Community Meets Conservation with Seacology

by Liam Gladstone

Disturb nothing. Take only pictures. Leave everything the way it is.

As kids, we heard our parents remind us in an especially non-negotiable way that anything foreign in the trunk of the car by vacation’s end would mean big trouble. These days, with the explosive international growth of ecotourism and climate issues at the forefront of public awareness, Mom and Dad’s car has assumed global proportions.

Within the last decade or so, the stereotypical image of the world traveler has changed. The Acapulco shirts, broad-rimmed straw hats and cheap disposable cameras have been traded for backpacks and expedition gear as more and more tourists are looking beyond the travel guide for their next adventure. Despite a strong social and environmental conscience, it’s a trend not without a ripple effect.

Enter Seacology, the world’s leading nonprofit island ecology and cultural advocacy group. Launched in 1999, Seacology has already established more than 130 island-based projects, which, in conservation terms, means the preservation of 1,741,062 acres of coastal marine ecosystems and 98,507 acres of protected habitats. Its stated mandate is to seek mutually favourable resolutions to a dilemma often encountered by indigenous island populations: while ecotourism promises huge economic growth, particularly for regions that would be otherwise isolated, the environmental impact can be substantial for fragile island ecosystems. “An important way to interact with islands is to have minimal impact because of their fragility,” writes Seacology’s Development Director Susan Racanelli. While it may be tempting to leave with a suitcase or backpack full of exotic, hard-to-find natural artifacts from far-flung corners of the world, don’t. “A seashell plucked from the sands may seem like a great souvenir, but it might also be the future home of a hermit crab.”

As self-sustaining biospheres subject to extreme conditions, islands are a special consideration in conservation efforts. For example, “coral reefs are extremely delicate and take a long time to grow,” says Racanelli. Pacific coral grows at the rate of about one inch per year. While beautiful and compelling, even the slightest touch can have negative consequences. Since ecotourism brings an immense influx of travelers, protecting nature at its most vulnerable is critical to ensuring that such beauty will remain untainted for future visitors.

Such is the trouble encountered by indigenous populations. More than anyone, the traditional inhabitants of remote island areas are well aware of both the beauty and fragility of their natural surroundings. However, they’re equally aware of the economic potential presented by foreign travelers spending untold sums of money to appreciate those surroundings themselves; island beauty on one hand, survival in a competitive market on the other. Until recently, the two concerns appeared mutually exclusive.

Seacology works within this concern, protecting island environments while supporting local communities. On Vuna Village in Fiji, Seacology constructed a kindergarten and a local school administration center in exchange for a forest preserve and two protected marine areas. In Hainan, China, the children of four villages have been provided with an education. Reciprocally, the endangered Hainan Gibbon has been protected.

In a tourism sense, Seacology encourages inquisitive travelers to indulge themselves in the local economies of the islands they visit, eating foods that have been locally caught and produced. “The local coconut dessert is a lot fresher than the pre-packaged cupcake shipped in from thousands of miles away,” writes Racanelli.

One notable example of Seacology’s conservation work in recent years is found at Chumbe Island, a 55-acre natural coral garden off the coast of Zanzibar. A protected marine reserve since 1994, the island features seven small eco-friendly bungalows, the housing units of a private, nonprofit resort. These bungalows, made entirely from natural materials, collect rainwater for re-use and are fitted with solar panels to provide electrical power. The island has been recognized as an exceptional environmental organization by British Airways, Conde Nast and the United Nations, and it’s a prime example of Seacology’s mandate realized.

In 2004, Seacology funded a variety of projects at Chumbe Island. The end result, an array of offshore mooring buoys, prohibits marine traffic from interfering with the Chumbe Marine Sanctuary, a marine protected area registered by the World Conservation Monitoring Center. This ‘no take’ reserve has had a positive impact on the island economy. Fishermen, trawling the waters with traditional outriggers, have seen increased catches in the nearby reefs, the effect of greater numbers of fish ‘spilling over’ from the sanctuary.

The overarching result, through the involvement of committed NGOs like Seacology, is a harmony of conservation and community.

“I would have to cite Chumbe as an excellent example of involving the surrounding community,” says Racanelli. “Once they were stable enough to provide for the responsible fiscal management of the eco-park and resort, they started to pour money back into the community by way of educational programs with Zanzibar school children. They bring children to the eco-resort for day long field trips to learn about island wildlife.”

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Angry Faces on World AIDS Day 2007

Alongside World Aids Day on December 1, Médecins sans Frontières / Doctors Without Borders (MSF) has launched the “Angry Faces” campaign. The campaign’s goal is to raise awareness regarding the lack of access for millions of people to HIV/AIDS treatment.

Free comprehensive care for HIV treatment must be provided to Nigerians

Médecins Sans Frontières calls for increased commitment in the fight against HIV/AIDS

Lagos, Nigeria Published on 30 November 2007

On the occasion of this year’s World AIDS Day on December 1, the international medical humanitarian organization Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) / Doctors Without Borders, calls for increased commitment from all health care providers in Nigeria to provide comprehensive care to HIV/AIDS patients. While the government’s response to the pandemic has improved since it started providing free drug treatment nationwide in 2006, the level of medical services available and accessible by people living with HIV/AIDS is still dramatically inadequate. The Nigerian Ministry of Health should also improve their leadership in order to provide wider and more adequate treatment solutions.

Although the national treatment programs, started in 2001, half of all patients still do not have access to life-saving treatment. According to the Nigerian National Agency for the Control of HIV/AIDS (NACA), it was estimated that 500,000 people would need treatment in Nigeria by December 2005, but as of June 2007 only 170,000 people are on treatment nationwide.

The current treatment services available in the country must include a free comprehensive treatment program. Comprehensive HIV/AIDS program include continuous psychosocial support for the patients, education on how to adhere to the treatment, nutritional support, treatment of opportunistic infections, a constant monitoring of treatment progression/failure as well as adapted treatment protocols for specific patient groups such as children, tuberculosis co-infected patients or pregnant women. As MSF Head of mission Ton Berg explains: “While we acknowledge that anti-retroviral drugs are now free in treatment centers nationwide, the very few opportunistic infections drugs where available are inadequate to meet the needs of patients. The treatment of opportunistic infections is an integral part of comprehensive treatment of people living with HIV/AIDS (PLWHA) and is critical to the success of any HIV/AIDS care and support programme.”

Treatment centres must also be decentralized, to be made available to as many patients as possible, with appropriate and well-trained human resources. Adequate numbers of qualified health care workers are still grossly lacking in most treatment centers across the country. In many instances, this has lead to patients spending almost entire days in clinics awaiting treatment.

Since 2003, Médecins Sans Frontières has been providing free anti-retroviral treatment and comprehensive care to HIV patients at the General hospital Lagos (GHL). As of September 2007, over 1300 patients were registered for treatment at GHL through MSF’s program. In October 2007, MSF started to handover uncomplicated cases of HIV patients to the GHL. MSF also operates Port Harcourt’s Teme hospital, opened in 2005 to provide accessible emergency services and surgery for people who otherwise may not be able to afford health care.

More info at www.msf.ca

Abana : Rwandan children living with HIV tell their stories

“Abana” means “children” in the Kininyarwanda language of Rwanda. MSF treats young people living with HIV, who are now coming of age and sexually identifying in a country where stigma is high, and their very existence is a reminder of the country’s troubled past. See their art-therapy drawings, hear their voices, and watch their video interviews at http://www.msf.ca/abana/

Free comprehensive care for HIV treatment must be provided to Nigerians

Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) / Doctors Without Borders calls for increased commitment in the fight against HIV/AIDS.

On the occasion of this year’s World AIDS Day on December 1, the international medical humanitarian organization Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) calls for increased commitment from all health care providers in Nigeria to provide comprehensive care to HIV/AIDS patients. While the government’s response to the pandemic has improved since it started providing free drug treatment nationwide in 2006, the level of medical services available and accessible by people living with HIV/AIDS is still dramatically inadequate. The Nigerian Ministry of Health should also improve their leadership in order to provide wider and more adequate treatment solutions.

Full article: http://www.msf.ca/en/news/newsreleases/2007/113007_wadnigeria.html

Relatives Seek Justice as Peru’s Largest Mass Grave is Exhumed

AdvocacyNet
News Bulletin 141
*****

June 4, 2008, Putis, Peru: The exhumation of Peru's largest mass grave has opened a window on Peru's shadowy war against terrorism in the Andes, and encouraged indigenous families who lost relatives to demand justice and reparations.
 
The exhumation was completed last Thursday at the remote village of Putis, high in the Peruvian Andes. Braving freezing conditions and drug traffickers, a team from the Peruvian Forensic Anthropology Team (EPAF) spent two weeks extracting almost 60 skeletons and the remains of about 10 more bodies from a shallow grave.
 
Ash Kosiewicz, a Peace Fellow from the Advocacy Project (AP) volunteering with EPAF this summer, and Iain Guest, Executive Director of AP, spent several days at the site.
 
The Putis exhumation is the largest of its kind in Peru's history. Jose Pablo Baraybar, the director of EPAF, predicted that it would accelerate efforts to investigate the fate of more than 15,000 Peruvians who disappeared between 1982 and 2000. Most of the victims are thought to have been buried in clandestine graves, but only 505 had been retrieved before last week.
 
Putis is located in the province of Ayacucho in southern Peru, which bore the brunt of a brutal conflict between the Peruvian Army and Shining Path guerrillas. The victims were Quechua-speaking Indians who were isolated and marginalized, making it hard for their families to lobby for justice.
 
Identifying the dead, Mr Baraybar said, would help them to claim the rights held by other Peruvians. "They have to be assisted to recover their citizenship and use the same tools that the state gives all of us to advocate."
 
Last week's exhumation may have begun the process. Gerardo Fernandez Mendoza, who heads an association of 250 Putis relatives, told a press conference that 430 victims were buried in 14 clandestine graves in the area and that once the bodies are recovered reparations must be paid. "We need health centers and schools. Our livelihood was taken away from us," he said.
 
The Putis massacre occurred after hundreds of villagers were displaced from their homes in late 1984 and rounded up by soldiers. A group of 123 villagers were taken to Putis and shot on December 13, 1984. The largest grave, which was uncovered last week, is thought to contain 76 bodies.
 
The exhumation recovered over 70 bullet casings, including some in the grave which may have come from an officer's gun. This suggests that victims were shot at close range. Many were children, including babies.
 
About 40 relatives walked for hours through the mountains last Thursday to visit the gravesite and provide DNA samples that will be matched with the bones recovered by EPAF. Many relatives wept at their first sight of the grave and pointed to fragments of clothing that seemed familiar. They said a communal prayer before leaving.
 
Guillermina Quispe Coronado, who lost 13 family members in the Putis massacre, said she was distressed to see the remains but hopeful that her relatives can now be buried in peace. "We thought that no one was interested," she said.
 
The relatives are determined to seek justice, and there was at least one eyewitness to the massacre. But any criminal investigation by the prosecutor's office will probably meet resistance from the Peruvian Army, which has refused to provide the names of those operating around Putis in late 1984.
 
Meanwhile, EPAF expects to resume exhumations within the month at four other gravesites in Putis. The work will likely become harder as winter approaches, and security is also a concern. Last week, a firefight was narrowly avoided when a group of armed drug traffickers passed by the EPAF compound at night and almost ran into an army patrol.
 
EPAF's team has drawn praise for working in such difficult conditions. Cristina Olazabal, a deputy prosecutor in Ayacucho, described the exhumation as "professional and disciplined."
 
Greg Maggio, a senior official from the US State Department who also attended the exhumation, praised the sensitivity with which EPAF dealt with family members. Mr Maggio works in the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor, which funded the Putis exhumation.

Palestinian Ibdaa dance troupe

The Ibdaa dance troupe remembers 1948

Inside the Damascus gate

A marketplace inside the gate at Damascus

Residents of the Gaza strip

A woman and her daughter in Gaza.

Family of the Gaza strip

A family in the Gaza strip

Citizens at a Bethlehem checkpoint

Citizens waiting at a Bethlehem security checkpoint.

Ramallah Protester

Nepalese woman making a stone bowl

Nepalese woman making a stone bowl

Three balligaray in Nepal

Three balligaray

Nepalese women carrying stones

Nepalese women carrying stones.

Soldiers and civilians in Nepal

Soldiers and civilians living side-by-side in Nepal

Nepalese children at school

Nepalese children at a private school

Priest in Nepal

Priest in Nepal

Woman at a fruit stand in Nepal

Woman at a nepalese fruit stand