The NATURE RESEARCH CENTER in Raleigh, North Carolina, has the capability to connect to all 1.5 million K-12 students in the state, as well as to students around the world. For its Opening, the NRC conducted 2 global town halls, courtesy of Time Warner Cable. During these town halls, CanopyMeg Lowman hosted conversations with scientists around the world — India, UK, Ethiopia, Nigeria, Philippines, Costa Rica, North Carolina, and Amazon. Here are a few letters written by students in rural India, who experienced the thrill of connecting to millions of global students who were watching the broadcast! These students are studying elephants in their schools, as part of a conservation program for their region called the Western Ghats.
Below Bhaskar writes about the incredible opportunity extended to the students both from the US and from India in connecting to the Global Town Hall Program:
We had chosen the subject of Trees and Elephants and how important it is to conserve the woodland forests for the conservation of elephants and the supporting environment. We engaged in direct conversation with the Mahout community to build a dialogue of understanding how elephants can play a role culturally and through natural history.
In the first phase, 17 students from the US as part of the ClicaAbroad workshop were taken to two elephant camps in Karnataka State and they spent time documenting the fascinating life of the Mahouts surrounding the National park. Due to the conflict with school holidays, they couldn’t be present for the opening of the global town hall event.
Later I took a group of 35 school children from Sri Vani School in Bangalore to the surroundings of Nagarhole Tiger Reserve to a local school COPS in Gonikoppa to interact with them and also experience the forest, elephants and surrounding biodiversity. I am enclosing some of the write ups from the students on their experiences and the images.
Dr. “CanopyMeg” Lowman and Dr. Alemayehu Wassie Eshete guide us on a walk around the wall built at Zhara Church Rainforest in Ethiopia. The Zhara wall was possible thanks to efforts from scientists, donors, and the TREE Foundation.
This video contains excerpts from the documentary film “Church Forest” by Peter Eliot Buntaine & Greg Vander Veer. Find out more here: http://www.churchforest.com
Ethiopian government is advised to actively promote protection of church forests. See below:
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Re-Greening the Horn
The international community and national governments are advised to invest in re-greening the Horn, through improved water and soil conservation, agro-forestry and reforestation projects. Governments are also advised to strengthen their forest protection mechanisms. In particular, church forests in Northern Ethiopia offer great opportunities for the conservation of biodiversity. The government of Ethiopia is advised to actively promote the establishment of corridors for the protection of (church) forests’ genetic diversity. Remaining forest estates in the Horn may benefit from the REDD+ financial provisions currently being developed. As the global community wants to ensure that it gets what it pays for, a reliable and transparent monitoring system has to be put in place (see first recommendation above).
A look at the new wall and latrines that have been build at Zhara Church Rainforest in Ethiopia. Thanks to efforts from scientists, donors, and the TREE Foundation.
TREE Foundation has generated countrywide inspiration by priests to conserve their church forests. Our team presented information in ecosystem services at this meeting of 700+ religious leaders in Ethiopia. A WIN for the trees!
Matthew Jellings is a photographer currently studying for a masters in wildlife conservation at Sheffield University. He specializes in close up and landscape photography. Mr. Jellings recently accompanied Dr. Lowman on an expedition to Ethiopia and captured some stunning images. You can view the photo gallery at here. Mr. Jellings is willing to work on future expeditions and may be contacted at photographyboy99@hotmail.com
A critical element of our “conservation of Ethiopian church forests” project, Alemayehu and I hosted a worksohp for priests. TREE Foundation “funded” the per diem for each priest to attend. For 2 days of travel to the workshop, one day in attendance, 2 days returning, and all their lodging/meals, Alemayehu calculated that we would give each priest the birre equivalent of $10 US (amazing difference in costs of living!!!)
The goals were twofold: 1. to educate them about the ecosystem services that their forests provide for surrounding communities; and 2. to share our solutions, which included information about the stone walls, the latrines, and also the notion of forest restoration (once the fences are completed). The priests came from the northeast (or Gondor District) of the Coptic or Christian Orthodox Church, some walking for 2 days to reach their church headquarters in Debre Tabor. We had 81 priests, and the event was a huge success. The Arch-Bishop blessed our project, and at the end of the day, pledged that his church and their disciples will prioritize conservation of these green emeralds that dot the landscape. The partnership of science and religion is proving to be a powerful conservation tool.
Some photos from the workshop (photos by Jan Ceigler):
Our biodiversity team just attended a workshop of the Coptic (Christian Orthodox) priest leadership in Debra Tabor, Ethiopia — chaired by my local colleague, Dr. Alemayehu Wassie Eshete, and myself. I presented a visual lecture (with a very challenging electricity situation where we actually taped the wires together — my laptop may never survive this experience!). The priests TOTALLY get the ecological issues at stake — if their forests shrink beyond recovery, they will suffer amazing problems including lack of fresh water, no pollinators, absence (and extinction) of biodiversity, flooding and other episodes, and essentially a lack of the spiritual links between religion and trees (which they view as essential).
Here are some images of our partnership between religion and science. the outcomes include building stone walls around critical church forests (donations on this website!), hosting workshops to educate the religious community about the ecosystem services that church forests provide, and linking to some international organizations that can fund these walls in a timely fashion (Gates Foundation? UN? USAID? etc).
workshop with Coptic priest leadership in Northeast Ethiopia, to discuss conserving the last remaining forests which are located in the church yards (called "church forests")
workshop attendees, including the Arch-bishop of the Gondor district and also some of our team of biodiversity scientists (front row, kneeling).
