The Nouabale-Ndoki National Park Congo

Great News! The Republic of Congo (ROC) has just expanded the Nouabalé-Ndoki National Park to include the Goualougo Triangle, expanding deeper into the rainforest to protect great apes. The expansion is a demonstration of an increasingly positive relationship between conservation organizations, Congolese Industry and the ROC government.

The Goualougo is a very dense, swampy forest that is home to a nearly pristine and untouched great ape population that was first discovered in 1989 by Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) scientists. The inspiration for the expansion came from studies of the area's chimpanzee and great ape populations, conducted by WCS as part of the Goualougo Triangle Great Ape Project. An effective buffer zone was created surrounding the park for which concessions were made by Congolais Industrielle des Bois which gave up its legal right to harvest timber from the Goualougo Triangle. www.enn.com/top_stories/article/44029

Skillful means of activism - Sacred Earth

I just heard Dekila Chungyalpa's very inspiring presentation to H. H. Dalai Lama on Skillful Means of Activism. She spoke about her work with the Sacred Earth program, a World Wildlife Fund (WWF) project to develop partnerships with faith leaders and institutions in order to protect biodiversity, natural resources and environmental services. The program works with religious leaders and faith communities to address ethical and spiritual ideals around the sacred value of earth and its diversity. It supports partnerships with local faith communities, and religious leaders to address conservation issues and look for ways to enrich and transform societal values and aspirations towards a sustainable future. The Sacred Earth program holds that working with faiths is not only an important and critical strategy for conservation but also a way to bring about genuine sustainable development. Most people in the world follow a spiritual faith and the faith leaders can help articulate ethical and spiritual ideals around the sacred value of Earth and its diversity.

It all sarted in1986 when WWF and HRH Prince Philip, then President of WWF, invited leaders of major world religions to discuss the relationship of faith and nature. The resulting Alliance of Religion and Conservation (ARC) and WWF started Sacred Gifts for a Living Planet in Kathmandu made a declaration with a commitment to clean protected Baghmati River in Nepal. Then in 2005, WWF and ARC wrote Beyond Belief, which lists over a hundred sacred places that are rich in biodiversity and can be considered potential "sacred sites", now an internationally recognized term of protection of biodiversity and culture.

Slash-and-burn 'improves tropical forest biodiversity'

According to the Science and Development Network slash-and-burn a practice common among indigenous and small scale farmers and foresters, actually improves tropical forest biodiversity.
Slash-and-burn agricultural practices have been banned by many governments because of the risk of uncontrolled fires. However, it turns out that they provide better growing conditions for valuable new trees than more modern methods of forest clearance.

Testing three diferent methods: clear-felling, bulldozing, and slash-and-burn: researchers cleared 24 half-hectare areas of tropical forest in Quintana Roo state, in southern Mexico. Mahogany seeds and seedlings were then planted and after 11 years, the researchers compared the sites and found that slash-and-burn techniques had provided the best growing conditions for mahogany. Many other valuable species also thrived in the slash-and-burn plots, whereas in clear-felled areas more than half of each area contained tree species of no commercial value. In areas cleared by slash-and-burn 60 per cent of species were commercially valuable. Additionally, the largest trees in slash-and-burn areas were 10 percent bigger than those in bulldozed areas.

Results were presented at the annual conference of the International Society of Tropical Foresters at Yale University www.enn.com/top_stories/article/43972

Less than one week to reach one million

The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is preparing to approve genetically engineered salmon, which would be the first genetically engineered animal on supermarket shelves in the United States. The salmon is engineered to produce hormones year-round that cause the fish to grow at twice its natural rate - without labels, people in the US will never know if they are eating it or not.

There is less than one week left until the FDA responds to a petition calling for labeling of genetically engineered foods -- and we need to make sure the FDA knows how Americans feel about this issue before that deadline.

That's why I submitted a comment to the FDA through Justlabelit.org demanding that genetically engineered foods be labeled. Please visit the petition page at Justlabelit.org and tell the FDA that you support mandatory labeling of genetically engineered foods: http://www.JustLabelIt.org/take-action?track=sotaf


 

Toward Organic Asia and the organic and conservation movements of the Mekong

As Chöngyam Rinpoche said: 

"Better never to start...

Once you have started better to finish"

The Toward Organic Asia (TOA) meeting at the Social Policy and Ecology Research Institute (SPERI) could yield some great things for young organic farmers in the Mekong. Young farmers will go from Vietnam to Thailand to see Uncle Ti's farm and the Pacanho minority community to see models for sustainable agriculture. SPERI will join the meeting at the Findhorn Ecovillage and take a leading role in capacity building for young farmers in the region within the TOA cooperative framework. Three indigenous youth will come from Myanmar and a group of farmers will come from Laos to the Human Ecology Practice Area (HEPA) for training.

The Organic and conservation movements of the Mekong are in need of more cooperation and real support. The Organic movement is all still very small, vague, and more or less lost on the average person here. Most tragically it is lost on the farmers and sustainable wild collectors who need attention and support.  

The idea behind the TOA is beautiful but sadly the Mekong region has a long long way to go to get such a conservation and sustainable agriculture movement off the ground. TOA was brought forth by the School for Wellbeing to offer a network for sustainability movements in the region so that they can move ahead, but it has a long way to go, and a lot to learn before it can start to get there.

So, those of you in the Mekong, and in the rest of the world for that matter, please keep your eyes wide open for good farming and conservation practices, get to know those farmers, hunters and wild collectors and find out how you can help them directly. 

A poem from the Greenhorns:

Progress:

       less slavery
       less diesel
       less hunger+ obesity
       less cronyism and chemicals and corporate control

       (in the form of a brisk, conversion of our economy towards healthier mix).

       more jobs
       more rural prosperity, and dancing
       more layers on the land
       more soil biota
       more resilient economies based in places, in buildings, in relationships
       more entrepreneurship
       more faith in a more functional democracy

it may be hard, but it will not be boring.

Organic Seed Growers & Trade Association, et al. v. Monsanto

Organic Seed Growers & Trade Association, et al. v. Monsanto, was filed in federal district court in Manhattan on March 29, 2011, on behalf of 83 family farmers, seed businesses and organic agricultural organizations, representing over 300,000 members. Sadly, on February 24, 2012 Judge Naomi Buchwald dismissed in the case.

Time for Alternative Action: As Vandana Shiva says it is time to occupy the food system. Corporate interests are controlling our food and it is not leading to healthy communities, farming systems, or food. Clearly, the judicial system of the United States is not prepared to offer real justice.

 - The Organic Consumers Association is offering some resources for petitioning the corporate interests and for food justice:

http://capwiz.com/grassrootsnetroots/utr/1/LEUTRLDORQ/DANERLDPSD/7987810231

Join IFOAM and support the global organic movement www.ifoam.org

Compassion for the Mosquito

Human evolution and the annoyance of the mosquito has been the topic of a lot of conversations here in Vietnam these days. "Why is it so annoying" someone asked "if it did not sing with a flute and make me itch after it bite I would not care so much about it".

What biologists tell us is that the itchiness and annoyance from the sound is our own body's reaction for dealing with the mosquito. Our ancestors who were the most annoyed and bothered by mosquitos were most likely to survive. - They did not get malaria, did not get sickness and die and therefore they were most likely to reproduce and make more humans. - We are the children of these ancient humans, the ones who were the most annoyed. Our bodies, which get a swelling itchy spot from the bite, and wake up in the middle of the night to swat and scratch are a gift from our ancestors. The bodies that gave them the most happiness and the easiest life are the bodies we have now.

What about fleas, bedbugs, mites, lice. Clearly what they all want is what we want: to be comfortable, to live well, to do what comes next. Are they compassionate in that quest? They sacrifice and risk life to our swatting and scratching so that they can give life to their children. Do they also make sacrifices for us? For the birds? As they die and become food for birds which sing and fly and inspire us.

Do they show appreciation? As they fly away full and singing...

Though the Buddha said this about annoying people, it is still instructive for dealing with mosquitoes:

Five ways to stop being annoyed from the Aghatapativinaya Sutta:

Loving-kindness
Compassion
Onlooking equanimity
Forgetting and ignoring
Ownership of deeds

'This good person is owner of his deeds, heir to his deeds, his deeds are the womb from which he is born, his deeds are his kin for whom he is responsible, his deeds are his refuge, he is heir to his deeds, be they good or bad.'

- Buddha (Aghatapativinaya Sutta)