WILD10, The 10^th World Wilderness Congress , Salamanca, Spain, 4-10 October 2013!

The WILD10 process is well underway in Europe. The Spanish Ministry of Agriculture and Environment (newly reconstituted) is the national host,  having provided some of the start-up funds allowing the WILD10 Executive Committee to continue  the collaborative process  that started in 2011 to identify practical objectives, create partnerships and design a process to achieve them, and implement a program for the Congress itself.

WHY Europe? — The return of wild nature to Europe is nothing short of spectacular.  With over 50 million hectares of abandoned farmlands (and increasing), forests and natural  corridors are re-emerging across the continent.  Populations of wildlife have rebounded and are on the move, with wolves now roaming from Italy to the Netherlands , from Germany to Belgium.  Ancient species of ungulates (bison, cattle and horses) are being reintroduced to wildland areas.

In addition, there is a growing political mandate for wilderness, with the European Parliament passing a resolution (by a wide margin) in 2009 to protect the continent’s remaining wilderness and restore  wildlands where possible.  There is also a vibrant and expanding NGO sector playing a role as partner/collaborators in WILD10, such as Rewilding Europe working to restore large wild and natural landscapes (over 100,000 ha) and associated rural economies across the continent;  Wild Europe focusing on wilderness policy; PanParks on certification of sizable, core wilderness areas within National Parks; our close (Wilderness Network) partner Wilderness Foundation (UK) providing wilderness experience programs for under-served youth and communities; and many more.

Stay tuned to this space where, within the coming months, we will announce the launch of the WILD10 website with details on the rapidly building program and how you can participate in the global social media campaign to promote wild nature by being on-site in Salamanca in 2013 and/or participating in the extensive virtual, on-line Congress, WILD10 en vivo!

This exciting project, led by Carlton Ward Jr.– photographer and friend of WILD– is now on its 17th day in the field. The team has made it through some of Florida’s wildest areas, biking, hiking and kayaking roughly 10-30 miles a day. The goals of the Florida Wildlife Corridor are to:

• Protect and restore habitat and migration corridors essential for the survival of Florida’s diverse wildlife, including wide-ranging panthers, black bears and other native species
• Restore water flow to the Everglades and sustain water supply to southern Florida
• Continue to safeguard the St. Johns River and water supply for central and north Florida
• Sustain the food production, economies and cultural legacies of working ranches and farms within the corridor
• Bolster local economies through increased opportunities such as hunting, fishing, birdwatching and other forms of eco-tourism
• Give wildlife and plants room to adapt to a changing climate and sea level rise

Stay up-to-date with the expedition!

>>Follow the story on National Geographic’s Explorer’s Journal

>>Read the Florida Wildlife Corridor Expedition Blog

Around this time last year, my friend Joanna Nasar, and I decided to dream big on a conservation project. We also dreamed a bit silly.

“Let’s pick a species that needs help and takes us to a faraway land,” we thought. How about fishing cats? Their name is their occupation. They bark like a dog. They’re found in Thailand. And believe me this cat needs all the help it can get. Less than 10,000 remain in the world, and that’s a sketchy estimate at best.

Practicality was clearly in the back seat tied up with duct tape when we set out. We don’t have any money. Um, have you heard of this thing called Kickstarter? We don’t speak Thai. Pah! We’re good at charades. The country is flooding, and we have to go undercover as tourists to avoid constant scrutiny. Brilliant! I’ve never camera-trapped before, but we can figure that out. “We can handle this,” we thought. We’ll be working with the world expert on fishing cats, Passanan “Namfon” Cutter. Yes Namfon, we just officially gave you that title.

In some ways, our naivety was both our downfall and saving grace. Everything that could fall apart did. Namfon, who we hoped to work with for a few weeks, returned to the states after four days together because of visa issues. We had more than a month left in Thailand to work with her assistant Ruj, (who didn’t speak English), trying to document everything we could about this cat.

Equipment failed almost daily, habitat was destroyed, fishing cats killed, and we got to know the Thai healthcare system on more than one occasion. (Thailand proved to be an effective, though not fun diet program. Note for all those pending travelers to Thailand, Thai healthcare rocks!) Six weeks into the trip, signs of the fishing cat were everywhere, except in front of the camera trap.

As everything fell apart, the story also started to come together.  Our clumsiness held a certain fascination and charm with the Thai people. I think they wanted to save us from ourselves. Everyday we learned a little bit (nit noy) of Thai and Ruj learned a little English. The Thai people welcomed us into their community. We ate dinner with their families, visited kids in their schools, worked together to fix the things that were broken and continued the search for a fishing cat that seemed to move like a ghost throughout these people’s lives.

Amidst the fishing cat’s crumbling world, we heard tell of a glimmer of hope. We learned that you could rent fishing cat land for less money a year than I spend on coffee in a month. For 80 bucks you could either destroy or save a parcel of fishing cat habitat. Namfon told us that just US $1,700, could rent all the known fishing cat hotspots for a year. “Wow!” we thought. Such goals seemed attainable even for two girls who had just rationed their last packet of Oreos.

We sent this message and a few photos to The WILD Foundation, our main project sponsor, and before we’d even left Thailand, people had reached into their pockets and given enough money to rent land for the fishing cat. The purchase won’t be a permanent fix, but it buys the cats and our researcher friends some time. It shows the communities there that the rest of the world cares about the fishing cat.

Our work is far from over. Jo and I returned from Thailand with more than two terabytes of footage about the fishing cat. In the last week and half of our trip, persistence paid off and we received not one, but three, visits from a fishing cat named Rip Ear to our trap. The photos are top secret while we try to publish them in a major magazine. But we’ve got an early, almost-successful shot we can share with you now. It’s of a newly observed male in the area, and has yet to be named.

We are now editing together a film about our girlventure to a foreign land in search of this strange, endangered cat, including all the characters we met along the way who helped/saved us. We will use the film to raise money for fishing cat conservation and to build local support for the cat’s protection.

Right now, Jo and I are doing this purely out of passion. We work on other projects during the day, so we can edit the film together at night. We dream of working on this full-time, so that we can produce a film at a pace that will actually be able to help the fishing cat.

As I write this now though I can tell you that throughout CAT in WATER, the biggest lesson we learned is that saving the fishing cat depends on community, in Thailand and abroad. That’s what we want to help foster.

So we have a message for you. You’ve got the link to CAT in WATER. “The fishing cat wants to swim.”  Pass it on, tweet it, retweet it, facebook and digg it. Then pass it on again and again and again.

Like the CAT in WATER facebook page!
Follow CAT in WATER on twitter!
Subscribe to the CAT in WATER blog!

Chasing Ice is the story of one man’s mission to change the tide of history by gathering undeniable evidence of our changing planet. Within months of that first trip to Iceland, Balog conceived the boldest expedition of his life: The Extreme Ice Survey. With a band of young adventurers in tow, Balog began deploying revolutionary time-lapse cameras across the brutal Arctic to capture a multi-year record of the world’s changing glaciers.

In the spring of 2005, National Geographic photographer James Balog headed to the Arctic on a tricky assignment: to capture images to help tell the story of the Earth’s changing climate. Even with a scientific upbringing, Balog had been a skeptic about climate change and a cynic about the nature of academic research. But that first trip north opened his eyes to the biggest story in human history and sparked a challenge within him that would put his career and his very well-being at risk.

Chasing Ice heads home to Boulder, Colorado to close out the 8th Annual Boulder International Film Festival on February 19th. Tickets are $35 and available through the Boulder Theater…they’re going fast!

>>Read more about the Extreme Ice Survey

>>Chasing Ice

WILD has worked for almost 40 years to protect and sustain wilderness and wild places around the world. An important aspect of our work has always been a commitment to partnerships with native peoples. Over many years, we’ve worked in numerous countries and situations to strengthen the links between indigenous and non-indigenous partners in order to create a network of people working to protect and sustain the global treasure we call wilderness–it is both our collective heritage and the key to a healthy and prosperous future for all people.

The NLWC began at the 8th World Wilderness Council (2005, Anchorage Alaska – 8WWC) and since that time has provided a critical platform for the meeting of indigenous and conservation agendas, highlighting conservation approaches and providing opportunities for dialogue and information exchanges.  Following 8WWC, WILD published and distributed the first-ever volume of indigenous authored case studies on native approaches to stewarding wild nature: Protecting Wild Nature on Native Lands: Case Studies by Native Peoples from around the World (Volume I).

>>View the E-book

>>Download the PDF

>>Purchase the hard copy

Location: Vail Mountain School: 3000 Booth Falls Road, Vail, CO 81657
Time: 6:30 pm Reception, 7:00 pm Lecture
Tickets: $35, or $25 for VS donors

Wildlife, like people, must move in order to meet their daily needs. Yet oftentimes our transportation systems stand in the way of wildlife. Colorado’s Interstate 70 (I-70) between
Golden and Glenwood Springs presents the biggest obstacle to wildlife movement in our region.

For over a decade, the Colorado Department of Transportation has been working on plans to relieve congestion along I-70. This planning effort has provided a unique opportunity to find ways to restore connections between wildlife habitat on the north and south side of the highway. One innovative tool to move wildlife safely throughout their territory is an elevated wildlife bridge over the interstate. In this panel discussion, Theodore P. Zoli, Nina-Marie Lister and Harvey Locke will share their respective expertise on the importance of wildlife movement to ecosystem health and innovations that can affordably and beautifully redesign public infrastructure to accommodate both wildlife and growing human communities.

Theodore P. Zoli is a structural engineer who is leading the design of elegant and enduring bridges around the world and making major technological advances to protect transportation infrastructure in the event of natural and man-made disasters.

Nina-Marie Lister is Visiting Associate Professor of Landscape Architecture & Urban Planning at Harvard University’s Graduate School of Design. She was the Professional Advisor to the ARC International Design Competition, which developed innovative designs for a wildlife crossing structure in Colorado.

Harvey Locke is a conservationist, writer and photographer. He is a recognized global leader in the field of parks, wilderness and large landscape conservation and has extensive experience with the development and effectiveness of wildlife crossing structures over highways.

>>Visit the official Vail Symposium event page

>>See what one of our Directors had to say about the event!

WCF approaches its field conservation much as does WILD, in a holistic manner whereby human needs and education are an integrated part of the actual conservation strategy. WCF combines environmental education and sensitization of the local human population with improved law enforcement through strategic bio-monitoring, regular evaluation of conservation activities, and strong capacity building of local forces. Stopping the bushmeat trade is a specific and important element in all their projects.  Recently, WCF has begun to work with logging and mining companies, because some 80% of wild chimpanzees live outside of any protected areas in Africa.  All WCF’s conservation activities are based on knowledge gained by decades of scientific research on great apes by the WCF president and many of his collaborators.

Historically, WCF started in Côte d’Ivoire and has since then implemented activities in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone. In 2012, WCF will also develop new projects in Gabon and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). All staff members, and almost all of WCF’s local field assistants, project leaders and students of local universities, are actively engaged in the projects and thereby learn how to sustainably perpetuate nature conservation in collaboration with local, national and international organizations.

>>Read more about the WCF

>>Visit the WCF website

The documentary feature, directed by Jeff Orlowski, reveals the work of photographer James Balog and his Extreme Ice Survey project. Balog, once a skeptic about climate change, discovers through EIS undeniable evidence of a warming world. Chasing Ice features hauntingly beautiful, multi-year time-lapse videos of vanishing glaciers, while delivering fragile hope to our carbon-powered planet. The film will have its world premiere in Park City, Utah on Monday, January 23, 2012.

Orlowski, 27, joined the EIS team in 2007. He filmed Balog across the Arctic, as EIS worked to install solar-powered, time-lapse cameras in Greenland, Iceland and Alaska. “It was a fulltime job just keeping up with James. But after a year of documenting him and his team’s camera network, I knew that we had the footage to tell an important and powerful story that needed to be shared,” Orlowski said.

>>Read the full press release

The silent auction showcased fine art pieces, handmade baskets and goods, exotic jewelry, and other unique items from WILD’s “Explorer’s Closet.”  Delicious hors d’oeuvres were catered by Elevated Catering, and tasty beverages were donated by New Belgium Brewery, Upslope Brewing Company, and Izze.

This kind of event was WILD’s first crack at a local fundraiser.  We wanted our Denver-metro area supporters to have a chance to meet WILD’s talented conservationists who are working to save wild places and wildlife in Africa, Latin America, Thailand and elsewhere.  We’re already planning our annual event for 2012 and you’re not going to want to miss it!

Thank you to everyone who came and many thanks to our event sponsors for a fantastic event!

>> Photos from the fundraiser

>> Photos from the WILD board meeting

Where 24 hours ago had been a swaying green sea of tall grass and rough-edged fishponds now lies a raw, muddy pit. This land has gone to the shrimp farm. It’s hard to believe that just a few days ago, we used a machete to break a line through the wetlands of Sam Roi Yod.

Above the pit we look to what was once a shaded tree-lined ridge where Morgan captured our first glimpse of the fishing cat with her camera trap.  His cameo took only four days to appear. In the photo, he pauses, large-pupiled and paw-raised, staring down the camera as if he owns the joint. A small pink tongue licks the end of his nose.

Now, the ridge lies bared to the sun.  The trees chopped and tall grasses plowed, then burned away. Everything is caked in a rotten-smelling muck.

But that is not all that has changed.

The sound is all of a sudden deafening to the point that you feel the earth shaking. It is the rumble of a tractor widening a road, the putter of a pump sucking the pond dry . . . the fishing cat surely hears all these noises and runs … but we wonder to where? When change happens in days, it’s got to be hard to pick a new home, and there are only so many homes to choose from.

Namfon, our friend, biologist and number one fishing cat crusader, tells us that this land sells for cheap. Just U.S. $80 can rent one pond for a year, and $1,700 could rent all known fishing cat hotspots in the area for the same amount of time.

How frustrating and inspiring to know that such a small sum of money can potentially help “buy time” for the fishing cat as we endeavor for more sustainable solutions.

Seeing new tracks in the area, even as a land of fish changes to a land of shrimp, makes us hope that the fishing cat can make it. We hear fishing cats even like the freshly-drained ponds and the fish they leave behind, but we know this is a temporary advantage.

We need your help to save the elusive fishing cat! Just $80 USD can rent one pond for a year, and $1,700 could rent all known fishing cat hotspots in the area for the same amount of time!! Imagine what one whole year of research could do for this species…

>>Donate to CAT in WATER today! (specify in the note field that you’d like your donation to go to the fishing cat ponds)

>>Learn more about the CAT project

Ian Michler, a top wildlife guide, photojournalist and naturalist, has spent the last decade documenting the major conservation challenges facing Africa. An author of 6 travel books on various African countries, his work is well known to readers of the award winning magazines, Africa Geographic and Africa Birds and Birding. Michler will be co-leading one of WILD’s latest field projects, In the Tracks of Giants; a 6 month east-to-west journey connecting major conservation nodes to promote a greater awareness of conservation, human community and leadership issues specifically relevant to southern Africa.

The WILD foundation is granted the rights to publish the attached article in any format (digital or print), free of charge, provided the credit lines are used.

Text & photographs by Ian Michler

First published by Africa Geographic www.africageographic.com

Download Ian Michler’s article, Think Before You Walk

You’re Invited!

Please join us to support & celebrate wild nature at The WILD Foundation’s holiday fundraiser on December 2, 2011.

Enjoy a glass of wine or pint of beer, hearty hors d’oeuvres, place a bid in our quaint silent auction, and mingle with our Board of Directors, Trustees, Staff, and Volunteers. Learn more about WILD’s international conservation programs and how you can get involved.

Where: Chautauqua Community House, Grand Assembly Room
900 Baseline Road, Boulder

When: December 2, 2011, 6-9pm

Why: Because wild nature worldwide needs your support.

Suggested donation of $25 can be made online or at the door.

RSVP to The WILD Foundation by Friday, November 25th 303.442.8811 x 10 or melanie@wild.org

WILD’s work for wilderness worldwide is only possible with
the support of passionate individuals like you.

*Please consider the environment by carpooling with friends or taking public transportation! Parking is limited once inside Chautauqua.

Muir was one of four finalists selected for the 2011 Ernst and Young World Entrepreneur Awards Programme in the Social entrepreneur category. He was at the ceremony to receive the award.
“This award will help us to build on what has already been established with regards to the Umzi Wethu program as well as our other social investment programs. We will have access to the Schwab Foundation’s global network, providing unprecedented opportunities to engage global decision makers,” says Muir.

“I believe that our main strength as a foundation is the integration of social intervention and environmental sustainability. We are not just a conservation-oriented organization. The Wilderness Foundation recognizes that the sustainability of South Africa’s wild lands and wilderness is intrinsically dependent on its social and economic sustainability.”

According to Ajen Sita, CEO for Africa at Ernst and Young, the company has been recognizing successful entrepreneurs through the program for the past 14 years. “We are humbled to be associated with and award these individuals who are making a remarkable difference to our economy and the societies which we operate and live in. We congratulate all finalists for their exceptional performance.”

The Umzi Wethu program transforms vulnerable youth, affected by poverty and HIV/Aids with a skills development and job placement into highly employable young adults with sustainable futures. Since 2006 a total of 107 students have graduated- 64 being Hospitality students and 43 Game Ranging students. The job retention rate of Umzi graduates is about 85% and placement rate is 94%, with 85% currently employed despite the challenge of an ecotourism industry set back by the recent global financial crisis. This is particularly significant as 50% of all our students are HIV/AIDS orphans who are especially affected by the effects of HIV/AIDS and violence that accompanies the deep poverty of communities from which they come. In addition 10% of graduates have advanced to junior and middle management positions in eco-tourism industries and five have been enabled to pursue tertiary education.

>>Read the Ernst & Young press release

“CAT in WATER” – our multimedia initiative focused on the shy and threatened fishing cat — is literally coping with too much water!  The CAT team, Morgan and Joanna,  arrived in Thailand last week in the midst of the worst flooding in a century.  A simple two day journey to the field site in Khao Sam Roi Yot National Park —  where they will join field biologist Namfon Cutter and her Fishing Cat Research and Conservation Project – turned into a week of detours around flooded areas, plus a trip to the hospital for Morgan.  Her GI tract is back on track, and they continue tracking the fishing cat!  They receive supernatural  assistance (of course) from Ganesha, the Hindu elephant god that protects travelers, removes obstacles…check out this cool little video!

Join the tracking!  Sign up for their blog by placing your email in the box called Tracking the Fishing Cat …on the left side of the home page you’ll see the box to subscribe.

>>Visit WILD’s project page for CAT in WATER

This award is particularly special because of the wilderness champion for which it is named.  Robert Marshall (1901-1939), a renowned writer and activist, was head of recreation management with the Forest Service for several years and introduced the concept of a formal, federal designation for wilderness lands.  The award acknowledges wilderness champions who continue in Bob Marshall’s footsteps in the modern day.

The award specifically recognizes WILD for:

• Initiating and facilitating the development of the Memorandum of Understanding on Cooperation for Wilderness Conservation, signed at WILD9, the 9th World Wilderness Congress (Mexico, 2009).   This MOU is the first formal agreement between countries on wilderness conservation and resulted in the establishment of an active North American Intergovernmental Committee on Cooperation for Wilderness and Protected Areas (NAWPA Committee) comprised of the heads of land management agencies in the United States, Mexico and Canada.  WILD facilitates the Working Groups that carry out decisions made by the agency heads, who recently extended coverage of the MOU to include all protected areas under the jurisdiction of their agencies.  (http://www.wild.org/main/how-wild-works/policy-research/mou-on-wilderness)
• Leadership in developing, managing and publishing the International Journal of Wilderness. WILD launched the Journal in 1995 and continues to publish this choice tool for wilderness advocates and managers.  (http://ijw.org)
• Dedication to wilderness stewardship through managing three of the four editions of the Wilderness Management textbook, the most comprehensive and up-to-date information available on wilderness management, history, philosophy and policy. (http://www.wild.org/wild-store/wilderness-management)
• Exceptional history working to perpetuate quality wilderness for present and future generations through the World Wilderness Congress (WWC).  Started in 1974, the WWC is WILD’s flagship program.  Having now convened nine times in seven different countries, the WWC is the world’s longest running public environmental forum and has a long history of practical conservation results.   One is the Global Wilderness Forum for Government Agencies, in which the USDA Forest Service takes a lead organizational role (http://www.wild.org/main/world-wilderness-congress).

>>Read the entire press release

To promote the preservation of the species and provide a moving, educational polar bear experience online, explore.org, a philanthropic media organization, Polar Bears International, a leading organization focused on preservation and education surrounding the threatened species, and adventure company Frontiers North will be delivering live video feeds via the Web. To bring the bears to life online and in real-time, the groups have affixed high-definition cameras onto a roving Tundra Buggy® and along the edges of the Tundra Buggy® Lodge situated directly in the path of the age-old migration.

Charles Annenberg Weingarten, filmmaker and founder of explore.org, said in a press release, “The polar bears are among the most magical of our planet’s endangered species, and much like the lions of Africa, have come to represent the many consequences of global warming and industrialization.” He added, “By providing a window into their worlds, we are giving people a chance to come together to cherish the bears and an opportunity to share their plight in a compelling way.”

The bears travel through the small town each October and November and then wait for the Hudson Bay freeze-up, when they can get out on the ice and hunt for seals. Krista Wright, executive vice president of Polar Bears International, says it is “unseasonably warm” in Manitoba for this time of year. This means there’s a good chance that the ice may not start forming until later, and the bears are basically fasting because the time they are spending on land is longer. Last year’s freeze came a month late, in the middle of December.

This change of climate is damaging the bears’ habitat. Like many other species, the lives of these megafauna depend on large interconnected lands and seas–without the formation of the ice, the bears have little to no food to eat. This specific effort to help protect the polar bear is one among many great examples of WILD’s commitment to Nature Needs Half.

>>Read the full press release

>>Watch the Tundra Buggy Cam

In late 2008 we were planning practical outcomes for WILD9 (the 9^th World Wilderness Congress),  with The WILD Foundation and our partners trying to create better wilderness awareness in Mexico and better cooperation for wilderness in North America. Patricio Robles Gil — the great Mexican conservation photographer and artist, and our partner in creating WILD9  –  suggested to me that we visit with our colleague Juan Elvira Quesada, Mexico’s Secretary of Environment, and present to him the long-dormant plan for a transboundary park along the USA/Mexico border in the region of Big Bend (Texas) and Maderas del Carmen (Mexico).

What a good idea, I thought, to revive the idea first suggested in a letter in 1944 (!) from US President Franklin Roosevelt to Mexico’s President Camacho.  The idea had been politically stone-dormant, unknown except for a few committed conservationists in Texas,  for almost 70 years.   We met with and briefed Secretary Elvira,  provided him with back-up materials,  and I will never forget the way his eyes lit up and twinkled  when he heard the story.  He responded,  “I like this very much…let me try this.”

It was not easy.   National security issues, continued bad news  on the border with drug cartels, immigration, weapons smuggling, and all the rest  had created a stone wall of attitude.  President Calderon was clear: do not bring me the idea until all my Ministers agree…and many of them did not.  Juan Elvira  worked on each of them.

The USA was the USA (of late)…..in a box.  Undaunted, Juan Elvira took advantage of the newly-elected Obama administration’s message of cooperation and hope. He met with the incoming Secretary of Interior Ken Salazar, who was just getting his feet under the desk and was interested to know more details and be kept informed. Using very strategic diplomacy, Secretary Elvira then went straight to the White House and President Obama’s National Security Advisor, General James Jones (US Marine Corps, retired).  Jones liked this out-of-the-box idea and thought it would help create a different and positive image of national security. The White House engaged.   Ken Salazar got on board.  It began to roll.

Almost three years after our first meeting and 67 years since President Roosevelt’s letter, and after much work by all land management agencies and embassies on both sides of the border, on 24 October 2011 we met at a signing ceremony on the banks of the Rio Grande/Rio Bravo River at the Big Bend National Park.  Hosted by Big Bend National Park Superintendent William Yellman, members of all federal land management agencies, local conservationists and school children met with the two Secretaries — Juan Elvira and Ken Salazar — plus the Chief of the US Border Patrol, the US Secretary of Health and Human  Services (Kathleen Sibelius), Head of CONANP (Mexico’s National Parks) Luis Fueyo,  and US Ambassador to Mexico Anthony Wayne in a gathering that Yellman called “The biggest gathering of big brass ever assembled at Big Bend!”.

The Natural Area of Bi-National Interest was officially launched, creating a new consciousness and practice of international cooperation in a 2 million hectare (5 million acre) area of the most bio-diverse desert ecosystem (the Chihuahuan Desert) in North America.

I spoke with Juan and Ken Salazar as we  looked over the river into Mexico at the tiny village of Boquillos and the towering El Carmen escarpment, and we marveled on the conservation achievement and potential of this initiative.  As the day moved on, I also marveled at something else…the obvious respect and genuine friendship between the two Secretaries. Ken Salazar spoke to Juan Elvira using the personal and affectionate “Juanito”…surely this was a first in US-Mexico relations!  And it all came together because of protecting wild nature….

This objective of WILD9 illustrates the World Wilderness Congress process, of collaboration and practical accomplishments that are achieved over many years. We can achieve the miracles we need through cooperation, friendship and persistence. Onward…

>>Read the Semarnat press release (Spanish)

For more images, view the slideshow below!

The Tuareg nomads of Mali have a saying: “We live with the elephants, and the elephants live with us.” The Dogon, Fulani, and Tuareg peoples share land with the last remaining herds of desert elephants. For hundreds of years, the elephants have followed a 300-mile circular path in Mali, West Africa, the longest migration route of any elephant in the world. Once a year, they must pass through the Elephants’ Doorway in the cliffs on their way to find water. But what happens when that doorway is blocked? The local people are determined to continue their peaceful coexistence with the elephants, and they communicate with each other—over the radio and under the palaver tree—to solve these kinds of problems. Small changes can make a big difference!

Helen Cowcher shows that, when everyone works together, it’s possible to preserve the delicate balance of life in the desert and protect these magnificent desert elephants.

Advance Praise for Desert Elephants:
“Desert Elephants is a valuable and urgent book. It is a seminal contribution that will help save this unique elephant population”
–Dr. Mike Chase, founder & director of Elephants Without Borders

“Desert Elephants presents this potentially complicated ecological case study in the most simple and delightful terms. It’s a pleasure to experience this book–we will certainly use it in our work.”
–Vance G. Martin, president of The WILD Foundation

“Helen Cowcher captures the great beauty, harmony, and wisdom embodied in the extraordinary coexistence of elephants and people.”
–Joyce Poole, Ph.D., Director of ElephantVoices

>>Buy Helen Cowcher’s Desert Elephants book

>>Visit our Publications and Gear store

>>Learn more about the Mali Elephant Project

Yellowstone – Driving from Bozeman (Montana) to West Yellowstone to chair a meeting on the World Heritage Status of Yellowstone National Park, I was a bit early so I took a detour through the Park — I knew I would not be back before winter closed in.  Halfway thru the Park, the not-unusual experience occurred  — traffic slowed to a crawl, so I looked for wildlife. A great cloud of dust enveloped a small hill to my right, and as the sun’s low rays reflected through the cloud of dust, I saw the partial outlines of bison rolling around in a dust bath.  It was early morning, cool, and they were moving quickly, rolling, snorting, and running…a herd of about 30-40.

They slowed as they approached the road and, voilá, my car was stopped and then surrounded  by bison faces,  moist noses, shaggy coats, and steamy breath.  For 10-15 minutes I was tete-a-tete through my window with the iconic, large, North American mammal, and I had time to reflect on a well known but always amazing story.  By the late 19^th century the “American buffalo” was almost extinct, their tens of millions decimated in decades.  In just one period, between 1871 and 1874, four million were killed in the Southern Great Plains alone, and their hides shipped East.  By 1889 the remaining remnant was some 1000 animals total (both plains and wood bison) throughout all of North America!

As is often the case, the “scarcity reaction” thankfully took hold, and people started to respond…just in time.  Through a concerted series of public/private initiatives, in North America today there are some 30,000 wild and free roaming bison, and over 400,000 bison in commercial herds.  This recovery is remarkable and is ongoing.  The American bison, listed today as Near Threatened on the IUCN Red List, remains at the center of “the most ambitious and complex undertakings in species conservation efforts in North America.”

Haarlem (Netherlands) – Two days later I was in the Netherlands, co-chairing an Executive Committee meeting for WILD10, the 10^th World Wilderness Congress (Spain, 2013).  What a contrast…from the wide open spaces of the American west to the most densely populated nation in Europe.  My meeting in Yellowstone was on the border of the 900,000 ha (2.2 million acre) park, and our meeting in the Netherlands was inside the delightful  Zuid-Kennemerland National Park, of some 3800 ha (9400 acres).  This postage stamp-sized coastal park protects a fabulous area of wild sand dunes.

I discovered with interest that even though this special National Park is less than 1% the size of Yellowstone, it receives almost the same amount of visitors…two million annually! Despite this immense pressure, there is wildness there.  What’s more, there is also dynamic and exciting re-wilding, and a contemporary equivalent to that which started with the American bison over 100 years ago.

Our local partner, Rewilding Europe, arranged for us to go into the private access section of the park, guided by Yvonne Kemp (of ARK Natuurontwikkeling)  that is home to a herd of almost 20 wisent, or European bison.  We walked for 30 minutes or so until we suddenly saw the herd, slowly grazing/browsing its way through a forested dune system…an awesome sight.   We watched for over an hour, gradually coming to within 50 meters, as the diversely-aged herd moved through the brush and sand.

The European bison (the largest European mammal, of which there are two subspecies) was hammered even worse than its American cousin.  By 1923 there were only some 54 survivors, all in zoos and private collections…none in the wild. Today, thanks to the concerted efforts of committed conservation visionaries, there are more than 2,700 free-roaming bison in numerous parks and reserves, the most well-known of which is, of course, Poland’s Białowieża Forest.  Even more, there are captive breeding centers in about 30 countries around Europe, and a united agreement to re-locate animals to parks and other protected areas throughout the continent.

In addition to the wisent, Zuid-Kennemerland has also reintroduced the Konik horses, descendents of the original wild horses that roamed freely over Europe and Asia.  We also watched the Koniks for a long time, where they always had one “sentry” atop a dune while the others grazed below.  The Koniks and wisent were the original mega-grazers and browsers that helped shape the mosaic landscape of the ancient European wilderness…and they are returning.

It is not only possible for wild nature and human society to integrate, interact, and support each other…it is necessary.  We are approaching seven billion people on Planet Earth and on a trajectory to nine billion, at least, until the population curve levels off.  As the vision Nature Needs Half defines for us, it is essential that we maintain large, interconnected wild areas in order to assure that nature can continue to provide the life-support services for humans and all life. In addition, it is also essential that we implement re-wilding, and regenerate wildness through intensive programs that restore flora and fauna into areas that once supported them.

Rewilding is not new, but it is gaining force, expertise, and urgency.  It is a core paradigm and practice of  the 21^st century, one that brings hope, health, sustainability, and sanity to our lives.

The WILD foundation is granted the rights to publish the attached article in any format (digital or print), free of charge, provided the credit lines are used.

Text & photographs by Ian Michler

First published by Africa Geographic www.africageographic.com

“African conservation is an industry involving researchers, NGOs, funders, private sector operators and parastatals, all with a single purpose: the protection of a continent’s wildlife and wild places. It is small when compared with commercial enterprises, but its stakeholders are dedicated and passionate and they’ve been at it for well over 100 years. Why then are wildlife numbers across the continent declining? Do we simply need more money, people and resources, or are we going about the business of conservation the wrong way? Ian Michler decides that it’s time to confront the elephant in the room.”

Download Ian Michler’s article, The Conservation Quandary