Welcome to Conservation 2.0
On April 3, the United Nations Environment Program declared 2020 a ‘Super Year’ for biodiversity conservation due to the growing recognition that strategies of the past were inadequate, and a radically different model is needed to create sustainable change in the future.
Global meetings were scheduled. Biodiversity targets were ironed out, and a new Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change was scheduled for November in Scotland to plan for the future of climate change intervention, on which biodiversity conservation depends.
However, no one expected this spirited trumpet call of environmental action to echo out over the barren skies and empty convention centres of COVID-19.
Soon after the COVID-19 infection spread from China to virtually every nation on earth, conservationists began to point to the origins of the virus as proof that wildlife trade posed greater risks to humanity than just the extinction of species. In a recent study on human disease emergence, scientists found that up to 75% of human diseases were transmitted from animals.
To put it more bluntly, Carl Safina in his article entitled How Wildlife Markets and Factory Farms Guarantee Frequent New Deadly Diseases writes, “Humans caused the pandemic by putting the world’s animals into a cruel blender and drinking that smoothie.”
Professor Andrew Cunningham of the Zoological Society of London pointed out that, “The emergence and spread of Covid-19 was not only predictable, it was predicted,” and identified a study of the 2002–2003 Sars outbreak which outlined that, “The presence of a large reservoir of Sars-Coronavirus-like viruses in horseshoe bats, together with the culture of eating exotic mammals in southern China, is a time bomb.”
So is nature sending us a message with the coranavirus pandemic and the ongoing climate crisis, as proclaimed by UN’s environment chief, Inger Andersen?
And what are we going to do about it?
Enter Conservation Version 2.0
If you’re wondering where the next wave of change makers are coming from, and how to get involved in protecting animals and the environment, here are a few of the most common (and most effective) avenues of conservation, and how you can get involved.
1. Law Reform that gives protection to animals, plant species and environmental corridors.
Care 2 is a great place to start if you want to sign petitions that can influence lawmakers in the United States, as is the Environmental Protection Agency. Most countries have an equivalent service, such as The Environmental Defenders Office in Australia which is committed to using law reform to protect wildlife, people and places.
2. Restoration of natural spaces and populations of threatened species.
Companies like Animal Exchange, a subsidiary of San Francisco technology startup Studex Wildlife, are leading a whole new movement in conservation, using blockchain technology and crowdsourcing from cryptocurrency and fiat alike to save the Southern White Rhino from extinction.
Animal Exchange have partnered with renowned veterinary scientist Dr. Morné de la Rey and his organisation Rhino Repro to develop a Rhino Research Token that provides a return on investment for people wanting to invest in conservation.
Starting with the Southern White Rhino, Animal Exchange is creating a crowdsourcing platform on the blockchain. This enables them and their partners to create a transparent and sustainable way to track conservation dollars, monitor the gene pool of ‘at risk species’, and ensure the animals they support are monitored and protected. Not to mention recording DNA sequences, and tracking the diversity of the gene pool, an important part of replenishing a species that has reached a critically low threshhold.
Animal Exchange will give you a free rhino token for signing up to their platform, and are currently beta testing a platform that enables anyone anywhere to be a ‘virtual farmer’ of an actual rhino, and in doing so, help farmers in South Africa care for that rhino.
3. Rewilding of areas that have been overdeveloped by allowing them to restore themselves naturally without interference by humans (except for possibly reintroducing species that have been previously removed by humans).
One of the most successful examples of rewilding is the reintroduction of Wolves into the ecosystem of Yellowstone National Park 25 years ago, but there are dozens of rewilding programs around the world you can get involved in. For instance, Rewilding Britain, who have a number of community initiatives dedicated to “restoring native habitats and bringing back lost native animals.”
Most of these initiatives are conducted through a mix of land purchase and partnerships with neighbouring landowners.
4. Alternative Energy to find alternative resources to replace coal and oil.
We are seeing a huge increase in alternative energy initiatives across the tech universe, from Tesla’s Powerwall technology at the top end of town, to smaller startups like Ree, who are developing a versatile platform for electric and autonomous vehicles, there are plenty of exciting ways to engage with alternatives.
And if off grid living or electric vehicles are not your bag, you can turn to companies like Greenfinder to make sure your dollars are going towards organisations that are operating in a sustainable and environmentally friendly way.
5. Nature Reserves and Zoos which provide safe haven for rare and endangered animal species.
Nature Reserves are a given, but there is a longstanding debate among environmentalists about whether Zoos are good for animals and the environment. For more reading on why zoos are good, conservation biologist Dr. James Borrell compiled 8 reasons why zoos are critically important for conservation, not the least of which that they make people fall in love with animals, and as humans we naturally want to protect the things we love.
6. Recycling to process unwanted products rather than allow them to become pollutants.
The Ocean Cleanup is one of the most exciting recycling initiatives to launch in 2019, and they’re just getting started. Check out their website for how to get involved, or subscribe to their YouTube channel to see how their not only collecting thousands of tonnes of garbage from our oceans, but finding creative ways of reusing and recycling that material.
7. Education to make more people aware of the need to preserve the environment. This is a critical one, because unless people truly understand and appreciate the environment today, it is hard to get them to care about losing it tomorrow.
A Unique Opportunity
Whether COVID-19 is Natures way of sending a message to us or not, it is an chance for us to reflect on all the things we can do to clean up the collective mess we have made of the planet.
When The United Nations Climate Initiative declared 2020 the ‘Super Year’ for biodiversity conservation, they could not have forseen how much of an opportunity 2020 has become for Nature to reclaim lost ground while we use this time to plan how we will will better live in harmony with the planet when life inevitably returns to a new normal.
