Land Rover’s commitment to a sustainable future

As we make our way to the end of 2010 and plough our way into the new year we are all faced with daily headlines in the press reminding us of the recession, government cuts, global warming, sustainable living, our ecological footprint, thinking about how we shop, what we buy, organic or free range? Tested on animals? Farmed or fresh? Sustainably fished or hunted to extinction? Thinking about your next move, even if it is just to buy some milk from the corner shop, we are all faced with a number of choices daily which will affect not only our future but the future of our children and future generations. What does the future hold? And can we really influence the bigger picture? And does it really matter? A review article in NewScientist October 09 edition based on the book by Robert and Brenda Vale, two architects who specialise in sustainable living at University of Wellington, New Zealand compared the ecological pawprint of everyday family pets with SUV’s otherwise known as 4x4’s or ‘Sports Utility Vehicles’. The findings were astonishing!
They concluded that a Landcruiser’s eco-footprint is less than half that of a medium sized dog! John Barrett at the Stockholm Environment Institute in York, UK said “Owning a dog really is quite an extravagance, mainly because of the carbon footprint of meat”.

So what is it to be eco-friendly? And how do we achieve it when even our furry friends are no longer seen as being part of a sustainable future?
Well in my opinion we all hold a piece of the future in our hands, every single one of us, so every decision we make on a daily basis will in turn in one way or another affect another human/non human being sometime in the future. Therefore we can all make a difference, even if it’s in a miniscule contribution, a hundred thousand miniscule contributions soon add up! Therefore if you already own a pet, then changing its diet can help. Replacing meat with a more sustainable, less energy intensive replacement can almost halve the eco-pawprint of a dog or reducing the amount of birds a cat kills per year can drastically reduce their huge claw-print. And as for SUV drivers well you’ll be very happy to know that Land Rover have made a promise to a more sustainable future by actively supporting Conservation programs such as the Borneo Orangutan Survival Foundation (BOS) which runs the world’s largest primate rescue project. As part of their sponsorship they have donated a Defender to the Nyaru Menteng Orangutan Reintroduction Project in Central Kalimantan. The vehicle is currently being used in the most remote areas of Borneo for the transportation and return of Orangutan's to safe forests.
So its not all doom and gloom, there is always a greener alternative if we really want to make a greener choice, which made me think twice this week when I decided that the house was far too quiet and I wanted a pet…..
So I’ve decided on 3 bantam hens! At least they compensate for their eco-featherprint by providing eggs although I’m not sure I’m ready to go all the way and be completely eco-friendly by eating them, they’re never going to provide as much entertainment and pleasure on the dinner plate as seeing them pottering around the garden chattering away to each other.

Have a great week.
Nic

As a new species is discovered another is going extinct……..

2010 is proving to be an exciting year indeed! There has never been a better time to celebrate the International Year of Biodiversity with a new species of primate being discovered! Fauna & Flora International was part of a team of primatologists that recently discovered a completely new species of monkey Rhinopithecus strykeri in Northern Myanmar (formerly Burma). Local hunters reported the presence of a monkey which did not match any description of species previously identified in the area. Sadly this latest addition to the snub-nosed family is already threatened. Hunting pressure is rising thanks to loggers moving into the previously isolated distribution area of this species. Based on direct observations and evidence from local people, the team of researchers have estimated the total population of R.strykeri to be 260-330 individuals, making them a threatened species when they’ve only just been discovered. All species of snub-nosed monkey are considered critically endangered, including the striking blue-faced R.roxellana or golden snub-nosed monkey. With the new snub-nosed monkey Myanmar has now 15 species of primates, which underlines the importance of Myanmar for biodiversity conservation.

Photo credit: A digital reconstruction of the Burmese Snub-nosed monkey by Dr Thomas Geissmann

Hunting and habitat destruction are the key threats facing all primate species including the great apes. Just over 700 mountain gorillas remain in the world today. Two isolated populations survive, one in the Bwindi Impenetrable National Park, south-western Uganda, and the other on the forested slopes of the Virunga volcanoes, straddling the borders of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Rwanda and Uganda. The forest has been recognised as one of the most biologically diverse areas on earth by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) as a World Heritage Site.




In 2003 I visited the magnificent Bwindi Impenetrable Forrest, home to half the world’s population of critically endangered Mountain Gorillas Gorilla beringei beringei. It was an unbelievable experience, one which I will never forget. We trekked for over two hours through the humidity of the forest and up steep inclines until one of the conservation guards held up his hand and told us to be very quiet as he had detected fresh signs of gorilla activity. Within minutes we were surrounded by them. There were mothers and babies all around us, feeding, playing and before we knew it the silver back roared past us in an attempt to show us who’s territory we were on, before sitting down and beating his chest wildly with satisfaction.


My heart was beating so fast I thought I was going to faint. We could only spend an hour with them and then we had to leave to prevent any cross contamination of disease, so I snapped as many quick photographs as I could get whilst hanging onto a branch to stop myself slipping down the ravine, hence the blurred photos, and then spent the rest of the time just watching them and being among them for I knew there and then that I may never get the opportunity again to walk and be amongst wild free Gorilla’s.


The only reason there still are this tiny number of wild Gorilla’s still living and roaming the forests free today is down to the countless hours of dedication and commitment of the national park staff who patrol these forests on a daily basis to protect the Gorilla’s from hunters and poaching. But these conservation efforts have cost many lives, both human and Gorilla, for life is cheap in Africa and a Gorilla to a man and his starving family is just another meal to survive yet another tough day in Africa.

Lets hope the next generation of conservationists and their efforts can help build a stronger future for all the amazing species which share our beautiful planet with us.








Comments are welcome and can be sent to ukulalana@gmail.com if you are not a google mail user. Have a brilliant week.
Regards
Nic x

Out and about in Cornwall this week....

Although I've been living in Cornwall for the past 5 years, I still find myself out and about discovering things to do and places to see that I've not visited before and am absolutely blown away when I get there! On Monday 27th Sept I found myself standing at the top of Godrevy Point on the rugged north Cornish coast completely spellbound by the incredible clifftop views of the vast sandy beaches of Gwithian and Hayle as well as St Ives bay and Godrevy lighthouse which is completely solar powered.

It's no surprise that this remote stretch of exquisite Cornish coastline protected by the National Trust made it to category finalist in the 2008 British Best Open Space, Green Space Travel Awards along with Kosi Bay in South Africa being nominated for best open space award worldwide! It was a beautiful sunny day so I had expected to have a lovely walk along the cliffs. I was even treated to a young seal putting in an appearance, but what I hadn't expected to see was Britain's most venomous snake! An Adder (Vipera berus) was slowly making its way across a grassy patch right in front of me. All I could think of was that awful South African snake wrangler wannabe Austin Steve who makes me cringe anytime I flick the TV channel onto one of his programs with him going...."yaaa like our snakes are so big they use your snakes for bait!" but of course me being me, I followed it..... much to the surprise of the now gathering group of spectators. They were warning me not to go too close in case it bit me but of course by then I was taking no notice of anyone, and managed to get some brilliant photos of my first Adder sighting which I've shared with you here... enjoy :)

For more Adder info visit the following link, as i've just found out from my narcoleptic naturalist fellow blogger and scientist friend Sally that my Adder is a female, due to the dark brown zigzag pattern on her back, whereas males have a black or grey zigzag pattern on the back.

http://www.surrey-arg.org.uk/cgi-bin/SARG2ReptileSpeciesData.asp?Species=Adder

Have a brilliant week all, until next time and my next adventure........ Nic x

Mobile phones and vanishing bees

Are mobile phones wiping out our honey bees?

The days of seeing honey bees on just about every flower and coke can are long gone…. Think about when last you opened a can of coke or the likes of a peanut butter and jam sandwich and within seconds a bee was trying to find its way inside to the sweet sugary treat awaiting… How many of these simple occurrences have gone unnoticed by so many of us in our busy lives recently? Recent scientific research suggests that the plight of our little buzzing friends is no longer going unnoticed, it is very much a hotly debated topic…..

The effects of mobile phone radiation on human health has been a question in scientific and medical communities for some time now. To date there has been a lot of research into the effects, or possibly non effects, of mobile phone radiation on human tissue. However as a result of the increasing world wide usage of mobile phones throughout the world the effects of GSM (Global System for Mobile Telecommunications) radiation on invertebrates has led to further investigations particularly on the declining honey bee (Apis mellifera).

Honey bees are keystone pollinator species. The sharp declines in honey bee numbers has raised many questions about the source of the problem. One area of research includes whether mobile phones, namely cellular phone radiation, is contributing to this global crisis. Honey bees are suffering from a phenomenon called Colony Collapse Disorder, in which worker bees from a colony beehive abruptly disappear. Colony collapse is also economically significant because many agricultural crops worldwide are pollinated by bees.
The causes are not yet fully understood, although many authorities attribute the problem to biotic factors such as Varroa mites and insect diseases. The effects of GSM radiation is being widely investigated, but the data regarding the biological effects of radiation is as yet insufficient to draw any concrete conclusions. However there is some evidence to show that radiation does have an effect on flight navigation which could explain the disappearance of vast numbers of worker bees trying to navigate their way back to the hive.

We can’t ignore the environmental impacts that would result from a loss of vital pollinators such as honey bee’s, however who doesn’t have and use a mobile phone these days? I’m making sure I use mine indoors and no where near the garden or honey bees these days!

Reference
Effect of GSM Cellular fone radiation on the behaviour of honey bees (Apis mellifera), 2009. Science of Bee Culture. Vol 1 (2) pp22-27

Thai Tales

Thai Tales

When our two week holiday in Thailand in April this year came to an end I was definitely wishing for some monumental catastrophe to prevent our flight taking off, never in a million years would I ever have believed my ears when the lovely lady behind the counter in Bangkok airport told us that the volcanic ash cloud arising from the eruption in Iceland meant we were “stranded” in Thailand until further notice!! I had to physically restrain myself from jumping up and down for joy for there were many, not so happy faces around us! In fact the majority of the airport was filled with angry, impatient, yelling tourists, so we did what any logical forward thinking travellers would do…. we legged it. Rushing out of the airport as fast as we could, we caught a taxi into town and checked into the cheapest room we could find, before anyone could say UK airspace was open again. Dumping our bags on the tatty bed we headed out into the evocative chaos of Bangkok and tucked into a huge freshly cooked plate of pad thai….. ahhh the joys!
And Bangkok was where we stayed as day after day news headlines flashed across our screens showing the extent of the ash cloud, it soon became quite apparent that we were not going to get back to the UK or work anytime soon and there was simply nothing, anyone could do about it! How extraordinary! So yet again we conjured up a plan to make the best of this unplanned extra time in this most amazing place and caught the overnight train to Chiang Mai, “Place of the elephants”, in the north on what was fast becoming one hell of an unplanned adventure. The north was everything it promised to be and more, beautiful sunsets over lush green paddy fields, waterfalls and of course incredible food. However the one thing we craved was the border; if we could just manage a few days in Myanmar that would be the icing on the cake, or rather the chilli on the pad thai. Myanmar, once upon a time known to the world as Burma, was only a short bus trip away, and we desperately wanted to skip across and visit that most beguiling of countries so plagued by political torments but so wonderfully rich in culture and natural wonders.
However the country’s isolation and repressive junta has, by some miracle of irony contributed to the preservation of much of its environment and ecosystems as well as some of the worlds most endangered species such as tigers, leopards, rhinoceros, forest elephants, gibbons, as well as an abundance of bird species. The thought of exploring this forgotten landscape was almost too much to bare, but before we could rustle up the necessary paperwork Eyjafjallajökull started to get over its hissy-fit and the ash cloud began to dissipate. Bangkok, Mumbai and a forty hour journey back to Cornwall was calling so sadly we never did make it across the border into Myanmar. My appetite to visit that enticing land has only grown and so it was with a mixture of great relief and joy when I read that the Government of Myanmar have announced that 2.500 miles of the Hukaung Valley will be declared a wildlife reserve to protect tigers and inevitably all the other wildlife that inhabit the forests with them, now I just need to find a way and the time to get there…