natural resources, tourism, and integrated public policy. It is widely recognized as the greenest country in the world, and it remains the most visited Central American country. Covering less than 0.05% of Earth’s landmass, Costa Rica contains a whopping 5% of the world’s biodiversity, has 12 different life zones, and boasts one of the highest land protection rates in the world. Nearly half of the tourists that come to Costa Rica engage in some sort of eco-tourism activities. Needless to say, Costa Rica is the best nation to take as an example for this study, which attempts to quantify the value of Costa Rica’s rainforests from a tourism standpoint. Keep in mind, however, that the authors only sought to calculate the eco-tourism value of the rainforests—not anything else related to the forests’ medicinal, timber, or biodiversity value. Continue reading
When rain seems like only a dream, taps are turned and water begins to flow from sprinklers onto family lawns across the U.S. In many areas, water has not been given the value it deserves making this precious resource easy to take for granted. As the global population and industrialization and urbanization increase, the rising demand for water will only cause more harm to the environment.
The UN estimates by 2025, a combined population of 2.8 billion people across the world will face freshwater drought or “scarcity,” and according to water.org, about 70 percent of all freshwater withdrawals go to irrigated agriculture; with these statistics, turning the water tap on to quench the backyard will soon no longer be an option.
Water is important to just about every natural phenomenon and artificial activity. The more I think about water the more I realize the countless times I use it throughout my day. I mean it is my drink of choice…and the main ingredient of many other favorites.
So, as water conservation becomes increasingly more urgent, I began to research some efforts geared to the alleviation of the largest use of freshwater—agriculture. The media is saturated with advertisements of drought-resistant and other GMo and hybrid plants. And in response to the ever-changing climate, chemical-producing companies are racing to release the first species of drought-tolerant corn. They claim these genetically modified and hybrid plants may be the answer to a potential food crisis, but they also seem to have an ulterior motive of extorting millions of already economically drained farmers.
While these developing drought-tolerant plants may be one aspect of reducing the stress of water conservation, another solution has already been proven and researched that farmers can do instantly without paying for special seeds from these mega producers. Continue reading
What happens to those little bars of soap in many hotel rooms? Specifically, what occurs after a guest opens a carefully packaged bar and uses it? Most guests often do not use all of it. Some wrap it back up and take it; most leave it for housekeeping. I have mostly seen the latter; and having some experience in housekeeping operations now, I am shocked at the amount of amenities that are thrown to overflowing landfills every day. However, my anxiety about this abundance of waste was reduced slightly when I stumbled upon a small, not for profit organization, Clean the World Foundation, Inc., that collects these gently used bars of soap and recycles them to distribute amongst several developing countries and underprivileged communities.
According to Clean the World, millions of pounds of soaps are discarded each day in North America. These bars not only get wasted and take up space in an overflowing landfill, but they also contribute to groundwater contamination. Continue reading
A good friend of mine has been working on developing a curriculum for sustainability lessons in Utica, and she asked me just a couple days ago for some help with the topic of ecosystem services. I thought it strange that she came to me (a hotelie, no less) for help on such a scientific topic, and I had to admit to her that my knowledge of the topic was shallow. Nonetheless, I pointed her to the UN’s 2005 Millennium Ecosystem Assessment (MA), the four-year study that is considered by the environmentalist community as the go-to resource on ecosystem services. I had skimmed the hefty 155-page synthesis report a few months earlier—I’d only initially did it because Eric Ricaurte, my research adviser, had recommended it to me—and I didn’t remember much from it. So after recommending the MA, I decided to read through some sections of it again.
Mangroves are a recognized source of ecosystem services. They buffer against storms, prevent erosion, and filter out toxins.
By way of background, ecosystem services are resources and processes that the natural environment provides for us. For example, trees provide oxygen for us to breathe, fish in the ocean serve as food, and earthworms help decompose our waste. But what caught my eye immediately from the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment was how it recognized ecotourism and recreation as important ecosystem services for humans. I couldn’t help but smile: while attempting to preserve their surrounding environments, eco-resorts around the world are also drawing upon this valuable ecosystem service by deriving revenue from it. Continue reading
About 80% of the world’s population is religious. Even though it might not always be apparent, religion often serves as a unifying value of people. Many religions have traditional and ethical ideals that sanctify the earth and its resources, thus linking mankind’s religious life and the natural system of the world. With this much of the world professing a faith, religion could play a tremendous role in conservation.
In my last post, I wrote about and linked to some writing about the Forest Rights Act of 2006, legislation which gives added to protection to tribal communities with a traditional claim on protected and preserved land in India. I ended by speculating about the difference between policies and practices regarding human-animal cohabitation at other wildlife sanctuaries and the one where I’m staying, which is in the Periyar Forest.
Well, I’ve spent the past couple days learning firsthand about the tribal community in around Kumily and Thekkady, and I can now with confidence confirm that the tribal heritage development and preservation initiatives in this area are indeed succeeding, and perhaps to a greater degree than at other parks. ‘Success’ is here defined as a community gradually finding sources of income that do not require the extraction of resources from the preserved environment.
To this end, in the Periyar there are four Community Development Committees, as well as numerous agencies designed to regulate and control interactions between the tribal community and the forest, and the tribal community and the market. I guess in the past tribal community members had been treated unfairly by buyers of their agricultural product (which is mostly pepper). Part of the CDCs’ job is to ensure that farmers are made aware of fair market prices and meet only with honest middlemen.
I met with the chairman of one of the CDCs and he told me about the economic and political structure of these relationships. He also told me that, at least within the Mannan community, more young peope are going on to professional schools and receiving advaced degrees, and that close to 50% of the tribal population now makes its primary income from outside the forest.
While these may be informal indicators of change and improvement as the Forestry Dept. defines it, they do point to developments in Kumily and India in general that it seems almost like you watch happening before your eyes on the ground.
Organikos 