WILD

Photographer of the Month — Daniel Beltrá

Daniel Beltrá, iLCP member, is a world-class photographer. He was born in Spain and is fluent in English, French and Spanish. From his various trips to the Amazon, Daniel is also able to converse in Portuguese.

Daniel has been photographing the changing Amazon rainforest since 2001. He has documented the worst drought, largest flood and the burning of thousands of acres of rainforest. Daniel received awards for his photos on the drought in both 2006 and 2007 at the World Press Photo and the China International Press Photo Contest.

In 2008 Daniel was awarded the Global Vision Award from the Pictures of the Year International Competition. In 2009, he won the Prince’s Rainforests Project Award. He is currently living in Seattle, Washington.

And then there were three

The Copenhagen Climate talks were supposed to be the place where the global community finally achieved broad consensus, providing at the very least a political way forward that everyone could rally behind. Conservationists hoped that this new consensus would include strong and unambiguous recognition of the role of nature and wilderness in climate change. I attended the Copenhagen Climate meeting with this message – in the form of the Message from Merida launched at WILD9, the World Wilderness Congress in Mexico one month earlier. The Message from Merida was signed by over 70 NGOs representing many of the largest conservation organizations in the world. With up to 20% of emissions coming from the destruction of wild nature – more than from all the cars and trucks on the planet – the critical role of natural ecosystems in the climate change equation should be obvious. Alas too little progress was made on this…

Upcoming events!

Today I got word of a few upcoming events in Colorado & Utah and wanted to share them with our blog readers!  There’s an event featuring Boyd Norton, member of the iLCP and longtime friend of WILD, the Boulder International Film Festival is coming up with a handful of great environmental flicks and WILD Board member Michael McBride will speak at the Zion Canyon Community Center.  If you’re in CO or UT — I highly recommend checking these events out!

Solastalgia – Homesick for the wilderness

Over the weekend, the NY Times Magazine published a very poignant article by Daniel B. Smith titled “Is there an Ecological Unconscious?”  The article was circulated to all of those associated with WILD, not just because of its timely message but because of its resonance with the vision of WILD and the work of our founder, Dr. Ian Player.  The article delves into the human psyche’s need for wild-nature and our dependence on wild-ecosystems beyond the quantitative needs of clean air, fresh water and fertile soils.   In order to protect wilderness, we must first understand our multi-faceted connection to it.  We can’t be afraid of what we refer to at WILD as the “s” word (spirituality) and we have to broaden our conversation beyond hard scientific facts and figures and embrace psychology, sociology and straight human intuition.   Below I’ve extracted a few paragraphs that speak to the human connection to…

Last of the Wild – Overview of wilderness in Europe by PAN Parks

This week PAN Parks released a new publication “Last of the Wild: Overview of the status and monitoring of some wilderness related species in the NATURA 2000 Network,” which presents the current status of iconic species such as the lynx, brown bear, wolf, ibex and others to help further protection of habitat for these species and advocate for large-landscape scale conservation efforts in Europe.   The general conclusion of the publication is that wilderness is good, and interconnected wilderness is even better — which aligns with WILD’s new vision “At Least Half Wild.“ 

The WWC Chronicles: Leonel Perales

Mi experiencia en el Congreso Mundial de Tierras Silvestre/ My experience at the 9th World Wilderness Congress: Efrain Leonel Perales, Ecology Student at Sonora University; Comcaac Community member

Desde el momento de que me llego la invitación para ir al congreso, bueno en esos momentos no tenía ni idea de que era Wild9, pero acepte sin saber que era pero lo hice por que sabia que me serviría para mi carrera que estudio actualmente (licenciatura el ecología), es mi sueño hablar en público, pero gracias Wild9, también a los que me invitaron (Dr. Enriqueta Velarde y Thor Morales).

When I was invited to participate in WILD9 I didn’t even what it was, but I accepted because I knew it would be good for my studies in Ecology. My dream was to speak in public, and I did it, thanks to WILD9, but also thanks to those who invited me (Dr Enriqueta Velarde…

Opportunities for young leaders & film-makers

Two exciting opportunities this week  – One for environmental film makers (Wildscreen Festival) & one for young environmental leaders (Barron Prize).  More details….

Take your kids on an Earth Adventure without leaving home!

WILD’s good friends and partners at Ms. Maggie’s Earth Adventures just posted a great new lesson on Nomkhulubwane, the stunning elephant sculpture created by Andries Botha which traveled to WILD9 as a symbol of connectivity and sustainability.  The lessons, available in both English and Spanish, are designed to integrate learning objectives in math, science, language arts, cultural studies and geography with real environmental issues – as are all of Ms. Maggie’s lessons.  Ms. Maggie’s lessons are free to subscribers, and sent via a weekly e-newsletter each Tuesday!

50th Anniversary of the US Wilderness Act

I recently got an email from a colleague, bringing to my attention that the 50th Anniversary of the US Wilderness Act is coming soon!  Sure, you might say that 4 years is really not all that soon….but in order to plan a celebration in equal magnitude to the importance of the Wilderness Act – we’ll need some time to start preparing!  His email read: “The Wilderness Act of 1964 was a milestone in American History and will celebrate its’ 50th Anniversary on September 3, 2014. The American people have repeatedly endorsed the designation of areas of our public lands as wilderness, creating a system which has grown from 9 million acres to over 109 million acres. Surely such passion for wilderness cannot go unacknowledged on its 50th Anniversary.”

AnimalsandEarth

While I was at WILD9, I had a few opportunities to wander around and learn from fellow delegates and booths at the Expo hall. One day, I stopped in at a booth that was recommended to me – AnimalsandEarth. It’s a pretty cool idea – AnimalsandEarth provides nature photos for personal, non-commercial use in social networks, blogs & websites.