Dead or Alive: The Promise of Tourism for Shark Conservation
Posted by IZILWANE on May 8, 2013 When many people hear the words shark and tourism in the same sentence, the first thing they think of is how to avoid these creatures of the deep. The second thing is the ubiquitous image of a small diver in a shark cage, coming face-to-face with a great white in a caricature of what these…
Conservation Biology and Artistic Expression
Posted by IZILWANE on March 19, 2013 The decision to pursue conservation biology came after an incredible and intense 14 months of traveling through South America. There was no one moment or epiphany, no strike of clarity, just a slow and steady increase in awareness that I needed to work with the environment. The Andes, the Amazon, the deserts, the salt flats,…
Tiger Tourism: Can Travel Help Save These Big Cats?
Posted by IZILWANE on February 20, 2013 Tigers are one of the most charismatic and beautiful animals on earth. They are the world’s largest cat and can live across a wide range of habitats, from mountains to coastal wetlands. Most of the world’s tigers live in India within the borders of a number of national parks and tiger reserves; but their numbers…
Nusa Penida: Black Magic Island, Part II
Posted by IZILWANE on January 9, 2013 
By Altaire Cambata All Photos Courtesy of Justin May/Interwoven Multicolored quarter-sized candy wrappers, amassed by the fist full, were slipping through my gloves on my thirtieth trip to the trash bag in the corner of the lot. I crouched again, my dirty knees hovering above the aged, twisted plastic, the remnants of a bygone…
Livin’ La Veda: The Impact of El Salvador’s Ban on Consumption of Sea Turtles
Posted by IZILWANE on December 17, 2012 By Brad Nahill, SEEtheWILD and IZILWANE contributor Compared with its neighbors in Central America, El Salvador is a prime case study of the impact of damaged habitat on wildlife. The country has more coffee plantations than native forest, which is estimated to be less than five percent of the original forest cover. Less than three…
Nusa Penida: Black Magic Island, Part I
Posted by IZILWANE on October 17, 2012 There exists a solemn rite that every Balinese Hindu is expected to complete at least once during this lifetime. They must make a special pilgrimage to “Nusa Penida”, the black magic island, to visit a particular temple whose energy provides negative balance to the positive side of divinity. At one time Nusa Penida was inhabited by…
The Crucifix Moment – Slaughter of Innocence
Posted by IZILWANE on August 5, 2012 How does the slaughter of elephants happening now across Africa affect the innocence of children? For the makers of the film Lysander’s Song, they are inseparable. Cyril Christo and Marie Wilkinson’s five-year-old son Lysander was the inspiration for their project, a deeply-felt outcry against the illegal ivory trade. The rampant killing of these great…
Saving the African Elephant
Posted by IZILWANE on August 5, 2012 2011 marked the worst year for elephant poaching and illegal ivory trading since the height of the trade in the 1980s, according to the UK-based Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA). Following this lamentable news, both the British Parliament and the US Congress held hearings to address possible steps that the United Kingdom and the United States,…
SEEtheWILD and Saving the Sea Turtles
Posted by IZILWANE on July 19, 2012 Summer in Portland, Oregon, is wonderful. Warm sunny days blend gradually into crisp nights, and even at the height of summer, it’s the perfect climate to explore the Columbia Gorge, Mt. Hood and the Oregon Coast. So why am I giving up two weeks of my hometown’s best weather to visit the hot, rainy, buggy…
Atrazine, a continued concern for all
Posted by IZILWANE on June 28, 2012 Research published earlier this year, detailing the effects of the popular herbicide atrazine on amphibians, reignited ongoing controversy over using chemicals to control our environment. Various scientific studies have shown that frogs that come in contact with the herbicide are often born hermaphroditic, which threatens frog populations and brings up further questions about the…
Cry of the Innocent
Posted by IZILWANE on June 18, 2012 “Anyone who has accustomed himself to regard the life of any living creature as worthless is in danger of arriving also at the idea of worthless human lives.” —Albert Schweitzer (1875-1965) What effects does the international fur trade have on the consciousness of society? How does it affect what it means to be human?…
Cabo Pulmo National Marine Park: Baja’s Miracle Threatened
Posted by IZILWANE on June 9, 2012 Cabo Pulmo National Marine Park: Baja’s Miracle Threatened By the 1990s, decades of destructive overfishing in the waters of the Sea of Cortez left the coral reef at Cabo Pulmo severely impacted. In order to restore and recover the vitality and biological diversity of the reef’s ecosystem, the local community on the east cape…
The Sportsmen’s Heritage Act and What it Could Mean for U.S. National Parks
Posted by IZILWANE on May 30, 2012 Hunting has been prohibited in most U.S. national parks for some time; that could soon be changing. The Sportsmen’s Heritage Act, or H.R. 4089, could permit hunting in sections of the National Park System that currently do not allow it. The bill, simply put, aims to enhance the opportunities for recreational hunting, fishing and shooting.…
Two Citizen Eco-Reporters Choose Indonesia as Project Backdrop
Posted by IZILWANE on May 9, 2012 
Have you ever had a travel experience you knew if shared could make the world a better place? Altaire Cambata and Justin May guess that your answer is, “yes,” and they are in the planning stages of just such a project. The name of their project is “Interwoven,” inspired by the metaphor of the colorful…
Tracking and Conserving Madagascar’s Largest Predator
Posted by IZILWANE on May 2, 2012 I slowly place my boot back down onto the forest floor and cringe at the loud crunch of dried leaves under my foot. Pausing, I scan the quiet trees for a flash of color or flutter of wings, but I really hope to see the shaking of branches signaling a group of lemurs bounding…
Big City Conservation in the Big (Green) Apple
Posted by IZILWANE on April 21, 2012 
Where every great city stands today, a natural ecosystem once thrived. London was built on a floodplain of the River Thames; New York was set up on great tracts of oak woodland; and Tokyo, the most populous metropolis in the world, once supported a lush and verdant subtropical forest. These ambitious cities have sacrificed natural diversity…
Traditional Ecological Knowledge, Anthropology and Climate Change
Posted by IZILWANE on April 5, 2012 
What are the implications for indigenous or place-based cultures facing the imminent and gradually destructive processes of climate change? There is a significant amount of literature that suggests the most vulnerable, natural resource-dependent groups of the world will disproportionately experience the harmful effects of climate change. Less developed countries and their indigenous populations are largely…
The Sixth Great Extinction: A Silent Extermination
Posted by IZILWANE on March 28, 2012 
LONESOME GEORGE Lonesome George is a large, mud-loving Pinta tortoise (Geochelone elephantopus abingdoni), living out his long life in the Galapagos Islands. In 1971, George was found alone on Pinta Island and taken to the Charles Darwin Research Station, where scientists theorized that he was the last of his subspecies on the planet. When he dies,…
Awakening Our Species to Nature Through the Eyes of Children
Posted by IZILWANE on March 20, 2012 
Children see the world through innocent eyes, eyes that see the unique beauty in even the most unimpressive puddle. To them, a tree is not just a plant but an entire jungle gym of adventure; a small plot of pines is not just a barrier between yards but an entire forest full of mystical…
Izilwane Remembers Lawrence Anthony: Conservationist and Environmental Diplomat
Posted by IZILWANE on March 15, 2012 
The world is saying goodbye this month to one of the most fascinating conservationists of this generation. Elephant Whisperer – so-called because of his ability to understand and calm otherwise violent and terrified elephants – Lawrence Anthony passed away from a heart attack on March 2, 2012, during a business trip to Johannesburg, South…
Citizen Eco-Reporters: A Community-Based Journalism Initiative
Posted by IZILWANE on March 8, 2012 One of the key ways that the IZILWANE media platform builds awareness and creates community around the issue of biodiversity loss is by engaging people on this issue through their own work as “eco-reporters.” We train those who want to write for us as “citizen journalists,” honing their communication skills and their understanding of ecological…
Introducing Izilwane, a New Environmental Magazine!
Posted by IZILWANE on February 28, 2012 Welcome! IZILWANE, which means “animals” in Zulu, is an innovative multimedia platform that focuses on connecting human beings with other species and with nature. We believe that as humans become aware that we are merely one of many species and not separate from local and global ecosystems, we will choose to live in ways that…
