It was a joyous moment, releasing this trout that was quivering with life into the cold, cleansed water of a once-polluted stream. Sudbury, Ontario, Canada.(David Wiewel)
Healing Earth"s Scars: It"s Never Too Late
Throughout the pages of this book, we have shared stories of species that, although rescued from the brink of extinction, are still endangered by lack of suitable habitat in the wild. Tropical and old-growth forests, woodlands and wetlands, prairies and gra.s.slands, moorlands and deserts-all landscapes-are disappearing at a terrifying rate.
So how, people ask, can I have hope for the future? Indeed, I am often accused of being unrealistically optimistic. What is the point of saving endangered life-forms, people ask, if there is nowhere for them to live except in zoos? So let me share why it is that, against all odds, I have hope for the animals and their world. Why it is I believe that human know-how and the resilience of nature, combined with the energy and commitment of dedicated individuals, can restore damaged environments so that, once again, they can become home to many of our endangered species.
My four reasons for hope, about which I have written and spoken extensively, are simple-naive perhaps, but they work for me: our quite extraordinary intellect, the resilience of nature, the energy and commitment of informed young people who are empowered to act, and the indomitable human spirit. When human know-how and the resilience of nature are combined with the resourcefulness of dedicated individuals, desecrated landscapes can be given another chance-just as animal and plant species can be saved from extinction.
We have already discussed the restoration of island habitats. Now let me share some of the successful projects that have restored mainland habitats, including streams, rivers, and lakes. Some of these efforts were undertaken with the express intent to save endangered wildlife. In some cases, cleanup efforts were initiated by the government, in others by citizens determined to create a better environment for themselves and their children. A businessman whose operation had caused horrible ecological damage suddenly felt he must put things right; a child made a pledge to restore a mountain-and made his dream come true. All of these efforts are described more fully and ill.u.s.trated on our Web site.
Kenya Coast: From Wasteland to Paradise One quite extraordinary project resulted in the transformation of a five-hundred-acre "wasteland," created by twenty years of quarrying by the Bamburi Portland Cement Company, into lush forest and gra.s.sland. And the project was initiated-in 1971-not by a group of concerned environmentalists but by Dr. Felix Mandl, the man whose company had caused the devastation. The miraculous change was brought about by the company"s remarkable horticulturist, Rene Haller.
When Rene began, the site appeared as "a monstrous lunar-like scar on the landscape, barren, desolate and exposed to the hot tropical sun." The task seemed all but impossible. "It was appalling to note that even in the oldest parts of the quarry no plants had been able to establish themselves," wrote Rene. "I spent countless agonizing hours in the hot and dusty barren land, found a few ferns and perhaps half a dozen tiny bushes and gra.s.ses which were struggling to take root, sheltering behind some of the remaining rocks. It was hardly an encouraging environment for tree planting."
Yet today the area is a self-sustaining habitat for wildlife, including thirty species of animals and plants that are on the IUCN endangered species list. And in addition to recreational facilities for visitors, there are countless environmentally sustainable opportunities to improve the lives of the local people. It has become a major environmental education center for Kenya, and is used by schools throughout the country.
From the very beginning of the project, Rene had held the firm belief that, if he looked hard enough, nature would provide the solutions to all his problems. The description of how he tackled his enormous task, step by step, learning from nature, introducing each new species with care, is incredibly interesting and inspirational. It is living proof that the rehabilitation of a man-made wasteland is not only possible, but can be accomplished with sound organic principles.
The Man Who Restored Forests to a Mountain This story-one of my favorites on our Web site-is about the absurd dream of a six-year-old boy that eventually came true. There was no fairy G.o.dmother waving a magic wand-only his sheer determination to make his childish vision into reality.
This hero is Paul Rokich. His father worked for the big copper mine at the foothills of the Oquirrh Mountains in Utah. Paul remembers standing with his father in 1938, when he was six years old, and looking up at the mountains. They were black, the once beautiful forests (that he had seen in a photograph in a school textbook) gone, destroyed by logging, by extensive sheep grazing, and finally by the toxic emissions of the smelting operations.
Paul told his father that one day he would go up those mountains and put the trees back. Surely an impossible task. Yet twenty years later, he set to work to honor his pledge. Every evening, every weekend, year after year, he carried buckets of gra.s.s seed up the mountain, driving as far as he could then walking-and sowing. For fifteen years, Paul worked mostly alone, with his own money. Sometimes his family and friends helped. And despite the countless setbacks and disappointments he endured, he never gave up.
Finally the Kennecott Company was shamed into cleaning up the poisonous emissions from its smelting operations, spending millions of dollars. And eventually company managers hired Paul to help them with their belated restoration project. Today the Oquirrh Mountains are green, covered with native gra.s.ses and plants originally seeded by Paul, and trees that he planted as seedlings. And the animals have returned.
I have flown over those mountains, looked down on those trees-and marveled. Paul sent me a laminated leaf from one of the very first trees he planted. I carry it around the world, for it symbolizes both the indomitable human spirit and the resilience of nature if given a helping hand.
Sudbury, Ontario When I first visited Sudbury in the mid-1990s, I heard an extraordinary story that ill.u.s.trates how a vast landscape utterly devastated by years of destructive human activity can-with time, money, and determination-recover. It is one of the largest community-based environmental restorations of industrially despoiled land ever undertaken. The full story, on our Web site, is amazingly inspirational and one that I never tire of sharing.
It tells how irresponsible logging and industrial pollution gradually created a landscape similar to the surface of the moon, and how the citizens eventually determined to do something about it. I found it so inspiring that I returned, several years later, to learn more. I walked through a glorious landscape where young trees were bursting into spring glory, flowers bloomed everywhere, and the air was full of birdsong. It was almost impossible to believe that, not so long ago, everything had been barren and lifeless-but one area has been left untreated, and the blackened rock is a stark reminder of the harm our species is able to inflict.
The original forests have not returned, nor will they. But the area is beautiful, and much of the wildlife is back. As I turned away from the blackened rocks of yesterday, I was just in time to glimpse the arrow-swift flight of a peregrine falcon-back again after more than fifty years. It was almost as though nature herself was sending me a message of hope to share with the world. They gave me a feather, found near one of the three peregrine nests, as a symbol of all that can be done to heal the scars we have inflicted on Planet Earth.
Before I left Sudbury, I had the joy of releasing a brook trout into the clean water of a stream that had, until recently, been dank, poisoned, lifeless.
Water Is Life The pollution of our streams, rivers, lakes, and oceans is one of the more shocking results of the use of chemicals and other damaging agents in agriculture, industry, household products, golf courses, and gardens, since much of this poison is washed into the water. Even many of the great aquifers are now polluted. This chemical pollution has led to the destruction of many endangered species" habitats. Yet there are signs of hope here: Slowly our waterways are being cleaned.
I remember when the River Thames in London seemed beyond hope, flowing through London lifeless, contaminated, and murky. Fifty years ago, the Potomac River pa.s.sed through Washington, DC, stinking like a sewer. And many other major waterways were in much the same state as so many of those in China today. In the United States, Lake Erie was at one time declared a fire hazard, and the Cuyahoga River actually went up in flames and blazed for at least two days! Of course, most species of flora and fauna vanished from such contaminated waters.
Today, however, many of these rivers and lakes have been cleaned up-often at huge expense-and much of the wildlife has returned. A couple of years ago, for example, ba.s.s fishing opened up in the Potomac, a clear indication of much cleaner water. Fish are thriving in at least parts of Lake Erie. And fish are back in the River Thames, where waterbirds are once more breeding.
Here I want to mention just a few of the water cleanup projects that have come to my attention, many of which were undertaken in order to protect fish on the endangered species list.
How a Fish Led to the Cleaning of the Hudson River Thirty years ago, the Hudson River and its surrounding waterways were so polluted that its population of short-nosed sturgeon became the first fish species to be listed (in 1972) as endangered. This resulted in a ma.s.sive effort to clean up the river. Over the past fifteen years, the population of these fish in the Hudson River (next to one of the busiest cities in the world) has increased by more than 400 percent. The Manhattan area has the most urban estuaries on the planet, so the cleaning of its waters is a major conservation success story. Indeed, the environment has been so improved that there are even plans to introduce oyster reefs and sh.o.r.eline wetlands in Harlem!
The Amazing Return of the Coho Salmon In the 1940s, coho were so abundant in California rivers that their numbers were estimated at two to five hundred thousand statewide. And as recently as the 1970s, California"s coho fishery still pulled in more than seventy million dollars a year in revenue. But since 1994, commercial fishing for coho has been completely shut down and the fish is listed both state and federally as endangered. It was because of this dramatic decline that a coalition of conservation partners-including landowners and industry-began working to monitor and restore the health of the Garcia watershed, clogged by sediments resulting from irresponsible logging practices.
I happened to be in town when the San Francisco Chronicle San Francisco Chronicle published an article giving good news. While snorkeling in the headwaters of the Garcia River, Jennifer Carah, a scientist with the Nature Conservancy, and Jonathan Warmerdam from the North Coast Regional Water Quality Control Board, spotted juvenile coho salmon. published an article giving good news. While snorkeling in the headwaters of the Garcia River, Jennifer Carah, a scientist with the Nature Conservancy, and Jonathan Warmerdam from the North Coast Regional Water Quality Control Board, spotted juvenile coho salmon.
I called Jennifer, and she told me that since then young coho had been spotted in five of the twelve sub-watersheds in the river basin. In many of these streams, they had not been seen since the late 1990s. It was an exciting time-Jennifer told me that when she identified those young coho, she "squealed so loudly that Jonathan heard the sound even though we were both underwater"!
There are other great stories, like the demolishing of a lakeside resort to save a minnow-size fish in Nevada, and building an area of wetlands so that carefully selected plants could clean the polluted water of a river in Taiwan. These and other accounts are detailed on our Web site.
Fortunately the looming threat of global water shortage has been acknowledged, and many of the stories in this book describe the efforts of those who are fighting against the reckless use of water for agriculture, industry, and domestic applications, the pollution of rivers and lakes, the draining of the wetlands, and so on.
Today we fight wars about oil, but as Ismail Seregeldin (then with the World Bank) said at the end of the last century: "The wars of the next century will be fought over water." We could could, with major changes in the way most people live today, survive without oil. But we could not could not survive without water. survive without water.
Hope for China Almost always, when I voice my hope that we humans can find a way out of the environmental mess we have made, someone will point out what is happening in China. Do I realize, they want to know, the extent to which that giant country, containing one-fifth of the world"s human population, is destroying its environment? And the threat that this poses for the rest of the world? I do, indeed. I have been to China once a year since 1998 and seen with my own eyes the speed of development, the staggering number of new roads and buildings-and cities-that spring up almost overnight. And I know full well that this rapid economic development has taken a heavy toll on the environment. In many cases, it has led to a great deal of human misery also.
As China opened up in the early 1980s, people were offered jobs manufacturing goods for outside markets-and the biggest migration in history was set in motion as the rural poor flocked to the new cities. And there, only too often, they found themselves and their children working in sweatshops, exploited so that China could undercut prices of goods made in the West. They tolerated this because they believed or hoped that it would eventually create a new economy from which they could benefit.
Meanwhile, the level of environmental degradation has soared. Two-thirds of China"s main rivers are too polluted for the water to be used for drinking or agriculture. The aquatic ecosystems have been destroyed-the Yangtze River dolphin became extinct. There has been devastating destruction of habitats across the country. And having harmed so much of her own environment, China, desperate to acquire materials such as timber and minerals to sustain her economic growth, is plundering the natural resources of other countries. Especially in Africa where many politicians are willing to sell off the future of their children to make a quick buck.
No wonder so many have given up on China"s environment-including many of the Chinese people. But it is important to realize that China is only doing what has been and often still is being done by many other countries. The impact is worse because of the country"s staggering number of people and, until fairly recently, the government"s refusal to admit there was anything wrong.
The good news is that people in China are now beginning to talk openly about the need to improve the environment and to set aside areas for the conservation of wildlife. (See this book"s chapters on the giant panda, the crested ibis, and the milu.) Another story, highlighted on our Web site, describes steps being taken to preserve areas of wetland to benefit the critically endangered Chinese alligator. Moreover, JGI"s youth program, Roots & Shoots, which involves young people of all ages in activities to improve the environment for wildlife as well as their own communities, is active in many parts of the country, with offices in Beijing, Shanghai, Chengdu, and Nanchang. There are about six hundred groups in all.
And the story of the Loess Plateau is another reason for hope. It is an area approximately the size of France in the northwest of China. It is home to about ninety million people who were, for many long years, trapped in a vicious cycle of poverty and environmental destruction that only got worse as time went on. For years, the Loess Plateau was considered the most eroded place on earth.
The almost miraculous restoration of this desolate area to a landscape boasting a thriving environment for people and at least some animals has been doc.u.mented by my friend John Liu in his inspirational film Earth"s Hope Earth"s Hope. It ill.u.s.trates what can be done when a powerful government, backed by the World Bank, decides to take action.
Clearly the hundreds of millions of dollars spent were a wise investment, for already the local communities are thriving. The sense of hopelessness once shared by the population has been replaced by cautious optimism, and young people now expect an education and a future.
And there is hope for wildlife, too. It was decided from the start that there should be clear distinction between land designated for human use, and land that would be most valuable set aside to ensure, for example, protection of the watershed, soil stability, carbon sequestration, and biodiversity. And this "ecological land" could provide a refuge for local endangered species-rescuing them from the extinction many are currently facing.
Lesson from Gombe The extreme environmental degradation of the Loess Plateau came about because the people sank ever deeper into poverty and hopelessness. Again and again I have seen, as I travel around the developing world, how rural poverty (that so often goes hand in hand with overpopulation) almost invariably causes great damage to the environment. But it was in Tanzania that I suddenly realized that we could only save the Gombe chimpanzees and their forests, in the long term, with the support of the local people. And that we could not hope for such support while they themselves, desperately poor, were struggling to survive.
When, in 1960, I arrived at Gombe National Park to start my chimpanzee study, lush forest stretched for miles along the eastern sh.o.r.es of Lake Tanganyika and inland as far as the eye could see. But over the years, growing populations of local people, swollen by refugees, cut down the trees for firewood and building poles. By the early 1990s, the trees outside the park had almost all gone, and much of the soil was exhausted. Women had to walk farther and farther from their villages in search of fuel wood, adding hours of labor to their already difficult days.
Looking for new land to clear for their crops, people turned to ever steeper and more unsuitable hillsides. With the trees gone, more and more soil was washed away during the rainy season; the soil erosion worsened and landslides became frequent.
By the late 1970s, the chimpanzees were more or less trapped within their tiny thirty-square-mile national park. There could be no exchange of females between groups-which prevents inbreeding-and with only some one hundred individuals remaining, the long-term viability of the Gombe population was grim. Yet how could we even try to protect them while the people outside the park were so desperate, envious of the lush forested area from which they were excluded?
Building Up Goodwill Clearly it was necessary to gain the goodwill and cooperation of the villagers. In 1994 the Jane Goodall Inst.i.tute (JGI) initiated TACARE (take care), a program designed to improve the lives of the people in these very poor communities. Project manager George Strunden put together a team of talented and dedicated local Tanzanians who visited the twelve villages closest to Gombe to discuss their problems. They worked out together how TACARE could best help.
Not surprisingly, conservation issues were not listed as top priorities. The main concerns were health, access to clean water, growing more food, and education for their children. And so, working with regional medical authorities, we introduced a new level of primary health care in the villages, including basic information about hygiene and HIV-AIDS. We established tree nurseries and developed ways to restore vitality to exhausted land-farming techniques best suited for the degraded soil. Roots & Shoots, our educational program for youth, was eventually introduced into all the villages. And as TACARE became ever more successful, we were able to start a micro-finance program enabling women to take out very small loans (almost always repaid) to start their own projects-which have to be environmentally friendly and sustainable.
The Importance of Women All around the world, it has been shown that as women"s education improves, family size tends to drop-and after all, it was the growth of the population in the area that first led to the grim conditions TACARE was trying to address. It would be irresponsible to introduce ways of growing more food and saving the lives of more babies, without, at the same time, talking about the need for small families. There are TACARE-trained volunteers from each village, men as well as women, who provide counseling-that is well received-about family planning.
Information about family planning, along with access to health care for her children, enables a woman to realistically plan her family. If she has also received an education, things will go even better. So we started a scholarship program for girls-for a poor family is more likely to educate boys, leaving the girls, once they have finished their first years of compulsory education in the primary schools, to help at home. Some of our girls are now in college.
Restoring and Protecting Recently I went with our forester, Aristedes Kashula, to one of the villages. A woman demonstrated her new cooking stove, which greatly reduces the amount of firewood she needs. Because all the women get fuel wood from a village woodlot of fast-growing trees, they no longer need to hack at the stumps of trees that once grew on the bare hillside. And such is the regenerative power of nature that a new tree will spring from the seemingly dead stump-and within five years it will be twenty to thirty feet high. Kashula pointed out a hillside now covered in trees. "It"s just one of our TACARE forests," he said. "Nine years ago that slope was quite bare."
The villagers gathered under the trees to greet us, including two shy scholarship girls. A ten-year-old R&S leader, confident in his tight-fitting red-striped shirt, told us about the trees his club was planting. I told them how I spoke about the TACARE villages as I traveled around the world. "And," I said, "we must remember to thank the chimps. It was because of them that I came to Tanzania-and see what it has all led to!" I ended with a chimpanzee pant-hoot pant-hoot and had all the villagers joining in. and had all the villagers joining in.
TACARE has greatly improved the lives of the people in twenty-four villages around Gombe, generating a level of cooperation that would have been unthinkable before. And today, under the leadership of Emmanuel Mt.i.ti, we are reaching out to many other villages in the large, mostly degraded area that we call the Greater Gombe ecosystem, with the aim of restoring the forests. Most recently, with government support, we are introducing the TACARE programs in a very large and relatively spa.r.s.ely populated area to the south, hoping to protect the forests before they are cut down and thus save many of Tanzania"s remaining chimpanzees.
In TACARE villages women can take out tiny loans and start their own environmentally sustainable projects-such as establishing a tree nursery.(JGI/George Strunden) Emmanual Mt.i.ti showing me, for the first time, the regenerating forest outside Gombe National Park-the leafy corridor that will enable the chimpanzees to leave the park and interact with other remnant groups. (Richard Koburg) (Richard Koburg) Chimpanzees, Corridors, and Coffee The farmers in the high hills round Gombe grow some of the best coffee in Tanzania, but because of the lack of roads and transport difficulties, they often lump their superior beans with those grown at lower alt.i.tudes. Green Mountain Coffee Roasters was the first company to join us in our effort to get these farmers a good price. Now there are a few specialty brands on the market in the United States and Europe, and the farmers-as well as connoisseurs of good coffee-are overjoyed.
The goodwill generated is helping the chimpanzees as well. Every village is required, by the government, to create a Land Management Plan, which includes allocating an agreed percentage of their land for protection or restoration of forest cover. Now many of the villages are setting aside up to 20 percent of their land for forest conservation. They"re also working with JGI"s amazingly talented Lilian Pintea, an expert in GPS technology and satellite imagery, to ensure that these protected areas will form a corridor so that the chimpanzees will no longer be trapped in the park. That will link them to other remnant populations living in the vast habitats we are helping to protect.
Early in 2009, I stood with Emmanuel Mt.i.ti on a high ridge looking over at the steep hills behind Gombe. A few years ago, those hills had been bare and eroded by desperate attempts to grow crops. Now I could see trees-hundreds and hundreds of them, many more than twelve feet high. This regeneration stretched as far as we could see, toward the Burundi border to the north and the town of Kigoma to the south. It was the first part of the leafy corridor about which I have been dreaming since TACARE started. A last chance for the long-term survival of the Gombe chimpanzees.
PROTECTORS OF THE PROTECTORS OF THE.
WORLD OF PLANTSFor most people, mention of endangered species brings to mind giant pandas, tigers, mountain gorillas, and other such charismatic members of the animal kingdom. Seldom do we think of trees and plants in the same category-as life-forms that, in many cases, we have pushed to the brink of extinction and that desperately need our help if they are to survive. This discussion about healing earth"s scars ill.u.s.trates that, through a combination of human determination, scientific know-how, and the resilience of nature, even badly compromised habitats can be restored-and time and again we find that it is plants that start the process. Somehow they take root on rock we have laid bare, on land and in water contaminated with pollutants. Slowly they build up the soil and clean the water, paving the way for other life-forms to follow. This discussion about healing earth"s scars ill.u.s.trates that, through a combination of human determination, scientific know-how, and the resilience of nature, even badly compromised habitats can be restored-and time and again we find that it is plants that start the process. Somehow they take root on rock we have laid bare, on land and in water contaminated with pollutants. Slowly they build up the soil and clean the water, paving the way for other life-forms to follow. Without plants, animals (including ourselves) cannot survive. Herbivores eat plants directly; carnivores eat creatures that have fed on plants-or, to be picky, they may eat animals that fed on animals that fed on plants. Without plants, animals (including ourselves) cannot survive. Herbivores eat plants directly; carnivores eat creatures that have fed on plants-or, to be picky, they may eat animals that fed on animals that fed on plants. Yet for the most part, the work of the botanists and horticulturalists who battle to save unique plant species from extinction, and to restore habitats, goes unnoticed. The more I thought about this, the more I realized that it was really important to recognize the sometimes extraordinary work that has been and is being done to preserve the rich diversity and sheer beauty of the plant life that brightens our planet. I wanted to acknowledge the contributions of the field botanists who travel to remote places to collect specimens of endangered species, the talented horticulturalists who struggle to germinate reluctant seeds, the skill and patience of those working in herbariums, seed banks, and the many Centers for Plant Conservation that have been established in so many places around the world. Yet for the most part, the work of the botanists and horticulturalists who battle to save unique plant species from extinction, and to restore habitats, goes unnoticed. The more I thought about this, the more I realized that it was really important to recognize the sometimes extraordinary work that has been and is being done to preserve the rich diversity and sheer beauty of the plant life that brightens our planet. I wanted to acknowledge the contributions of the field botanists who travel to remote places to collect specimens of endangered species, the talented horticulturalists who struggle to germinate reluctant seeds, the skill and patience of those working in herbariums, seed banks, and the many Centers for Plant Conservation that have been established in so many places around the world. Many of these scientists have generously shared their stories with me or informed me of the work of others. And while unfortunately we cannot pay tribute here to all these champions of the plant kingdom, many of their fascinating stories can be found, gloriously ill.u.s.trated, on our Web site. Many of these scientists have generously shared their stories with me or informed me of the work of others. And while unfortunately we cannot pay tribute here to all these champions of the plant kingdom, many of their fascinating stories can be found, gloriously ill.u.s.trated, on our Web site. They are dedicated, these custodians of our botanical world. They travel to remote places, searching for rare species, collecting seeds, dangling from ropes to hand-pollinate the last individuals of an endangered plant that has taken refuge in the most inaccessible and inhospitable terrain. They have worked, year after year, to find ways of propagating, in captivity, some plant that is vanishing-or gone from the wild. Some of these heroes I have met, such as Paul Scannell and Andrew Pritchard, who have worked tirelessly for years to protect and restore some of Australia"s endangered orchids, and Robert Robichaux, who has devoted his life to saving and restoring the glorious silversword and other Hawaiian plants. They are dedicated, these custodians of our botanical world. They travel to remote places, searching for rare species, collecting seeds, dangling from ropes to hand-pollinate the last individuals of an endangered plant that has taken refuge in the most inaccessible and inhospitable terrain. They have worked, year after year, to find ways of propagating, in captivity, some plant that is vanishing-or gone from the wild. Some of these heroes I have met, such as Paul Scannell and Andrew Pritchard, who have worked tirelessly for years to protect and restore some of Australia"s endangered orchids, and Robert Robichaux, who has devoted his life to saving and restoring the glorious silversword and other Hawaiian plants. Carlos Magdalena-skilled and pa.s.sionate Kew Botanical Gardens" horticulturist with the cafe marron he saved from extinction. Carlos Magdalena-skilled and pa.s.sionate Kew Botanical Gardens" horticulturist with the cafe marron he saved from extinction.(Carlos Magdalena)When I visited Kew Botanical Gardens, I heard many fascinating stories about plants in the collection. Carlos Magdalena told me about the cafe marron, a small flowering shrub that was rediscovered by a schoolboy on Rodrigues Island (off Mauritius) about a hundred years after it was last seen. This was exciting, and the area was searched carefully in the hope that other individuals would be found. It seemed, however, that only the one plant had survived. Carlos described the nightmare of protecting it. "It was in poor health and attacked by two insect pests," he told me. "It was the last specimen of a species unique in its genus. It did not set seed. There was no information on its cultivation and no other similar surviving species for comparison. Several invasive plant species were growing next to it. It was a few meters off a public road, on a private piece of land, on a remote island with no botanical gardens. And frequently exposed to cyclones!" "It was in poor health and attacked by two insect pests," he told me. "It was the last specimen of a species unique in its genus. It did not set seed. There was no information on its cultivation and no other similar surviving species for comparison. Several invasive plant species were growing next to it. It was a few meters off a public road, on a private piece of land, on a remote island with no botanical gardens. And frequently exposed to cyclones!" Carlos built a cage around the sole survivor shrub to protect it from the locals, who tried to obtain branches for use as a local medicinal remedy. "Somehow somebody managed to jump in and cut the plant almost to ground level ..." Carlos built a cage around the sole survivor shrub to protect it from the locals, who tried to obtain branches for use as a local medicinal remedy. "Somehow somebody managed to jump in and cut the plant almost to ground level ..." Eventually, after two years of struggling with bureaucracy, three cuttings from the sickly survivor arrived with Carlos at Kew. And only one grew. Carlos"s seventeen-year struggle to persuade the cafe marron to produce fertile seeds is one of my favorite plant stories. Eventually, after two years of struggling with bureaucracy, three cuttings from the sickly survivor arrived with Carlos at Kew. And only one grew. Carlos"s seventeen-year struggle to persuade the cafe marron to produce fertile seeds is one of my favorite plant stories. I asked him how it had felt to be primary caretaker for a very rare specimen like the cafe marron. "It is quite a responsibility," he said, "when you suspect or know for certain that if it dies in your gla.s.shouse-the whole species goes. It has scared me to death on several occasions. Going home on a Friday in a summer heat wave and thinking: Will it be there on Monday? ... Will the person on duty remember to water it properly? Have I watered it too much? Or too little? This is something I"m trying to get used to but I haven"t yet!" I asked him how it had felt to be primary caretaker for a very rare specimen like the cafe marron. "It is quite a responsibility," he said, "when you suspect or know for certain that if it dies in your gla.s.shouse-the whole species goes. It has scared me to death on several occasions. Going home on a Friday in a summer heat wave and thinking: Will it be there on Monday? ... Will the person on duty remember to water it properly? Have I watered it too much? Or too little? This is something I"m trying to get used to but I haven"t yet!" I also heard about Cooke"s kokio ( I also heard about Cooke"s kokio (Kokia cookei), a tree discovered in 1860 in Hawaii that was, over the next 118 years, believed on three separate occasions to have become extinct. Each time it was rediscovered years later-only to vanish again. The last time this happened, in 1970, the one remaining tree was killed in a fire. And yet one branch, charred and blackened, was able to provide a few fertile seeds. And so Cooke"s kokio lives on. Carlos showed me a beautiful flowering shrub ( Carlos showed me a beautiful flowering shrub (Cylindrocline lorecenci) that had been-quite literally-raised from the dead. The story ill.u.s.trates both the resilience of nature and the ingenuity of horticulturists (this time in France). Seeds had been collected fourteen years before the last living plant died, but unfortunately none of them germinated. Still, in just two of those seeds the scientists detected a few live cells cells. And from these, against all odds, they persuaded a new plant to grow. Finally, on our Web site is the story of a truly dedicated field botanist, Reid Moran. For decades he was a sort of living myth in botanical exploration in Baja California and the Pacific Islands of Mexico. In 1996, Moran wrote Finally, on our Web site is the story of a truly dedicated field botanist, Reid Moran. For decades he was a sort of living myth in botanical exploration in Baja California and the Pacific Islands of Mexico. In 1996, Moran wrote The Flora of Guadalupe Island, The Flora of Guadalupe Island, which describes the immense botanical richness of the island but also a.n.a.lyzes, with despair, the devastating impact of the goats and other introduced species. "With its unique flora it is a Mexican treasure that urgently needs protection," he said, "the most beautiful island I know ..." which describes the immense botanical richness of the island but also a.n.a.lyzes, with despair, the devastating impact of the goats and other introduced species. "With its unique flora it is a Mexican treasure that urgently needs protection," he said, "the most beautiful island I know ..." Reid Moran on Mexico"s Guadalupe Island, collecting a rare specimen of the endemic Guadalupe rock daisy ( Reid Moran on Mexico"s Guadalupe Island, collecting a rare specimen of the endemic Guadalupe rock daisy (Perityle incana) that survives on a steep bluff, out of the destructive reach of goats. Around the world, botanists like Reid have risked and devoted their lives to preserving the diversity of earth"s plant species. (San Diego Natural History Museum) (San Diego Natural History Museum)Moran retired, but one of his friends, Dr. Exequiel Ezcurra, director of the Biodiversity Research Center of the Californias in San Diego, was a great admirer of Moran"s work. A question lingered in Exequiel"s mind: Could some of this collapsing paradise, with its incredible biological richness, still be saved? An expedition was organized and it was found that the situation, overall, was bleak, with many of the island"s unique species apparently gone and others seeming on the brink of extinction. Unless something was urgently done, the island would be a "paradise lost." Exequiel told me a dramatic story about the international cooperation and heroic efforts it took to secure funding and painstakingly restore the devastated island to its glorious paradisiacal condition. Exequiel told me a dramatic story about the international cooperation and heroic efforts it took to secure funding and painstakingly restore the devastated island to its glorious paradisiacal condition. In this book, we have shared stories of islands that were restored in order to provide the right habitat for endangered animals. Guadalupe Island was restored primarily to protect its beautiful and endangered flora-although it did see the vitalization of many birds and insects. In this book, we have shared stories of islands that were restored in order to provide the right habitat for endangered animals. Guadalupe Island was restored primarily to protect its beautiful and endangered flora-although it did see the vitalization of many birds and insects. This story ill.u.s.trates, in a striking way, the resilience of nature: Many of the plants on Guadalupe Island had weathered years of a very hostile environment and somehow survived. It is truly a success story, and without the pioneering work of botanist Reid Moran it would never have happened. This story ill.u.s.trates, in a striking way, the resilience of nature: Many of the plants on Guadalupe Island had weathered years of a very hostile environment and somehow survived. It is truly a success story, and without the pioneering work of botanist Reid Moran it would never have happened. Without all the other men and women who are working so hard to conserve and protect our plants and their environments, our planet would be a poorer place. Their efforts are not usually well known, yet their contributions are so important, so meaningful. It is unfortunate that there isn"t enough s.p.a.ce to pay tribute to them here, but their stories will brighten our Web site and open many eyes to the wonders of the plant kingdom. Without all the other men and women who are working so hard to conserve and protect our plants and their environments, our planet would be a poorer place. Their efforts are not usually well known, yet their contributions are so important, so meaningful. It is unfortunate that there isn"t enough s.p.a.ce to pay tribute to them here, but their stories will brighten our Web site and open many eyes to the wonders of the plant kingdom.
A moment of trust. When infant Flint reached out to me, my heart melted. I loved him. (Hugo van Lawick/NGS) (Hugo van Lawick/NGS)
Why Save Endangered Species?
Why should we bother to save endangered species? For some, the answer is simple. My friend Shawn Gressel, of the Sioux Tribe in South Dakota, works to reintroduce the swift fox and the black-footed ferret on tribal lands. One day while we sat talking and looking at his photographs, Shawn said to me, "Some people ask me why it matters. They want to know why am I doing it. And I tell them it is because these animals belong belong on the land. They have a right to be there." He feels "obligated" to the animals he is working with. on the land. They have a right to be there." He feels "obligated" to the animals he is working with.
Shawn is not alone. Many, if not most, of those I have spoken to feel much the same-even if they prefer (or have been advised) to give a scientific explanation of the importance of their work. And of course, there can be no question of the importance of protecting an ecosystem and preventing the loss of biodiversity. Yet there are millions of people who simply "don"t get it." Especially if the species concerned is an insect-"Just a bug!" When the Salt Creek tiger beetle was listed as federally endangered, and federal money was released to help safeguard some of the unique and endangered habitat where it lives, there was a heated exchange of e-mails printed in the local Lincoln, Nebraska, newspaper. While many readers welcomed the decision, many others were shocked and horrified; some, too, were genuinely mystified. Here are three examples-and one hears similar opinions in many places.
A man calling himself d.i.c.k wrote, "Hundreds of thousands of species have come and gone without humans trying to save them. Even animals we killed off are probably happier now. Look at the dodo bird, what major environmental impact did all of them being wiped out have, other than sailors not having an easy lunch?"
Jill Jenkins asked, "Can someone tell me what difference it would make in our world as a whole, if this beetle were to become extinct?? I am really thankful our U.S. government wasn"t around to offer grants to keep the dinosaur from becoming extinct. One half million dollars to save a bug when millions of humans are homeless and hungry. We should be ashamed!"
Then someone named J had this to say: "Now I have heard it all! I am getting so sick of our "fine" government making kindergarten decisions like this! We need to save our humans that are inflicted with cancer and other life threatening illnesses before we care about this beetle thing! If I saw one in my house I would smash it!"
There were, of course, many letters from people who understood the importance of protecting the environment, even if they did not understand the reasons in detail. Theresa, for example, wrote: "It amazes me how spoiled-rotten Americans are, with our gas-guzzling SUVs and oversized ... everything! If we don"t nurture our habitat, our entire world will become one big Easter Island!" (The full story of the fight to save the Salt Creek tiger beetle can be found on our Web site.) It is indeed true that the expense of saving an endangered species can be exorbitant, so it is fortunate that in many countries there are laws protecting life-forms threatened with extinction. Else the damage inflicted on the natural world would be even greater. Hundreds of thousands of dollars may be spent on re-routing a road to protect the habitat of some small seemingly insignificant creature; a company may be forced to relocate a proposed development if the area is also home to an endangered species-or else buy suitable land elsewhere and even foot the bill of relocating the species concerned. (There are heartwarming accounts of all this on our Web site.) The reclamation of degraded habitats may cost us dearly, yet these efforts are among the most important facing us as we move into a new millennium.
We Need Wilderness to Nurture Our Souls Scientists are continually providing facts and figures that can be used to explain the importance, to ourselves and our future, of preserving ecosystems. But the natural world has another value that cannot be expressed in materialistic terms. Twice a year, I spend a few days in Gombe-that"s all the time I have. Of course, I hope that I will see the chimpanzees. But I also look forward to the hours I spend alone in the forest, sitting on the peak where I once sat as a young woman and looking out over the forested valleys and the vast expanse of Lake Tanganyika. And I love to sit absorbing the spiritual energy of the Kakombe waterfall as it drops eighty feet to the rocky streambed below, the vegetation constantly moving in the wind of falling water. No wonder the chimpanzees perform their spectacular waterfall displays, "dancing" in the shallow water at the base of the falls, swaying rhythmically from foot to foot, hurling huge rocks, then sitting to watch the mystery of Water-always coming, always going, always there in front of them. No wonder this was one of the sacred places where the medicine men, in the old days, would come to perform their secret rituals. It is these experiences that fill my heart and mind with peace-being, even for a short time, part of the forest, connected once more with the mystery, feeding my soul.
Jeremy Madeiros, who has dedicated his life"s work to protecting the Bermuda petrels, or cahow, told me how he was taken to a California redwood forest when he was eleven years old. For him, being among those giant ancient trees was a spiritual experience, as it is for so many of us. "It was a defining moment in my life," he told me. "It determined my future path."
Rod Sayler, working to save the pygmy rabbit in Washington State, believes that human values and ethics should, where possible, drive the saving of endangered species. "We are treading too harshly on the earth and consuming and degrading too much of the planet," he said. "If we allow extinctions to happen through ignorance or greed, then with the loss of each endangered species and unique population, our world becomes less diverse and strikingly less beautiful and mysterious. Our oceans, gra.s.slands, and forests will echo with silence, and the human heart will know that something is missing-but it will be too late." He argues that, although the fight to save endangered species may be costly, "can the human spirit afford not to try? If we do not, someday we will look back with the wisdom of time and regret our decision."
The Keepers of the Planet: What Keeps Them Going Fortunately for the future of the planet and all its life-forms, including us and our children, there are, as we have seen, brave souls out there fighting day after day to save what is left and restore what has gone. Working on this book has been a real privilege, for I have met so many of these extraordinary, dedicated, and pa.s.sionate people from around the globe. Many of them, as described, have spent years working in remote places, enduring considerable personal discomfort and sometimes very real dangers. They have had to battle, too, not only with the harsher aspects of nature but also with uninformed, unimaginative, and shortsighted officials who refuse permission to move ahead with urgently needed management actions. Yet they have not given up.
What keeps them going? I asked some of those who have been longest in the field. All of them confessed to loving the wilderness, being out there with nature. And, as well, they became utterly absorbed in the work-almost, for some of them, it was like a mission. They simply couldn"t give up. They became, as the wife of Dean Biggins (one of the black-footed ferret team) put it, "obsessed."
Don Merton has devoted his life to saving endangered birds. This is Adler, a juvenile kakapo-one of the many island birds that Don heroically rescued from the brink. "If you didn"t love and respect the creatures you are trying to save you couldn"t spend decades crawling through treacherous terrain and dangling from ropes," he told me. (The dramatic story of saving the kakapo, the only flightless parrot in the world, is told on our Web site.) (Margaret Shepard) (Margaret Shepard) Don Merton, who has worked so hard to protect island birds, told me that most of all he loved "the ultimate challenge-fighting to save the last few individuals of a unique life-form. The black robin is one of New Zealand"s living treasures ... I felt a ma.s.sive responsibility to current and future generations to save this fantastic little bird from the brink of extinction." He told me that he could hardly wait to get back to the field each spring to find out how the individual birds had fared. And, he said, "Some of my colleagues became annoyed with me when I rose very early to start searching at first light, and woke them!"
Graduate student Len Zeoli with a highly endangered Columbia Basin pygmy rabbit. "How can you see one, know one, and not love these little creatures," he said to me. "That"s what drives us. That is what keeps us going." (Dr. Rod Sayler) (Dr. Rod Sayler) Chris Lucash, after twenty-one years with the Red Wolf Recovery Program, told me that during the early years when they were releasing the wolves into the wild, he felt privileged to have the opportunity of being part of something he believed was so very important. "I had unwavering energy," he said. "I had a difficult time sleeping and wanted only to stay out keeping track of the wolves and try to figure out everywhere they went, what they did, why they did it, what they ate. I took little or no time off. I lived red wolves, and was baffled, confused by, and almost intolerant of people-friends and family-who did not feel the way I did about the program." And still, after more than twenty years working with the wolves, he looks forward to going to work "every day-sometimes even on Sundays!"
Daring to Admit That We Love There is another aspect of their work that for some may be the most important-the relationship they establish with the animals they work with. I have described my own feelings for so many of Gombe"s chimpanzees. The one I loved best was David Greybeard, the first who lost his fear of me, who allowed me to groom him and tolerated my following him in the forest. And I remember, as though it happened but yesterday, the day I offered him a palm nut on my outstretched hand. Not wanting it, he turned away, but then he turned back and, looking directly into my eyes, took the nut, dropped it, then very gently squeezed my hand with his fingers. A chimpanzee gesture of rea.s.surance. And so we communicated perfectly, he and I, with shared gestures that, surely, predate our human spoken language.
Unfortunately in our materialistic world, where all that counts is the bottom line, human values of love and compa.s.sion are too often suppressed. To admit you care about animals, that you feel pa.s.sionately about them, that you love them, is sometimes counterproductive for those in conservation work and science. Emotional involvement with one"s subject is considered inappropriate by many scientists; scientific observations should be objective. Anyone who admits to truly caring about, having empathy with, an animal is liable to be written off as sentimental, and their research will be suspect.
Fortunately, most of the extraordinary individuals whose work is discussed in this book are not afraid of showing that they care. (Particularly those who have retired!) During one of my discussions with Carl Jones, of Mauritius Island fame, he echoed my own belief-that although scientists must have the ability to stand back and observe objectively, "they should also have empathy." Humans, he said, "are intuitive and empathetic before they are coldly scientific"-and he believes that most "scientists call on these underlying qualities every day." When he was working to save the Mauritius kestrels, he got to know and understand each bird as an individual. Don Merton waxed lyrical over the black robins, "those delightful, tame, friendly little birds." Over the years, Don said, "I naturally became very attached-even emotionally involved you might say! I just loved them." And Len Zeoli, when I asked him what motivated him to keep on working to save the pygmy rabbits, said simply, "How can you see one, know one, and not love these little creatures? That"s what drives us. That is what keeps us going."
Mike Pandey, while filming in India the barbaric method of killing gentle, harmless whale sharks, came across a huge individual who was dying. "It slowly turned to look at me ... beseeching and pleading ... the intelligent eyes spoke a million words." He said he would never forget that look: "Suddenly I was in communication with the majestic creature and there was a deep-rooted bonding." That was the turning point that transformed his life. He decided to "speak out for the voiceless" and started his long series of powerful films for conservation.
Brent Houston told me of the time when a young black-footed ferret approached him as he sat near the den, in the first light of day. "Without warning, he approached my foot and sniffed my hiking boot ... I thought the pounding of my heart would scare him, but I remained still, desperate for some sort of connection. He looked right up at me and at my face, into my eyes. And then the most extraordinary thing happened. This young ferret, looking up at me with his big round eyes, put his little black foot on my hiking boot and he held it there. I looked right at him and he looked at me and he saw me smile. It was one of the most satisfying moments in my long career of observing wildlife. Here was one of the last black-footed ferrets in the world reaching out to me, trusting me, perhaps even asking for my help."
It is this-this link between the human being and the other animals with whom we share Planet Earth, this connection we can establish with another life-form-that for many makes it possible to carry on. To carry on with work that can be so hard, carry on despite the frustrations and setbacks, and sometimes the outright hostility or ridicule of those who believe that to save any species from extinction is sentimental and a waste of money and resources.
But they cannot do it alone, these Keepers of the Planet. To save Planet Earth, each of us who cares must become involved in protecting and restoring the wild places and the animals and plants that live there. We hope that this book, together with our Web site, overflowing with stories of pa.s.sionate, dedicated, and always hopeful people, whose efforts have saved myriad life-forms from extinction, will encourage those who are out there now, working tirelessly as they try to save other highly endangered animals and plants, each one precious and unique. And those who are striving to prevent further species from becoming endangered. And yet others fighting to restore and protect the environment. Their tasks sometimes seem almost impossible-and if they had no hope of success, they would surely give up.
If we are without hope we fall into apathy. Without hope nothing will change. That is why we feel it is so desperately important to share our own, irrepressible hope for the animals and their world.
Historical photo taken on my veranda in Dar es Salaam on the day Roots & Shoots began in February 1991. (JGI) (JGI)
Appendix
What You Can Do
I meet so many people as I travel around the world who are deeply depressed by what is happening to our planet. The media are continually publishing, among a great deal of other shocking news, stories of deadly pollution, melting ice caps, devastated landscapes, loss of species, shrinking water supplies, and all the rest. In the face of such desperate information-which unfortunately is mostly true-people tend to feel helpless and often hopeless. "How can you remain optimistic?" is, as I have said, the question I am asked most often. meet so many people as I travel around the world who are deeply depressed by what is happening to our planet. The media are continually publishing, among a great deal of other shocking news, stories of deadly pollution, melting ice caps, devastated landscapes, loss of species, shrinking water supplies, and all the rest. In the face of such desperate information-which unfortunately is mostly true-people tend to feel helpless and often hopeless. "How can you remain optimistic?" is, as I have said, the question I am asked most often.
The best way I know to counteract despair is to do everything I can to make a difference, even in the smallest way, every day. To take some action to do something something about at least some of the bad things that are going on. That is why I left Gombe and the forests I love-to try to do my bit to raise awareness of the plight of the chimpanzees and their forests, and to do whatever I could myself. about at least some of the bad things that are going on. That is why I left Gombe and the forests I love-to try to do my bit to raise awareness of the plight of the chimpanzees and their forests, and to do whatever I could myself.
It is also important to realize that bad news is more likely to be published as being more "newsworthy." In fact, there are also many truly wonderful things going on as people work selflessly to make this a better world. One of the reasons we wanted to write Hope for Animals and Their World Hope for Animals and Their World was to share some of the good news. was to share some of the good news.
Throughout this book and on our Web site, there are stories of biologists who are working tirelessly to save endangered species. But there are countless others, members of the "general public," who also play a vital role. They often get no credit, their names, outside the area where they live, often unknown. And because sometimes their actions-demonstrating against some destructive plan of industry or government or writing letters to the relevant authorities-are not always successful, the true significance of the role they play is often underestimated. Yet in the long run, these are the people who truly matter. They donate their money, skills, or time, they help to raise awareness and persuade others to join them.
In all walks of life, people are contributing to the growing awareness of what is going on-writers, photographers, filmmakers, and those guiding an increasingly eager public on trips into nature. NGOs, with their education programs, encourage people to volunteer in field projects, learning about the natural world and taking action to help protect it. Landowners may sign Safe Harbor agreements, protecting the habitat of an endangered species; others may sign a conservation eas.e.m.e.nt, receiving financial benefits for helping wildlife by not not developing or cultivating their land. developing or cultivating their land.
And then there is the role played by youth. Why am I devoting so much time to working with children? Because it is not much use for me or anyone else to work desperately to save animals and their world if we are not, at the same time, educating our youth to be better stewards than we have been.
ROOTS & SHOOTS-WHAT YOUTH CAN DO In view of the gloom and doom everywhere, I was hardly surprised to find, as I traveled around the world, that so many young people seemed depressed, angry, or apathetic. It was, they told me, because their future had been compromised and there was nothing they could do about it.
We have indeed compromised their future. There is an indigenous proverb: "We have not inherited this planet from our parents; we have borrowed it from our children." But it is not true. When you borrow, borrow, there is the intention of paying back. We have been relentlessly there is the intention of paying back. We have been relentlessly stealing stealing our children"s future. Yet it is not true there is nothing to be done about it. our children"s future. Yet it is not true there is nothing to be done about it.
My contribution was to start our Roots & Shoots humanitarian and environmental program. This encourages its members to roll up their sleeves and undertake projects that improve things for people, for animals, and for the environment-projects that have a positive impact on the world around us. Its most important message is that every individual matters and has a role to play-that each of us makes a difference every day. every day. And that the c.u.mulative result of thousands of millions of even small efforts is major change. And that the c.u.mulative result of thousands of millions of even small efforts is major change.
The name is symbolic. The first tiny roots and shoots of a germinating seed look so tiny and fragile-hard to believe this can grow into a big tree. Yet there is so much life force in that seed that the roots can work their way through boulders to reach water, and the shoot can work its way through cracks in a brick wall to reach the sun. Eventually the boulders and the wall-all the harm, environmental and social, that has resulted from our greed, cruelty, and lack of understanding-will be pushed aside. Just as hundreds and thousands of roots and shoots-the youth of the world-can solve many of the problems their elders have created for them.