Sian Ka'an Biosphere Reserve, Mexico

A week's escape from the Canadian winter to the sun and warmth of the Riviera Maya included a day's trip into the Sian Ka'an Biosphere Reserve. A rough drive by jeep followd by an extensive boat tour through part of the reserve provided for an excellent day back into some spectacular natural areas away from the resorts and their crowds. Searching for turtles in the extensive bays with fringing mangroves, was followed by a bottlenose dolphin sighting, a trip to a frigate bird colony, and then some snorkelling above the local reefs.

"Big Profit from Nature Protection"

True to the main intended theme of this blog, this post is a simple link to highlight an article published on the BBC News Website - http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/8357723.stm. It seems obvious that this objective conclusion would be reached eventually, once comprehensive evidence had been gathered.

Water !

The latest issue of Africa Geographic (Oct 2009), focuses on the criticality, threat to, and scarceness of Africa's fresh water resources. A continuous thread in many of the articles is that key components of the fresh water supply are often located outside of existing protected areas and therefore vulnerable to all sorts of human induced pressures. Over exploitation through deforestation, pollution of the water resources, and excessive use of available water supplies, are examples that not only have local impacts, but also significant negative downstream impacts. One article identifies an example of human activities actually having a devastating impact upstream of the actual activity. The enlarging of the Massingir Dam on the Olifants River in Mozambique caused flooding of the upstream gorge located in the Kruger National Park, South Africa's flagship conservation area. Firstly, this allowed for easy illegal access into the park. Secondly, although the exact cause has not been identified, it is also possible that the flooding of the gorge and associated water contamination corresponded with the mass death of over 200 crocodiles in the gorge, during the winter of 2008. The gorge is a critical breeding location for Nile crocodiles (Crocodylus niloticus). The boundaries and location of the Kruger National Park provide a stark example of a conservation area totally dependant on water sources located outside the park itself. The water sources and rivers are located in areas with intense human activities such as mining, agriculture and forestry. All six of the main rivers flow west to east through the park. Last year, during our backpacking trip to South America, we gained first hand experience of another staggering example of river pollution causing untold damage to fish and wildlife species downstream, as well as local communities dependant on the river for their survival. In Bolivia, we travelled for three days down stream to Rurrenebaque by boat, spending two nights camped on the river bank, and experiencing the rain forest predominantly from the river. A large part of the trip was outside of conservation areas. Gold extraction from the river continues by both family size and larger company operations. The alluvial gold is extracted by using a sluice box to separate the heavier sediment, and mercury to amalgamate the gold. A proportion of this mercury ends up back in the river entering the food chain. What these examples highlight is the need for conservation approaches to focus at an ecosystem level as a minimum, taking into account the full fresh water process including fresh water sources, catchment areas, the entire length of rivers and streams, and including ground water aquifers. Historically , many conservation areas have been proclaimed without taking into account ecosystem boundaries. An added challenge is that this more than often will require collaboration between neighboring countries.

Loch Lommond and The Trossachs National Park, Scotland

Just returned from a two week trip to the United Kingdom and learnt a bit more about the threats to the United Kingdom's only native squirrel - the red squirrel. The loch Lommond and The Trossachs National Park in Scotland, which we visited, is one of the areas where the red squirrel is still common, and was just spectacular with the autumn colours. The red squirrel has been displaced over a large part of its range by the exotic grey squirrel from North America, introduced in 1870. There are two main causes for the red squirrel decline. The larger grey squirrel out competes the red squirrel for food resources, the grey squirrels being able to digest unripened acorn and hazel nuts therefore reducing the availability of this food source to red squirrels. Secondly, the grey squirrels carry the parapox virus lethal to the red squirrels. It is not one way traffic though as red squirrels are conifer cone specialists able to strip away the scales to get at the seeds.

Rationale for Conservation Outside Protected Areas

Second assignment completed as part of my course in Biodiversity Conservation and Management. Rationale for Conservation Outside Protected Areas

Zimbabwe's Wildlife Catastrophe

A recent article in the Africa Geographic magazine, (Zimbabwe Lifelines), is a stark reminder that apart from the tremendous human suffering and ongoing poverty in the country, the countries spectacular wildlife and natural areas are under severe pressure as well. The article focuses on the Mana Pools National Park, which is a protected area I have never visited but read so much about. Having being born and raised in Zimbabwe, I have a close tie to the country, and ongoing hope that the country will be restored to a prime international widlife tourism destination, and all the benefits to the local people that go with that. The park staff, who are responsible for managing the area and it's wildlife, are unable to feed themselves with a salary that is worthless and to purchase the fuel necessary for work in a remote location.

What is a bigger struggle in my mind is to grasp the disparity between conservation initiatives in other parts of the world, and the fact that existing proclaimed protected areas in Zimbabwe, are at risk of at worst deproclamation, but certainly ongoing massive deterioration of the natural ecosystem and associated wildlife. We celebrate the re-introduction of spawning salmon to a local river system off Lake Ontario, and yet existing parks in Zimbabwe comprising stable populations of Africa's megafauna are being destroyed. Obviously both are important, but I begin to wonder if there is any hope on a global scale of reducing the ongoing loss in biodiversity. The reality is that the loss of natural ecosystems in Zimbabwe will eventually cause more suffering for the people of Zimbabwe, if not already.

Conservation of the North Atlantic Right Whale

As part of my ongoing part-time studies to learn more about conservation and the environment, I am currently studying a course in Biodiversity Conservation and Management through the University of London. Below is the link to a paper on the current conservation status of the North Atlantic Right Whale.
Conservation of Eubalaena glacialis (North Atlantic Right Whale)

Back Country Canoeing, Algonquin Provincial Park

Most remarkable about our recent canoeing trip into Algonquin Provincial Park was that for three nights and four days, we didn't see another human being. I didn't think that was possible in any conservation area so close to the huge population of southern Ontario. We had entered the park from the east and launched our canoe from Achray Camp. We only had a single portage of one kilometre to traverse to our final destination of Clemow Lake where we were the only campers for the complete duration of our stay. The trip in was miserable due to heavy rainfall, and for parts of our stay we stayed in camp reading and playing cards due to the rain. Besides that the spot was idyllic with magnificent views of the lake and surrounding coniferous forests. We were treated though to an abundance of smaller wildlife close to our camp including numerous watersnakes (see below), attracted by the many frogs.

Common Loon, Algonquin Provincial Park

A favourite sight and sound of a canoeing trip into Algonquin. To a rule, there is almost always a single pair without or without chicks on each of the lakes during summer.

Northern Watersnake, Eastern Algonquin Provincial Park

It seemed at times as though our campsite on Clemow Lake was overrun with watersnakes, very common on the east side of the park. The snakes are harmless, but still agressive as proved by one juvenile snake that threatened us when we went down to the water to clean our pots and cutlery. Below an adult and juvenile ...