World Wildlife Fund PSA: soft approach can be one more effective tool

The World Wildlife Fund (WWF) has produced some outstanding radio, print and television PSA's (public service announcements) over the years. These forms of communication often are subtle because they are, by nature, intrusive. Here's a link to one of their most current PSA commercials (click on image):
The imagery is eye-catching and the message is simple (and it borrows from one of my favorite songwriters, Joni Mitchell). Some might argue over the effectiveness of the "soft" approach because with each day ecological and environmental issues become more critical, but it is one piece of a strategy, one weapon in their arsenal of tools to enlighten people.

I was listening to a political commentary show and the panelists were discussing the politics of fear and if and where it can be effective. The consensus was that it can lack effectiveness when addressing big picture/long term issues; it can come off sounding like Chicken Little screaming that the sky is falling. People often have difficulty thinking in terms of the big picture and they will tune out or close down to warnings of cataclysmic futures because it is something to which they can't easily relate. It's so dire they would rather hide under a rock and live with the status quo than deal with it.

That's where the softer approach can have value, wedging open the door of long-term thinking just a little - whether its politics or conservation. Immediate and personal issues might require a stronger clarion and together, with messages like the one WWF puts forth in the PSA above, perhaps we can move the audience to react to immediate issues of concern while also expanding their minds to more expansive or greater long-term solutions.

Every little bit helps.

Coral Reefs Around the World: an extensive report & an important proposal - what you can do

As many of you know, the Earth's coral reefs have been showing serious signs of damage from pollution, temperature change, acidification, and destructive fishing techniques. It seems no coral reef on the planet has been immune from some level of impact.

The South Pacific contains some of the richest marine environments, particularly an area known as the "Coral Triangle" that includes Indonesia, the Philippines, Malaysia, Papua New Guinea, the Solomon Islands, and Timor Leste. While the Coral Triangle only represents 1% of the earth's surface, it includes 30% of the world's reefs, 76% of the reef building coral species, and 30% of the coral reef fish species.

And according to The Coral Triangle and Climate Change: Ecosystems, People and Societies at Risk, a report from the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) and the University of Queensland, Australia, the Coral Triangle is gravely at risk - with major consequences not only for the marine environment but for the people who live and depend on the natural resources that benefit from the reef ecosystem.

This is an extensive and thorough report (229 pages) and I have only started to get into it. It's actually a compilation and analysis of over 300 published scientific studies involving biology, economics and fisheries science, so the conclusions are pretty solid. It basically puts forward two scenarios: one is the bleaker scenario, where nothing is adequately done and the coral reefs of the Coral Triangle are expected to disappear by the end of the century. This would bring about a major collapse of the regional coastal environment's ability to feed the population. Up to 100 million people would suffer loss of livelihoods, increased poverty, loss of food security, and there would be a major migration of people away from the coast, either moving into tighter, more over-populated communities inland or migrating to neighboring countries like Australia or New Zealand, further taxing the resources of those countries. In all, a pretty dire scenario of direct impacts on mankind if we choose to ignore the fate of this vital component of a healthy marine ecosystem.

The other scenario, however, is a more promising one, avoiding the worst-case scenario, if governments and commerce can wake up to the seriousness of the issue and respond by controlling CO2 emissions, provide better management of fisheries, and control pollution and declining coastal water quality. There would still be a level of coral loss, a rise in sea level, and increased storm and drought activity - but if we act now, it can be brought under manageable levels and even improve over time.

So, there's still time, but the clock is ticking and so action must be taken now rather than later. Click here to download the entire report.

On the other side of globe, deep water corals along the southeast coast of the U.S., from North Carolina to Florida, are at risk from destructive fishing techniques. Commercial deep-water fishing techniques include longlines and trawls the rake across the bottom, scraping up everything in its path - including delicate corals. And this isn't a gentle little rub; these nets can lift 18-ton rocks and pieces of reef right off the bottom. (Watch these techniques at work and you'll think twice about ordering that shrimp cocktail.)

Oceana is initiating a campaign to garner support for a proposed regulation by NOAA to protect as much as 23,000 square miles of deep coral reef area. Click here to learn more about what you can do.

Putting A Price On Nature: WWF starts new project to aid conservation

The World Wildlife Fund (WWF) is one of the largest conservation organizations with a broad range of interests and projects ranging from conservation of endangered species like tigers, gorillas, and rhinos to big picture issues like this one: putting a price on nature.

In essence this is a bit similar to the carbon credits concept that has been bounced around of late. Basically, the WWF is looking at the relationships between human society and nature, where ecosystems support economic development in a variety of ways; and then establish an economic model where those who benefit from the ecosystem would compensate those whose responsibility it would be to maintain the ecosystem. Well, here's an excerpt from their web site to explain it further:

Natural Capital: Putting a Price on Nature

By Dr. Taylor Ricketts

Sometimes pushing the limits of conservation means changing our perspective on a problem or challenging established assumptions. Doing so can unlock whole new approaches to conservation and lead to waves of success on the ground.

Assumption: Conservation and economic development are by nature at odds - a family can either earn money off their land or set it aside for conservation. With colleagues at Stanford University and The Nature Conservancy, we decided to turn this assumption on its head: What if people could be rewarded for conserving their land through payments from other people who value the "ecosystem services" that land provides? Could those who use the water that is cleaned when it flows through wetlands pay the owners of the wetlands to conserve that ecosystem? How cool would that be? That's how the Natural Capital Project was born.

To be fair, the concept of ecosystem services - and payments - has been around for a while. The goal our three organizations now share is to make them an operational force for conservation. We have set up experimental sites - in China, Tanzania, the Mesoamerican Reef, California and Hawaii - to test valuing ecosystem services in explicit economic terms. Some say it is politically dangerous to put a price tag on nature; others say it can't be done. Both could be true, but we believe the venture is worth the risk, as the rewards could be huge.

In Tanzania's Eastern Arc Mountains. Ancient forests here sustain thousands of species unique to the area. They give birth to half a dozen rivers providing water and electricity to more than 4 million people. Local villagers depend on the forest for firewood, medicinal plants, building materials and food. But in recent decades over 70 percent of the forest has been destroyed by logging, fires and farmland conversion. River flows have declined, interfering with hydropower and leading to increasingly frequent rolling blackouts in Tanzania's capital, Dar es Salaam. In short, the links between nature and human well-being are as tightly forged here as anywhere on Earth.

My WWF colleague Dr. Neil Burgess and I are working with international researchers, local experts and decision makers to calculate the forest's economic value to local, national, and global populations. With funding from the Packard Foundation and the Leverhulme Trust, we're creating maps that plot the value of ecosystem services including carbon sequestration, water purification, flood control, crop pollination, and harvested forest products. Only a few months into a five-year project, we've hit the ground running. Teams are in the field collecting data on water purification, carbon sequestration and timber. By the time you read this, we'll have met with leading decision makers to ensure our research is as useful as possible. In early 2008 we'll use the data and software we're now developing to publish our first maps. We already see clear political support and interest in using our products: The Tanzanian government has commissioned a task force on ecosystem services, based in part on the technical advice Neil has provided them for years. The Natural Capital Project is simply the most exciting initiative I've been involved with at WWF. Combining powerful research with strong and immediate application, we aim to break new intellectual ground and achieve big conservation results. It is experimental, with all the uncertainties that go along with any experiment. But we have the right partners, wonderful support from our leaders, and a powerful idea: making conservation economically attractive.

You can learn more about this and other WWF projects by visiting their web site, one of the most comprehensive in the conservation field.

Earth Hour 2009: lights out on March 28th

Another NGO-sponsored event is World Wildlife Fund's Earth Hour 09, coming up this March, 28th. This is an event where, starting at 8:30pm local time, for one hour we turn off the power - your lights, your TV, your iPod. What began as a Sydney, AU-only statement of concern in 2007, became a global event in 2008. It's a symbolic gesture to show worldwide interest and support for curbing our insatiable demand for resources and the toll it is taking on the climate and the environment as a whole.



Now, there are those who dismiss these symbolic gestures as merely jumping on the bandwagon to feel good about ourselves for a brief moment before firing up the flat screen and revving up our SUVs to pick up more soda in the plastic liter bottles. Well, in terms of concrete proactive measures, they may have a point to some extant.

But generating public awareness is a fundamental step toward solid action, so let's hope that Earth Hour 09 is a bigger success than ever before. And hopefully, after the lights come back on, there will be data to show just what that brief respite meant in terms of emissions saved, resources saved, and more.

To learn more about Earth Hour 09, click here.