Rendering of Salmon-Thirty-Salmon II (Courtesy of Alaska Airlines)

The notion of flying salmon conjures up a few images for people. Some think of the majestic salmonids jumping the falls and turbulent rapids as the fish “run up” their natal rivers in the Pacific Northwest to spawn.  Others envision fishmongers tossing salmon at the famous Pike Place Market in Seattle.  From today on, however, I may think of salmon at 30,000 ft and at that–the biggest salmon in the word.

This morning I woke up to an advertisement or maybe it was a press release–I don’t quite remember!

Still half asleep, I peered at the television, as I couldn’t believe my ears when I heard someone mention “the largest salmon in the world.” And indeed, I caught a glimpse of a gigantic salmon painted on a plane or a rendering of a plane.

Alaska Airlines in a partnership with Alaska Seafood Marketing Institute has brought back the aerial, piscine favorite. The  “Salmon-Thirty-Salmon II” is no joke. Nine feet longer than its predecessor, the painted fish design on a 737-800 was unveiled this week.  Stretching nearly 129 feet in total length, the fancy fish will adorn a member of Alaska Arline’s fleet of Boeing aircraft 737′s and be will be revealed later this year.

Derived from an earlier version of painted fish design, the new “Salmon-Thirty-Salmon II” follows “Salmon-Thirty-Salmon,” which was unveiled in 2005. In the interim, the traditional emblem of an Eskimo adorned the aircraft.  The new fish design features fish scales on the winglets and a salmon-pink colored “Alaska” script across the fuselage, making it among the world’s most intricately painted commercial airplanes in the world.

“This airplane celebrates Alaska Airlines’ unique relationship with the people and communities of Alaska and underscores our air transport commitment to the state’s seafood industry,” said Marilyn Romano, Alaska Airlines’ regional vice president of the state of Alaska. “Because the new design will be featured on a larger 737-800, this 91,000-pound king will boldly promote the world’s finest seafood from the Hawaiian Islands to Boston and beyond.”

To give you some idea of the volume of seafood that is flown from Alaska to destinations elsewhere in North America, just last year, the airline, based out of of Seattle, flew nearly 25 million pounds of seafood from the Frontier State to markets in Mexico, Canada, and the contiguous 48.  Through rigorous training and streamlined flight schedules, airline employees manage to get fish from Alaska’s waterways to fish markets typically within 24 hours.  The objective of these food handlers is to keep the fish moving fast while maintained within a constant temperature range from water to market.

“Alaska Airlines has a long history of supporting the Alaska seafood industry, and this special plane celebrates that commitment,” ASMI Executive Director Ray Riutta said. “We’re proud to partner with the state’s hometown airline.”

According to ASMI, about half of the United States’ total seafood catch comes from Alaska fisheries. In addition, the state of Alaska is widely regarded as a world leader in sustainable management of its seafood resources.

For students who participate in the after-school program at McClymonds High School in Oakland, California, hacking, bending and tweaking translate into hands-on training in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM). Meeting twice weekly at two hours a pop, students learn soldering, circuits, and basic mechanical systems. Youth Radio spoke with Maker-in-Residence Alex Nolan and junior Dakila Grayson about the benefits of bringing DIY into the classroom, and making science and technology not only relevant but awesome in the eyes of youth.

On May 14, 2012, NOAA released its 2011 checkup, and I am pleased to share some good news. Last year, thanks to our system of science-based management, six U.S. ocean fish stocks were fully rebuilt to healthy levels, others continued their recovery, and significant progress was made in ending overfishing.ⁱ These conservation gains occurred in nearly every region of the country.

 Our nation’s fish populations are becoming healthier because of the conservation mandates of the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Management and Conservation Act (MSA), which require science-based catch limits that do not allow overfishing. Overall, 27 U.S. ocean fish populations have been rebuilt to healthy levels since 2000.ⁱⁱ

I want to take a moment to acknowledge that these conservation achievements were possible because of the hard work, ingenuity, and often short-term sacrifices of U.S. fishermen, combined with more effective management by the regional fishery management councils and NOAA. On this occasion, it’s important to thank them for all they are doing for us and for future generations.

Healthy ocean fish populations benefit the U.S. economy, providing jobs, income, and seafood for tens of millions of Americans. For example, the mid-Atlantic summer flounder population, declared fully rebuilt in 2011ⁱⁱⁱ, supports thousands of jobs and brings in millions of dollars a year.^iv Anglers from New York to Maryland are enjoying the growing abundance of this once-depleted fish.

Any doctor would point out that this year’s report wasn’t a clean bill of health: 36 of America’s most commercially and recreationally important ocean fish populations are still subject to overfishing, and 45 have been depleted to unhealthy levels.

But we are on the right track. Sanctioned overfishing is coming to an end this year, and if U.S. fishery managers continue to follow good scientific advice and adhere to the MSA’s conservation requirements, I expect we will continue to see significant progress. And perhaps my New Year’s resolution—to help America’s ocean fish gain weight—will also be realized.

Citations:

i. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). 2011 Status of U.S. Fisheries: Fourth Quarter Update. December 2011.www.nmfs.noaa.gov/sfa/statusoffisheries/SOSmain.htm.
ii. Testimony of Eric Schwaab on eight bills that would amend the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act before the House Committee on Natural Resources, p. 3. Dec. 1, 2011.www.legislative.noaa.gov/Testimony/Schwaab120111.pdf.
iii.  NOAA, Op. cit.
iv. v Gates, J.M. Investing in Our Future: The Economic Case for Rebuilding Mid-Atlantic Fish Populations. Pew Environment Group. 2009. www.pewenvironment.org/news-room/reports/investing-in-our-future-the-economic-case-for-rebuilding-mid-atlantic-fishpopulations-85899370665.

Wilton Batista, President of the Rancher’s Union in São Felix. Credit: Rane Cortez, The Nature Conservancy.

Editor’s Note: Rane Cortez works for The Nature Conservancy and is based in Belem, Brazil. She has just moved for two months to the highly-deforested frontier town of São Felix do Xingu in northern Brazil to work with local farmers, ranchers, landowners, indigenous groups and city officials to together promote forest-friendly sustainable growth for the area.

This post is the sixth in a series over the next eight weeks that will share her perspective from the frontlines of Amazon deforestation.

By Rane Cortez

I was recently able to catch up with Wilton Batista, president of the Rancher’s Union in São Felix. I wanted to get the rancher’s perspective to a previous conversation I had with Luis Araujo, the Environmental Secretary of São Felix do Xingu about stopping illegal deforestation in the Amazon (a conversation I blogged about on NewsWatch).

“I am very satisfied with the work that I do,” said Batista. “Every rancher feels passion for the work he does, for who he is, for what he produces. It’s hard work, but we love it.”

But, despite his satisfaction with work on the ranch, things get complicated for Batista off the ranch. Since 2011, São Felix has been subject to an embargo put in place by the Ministry of Environment for all municipalities on the “blacklist” of those that most deforest.

“Because of the embargo, we couldn’t sell our product and we didn’t have access to credit,” explains Batista. “We didn’t have any income, everything stopped.”

In order to leave the embargo, landholders in São Felix had to obtain a document known as the Rural Environmental Registry (CAR, for its acronym in Portuguese), which maps the boundaries of, and logs information about, each property.

“To sell our product, every producer had to have CAR,” says Batista. “Now we’re registered and we can begin to work on post-CAR.”

One of the first “post-CAR” steps that Batista and others in the municipality took was to sign the Municipal Pact of Zero Illegal Deforestation. In my conversation with Araujo, he had told me with pride that the Pact was an important and unprecedented agreement between government, civil society, small landholders and large ranchers. The Pact is designed to help São Felix fulfill its other requirement to get off the blacklist of deforesters: substantially reduce deforestation rates.

The Rancher’s Union signed on to the Pact (along with 51 other groups, and Araujo is still getting requests) and is working with the government to meet its goal. For ranchers, meeting the goal means intensifying production so they can maintain their income without having to clear more land. In São Felix, as in much of the Amazon, ranchers often have only one cow per 2.5 acres (or one per hectare). With some basic improvements in their practices, ranchers could increase to at least three cows per 2.5 acres (or per hectare).

“Ranchers here know that deforestation is not legal and that the market doesn’t want to buy products produced illegally. There are several examples in the region of ranchers implementing improved practices – restoring their pastures, mapping out the best uses of their land, establishing integrated crop-livestock systems, and improving the genetics of their herd to improve production,” explained Batista. “But all these people are doing this on their own account. It doesn’t help push things forward if three or four ranchers are doing this – it has to be everybody.”

In order to gain wider traction, Batista identified five main things that rancher’s will need to help reduce deforestation.

“First, we need infrastructure. The government thinks that if they improve the infrastructure here, that deforestation will increase. But it’s the contrary – without infrastructure the only thing that works here is ranching, and the way ranching works now is through deforestation,” he explains. “Think about it, we don’t have access to information, we don’t have access to technology. We can’t grow crops because we don’t have roads to get them to market fast enough. We don’t have grain elevators, we don’t have electricity. In these conditions, the only thing that works is ranching.”

“Second – land title. No one here has title to their land, they only have informal rights.”

“Third, with regard to environmental compliance – now we have to have licenses for everything – but to get a license, everyone with more than 1,000 hectares [roughly 2,500 acres] has to go to Belem to get the license. It’s 1,000 kilometers away – that’s extremely expensive in time and money.”

“Fourth, access to credit.”

“And, last, access to information. São Felix has the largest herd of cattle in the Amazon, but EMBRAPA [the federal government agency who’s job it is to provide technical assistance to ranchers] is never here. How is that possible? We should have a research center here that provides information and assistance for improving practices.”

Batista said the future of São Felix will depend on how well the above resources are provided.

“It doesn’t depend only on the ranchers, or only on the government. If we can work together to do all of this, then we can be a model, not just for Brazil, but for the world.”

A cyborg anthropologist, a pilot, a digital storyteller and zoologist, a crisis mapper and a guerrilla geographer are among the 15 visionary, young trailblazers from around the world who have been named to the 2012 class of National Geographic Emerging Explorers. Click the image to learn more.

Meet 15 of the most  inspiring young adventurers, scientists, and storytellers at work in the world today. Meet the 2012 National Geographic Emerging Explorers.

Each year, National Geographic selects a small number of people who are pushing the boundaries of discovery, adventure, and global problem-solving while still early in their careers. Each Emerging Explorer receives a $10,000 award, made possible in part by the Panasonic Corporation, to assist with research and to aid further exploration, and an invitation to the annual NG Explorers Symposium in Washington, D.C.

Several recipients from previous years have gone on to become household names in the National Geographic world: Zeb Hogan, Spencer Wells, and Jimmy Chin from 2004, Enric Sala (now an Explorer-in-Residence) from 2007, and Ken Banks from 2010, just to name a few.

Class of 2012

This year’s class includes people working in a wide array of subjects. Amber Case studies the rapidly changing relationship between people and technology. Iain Couzin is at the forefront of using lab work and math to tease out the secrets of how and why cells, humans, and other animals organize and work together to achieve more than their members can individually. Meanwhile Guillermo de Anda is digging through records from the Spanish Inquisition as well as caves throughout Mexico to discover an incredible underground complex depicting the Maya pathway to the underworld.

Those three are just the tip of the iceberg. Read on to discover all 15 new National Geographic Emerging Explorers and the thrilling work they’re doing.

The future of exploration has already begun.

Rio de Janeiro, host city to the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development in June 2012. Photo: Hector Garcia, Flickr Creative Commons

The following is a guest post by Antonio de Aguiar Patriota, the Brazilian Minister of Foreign Affairs

In June 2012, Brazil will host the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development, known as Rio+20.

The time is right: there are clear signs that the current development models must be reformulated. Countries—regardless of their wealth—face serious economic and financial crises, social inequality, hunger, unemployment, losses in biodiversity and climate change. These multiple crises point to the timely and urgent need to implement sustainable development models, i.e. national projects that take a balanced and integrated approach to economic growth, social inclusion, and environmental protection.

Rio+20 will be an opportunity to hold this discussion at the highest level. The Conference will be fundamentally different from its predecessor, Rio 92. The Summit held 20 years ago represented the final stages of long negotiation processes that culminated in the signing of important documents and conventions. In turn, Rio+20 looks to the future, building a new sustainable development agenda. To the extent that Rio 92 was a point of destination, Rio+20 may be considered a point of departure.

One of Brazil’s priorities in Rio+20 will be discussing the eradication of poverty and the strengthening of financial and technological flows in order to implement sustainable development commitments, which require significant public, private, and political resources.

The Rio+20 agenda is organized around two major subjects. The first is green economy in the context of sustainable development and poverty eradication. On this, a general agreement has been emerging among the different countries on a few aspects: there is not one single model for green economy; and one must not think about a green economy without taking into account the eradication of poverty, that is, without pursuing social inclusion goals.

Each country will create its own green economy design, based on its national realities, the resources available, and the development challenges it faces. In Brazil, for example, green economy will be based on the widespread use of renewable energy, as well as on effectively combating deforestation and raising income levels for millions of Brazilians. The adoption of a single green energy standard for all nations could potentially create distortions, such as trade barriers, which would deepen the disparities among countries, aggravating social problems, particularly in the developing countries.

The second subject is governance for sustainable development. In other words, it is necessary to adapt the framework of the UN system, so as to strengthen multilateralism, reduce the democratic deficit and provide greater integration among the social, economic, and environmental aspects of sustainable development.

Rio+20 may decisively contribute to tackling global warming, because sustainable development is the best answer to the challenges associated with climate change. Brazil has played a key role in the recently held United Nations Climate Change Conference in Durban, contributing to the Conference’s positive outcomes through its leadership and proposals. Thanks to Durban, the conditions are now set for a constructive exchange on global warming at Rio+20, which could potentially strengthen the international system regarding climate change. This should clearly be achieved without duplicating intergovernmental negotiations, whose legitimate forum is the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change.

The world looks to Brazil, the host of Rio+20, for leadership. We have solid credentials for that, as a nation at the cutting edge of clean and renewable energies and also inclusive economic growth policies. Brazil has demonstrated that it is possible to grow and to include, while protecting and preserving.

As President Dilma Rousseff mentioned in January 2012, at the World Social Forum in Porto Alegre: after Rio+20, we want the word “development” to always be associated to the adjective “sustainable.”

Antonio de Aguiar Patriota is the Brazilian Minister of Foreign Affairs

Rope swings are a rite of passage for many, but water officials have some in their sights. Photo: Phil Kates, Flickr Creative Commons

Although water is always with us — sitting on the desk in a bottle, splashing from the kitchen tap, at-the-ready to be flushed in the toilet — water problems often seem remote.

Drought…somewhere else. And how many of us are farmers, anyway? The lettuce and tomatoes always appear in the supermarket.

Fading aquifers…but who can envision an aquifer? You turn on the hose, the water arcs across your lawn.

And water policy decisions are even more evanescent. Who can really stop and grasp the details of withdrawl permits or irrigation allocations?

But how about when the local water authorities quite literally cut down the rope swing your kids use to plunge themselves into a peaceful, slow-moving Florida river? When officials tell you it’s to protect the river your kids have so enjoyed plunging into over and over? That they are, in fact, protecting the river from your kids?

There’s a water policy decision that smacks you in the face like a badly executed cannon-ball.

Florida is home to some of the most vividly short-sighted water policy anywhere. Rain delivers more than enough water to Florida, in a typical year, that it needs. Florida systematically collects that water and throws it away, right into the ocean — then to supply its vast farms and sprawling cities, Floridians pump furiously from an aquifer that underlies most of the state, and which is seriously over-used.

Florida is also home to some of the most beautiful river and spring landscapes in the U.S. It’s hard to believe that one of the keys to protecting the state’s waters is excluding children in swim trunks from those springs. Isn’t the point of the protection precisely to let us enjoy the water?

The same state that cut down the rope swing out over the Suwannee River last year allowed a new permit for a power plant in Jacksonville to take 163 million gallons of water a day from the same river system — that’s 6.8 million gallons of water an hour, enough for a city of 1.5 million people.

At least that old rope swing won’t slow down all that pumping. Thank goodness.

Florida is also home to one of the nation’s finest water journalists and authors, Cynthia Barnett, and in an essay in yesterday’s Tampa Bay Times, she tells the story of her kids’ lost Suwannee River rope swing, and the larger Florida water decisions that surround it.

Barnett is the author of a book about water in Florda, Mirage, and last fall a second book, Blue Revolution, which is about the need for a whole new attitude about water in the U.S., a new water ethic.

Both are elegant, inspirational, indispensible.

But water has the most impact on us when it is immediate, even intimate. Barnett’s short story in the Tampa Bay Times is about getting the small things right while getting the big things terribly wrong; about disconnecting ourselves and our kids from nature; it’s about Mother’s Day. And it’s about the unaccountable loss of the exuberance that comes right at the moment you let go of the rope and plunge for the water.

Charles Fishman is an award-winning investigative journalist and New York Times bestselling author who has spent the last four years traveling the world to understand and explain water issues. He is the author of The Big Thirst.

According to the rights organization Survival International, a gold rush mentality seems to have taken hold among loggers, ranchers and settlers in the eastern Amazonian state of Maranhão, as intruders bore their way deeper into reserve areas set up to protect the forests of the Awá tribe. In addition to 355 contacted members of the tribe, about 100 Awá remain uncontacted, making them one of the very last groups of nomads still roaming the forests of the eastern Amazon. The majority of the 60 or more uncontacted tribes that still survive in the Amazon inhabit the more secluded and remote western regions on the vast Amazon Basin.

This aerial photograph shows the boundaries of the Awá Indigenous Land, one of four protected areas where members of the tribe live. More than 30 percent of the reserve has been invaded by loggers, ranchers and settlers. Credit: Survival

Survival has launched a public campaign in recent days that includes a video featuring British film star Colin Firth, best known for his portrayal of a stammering King George in the blockbuster hit “The King’s Speech.” Looking into the camera, an earnest Firth urges supporters to call on Brazil’s Justice Minister to send agents into Maranhão to halt the destruction. “One man can stop this,” says Firth, “Brazil’s Minister of Justice. He can send in the Federal Police to catch the loggers and keep them out for good.”

According to Survival, logging trucks continue to rumble out of Awá land carrying centuries-old trees with astonishing impunity, “continuing the destruction of the rainforest and its most endangered tribe, the Awá.”

Meanwhile, more than 1,000 miles to the west, a climate of fear has gripped a series of communal settlements outside the boom town of Lábrea in the state of Amazonas. According to Amnesty International, activists are facing a wave of intimation, including assaults and death threats. Several communal leaders have gone into hiding amid a campaign aimed at ousting residents of legally-recognized extractive reserves from their land. “Many have fled the region in fear for their lives,” says an AI report.

President Rousseff has until May 25th to act on the changes to the Forest Code passed last month by the Brazilian Congress. One of the most troublesome provisions calls for an amnesty for violators who have been illegally clearing the rain forest to make way for cattle pasture and soy plantations. Environmental groups fear the amnesty will send a message of impunity to those who operate outside the law, triggering a fresh and evermore determined assault on the Amazon. According to the World Wildlife Fund, 55% of the Amazon could disappear in the next two decades at current rates of destruction.

In the view of environmentalists, loosening controls on rain forest clearing would further compound the destruction of huge swathes of the Amazon occasioned by a surge in hydroelectric dams under construction or planned for construction in the coming decade. Brazilian officials say that hydropower represents a cleaner way to produce energy that burning fossil fuels. But the only place left to build dams in Brazil is in the Amazon, and opponents say the Rousseff government is underplaying the environmental and social costs of those projects.

“The Amazon region, which seemed infinite only a few decades ago, is now facing the prospect of extinction,” wrote Brazilian journalist Leão Serva in the New York Times late last year. “Projections that seemed apocalyptic at the end of the 1980s — that the forest would disappear by 2030 — are now coming true.”

According to WWF, the Amazon rain forest contains 90-140 billion metric tons of carbon, playing a critical role in stabilizing the global climate.

Scott Wallace writes about the environment and indigenous affairs for National Geographic and other publications. He is the author of The Unconquered: In Search of the Amazon’s Last Uncontacted Tribes. For more information, please visit www.scottwallace.com.

Advances in digital photography have given us the opportunity to capture the beauty and freedom of birds in the wild like never before. In January 2011, the Wild Bird Trust set up a Facebook page with the intention of celebrating free flight and birds in the wild from around the world. Here are the “Top 25 Wild Bird Photographs of the Week” drawn from thousands of photographs submitted to the Wild Bird Trust. Each week we select from all the photographs submitted and from our archives. Almost 18,000 photographs from over 100 photographers from around the world have been emailed to us or posted on our Facebook wall so far… Celebrate the freedom and splendor of birds in the wild with us and stimulate positive change by sharing how beautiful the birds of the world really are with the world…

Please join the Wild Bird Trust page on Facebook or follow us on Twitter to receive all wild bird photo updates and join the Wild Bird Revolution. Submit your own photos and become part of this important public awareness campaign to bring the magic of wild birds to the world. Prepare to be blown away every week…

A moment in time captured forever! Malachite kingfisher diving into the water. Simply amazing! (Neal Cooper)

Common goldeneyes are found in the lakes and rivers of boreal forests across Canada and the northern United States, Scandinavia and northern Russia. (Lennart Hessel)

Southern ground hornbill is the largest hornbill on earth. They are threatened throughout their range outside of protected areas. See: http://www.fitzpatrick.uct.ac.za/pdf/Project_GroundHornbill.pdf (Anthony Roberts)

Prothonotary warblers breed in the hardwood swamps of extreme southeastern Ontario and the eastern United States. They are the only eastern warbler that nests in natural or artificial cavities. (Nina Stavlund)

A close-up of the wing feathers of a Scarlet Macaw show the beautiful array of colors these birds display. (Art Wolfe / Art Wolfe Stock)

The illusive and enigmatic Pel's fishing owl of sub-Saharan Africa. A rare sighting along Africa's waterways... (Kevin MacDonald)

An amazing flock of African skimmers zooming past the photographer in Loango National Park (Gabon) (Adam Riley / www.rockjumperbirding.com)

Lappet-faced vulture perched proudly in the Kruger National Park (South Africa). Like most vultures they are threatened throughout their range by livestock farming, poison and food shortages. (Anthony Roberts)

White-throated dippers are a unique aquatic passerine found in Europe, the Middle East, Central Asia and the Indian Subcontinent. When disturbed the young, when hardly feathered, will at once drop into the water and dive... (Geir Jensen)

Orange-breasted sunbird and a honeybee square off over a protea flower. A stunning scene from a sunny day in the Western Cape (South Africa). (Neal Cooper)

African fish eagle flying high above the clouds... The freedom of unassisted flight is an advancement equal to all the human achievements to date... (Anthony Roberts)

Imperial shag on Saunder's Island in the Falklands. They are native to many subantarctic islands, the Antarctic Peninsula and southern South America, primarily in rocky coastal regions, but locally also at large inland lakes. (Adam Riley / www.rockjumperbirding.com)

Southern masked weavers are very widespread in southern Africa and are found in a wide range of habitats. (Mark Drysdale)

The striolated puffbird is a little-known species in the Bucconidae family that is found in the southwestern Amazon Basin in Brazil, Peru and Bolivia. Photographed here in Rio Cristalino (Brazil) (Adam Riley / www.rockjumperbirding.com)

Snowy sheathbill in St Andrews Bay on South Georgia Island (Antarctic). They are omnivores that specialize in kleptoparasitism, stealing krill and fish from penguins - sometimes even eating their eggs and down-covered chicks. Sheathbills also eat carrion, feces, invertebrates and, where available, human waste. (Adam Riley / www.rockjumperbirding.com)

Cape parrots are among the most radiant parrots on earth, seeming to shine in the sunlight. There are in the region of 1,000 remaining in the wild and the species requires urgent conservation investment. (Rodnick Biljon)

The Atlantic yellow-nosed albatross is considered to be an endangered species due to dramatic declines in the last seventy years. (John Paterson)

Lanner falcon swooping down at the water's edge. They breed in Africa, as well as southeast Europe and neighboring parts of Asia. (Neal Cooper)

The African pygmy-kingfisher is distributed widely in Africa south of the Sahara... (Mark Drysdale)

European robins are found across Europe, east to Western Siberia, and south to North Africa. They are sedentary in most of their range, except the far north where it becomes too cold. (Geir Jensen)

Marico sunbirds are found in Angola, Botswana, Burundi, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Kenya, Mozambique, Namibia, Rwanda, Somalia, South Africa, Sudan, Swaziland, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia, and Zimbabwe. (Michele Nel)

Kori bustards are native to Africa and are considered to be the heaviest bird capable of flight. (Ronald Krieger)

Blue waxbill holding up a piece of grass covered in flowers in the wind. Just beautiful! (Anja Denker)

The Willow Ptarmigan's scientific name, Lagopus lagopus is derived from Ancient Greek lagos "hare" and pous "foot" in reference to the bird's feathered feet which allow it to negotiate frozen ground. Here photographed in Kuusamo (Finland). (Antero Topp)

The Chaffinch was so named for its tendency to peck the grain left out in farmyards... (Suranjan Mukherjee)

See the last “Top 25 Wild Bird Photographs of the Week” blog post on National Geographic News Watch:

Link: http://newswatch.nationalgeographic.com/2012/05/04/top-25-wild-bird-photographs-of-the-week-12/

The Wild Bird Trust was founded in South Africa in August 2009 with the primary objective of keeping birds safe in the wild. The trust aims to encourage the use of flagship endangered bird species as “ecosystem ambassadors” in their indigenous habitat. The trust focusses on linking ordinary people with conservation action in the field through innovative marketing campaigns and brand development. Saving Africa’s birds is going to take a determined effort from all of us.

The main aims and objectives of the Wild Bird Trust are to:

• To advance the research in, education about and conservation of all birds in the wild as well as the related habitat.
• Focus will be placed primarily on African species that act as ecosystem and biodiversity indicators although other species and geographical areas will be considered as well.
• To work with all interested and involved parties including government, private sector, NGOs, education and research institutions, aviculture and bird-watching sectors without losing objectivity and independence.

In the pursuit of these aims and objectives the Wild Bird trust works closely with relevant local and international entities and persons, including: government authorities; educational institutions; conservation organizations; and avicultural organizations. The trust is funded entirely by its founder members, charitable donations and conservation grants.

See: http://newswatch.nationalgeographic.com/2011/12/16/upholi-want-a-forest-rescuing-africas-most-endangered-parrot-from-extinction/

See the Africa Birds & Birding Facebook page for amazing bird photography from Africa! https://www.facebook.com/Africa.Birds.Birding

Warriors for Wildlife Elvis (right) and assistant Lomoni Ndooki.
Photograph by Dr. Laly Lichtenfeld

Dr. Laly Lichtenfeld is a National Geographic grantee through the Big Cats Initiative.

She writes from Tanzania:

(PLEASE NOTE:  This post contains some graphic images.)

Warriors for Wildlife are young Maasai men selected and trained by the African People and Wildlife Fund to help promote the coexistence of people and wildlife. Some work as watchmen—monitoring lion-livestock conflicts, helping pastoralists find lost cattle, and preventing lion killings. Others are involved in protecting habitats, preserving the lion’s wild prey, and monitoring the wildlife populations roaming outside national parks. Together, they are an important force for conservation in the Maasai Steppe.

Elvis Kisimir, a Warrior for Wildlife, spends much of his time working with local community members to improve the strength of their cattle corrals by installing APW’s unique “Living Walls,” environmentally-friendly livestock enclosures that keep cattle safe from lions and lions out of the way of Maasai spears. He also monitors big cat-livestock conflicts across a wide expanse of the Maasai Steppe with a team of local assistants. When one assistant received a report of a potential lion poisoning in a neighboring village, Elvis quickly arrived on the scene to take stock of the situation.

The site was disturbing, strewn with the carcasses of vultures that had fed on the poisoned remains of a cow. Taking a closer look at the remains, Elvis found evidence of purple granules of Furadan – an agrochemical readily used for poisoning big cats and other carnivores in East Africa.

A quick discussion with folks on the scene revealed that lions had killed the cow, and the livestock owner had then laced its remains with poison in hope that the lions would return to feed again. Fortunately, Elvis’ team arrived before the lions. They quickly went to work burning the carcass to prevent any further deaths.

This is just one of several recent episodes in which Elvis and his team have saved lions from a cruel end in the Maasai Steppe. Incredible Warriors for Wildlife, they give us hope for the future. Focused on the present, Elvis remarks, “We are working to increase the number of Living Walls currently in place. If we would have reached this community, there wouldn’t be the need to use poison to kill lions and vultures. We could have prevented the conflict in the first place. That makes sense to me.”

Working to prevent conflicts between people and lions is a major component of the African People & Wildlife Fund’s Maasailand Lion Conservation Program, supported in part by the National Geographic Big Cats Initiative. There are currently 100 Living Walls installed in the Maasai Steppe, daily preventing lion-livestock conflicts and helping to avoid such terrible events as witnessed by Elvis and his team.

• Dr. Laly Lichtenfeld and her team are doing remarkable work in the Tarangire ecosystem with National Geographic’s support.   These two blogs have interviews with her.

http://newswatch.nationalgeographic.com/2010/09/14/stuart_pimm_outside_the_bubble/

http://newswatch.nationalgeographic.com/2010/08/25/building_better_bomas/