From six o’clock on Thursday, several hundred people gathered at the Royal Institute of Great Britain in London’s Mayfair for an event organised by UK-based charity, Helping Rhinos. The evening, “Wonderful World of Rhinos”, was in aid of the Ol Pejeta Conservancy in central Kenya, a reserve officially established in 2004, and now home to the last three…
Month: March 2017
Saving the Iberian Lynx
We’ve already seen how invasive species, introduced into ecosystems by humans, pushed the kakapo and black robin to the edge of extinction in New Zealand. We’ve seen how the destruction of tropic rainforest for palm oil cultivation is endangering orang-utans, tigers, elephants and other fauna in Malaysia and Indonesia. Through the nineteenth and twentieth centuries,…
Sustainable Softs: What does “Fairtrade” Mean for Africa’s Coffee and Cocoa Farmers?
You’re probably vaguely familiar with the concept of Fairtrade chocolate or Fairtrade coffee. You’ll know that, if you buy Fairtrade products, you’re somehow helping communities in developing countries where the tea, coffee or cocoa is grown and harvested. That’s true (so keep buying Fairtrade!), but we can go a bit deeper. Fairtrade is best described as a…
Conservation Success Story II
For last week’s Conservation Success Story, we looked at the black robin, whose recovery from the brink of extinction was a quite remarkable feat of endurance, both from the robins themselves and the team of New Zealand conservationists who worked day and night through the 1980s to sustain a healthy population. While we’re over in…
