After months of anticipation and hard work, we’re delighted to announce the opening of our exciting new wildlife garden. Based at the home of WWF-UK in Woking, the garden forms part of WWF’s learning experience for schools and youth groups, as well as being a place for members of the local community and staff to visit and enjoy.

Exploring nature ©Martin Cavaney / WWF-UK

The idea for a garden was born in 2014 during a workshop with the Schools & Youth team and some key individuals; Kate MacRae (AKA Wildlife Kate who has appeared on Springwatch, Autumnwatch and Gardeners World), Louise Moreton a teacher from Wicor Primary School in Fareham, and Christiane Dorion who works with us as an education consultant.  These key WWF supporters have played a vital part in making our garden a reality.

Developed by Twigs Landscape Design, the garden features an apothecary corner, a woodland area and a wetland. Situated right next to the diverse habitat of the historic Basingstoke Canal – the site also features specially commissioned community-built installations and beautiful planting schemes – created to attract a wide array of local wildlife!

It’s really exciting to think that what was a disused plot of land full of weeds and rusty old cans has now been transformed into a wildlife haven, providing an excellent opportunity for hands-on learning for our young visitors at WWF.

Middleton On The Wold School pupils exploring the outdoors ©Richard Stonehouse

As part of our Schools & Youth experience we’ve also introduced a new Wildlife Explorers workshop that will take children on an exciting discovery trail around the garden. Armed with clipboards, spotting sheets and magnifying glasses they’ll have great fun discovering the plants and animals making their homes around the Living Planet Centre.

Back in our Learning Zone, they’ll be encouraged to ‘Build a habitat for Wildlife’ and create their own ecosystem where plants and animals thrive, or play the ‘Flower Challenge game’ which introduces the life cycle of plants and the many tricks flowers use to attract pollinators.

Young children are always inspired by the natural world and our workshops provide a fun, engaging way for them to learn about nature and how everything around us is connected – habitats, plants, animals and people.  We’re really proud of our garden and the way it showcases how we can encourage wildlife and support biodiversity in urban areas – even on the smallest patch of land.

Wicor school pupils in their allotment © Tristan Fewings

In our work here at WWF we aim to encourage young people to explore the natural world, develop their understanding of sustainability issues and consider actions they can take to help protect the environment. Having the wildlife garden as part of that learning experience is a real asset and we hope that young people visiting us will be inspired!

Our Schools and Youth programme and family activities have established the Living Planet Centre as a venue for quality learning and engagement experiences, and WWF-UK as a valued member of the local community. Since opening to the public in February 2014 we’ve welcomed over 16,000 participants to our workshops.

To make a booking for one of our workshops call us on 01483 412221, email us at schoolvisits@wwf.org.uk,  or visit our website wwf.org.uk/schoolvisits.

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As a young child, I became fascinated with wildlife. Soon, I was devoting every inch of my spare time to seeking out the UK’s rarest and most precious birds, mammals and insects. I would travel to what seemed at the time far-flung places such as Norfolk and Lincolnshire, roaming RSPB reserves in a quiet rhapsody.

As my passion for animals grew, I realised that the most pressing issue to solve was factory farming. So I dedicated my career to advancing the welfare of farm animals worldwide, and for the most part, wildlife remained a hobby. But as time passed I noticed the gradual decline of wildlife. I noticed the vast chemical soaked prairies. I noticed the seemingly endless corporate greed expanding into the countryside. I began putting two and two together. Perhaps it was more than a coincidence? Perhaps there was in fact a causal link?

The Sumatran elephant is critically endangered © Compassion in World Farming

The extent of the problem only became clear to me a few years ago, when I was in South Africa promoting my first book, Farmageddon. I was at Boulders Beach along the Cape Peninsula, where a colony of African penguins had recently set up home near to residential houses, and I came across a sign which sparked my interest enough to do some digging.

A visitor centre there sold all kinds of penguin memorabilia, but what struck me was the display board listing the ‘threats’ to the species, which included ‘reduction of penguin food supply by commercial fishing’.

I discovered that African penguins are now competing with commercial fisheries for food, severely depleting in numbers as we remove vast quantities of fish from the sea. But that’s not the worst of it: much of this fish isn’t going to feed humans. It’s being ground down, shipped halfway across the world and then fed to farm animals – caged and confined in cruel factory farms.

I decided to investigate more into how intensive farming is pushing wildlife to the brink of extinction. I found that jaguars in Brazil are pushed out of their homes to make way for ever-expanding plantations of soya. Elephants in Sumatra face the same fate as the palm industry tightens its grip on the country.

The two sides to factory farming

I began to see that there are two sides to factory farming. On the one hand, there is the cruelty inflicted on a massive scale to farm animals who deserve a better life. On the other, the habitat destruction, poisoning and pollution wreaked on the land in order to produce cheap animal feed. The findings of my investigation contributed to my book Dead Zone: Where the Wild Things Were.

Over the last decades farm animals have disappeared from the countryside. Cramming animals into cages and crowded sheds may look like a space-saving idea, but this ignores the fact that a vast amount of land is required elsewhere to grow food for them, often in huge crop prairies doused in chemical pesticides and fertilisers, squeezing wildlife out as industrial farming methods sweep the planet.

The jaguar’s home is being destroyed to grow cheap feed for factory farmed animals The Sumatran elephant is critically endangered © Compassion in World Farming

But with a marrying of farming and nature, both of these wrongs can be made right at once. There are beacons of hope across the world, helping turn the tide on this march towards extinction. Farmers are recognising that the way they farm has a huge bearing on biodiversity.

On well-managed pasture, animals convert what we can’t eat – grass – into what we can: meat, milk and eggs. In mixed and rotational systems, the soil is allowed to rest and be restored. This more natural way to produce food builds soil fertility, improves yields and avoids infestation by pests and disease. A key finding of Dead Zone is that these systems allow wildlife to thrive and take the pressure off the intensive animal feed industry.

This is where the future lies. Sustainable and humane farming systems are possible – we just need to support them. Moving away from factory farmed meat and dairy, and allowing the free-range, pasture-fed, and organic sectors to develop will bring a cascade of positive benefits to people, farm animals and wildlife alike.

Read more about WWF’s work on food

The post Could changing what’s on our plate help save wildlife? appeared first on WWF UK Blog.

Our food system is broken. Livestock production and its use of finite resources is devastating biodiversity and pushing wildlife to the brink of extinction.

Wildflower © Compassion in World Farming

With the planet in peril, it’s vital that effective and practical solutions are found urgently. Therefore I am thrilled that Compassion in World Farming and WWF have joined forces to help find these solutions, in a two-day major international conference.

The Extinction and Livestock: Moving to a flourishing food system for wildlife, farm animals and us conference will be held at the QEII Centre in London on 5 and 6 October, 2017. Supporting partners of the conference are the University of Winchester, the Alliance of Religions and Conservation, the European Environmental Bureau, and BirdLife International.

The conference aims to bring together diverse interests from the world of conservation, agriculture, environment, climate change, food policy, and business – and will act as a catalyst for future collaboration and solution development.

We will be welcoming some highly-respected leading voices in these spheres such as Dr Hilal Elver, Raj Patel, Glyn Davies, and Jonathan Porritt. Throughout the two days, we will explore the issues thrown up by global food production – from resource depletion to animal welfare – and present a range of perspectives on these issues.

The focus will be on finding common ground and solutions which can be taken forward to begin repairing the damage done to the planet.

It is a true privilege to be hosting this conference alongside WWF. Compassion in World Farming and WWF share a concern for the planet and particularly in building sustainable and healthy food systems. We have long collaborated and mutually supported each other’s activities.

There is growing awareness of the impact human activity is having on the world around us. With a global, organised consensus, our voice will be stronger than ever. I am hugely excited by the prospects offered by this landmark conference and I urge anyone with a personal or professional interest in sustainable food systems to attend. I hope to see you there.

For more information about sustainable food check out our food pages.

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Last weekend was the summer bank holiday, which saw us heading off in our droves to visit friends and relatives or enjoy our beautiful beaches and countryside.

One thing’s for sure: in amongst the persistent cries of “are we there yet?” (no!) and “I need the loo” (you should’ve gone before we left!), thousands of games of I Spy will have been played on car journeys up and down the country.

Here at WWF, we’ve been thinking about how we want roads to look in the future, from 2020 onwards. So let’s imagine a car-based game of I Spy in 2025.

I spy with my little eye something beginning with CP.

Cuddly panda? Climate-denying president?

Nope – it’s charge points!

A Nissan Leaf electric vehicle at a recharging station on the street in Berkeley Square, London, UK © Global Warming Images / WWF

The Government has said it wants everyone to be buying only electric vehicles from 2040. We reckon we could achieve that by 2030 – keeping us up there with electric vehicle leaders like the Netherlands, Norway and India, attracting investment in modernising the UK auto industry, and helping us meet our targets for tackling air quality and climate change.

Most electric vehicle drivers charge mainly at home and batteries are getting better year-on-year, but we do need rapid public charge points for those long journeys to see your relatives on the bank holiday. 96% of motorway services already have rapid charge points, but with more electric vehicles on the roads, we’re going to need way more of them.

Something beginning with T.

Tarmac? Traffic?

Nope – it’s trees!

Driving along a country lane overgrown with Beech trees near Camelford, Cornwall, UK © Global Warming Images / WWF

Trees are one of nature’s greatest inventions. They are a great natural form of carbon storage, helping to tackle climate change. They can help improve flood protection, which is also crucial for dealing with climate change. And of course they provide habitats for wildlife.

No wonder then the Government has a target to plant 11 million trees by 2020. However, recent reports suggest they’re some way off meeting that goal, with only 2 million planted since 2015.

It might sound surprising, but roadsides are actually great places for tree planting. At the roadside, as well as the benefits above, they also help screen walkers, homes and businesses from the noise and air pollution caused by road traffic. Win-win-win-win-win!

Something beginning with CP.

What, again?! Is it Christmas pudding? Cherry pie? I’m getting hungry…

Nope – this time it’s cycle paths.

A cyclist on the CS7 cycle path in London, UK © Global Warming Images / WWF

It’s hard to beat the bike when it comes to green transport. Not only are there no dirty exhaust fumes but cycling makes us healthier too. According to Cycling UK, regular cycling can reduce risks of deadly illnesses such as cancer and cardiovascular disease.

As well as ensuring safe, good quality cycle paths (for example, when A-roads pass through towns and cities), it’s important to make sure major roads can be easily crossed by cyclists (as well as pedestrians). One simple way to do this is by building bridges, like the cycle bridge over the M5 near Exeter in Devon.

Something beginning with GB.

George Best? Great Britain? Oh no I know this one – green bridges!

Hedgehog on forest ground © Sanchez & Lope / WWF-Canon

That’s right. It’s not just cyclists who need to be able to safely cross busy roads. It’s vital for wildlife too. Poorly designed roads chop up landscapes and sever animals from their natural habitats, increasing the risk of roadkill. It’s important to minimise this effect by incorporating biodiversity corridors, such as green bridges, to ensure safe movement of wildlife.

This Government has pledged to not only leave the environment in the same state it inherited it, but in a better state, and has committed to publish a 25 Year Environment Plan. The new roads strategy can help deliver this plan by not just minimising negative impacts on biodiversity, but by providing positive improvements for biodiversity such as green bridges.

Greener roads?

This appealing vision of greener roads won’t just happen on its own. It needs the UK Government to take action and put its money where its mouth is.

We’re one of several charities calling on the Department for Transport to put sustainability at the heart of its second Road Investment Strategy (RIS 2), which sets funding priorities for Highways England. Doing so will ensure the Strategy helps, rather than hinders, the Government’s goal to improve our natural environment and tackle crucial issues like climate change and air pollution.

To read more about making roads greener, click here to download the new report ‘Rising to the challenge: A shared green vision for RIS 2’.

Motorway at night © Ray Booysen

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Did you know that new species are constantly being discovered? We have good news to share. 381 new species were recently discovered in the Amazon, our new report highlights.

The Amazon is both the largest tropical forest and the largest river system, playing a vital role in global climate regulation. It extends over 1% of the planet surface, but hosts 10% of its biodiversity.

The report, ‘Untold Treasures: New Species Discoveries in the Amazon 2014-15′ PDF, produced by WWF and Mamiraua’ Institute in Brazil, also includes an update on species identified in a previous 2010- 2013 species list. All these new discoveries add to over 1200 new species described between 1999 and 2009. A new species is discovered every two days, highlighting how the Amazon is even richer than we thought. However, this vast rainforest continues to be threatened by agriculture, mining, infrastructure, and hunting.

Many of these new species were discovered in protected areas, which are crucial to ensure the future of the Amazon. Unfortunately, the Brazilian government is currently trying to undermine protected areas to open them to mining and development. There are at least 60 other areas at risk of losing their status in Brazil, which threaten species and communities that depend on the rainforest.

The report highlighted 216 new species of plants, 93 fishes 32 amphibians, 19 reptiles, 20 mammals, and 1 bird. Here we highlight eight of these new wonderful treasures for you to discover:

Fire-tailed titi monkey (Plecturocebus miltoni)

Fire tailed titi monkey ©Adriano Gambarini/WWF

Milton’s titis are small monkeys. They weigh around 1.5 kg, eat fruit and spend time grooming each others. They are particularly threatened by deforestation because they are not able to cross mountains and rivers to move to more forested areas. Their name comes from their long and bright orange tail.

A bird that honours the Brazilian rubber tapper (Zimmerius chicomendesi)

Chico’s Tyrannulet © Bret Whitney

The Chico’s Tyrannulet was discovered thanks to his unknown call attracting attention. It is an important seed disperser and has a restricted distribution compared to many other species in the Amazon. His name is a tribute to Chico Mendes, a rubber tapper and environmentalist who fought to protect the rainforest, opening the world’s eyes on the Amazon and its threats

An enigmatic, nocturnal frog (Tepuihyla obscura)

Enigmatic nocturnal frog © Philippe J. R. Kok

This frog spends the day hiding in bromeliad plants, hence its name obscura, coming from Latin and referring to its enigmatic nature. It is active at night and inhabits Venezualan tepuis table mountains at an altitude between 1,800 and 2,600 m.

A curious electric fish (Rhamphichthys heleios)

A curious electric fish © Tiago Carvalho

This fish sends out weak electric charges for navigation, communication, and detection. It can reach 1 meter in length and it is active at night, while spending the day buried in the sand.

 A new species of pink river dolphin (Inia araguaiaensis)

A new species of pink river dolphin © Gabriel Melo-Santos

Limited to only one basin and estimated to have a population of around 1,000 individuals this species is threatened from hydroelectric dams, and industrial activities. Three out of the four other pink river dolphin species are also under threat. Pink river dolphins populate myths, legends, and the culture of the Amazon. Their colour comes from blood vessels underneath the skin. Another species of river dolphin was discovered between 2010 and 2013.

The second mountaintop reptile (Riolama inopinata)

The second mountaintop reptile © Philippe J. R. Kok

This lizard manages to live in the remote Murisipán-tepui, 2400 m above sea level. It is the second reptile discovered at this site, in a climate that is inaccessible for many species. Its discovery was surprising, jence its name inopinata, which derives from Latin and means “unexpected”.

A freshwater honeycomb-patterned stingray (Potamotrygon limai)

A freshwater ‘honeycomb’ stingray © João Pedro Fontenelle de Araújo Freire da Silva

This beautiful stingray is found in the Brazilian state of Rondônia. It has honeycomb-like speckles and measures around 65cm in length. It is exclusive to freshwater environments in South America and it is unfortunately also commercialised as ornamental fish.

A frog that glitters like gold (Pristimantis imthurni)

Golden frog © Philippe J. R. Kok

Unique, striking, photogenic. This tiny frog lives in a restricted region of ‘The Lost World’ table mountains in Venezuela. Imagine climbing these mountains, reaching 2,000 m and spotting this golden beauty.

As you can see, these are just a few of the unique and wonderful new species, but they are just the tip of the iceberg. These findings tell us that the Amazon is an even richer and more complex universe than we thought. If we don’t act fast we may never discover all the species that inhabit the Amazon rainforest.

Help us protect the Amazon

We are relentlessly working to stop deforestation by supporting sustainable development and protected areas. Please help our work by adopting a jaguar. Conserving this majestic and endangered cat, will help to protect all other discovered and undiscovered species in the Amazon.

Learn more about the Amazon

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Red, dirt road leading to Puerto Maldonado, Madre de Dios, Peru. This road is the Interoceanica highway, going through Brazil and finishing at the Pacific coast in Peru. © Brent Stirton / Getty Images / WWF

The pressure that our natural world is under is enormous. Wildlife populations around the globe are in rapid decline, while extinction rates continue to surge. Not only is our inherited wealth of biodiversity at risk, but human wellbeing too is becoming increasingly endangered.

Part of the problem facing conservationists in meeting these challenges is how to effectively assess the impact of human activities across the globe to inform action. Traditionally, the information on development threats and human activities – such as agriculture, oil and gas concessions, fishing and deforestation – was obtained through static evidence pieces. Reports and academic publications would examine the extent of some specific human activity on some area of the environment.

But in an ever-changing world, more complex and fast-changing than ever, this approach is less valid. Delayed academic releases mean that reports can often be as much as six months out of date by the time they’re published. Even more problematic is that, save for a large change in data, media outlets and publishers have little interest in repeating the same study next month or next year. Typically, then, a conservationist’s understanding on global human impact is through a patchwork of assessments, with no comparable results or integrated formats, different lenses methodologies, spatial and temporal scales and often using different datasets.

But if we are to scale the extent of these threats over time to provide conservationists with a situation awareness of what’s happening to provide context to their efforts on the ground, we need exactly the opposite.

The old methods of reporting on human threats do not provide the consistent intelligence necessary to answer the really big questions facing us now. To effectively address emerging trends and provide accountability to key actors for the environment, such as governments, companies and investors, up-to-date intelligence is crucial. Consistent, comparable results over time will make it possible to understand the rapid rates of change facing the planet.

The emergence of Conservation Intelligence

Fortunately for the conservation sector, understanding these threats has never looked more possible. Dramatic improvements in earth observation satellite and airborne data have taken place over the past decade. The availability of open datasets has opened up our knowledge of threats more than ever, on areas from deforestation to illegal fishing, extractives to agricultural expansion. Rather than reactively responding to threats when it’s too late, it is now possible to monitor emerging and proposed developments as they happen, and to counter them effectively.

The conservation sector has been working hard to capitalise on this. A proliferation of platforms from different organisations, such as Global Forest Watch, OceanMind, IBAT, SPOTT, WWF-SIGHT and Global Fishing Watch, are providing answers in research areas unimaginable even ten years ago. The use of proprietary datasets combined with open datasets is widening our scope even further. Global Fishing Watch uses commercial Satellite AIS datasets to track shipping vessels in near real-time. Global Forest Watch uses a time-series analysis of openly available Landsat satellite images to characterize forest extent and change. A new era of conservation intelligence is dawning, based on data that is quickly obtainable and globally relevant.

These projects so far are showing impressive results. Brazil’s PRODES program, which highlights in near real time illegal land-use to inform enforcement agencies, is thought to be a key driver in why deforestation has decreased by ≥75% in the Brazilian Amazon over the last decade. Oceanmind reviewed illegal fishing within the Chilean Exclusive Economic Zone, using VMS and AIS data supplemented with SAR imagery to identify the vessels suspected of illegal fishing and enabling the Chilean Navy to prioritise its air and sea patrols to support enforcement.

With the proliferation of varied tools from across the conservation sector, a huge quantity of data is now at the fingertips of major conservation organisations across the world. The large variety of tools available are incredibly useful for specific applications, such as niche tools assessing one isolated environmental factor. But with so many tools now available, conservation intelligence risks facing some of the exact same limitations that challenge traditional research methods – different methodologies, scales, formats and datasets leading to an inconsistent patchwork of assessments and results.

Flying over Sudbury Reef. Inshore reefs are particularly vulnerable to agricultural run-off carrying sediment, nutrient and pesticides. © WWF / James Morgan

The next iteration of conservation intelligence?

To  provide an overview of the challenges facing the natural world, as well as consistency across sectors and threats, a tool is needed that ties all this data together into one online mapping and analytics package. A regularly updated tool could look at all of human development – mining, oil and gas concessions, fishing, shipping, roads, rail, dams, pipelines, agriculture, and logging – and plot them against environmental assets: forest cover, protected areas, key biodiversity areas, mangroves, coral reefs, and species populations.

Blending both open source and proprietary datasets, as well as other conservation organisations’ datasets, the interplay between them could be assessed. Intelligence would be easier to obtain on current impacts and environmental exposure of asset holders and companies behind the developments, and insights into the performance of governments in the protection of their natural assets. By analysing the interplay every month, utilising automation, we could begin to document change over time to provide further accountability – a powerful global tool that could be used by the entire conservation sector.

Already some organisations are heading in this direction. Global Forest Watch already pulls together multiple spatial datasets defining both development and environmental datasets. At WWF, we’ve also been working on this problem. WWF-SIGHT, a tool developed by WWF, has brought together key open source and commercial environmental and development datasets. Recently an example of this approach has been launched, displaying data online in an easily understandable format that defines the interplay between extractive concessions and protected areas at a country level. From this, worrying statistics have become apparent, such as that Australia has approved an area the size of the UK to oil and gas concessions within its protected area network.

Caption: An example of WWF-SIGHT outputs. The interactive format shows the extent of a countries protected area network overlapped by mining and oil and gas concessions.

As well as informing conservation action, it isn’t hard to imagine a public facing interactive online portal that provides the high-level results of regular assessments. At a touch of a button, the environmental performance of each country could be defined, displaying the extent of current developmental threats and environmental degradation.

This could be extrapolated even further into a more visual way of understanding the vast amount of data. For instance, an ‘environmental ticker’ similar to a share price could graph country environmental performance, showing changes over time. Road developments within protected areas would lead to a drop in the ticker score; a decrease in oil and gas concessions within coral reefs would show an increase, showing the country is improving its environmental performance. A visual demonstration of environmental performance on a country-by-country basis, or by a company-by-company basis (for sectors with spatially defined assets i.e. mining) would provide comparable insights to inform investors, insurers and banks to their environmental exposure and urge compliance to important environmental standards.

But this isn’t something that can be achieved by one organisation alone; an inter-organisational system is needed that is both built by and that serves the entire conservation sector.

Strength in unity, weakness in division

Inter-organisational collaboration in the conservation sector has historically achieved great results. For instance, right now multiple actors are working together under United for Wildlife to address the challenges of the illegal wildlife trade. Although there will always be a need for niche topic specific platforms, all conservationists will need access to a general situational intelligence on a global scale to help understand the wider changes occurring and to provide context to conservation efforts on the ground.

A unified conservation spatial intelligence tool has the significant advantage of unifying the sector’s voice, placing weight on any outputs with external actors such as governments. It also utilises the different capacities of the sector, capitalising on the differing vectors of engagement that no single organisation can achieve alone to help make the data relevant to a wider audience base.

Most importantly of all, a shared conservation intelligence tool allows the sector to understand the changes occurring to our planet over time and be in a better position to protect it. By working together rather than separately, by fostering data equality rather than wasting resources, the sector can move away from disorganised patchwork reporting and work towards a comprehensive and consistent dynamic monitoring approach.

And in a world where right now, international agreements such as the Sustainable Development Goals or the G4 Sustainability Reporting Guidelines are helping countries and companies commit to critical environmental goals, the conservation sector needs more than ever a tool that helps to accurately and consistently question state parties’ or companies’ performance.

That’s not to say this approach is infallible; not all datasets are perfect, and there are still data omissions and inaccuracies. But interorganisational collaboration would, rather than heightening this, provide a catalyst for developing new ways of filling data gaps. All the datasets mentioned exist at a high enough accuracy, with enough global coverage, to begin to provide these important insights. The technical challenges in delivering such a platform are fairly easy to overcome, requiring no ground-breaking new technology or software.

A shared intelligence hub for the conservation sector is something that WWF has been working towards, to encourage collaboration in the conservation sector and to open the conversation on how we might develop a worldwide spatial conservation analytics tool. With the improvement of spatial and EO datasets, software and hardware occurring at a rapid rate, it’s not a question on if this will happen, but when. Sooner or later actors will bring multiple environmental and development datasets together and begin to systematically define their interplay. The question is, will interorganisational cooperation happen sooner rather than later for our most important biodiverse areas?  Let’s hope so, because we need it; the pressures on the environment aren’t going away.

WWF is building a future where people and nature thrive by helping businesses work in ways that protect the natural world they depend on. Subscribe to our One Planet Business newsletter for updates and inspiration on corporate sustainability.

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Global nations have come to realise that plastic pollution is choking our oceans, causing irreversible damage to marine biodiversity and ecosystem health.

We’re bringing the plastic pollution war closer to home in Kenya. It’s time for everyone to connect the dots and start bending the curve – reversing the decline in wildlife. This cannot wait for tomorrow, it has to be done today.

The problem

Over the last decade we have produced more plastic than during the whole of the last century. Modern lifestyles, where plastics are used by many as “single-use”, combined with global population growth has meant the production and use of plastics has just exploded. And with the explosion, came the pollution.

Plastic pollution is threatening marine life © Brent Stirton/Getty Images/WWF-UK

To worsen the case, nearly all the plastic ever created still exists in some form today. According to the UN, only 9% of all plastic waste ever produced has been recycled, while 79% has accumulate in landfills, dumps or the natural environment.

Marine trash collected with WWF Kenya © Hassan Mohamed

The UN Oceans chief recently stated that:

“This is a planetary crisis… we are ruining the ecosystem of the ocean.”

If the current production and usage of plastic continues, in few years’ time, we will have more plastic in the oceans than fish!

The impact

The impact of plastics in the sea is huge. Larger marine mammals can easily be entangled, while others mistake plastic for food. For example, sea turtles cannot distinguish jellyfish from plastic bags and once consumed they cause internal blockages often leading to death.

Turtle eating plastic bag ©Paulo Oliveira / Alamy Stock Photo

Over time, plastic waste slowly breaks down into tiny micro-fragments, which we can easily find back on our own plates though fish and other seafood.

World Environment Day

We joined other global nations in the celebration of this year’s World Environment Day, celebrated on 5 June each year. It was a great honour for us in Kwale to host the whole country of Kenya.

In response to global concern, and to create awareness of the danger of plastic pollution, the theme for this year’s celebration was;
“Beat plastic pollution” with local slogan…, if you can’t reuse, refuse it.

Deputy President (left) listening to Kaya elder during visit to WWF Kenya stand. World Environment Day celebrations at Kwale © Lily Mwasi

WWF Kenya partnered with the National Environment Management Authority of Kenya (NEMA) to co-host the event – graced by the Deputy President of the Republic of Kenya among other high ranking dignitaries.

Protecting our environment and wildlife

A key outcome of the event was a firm commitment by the government to continue enforcing Kenya’s ban on plastic bags which was declared in 2017. The government also strongly committed to invest heavily in maximising opportunities of the Blue Economy – promoting the sustainable use of ocean resources to spur national economic growth.

Kenya CEO, Mohamed Awer (middle), the Minister for Environment and Lily Mwasi planting Mangrove seedlings as part of World Environment Day celebrations.

Equally important was the declaration that the government will support the implementation of the National Mangrove Management Plan. This will help protects our precious mangrove forests.

Fighting the war against plastic

During the World Environment Day celebrations in Kwale, WWF Kenya CEO, Mr. Mohamed Awer, declared our commitments to work with the government and communities in the war against plastic pollution.

We will continue providing solutions and opportunities to communities to develop their livelihoods; a good example being “trash to cash” initiative being undertaken by Lamu women.

Marine Plastic Debris. Coastal Kenya © Hassan Mohamed

We will also continue to:

• work with students to create awareness on the need to reduce usage of plastics;
• lobby governments to ban use of all plastics;
• support county level governments to develop laws and build capacity to improve management of solid waste.

WWF’s Coastal Kenya Programme is kindly supported by players of People’s Postcode Lottery and Size of Wales. We are very grateful for the continued support.
Want to help? You can adopt a turtle today!

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October was very exciting and busy month for us here in Kwale, Kenya. We met new people, developed new solutions to ever emerging challenges and hosted WWF staff from across the globe. Staff gathered to learn and share experience about community based conservation work.

Let me share some of these exciting moments with you.

The Mijikenda Kaya forests

The Mijikenda Kaya forest landscape is an area rich in biodiversity. It has significant sacred and cultural value and is also a World Heritage Site. WWF is working with partners to protect these important coastal forests through community-based initiatives.

The Kaya forests consist of 11 separate forest sites spread over some 200km along the coast of Kenya. © Greg Armfield / WWF UK

The landscape is increasingly facing emerging challenges that need new interventions, new partnerships and collaborations to tackle the threats.

It’s important to build strong resilience at the landscape level – targeting both the biodiversity rich forests and the surrounding farmlands to mitigate against the impacts of climate change. In the last five years the landscape has experienced drought and flooding. This has resulted in a loss of livelihoods and properties making people and ecosystems more vulnerable.

Community threats

This situation is complicated by economic development in the area which is often not compatible with sustainable growth, and is instead driven by short term gains.

Communities and traditional leaders are facing new threats due to increased demand for construction materials to support large scale development projects along the coast. The materials are extracted from productive farmlands, mostly adjacent to key biodiversity areas leading to degradation on unimaginable levels.

Lack of adherence to environmental standards, limited understanding in the communities of their rights, lack of clear land-use guidelines, and high poverty levels among local communities are some of the challenges.

Kaya Villagers © Greg Armfield / WW FUK

To tackle these threats, WWF is partnering with county governments, local civil society organisations, community groups and the private sector. The aim is to develop local capacity to engage investors to ensure they adhere to environmental standards – that they avoid sensitive areas such as water catchments and sacred places, and there are proper mechanisms to restore mined areas.

The project will also support local community groups, especially women and youth, to improve land use practices, increase land productivity and diversity of agricultural products.

Sharing learnings from across the globe

Hosting more than 22 WWF staff from 14 countries across the Americas, Asia and Africa was very exciting for us here in Kwale. The workshop aimed to share learnings and expertise on community based conservation approaches from around the globe.

WWF community workshops, Kwale. © WWF Kenya

The workshops were conducted right in the middle of communities. We spent hours with different groups each day, to learn from them and share experiences from different counties.

Visits included a number of successful community projects which have overcome many setbacks over the years. We also visited some which are still facing challenges. For each, there was plenty to learn and share.

The experience highlighted just how important it is that we share our experiences and learning. More often than not, the challenges being faced by one community have already been faced by another. Sharing these experiences can help us to better tackle the problem.

Positive outcomes

Of all the projects we visited….a statement from Madam Zainab, the manager of Kaya Kinondo community bank was the most telling:

….We are successful as a community bank not because of government regulations, policies and policing….we are successful because we are first of all a community. When Juma is repaying his loan, he does so not for fear of losing his household furniture, or cattle or land for defaulting….No, no, he does so for he knows his neighbour is on the queue waiting for him to pay so that she can also get her credit…if he doesn’t pay she will not get…and he cannot live with that….

Equally powerful were sentiments were expressed by the visiting WWF staff:

Gilles Etoga from WWF Cameroon: “All projects should have a strategy on how to engage local communities, with significant income generated. I learnt that it can work if the governance challenges are overcome. The projects here in Kenya illustrated it very well”

Matt Erke from WWF US: “What a trip that was. So incredibly fulfilling and memorable, full of deep and rich interaction with communities, with the WWF Kenya programme, and with each other”

Given the opportunity and the right support, communities play a vital role in the sustainable management and protection of our natural environment. It’s critical that we recognise this.

WWF’s Coastal Kenya Programme is kindly supported by players of People’s Postcode Lottery and Size of Wales. We are very grateful for the continued support.

Thank you Size Of Wales © Greg Armfield /_WWF UK

The post The importance of community conservation appeared first on WWF UK Blog.

I’m sorry to say that this will be my last blog on our work in Coastal Kenya as I’m leaving WWF.

Thank you

I wanted to take this opportunity to thank you for engaging with my blog and also to reflect on the progress we’ve made during my time with WWF.

Today, Kenya’s coastal forests are recognised for their globally important biodiversity richness and for their importance to local livelihoods. Our work has been about ensuring that those two elements – nature and people – work in harmony.

I also get stuck in with planting trees! 2013

Trees for the future

In my last blog, you’ll remember I told you about a new project that we’ve recently launched, funded by the Federal Government of Germany. This 3-million-euro project will really help to consolidate the progress we’ve already made and ensure that positive impacts are sustained.

Part of Kaya Mrima Forest – an established forest in the Coastal Kenya region.

Happily, it’s been raining hard here in Coastal Kenya and that’s meant that forest creation and reforestation efforts under this project can really get going. In the last couple of weeks, we’ve already planted more than 35,000 indigenous seedlings in selected degraded forest sites across Kwale County!

It all starts with seedlings

The seedlings we’ve been planting are sourced from local community groups, with youth groups and women groups being given priority. So far, this has earned these groups USD 60,000 and they’ve been using that money to support themselves and to further improve the tree nursery.

Women actively participate in tree growing for conservation and income generation

We’ve focused planting of the seedlings along the boundary of existing forest blocks to help secure them and so far, we’ve planted nearly 30km of forest boundary.

Community trees

We made sure that local communities who live near these forest boundaries were involved in the seedling planting. In doing this we create a sense of ownership; everyone wants the seedlings to grow into tall trees that will help future generations.

Me (second from left) Meeting members of an indigenous community. 2016

Lucky Mboga, a local community member, echoed the sentiments of many when he said: “For the first time in Gogoni Forest, I have planted a tree in it. I feel that the forest is part of me, I have this unending urge to protect and secure it”. It’s truly heartening to hear the local community talk about nature in this way.

Sacred forests

We also got some great news for Kaya forest conservation.

Kaya forests are the sacred forests of the Mijikenda peoples of coastal Kenya. They’re really important for both cultural and biodiversity reasons.

A visitor in Kinondo sacred forest in deep meditation

As a result of our support, the nine Kaya forest that make up the Sacred Mijikenda Kaya Forest World Heritage Site, and their buffer zones, have been selected as an implementation landscape under the Global Environment Facility (GEF) Small Grants Programme.

A total of 10 grass root civil society organisations are receiving grants totaling USD 31,000. These grants will help improve livelihoods, strengthen land management and biodiversity conservation, support access to clean-energy solutions, and enable indigenous knowledge to be passed on through generations.

Elias Kimaru with Fatuma © Cath Lawson/WWF

It’s the first time that the Kaya forest communities will be responsible for the resources provided to support Kaya conservation. WWF Kenya will, of course, walk closely with the communities to ensure that the impacts are felt now and in the future.

Elias Kimaru in the Arabuko-Sokoke forest © Diane Walkington_WWF

A conservation legacy to be proud of

I am sad to be leaving WWF, but I am also full of hope. Communities are involved in conservation efforts here in Coastal Kenya more now than ever. And as long as that’s the case, the future is bright!

Elias Kimaru

WWF’s Coastal Kenya Programme is kindly supported by players of People’s Postcode Lottery and Size of Wales. We are very grateful for the continued support.

The post A conservation legacy to be proud of appeared first on WWF UK Blog.