HONG KONG, China, December 3, 2008 (ENS) – Commitments to clean Hong Kong’s beaches, produce carbon-free energy from rice residues, and raise awareness of climate change in India are among the results of the first Clinton Global Initiative meeting in Asia.

Today, at the conclusion of the two-day meeting in Hong Kong, former President Bill Clinton said, “I am truly impressed by our Clinton Global Initiative members and the new commitments announced this week that will bring real, measurable change to millions of lives in Asia and across the world.”

“CGI Asia members have made commitments worth an estimated total value of US$185 million, to positively impact more than 10 million lives,” Clinton said.

Former President Bill Clinton
(Photo courtesy CGI)

Clinton welcomed current and former heads of state and prominent regional business and non-profit leaders who pledged to address some of the world’s most pressing challenges – climate change, food and water security, and deforestation.

“Asia has a strong history of social responsibility and we have a unique opportunity to work together in innovative and effective ways to achieve positive change during a time of great uncertainty for the world,” said Clinton, whose wife, Senator Hillary Clinton has just been nominated to serve as Secretary of State in the incoming administration President-elect Barack Obama.

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon addressed the CGI Asia meeting’s opening plenary session on Tuesday with a video message, saying, “In recent decades, Asia has achieved remarkable gains in economic growth and development. This progress has offered valuable lessons to the rest of the world.”

Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd also addressed the participants via video. “We need new ideas to confront and solve the myriad of challenges which lie ahead of us this century,” said the prime minister. “I look forward to working with all those gathered at the Clinton Global Initiative meeting to move our world forward towards a new chapter in human history.”

Philippines President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo said her visit to Hong Kong to take part in the Clinton Global Initiative was “short but fruitful.” Arroyo told participants that she remains “laser-focused” in working to further strengthen the economy so the country could stay the course.

The Commitments to Action, made by members to affect positive change include the CGI’s three areas of focus – education, energy and climate change, and public health.

The World Food Programme and partners made a far-reaching mega-commitment’ includes six different CGI commitments involving eight countries and is valued at US$20 million dollars. It will focus on feeding more people with better food, targeting vulnerable groups in emergency and post-disaster situations and long-term food security.

Fun in the sun at one of Hong Kong’s 40
beaches (Photo by Pepa Amenabar)

Environmental commitments include a pledge from Graeme Reading, chair of the Café Deco Group, to spend US$125,000 over two years to establish a Hong Kong beach authority, which will coordinate both public and private efforts to clean up Hong Kong’s 40 beaches.

Dr. Robert S. Zeigler, director general of the International Rice Research Institute, commits US$2.2 million over four years to develop a new technology that will produce carbon-dioxide free energy from rice residues such as straw and husks, helping create additional income for farmers and reduce greenhouse gas emissions in India and Cambodia.

The BAIF Development Research Foundation and partners, is committing US$30,700 over two years to integrate an educational program on climate change in 10,000 rural schools in Northern India and 5,000 in Maharashtra state.

The Noble Group, one of the world’s largest supply-chain managers whose operations involve many of the Earth’s natural resources and raw materials, announced a commitment to be carbon neutral by 2008. In addition to going carbon neutral, the Noble Group will also generate an awareness-raising campaign targeting its 10,000 staff members and more than 4,000 business partners. This commitment is valued at US$10 million over three years.

Habitat for Humanity China is committing US$12.5 million over 18 months to rehabilitate three communities that were affected by the earthquakes that struck China’s Sichuan province in May by constructing 924 houses, three nursery schools, health clinics, libraries, and outdoor exercise areas.

Hang Seng Bank, along with its partners, is committing US$150,000 over one year to build 300 biogas toilets for 1,700 people in Yunnan, China that will store methane gas produced by humans and poultry to provide local communities with alternative forms of energy for daily use, in an effort to reduce carbon emissions.

The nonprofit group International Center for Networking, Ecology, Education and Re-Integration, along with its partners, is committing US$1 million over two years to raise awareness of the dangers posed by climate change in India and Mozambique. The group intends to engage 60,000 students in renewable energy discussions in 600 schools to demonstrate that a positive change in individual and community behavior can result in energy efficiency and resource conservation.

Mother and child in a Thar Desert village,
Rajasthan, India (Photo by Mirjam Letsch)

The Jal Bhagirathi Foundation, with its partners, is committing US$7.6 million over six years to implement projects in 400 villages in the Thar Desert of India that will improve underserved populations’ access to safe drinking water, sanitation, and alternative sustainable livelihood opportunities; in an effort to reduce their vulnerability to climate change.

Mlup Baitong and partners is committing US$110,000 over three years to reduce the current degradation of natural resources in Cambodia by coordinating and implementing a community based forestry management project in Kampong Thom province.

51-Sim.org and its partners announced a commits US$1 million over two years to host China’s first ever “Green Car Show” which will be carbon-neutral, and to hold a climate change competition to encourage environmentally-friendly behavior.

Over the course of three years, Practical Action commits US$27 million to help disadvantaged, rural communities develop their capacity to use innovative agricultural techniques that will reduce their vulnerability to disasters and risks associated with climate change, aspiring to improve the lives of 700,000 people.

Aid Foundation, Inc. commits US$260,000 over two years to provide access to clean drinking water for disadvantaged, rural communities by developing their capacity to manufacture and install AIDFI’s hydraulic ram pump in Colombia, Indonesia, Madagascar, and the Philippines, in an effort to improve sanitation and agricultural activities for 3,600 people.

Mr. Wee Lin is committing US$99,000 over nine years to enhance access to environmentally-friendly and affordable food for underserved and poor communities in Singapore by hosting a series of events and engaging stakeholders in dialogue.

The World Toilet Organization, along with its partners, is committing US$1.2 million to expand access for more than 750 million people in Cambodia and India to basic sanitation by improving the current market structure of the sanitation sector. The WTO will work to better match supply of sanitation products with demand and provide training programs for business leaders who wish to tap into the US$1 trillion global sanitation marketplace.

The WWF is committing US$200,000 over three and a half years to provide access to finance, education, and training to excluded and marginalized women and children living in the slums and rural villages of Southern India, and identify potential NGOs who could replicate this program in Northern India.

The Shri Ram School, Shri Ram Foundation, and Save the Children Bal Raksha Bharat commit US$300,000 over two years to launch a comprehensive disaster risk mitigation program to train teachers, children and families to better prepare for and address natural disasters.

GeoHazards International, India’s National Disaster Management Authority, GeoHazards Society, ProVention Consortium, EHDD Architecture, University of New Mexico, Rutherford & Chekene Structural Engineering, Stanford University Chapter of Engineers for a Sustainable World, and the National Centre for Peoples’ Action in Disaster Preparedness commit US$5 million over five years to improve the earthquake resistance and energy efficiency of schools and health clinics in Northern India and other Asian countries.

View This Story On Eco–mmunity Map.

Born and raised in the South Bronx, co-host Majora Carter of Sundance Channel’s THE GREEN founded Sustainable South Bronx in 2001 to fight for environmental justice through innovative, economically sustainable projects that are informed by community needs. She is a recipient of a MacArthur “Genius” Grant, a member of Clinton Global Initiative, and Co-founder of Green For All with Van Jones. In Season 2 of THE GREEN, Carter is featured in Sundance Channel’s original program “Big Ideas for a Small Planet,” winner of the of the 2007 Environmental Media Award for Best Documentary, as a green roof innovator in the episode “Grow.”

Called one of 25 people to watch in 2007 by Newsweek; one of 50 most powerful women in NYC by the NY Post; and one of the 25 Most Influential African Americans by Essence Magazine, Carter continues to live and work in the environmentally-challenged community of the South Bronx. By creating positive physical environments, demonstrating cool and green roof technologies, working to build local-value driven development, and supporting the Bronx Environmental Stewardship Training program, this “urban revitalization strategist” is demonstrating Clean-Tech solutions for resistant urban public health and global climate concerns and is creating a skilled green-collar workforce with personal and economic stakes in their urban environment.

1. What’s your favorite political movie?

MR. SMITH GOES TO WASHINGTON (first movie that ever made me cry), and THE CONTENDER is a good runner up.

2. What role do you feel art plays in politics?

As a communication medium, it can be used to expose or hide the truth. Hopefully the former and in a way that is constructive.

3. What do you think is the biggest issue for the next generation of Americans?

Truth. the money involved in politics and the fear mongering used to drive opinion is stomping out the truth left and right. I doubt everyone will ever agree on everything, but there is so little basis for open conversation now because of all these lies floating around; and not enough people who are willing to stand firmly on their faith in the power of truth. When we can all be honest, we can solve anything.

4. Who was the first political candidate you were excited to vote for and why?
My local NY Assemblyman Ruben Diaz Jr. I starting working with him on local issues when I came back home and was so impressed by how fiercely he fought for his community, and Barak Obama

5. What factors are important to you in choosing a president?

An aspirational vision that takes the best of what we have and makes it greater. Credibility. Wisdom beyond their actual “experience”

6. What issues would you like to see politicians focus more on?

Domestic poverty and the myth of “free” trade, or “free” markets, or “free” speech for that matter. none of these things are really all that free – we are all paying the hidden costs everyday, and into the future.

7. Which issues would you like to see politicians focus less on?

Terrorism and war. Look at how much we spend on these now for how few (american) lives are actually affected. An aggressive seat-belt usage campaign or effective hand gun control would save far more American lives for much less money. All the hundreds of billions spent on war could have us off oil and out of the Middle East in a matter of years. All of the pollution reductions would unleash billions in domestic health care savings. All the jobs would bring so much hope and peace – starting here at home. Who could oppose these things? We are already spending the money, let’s just change its direction

8. Which candidate’s initiatives do you feel better address environmental concerns?

I assume you mean presidential candidates. Both of them talk about nuclear and “clean” coal which is unfortunate, but I am not too worried because even under Bush the Second, ground level opposition has been able to stop many of those projects. McCain’s idea that we can extract enough domestic oil to make any difference for average Americans is almost too stupid to respond to – but people like saying things like “Drill Baby Drill!”.

9. This is your soapbox – shout it out! What do you need to get off your chest?

Green the ghetto!

10. Do you have any recommended links, books or movies so people can learn more about the issues you care about?

The Green Collar Economy, Van Jones
The Man Who Planted Trees, Jean Giono

Award-winning eco-expert and freelance journalist Simran Sethi is both a co-host and writer for Sundance Channel’s THE GREEN [www.sundancechannel.com]. Simran is the Lacy C. Haynes Visiting Professional Chair at the University of Kansas, School of Journalism, where she currently teaches a course on Media and the Environment and a contributing environmental correspondent for NBC News. She is writing a book for Harper Collins on the impact of American consumption and was the contributing writer of “Ethical Markets: Growing the Green Economy,” a companion guide to the first PBS series on sustainable business which she also wrote and hosted.

Lauded in Vanity Fair’s 2007 green issue as environmental “messenger” and identified by Variety as a Woman of Impact, Simran was also named as one of the top Eco-Heroes of the Planet by the British newspaper, The Independent. She hosted a forum on global warming with Nobel Laureate Al Gore for MSN.com, moderated a panel on climate change action at the first Clinton Global Initiative University effort, and has appeared on talk shows include Oprah and the Ellen DeGeneres Show.

In Season 2 of THE GREEN [www.sundancechannel.com], Simran is featured on Sundance Channel’s original program BIG IDEAS FOR A SMALL PLANET [www.sundancechannel.com] and hosts ECO BIZ [www.sundancechannel.com]. She is also the creator of the Sundance Channel web series THE GOOD FIGHT [www.sundancechannel.com], highlighting global environmental justice efforts.

Simran would like to thank Heather Mueller, Managing Editor of Elephant Journal, for her research and thoughtful contributions towards the following responses.

1. What’s your favorite political movie?

THE CONTROL ROOM [www.imdb.com]. The documentary looks at how the US government shaped media coverage during the war in Afghanistan and influenced general public perception of the news outlet Al-Jazeera [english.aljazeera.net]. It reminds us to think critically about the stories that are told…and the ones that are obscured.

2. What role do you feel art plays in politics?

Art has the potential to speak truth to power in ways that political rhetoric cannot.

3. What do you think is the biggest issue for the next generation of Americans?

It is never just one thing-all challenges are systemic. Pitting the economy against the environment creates a false opposition. It’s the justification used to pillage our natural resources and keep the United States shackled to big oil companies and rapidly dwindling resources.

The economic recession compounded by the impending impacts of climate change and oil shortages leaves future generations with great challenges and opportunities. Green-collar jobs are an essential start. They address our economic and environmental woes, and reach populations that have been largely overlooked in past economic and energy policy decisions. In 2006, renewable energy and energy efficiency technologies generated 8.5 million new jobs, nearly $970 billion in revenue, and more than $100 billion in industry profits. The new United Nations Report on the Environment [www.unep.org] predicts the global market for environmental products and services will double by 2020.

Green jobs demonstrate what’s good for the economy can and will be good for communities. This is especially important during a time when home heating costs are predicted to rise 20% since last winter (and 65% since the winter of 2003/04). The most vulnerable members of our society could be pushed into fuel poverty. We have an urgent imperative to act. This isn’t just an issue of economics, it’s a matter of justice [www.alternet.org].

4. Who was the first political candidate you were excited to vote for and why?

I was excited to write in Jerry Brown’s name in the 1988 primaries but most excited to vote for Dennis Kucinich in the 2004 primaries. Kucinich was consistent in his support of everyday Americans through the policies he espoused. He spoke truth about what was right, rather than popular, and knew that public policy had to be good for all people, not just the citizens and corporate citizens who could swell his campaign coffers.

5. What factors are important to you in choosing a president?

Truth-telling, consistency, and integrity. Neither candidate is perfect, but Barack Obama, his running mate, and his constituents have clearly demonstrated more of these traits than John McCain, his running mate [features.csmonitor.com], and his people [www.youtube.com].

6. What issues would you like to see politicians focus more on?

Politicians seem more intent on kowtowing to mercurial public opinion than scientific fact. We need to better understand the relationship between our economy, our environment, and the pursuit of prosperity. The whole notion of “energy independence” is predicated on the belief that we have sufficient resources here at home. We do and we can if we start to ramp up and fund renewable energy infrastructure. Instead, we are urged to “Drill, baby, drill.” Our politicians, economists, and scientists know better [www.huffingtonpost.com]. Offshore drilling is described as a cure-all to our energy pains and economic headaches. It is not.

As for getting oil from “people who don’t like us very much” (as John McCain describes), our top resource for crude and petroleum is Canada. I think they do like us. They’re displacing indigenous communities and destroying their land to squeeze tar from sand to support our oil addiction. Extracting oil from tar sands has been called the most environmentally-damaging act on the planet. Find out more here [www.sundancechannel.com].

7. Which issues would you like to see politicians focus less on?

Name-calling and grandstanding about which candidate is the more authentic American eclipses authentic dialogue about the issues. We don’t need to focus on fewer issues, we need to stop the [url= http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_kp-ClbnrEs]hate-baiting[/url] and [url= http://www.factcheck.org/elections-2008/factchecking_debate_no_3.html]distortion of voting records[/url] and talk more about the issues so voters garner greater insight into what will actually be done.

8. Which candidate’s initiatives do you feel better address environmental concerns?

Without question, it’s the Obama-Biden ticket. McCain has done great work co-sponsoring climate change legislation with Joe Lieberman but his choice of Sarah Palin eclipses those great efforts. Her environmental track record speaks for itself [podcast.cnbc.com].

9. What do you need to get off your chest?

Clean coal is a lie [www.greenpeace.org]. The catch-all term is used by politicians and coal advocates alike to lull the American public into complacency: It’s okay, we can build more coal plants, they’re clean. They include technologies like flue gas treatment, carbon storage and capture and gasification. While there’s been a lot of talk about these efforts, there’s been very little action because of the cost and other barriers to implementation. There are no commercially-viable clean coal plants in existence, yet politicians volley around the term as if they are abundant.

One of the most popular components of “clean coal” technology is carbon sequestration, which involves capturing carbon dioxide from coal plants and pumping it deep into the ground. But sequestering carbon doesn’t solve our pollution problems. Coal-fired plants are the largest source of mercury contamination in the country. Their emissions cause acid rain, smog, water pollution, and depletion of our ozone layer.

Instead of pouring one more penny into making a dirty industry slightly cleaner by 2015, we should be funding infrastructure and technologies that will get us out of this carbon sinkhole and create sustainable jobs and build competitive advantage for America in the global marketplace.

Yes, we can phase out coal. The naysayers that think this can’t be done are mistaken. Iceland used to get 100% of its energy needs met by imported oil and coal back in the 1970’s. Today, they’re 70% energy independent through the application of homegrown geothermal and hydroelectric power. (The island-nation also used to rank as one of the poorest nations in Europe. Now, the International Monetary Fund ranks it as one of the wealthiest.) Sweden’s making the same strides—and also reaping economic benefit. In 2006, they announced they’d be fossil fuel and nuclear-free by 2020 which has sparked innovation in hydroelectric, geothermal and cellulosic biofuels. Even countries with petro-resources (like Norway) recognize we have to look to renewable energy.

10. Do you have any recommended links, books or movies so people can learn more about the issues you care about?

Meet the Bloggers: The Environment [www.youtube.com]
Fuel Poverty [www.alternet.org]
Interview with Indigenous Rights Activist Clayton-Thomas Mueller [www.sundancechannel.com]
Clean Coal is a Lie [www.greenpeace.org]
Sarah Palin’s Empty Promise [www.huffingtonpost.com]
Weaning Us Off the Teat of Foreign Oil [www.huffingtonpost.com]
Powering the Planet [podcast.cnbc.com]

Extra Credit: Fill in the blank. _________ for change.

RE-ENERGIZE for a change.

NEW YORK, New York, September 27, 2008 (ENS) – “I believe we’ve reached the stage where it is time for civil disobedience to prevent the construction [applause] of new coal plants that do not have carbon capture and sequestration,” Al Gore declared at the opening session of the Clinton Global Initiative annual meeting this week at the Sheraton New York.

Coal-fired power plants emit the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide that is joining other heat-trapping gases in the atmosphere, blanketing the planet and raising the global temperature. Carbon capture and sequestration are methods of keeping the greenhouse gas out of the atmosphere, but the technology is in its infancy, and the only U.S. demonstration project, FutureGen, was halted by the federal government earlier this year.

The former U.S. Vice President and Nobel Peace Prize Laureate who woke the world up to the dangers of global warming with his film “An Inconvenient Truth,” stepped up his warnings about the dire state of the global climate because he believes humans are losing the fight against global warming.

Former Vice President Al Gore at the Clinton
Global Initiative (Photo by David Lam)

He drew a parallel between the economic crisis that the Bush administration and Congress are now trying to resolve, and the climate crisis – but he says the climate crisis will be much more disastrous if it is not prevented – and time is growing short.

“Now, in the midst of this frenetic effort to find a bailout, many are saying we should have prevented this. We should have realized that the short-term greed was overcoming a clear vision of what the risk was,” said Gore.

“Well, now is the time to prevent a much worse catastrophe because the world has several trillion dollars in sub-prime carbon assets, based on the assumption that it is perfectly alright to put 70 million tons of global warming pollution into the atmosphere every 24 hours. Since we met here last year, the world has lost ground to the climate crisis. This is a rout,” he warned. “We are losing badly.”

“The strength of the storms, the depth of the drought, the movement of tropical diseases into areas that never experienced them before, this is the result of a dysfunctional, insane global system pattern that we have to change,” Gore said.

For the first time in all of human history, we as a species, have to make a decision,” he said, asking rhetorically, “What should we do?”

“We should stop burning coal [applause] without sequestering the CO2,” said Gore, blaming the coal and oil companies for the climate crisis.

“The coal and oil companies have spent, in the United States alone, a half a billion dollars in the first eight months of this year promoting a lie that there is such a thing as clean coal,” he said.

Coal-fired Tanners Creek power plant
in Indiana (Photo by AEP)

“Clean coal is like healthy cigarettes [laughter]. It does not exist. It could theoretically exist. The only demonstration plant was cancelled. How many such plants are there? Zero. How many blueprints? Zero.”

“What we should do is make a one-off investment to switch our energy infrastructure from one that depends on fuel that is dirty, dangerous, destroying the habitability of this planet and rising in price to a new global energy infrastructure that is based on fuel that is free forever: the sun [applause] and the wind and geothermal.”

“There is a myth that the technology is not available. It is available,” Gore said.

Gore said within 10 years the United States should have a good start on what he calls the Electronet, a unified, national “smart” power transmission grid “with long-distance, low-loss transmission capacity to take the energy from the places where the sun falls and the wind blows to the places where the people live.”

“And we need it globally,” he said, “in Europe, in Africa, Northern Africa particularly.”

Gore’s solution for the climate and energy crisis may help resolve the humanitarian crisis in Darfur, Sudan as well.

“Let’s start with Darfur,” he proposed. “Darfur has more sunlight falling on it reliably than almost any other place. There’s a belt across that part of Africa into the Middle East. We ought to build solar, electric plants there and connect them with a super grid that goes across the straits of Gibraltar and up through the Balkans and across the Mediterranean and replaces coal and oil.”

But instead of working to bring about solutions like that, Gore denounced the “utter insanity” of the course that the U.S. Congress is taking.

Former President Bill Clinton addresses the 2008
Clinton Global Initiative (Photo by David Lam)

“Today,” he said, “the U.S. Congress is dealing with energy as well. They are, without debate and without a single hearing, preparing to lift the moratorium on the development of oil shale, which would vastly multiply the amount of CO2 from every gallon of gasoline. This is utter insanity and it demonstrates that the wealth and power and influence of the entrenched carbon lobby to twist policy and to put out illusory impressions about this that is overwhelming free debate.”

An extension of the ban on oil shale production on federal lands in the West failed to pass the Senate on Friday. Unless Congress extends the moratorium, it expires at the end of September with the end of the current fiscal year.

The oil shale of the Green River geological formation in Colorado, Utah and Wyoming contains 800 billion to 1.8 trillion barrels of the equivalent of oil – roughly three times the size of Saudi Arabia’s oil reserves.

But the adverse land and ecological impacts of oil shale production are well known from production in Alberta, Canada.

Production of oil from shale will result in airborne pollutants and greenhouse gas emissions so worrisome that the U.S. Council of Mayors earlier this year passed a resolution against the purchase of petroleum products produced from shale.

Because the entire Green River formation lies in the Colorado River drainage basin, water quality is an important issue, and 2005 study by the RAND corporation warns that “not enough is known about how to prevent water contamination from surface and in-situ operations.”

The power demand associated with shale, whether from coal or natural gas-fired power plants, also represents an enormous demand for water. One estimate from a Los Alamos National Lab scientists warns that each barrel of oil from shale could require one to three barrels of water to produce.

As for clean coal, the American Coalition for Clean Coal Electricity, an industry association, points out that coal provides half of America’s electricity generation.

“Over the last 30 years,” the coalition says, “America’s coal-based electricity providers have invested over $50 billion in technologies to reduce emissions – while at the same time providing affordable, reliable electricity to meet growing energy needs.”

“As a result of that commitment, today’s coal-based generating fleet is 70 percent cleaner on the basis of regulated emissions per unit of energy produced,” the coalition says, calling it “a great start.”

But the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide is not a regulated emission, and the Bush administration has resisted all attempts by the states, business and environmental groups to regulate CO2.

In Gore’s view, he explained to the high-powered audience at the Clinton Global Initiative, renewable and carbon-free sources of energy, conservation and efficiency are the only way the world can extricate itself from the climate crisis.

“The single most important thing we could do is to put a price on the CO2 in our economy today,” said Gore. “As you know, I’ve long argued to reduce the payroll tax on working people and make it up with a tax on CO2. Tax what we burn, not what we earn.”

View This Story On Eco–mmunity Map.

NEW YORK, New York, September 25, 2008 (ENS) – The first Kids Gorilla Summit, which is happening on Friday in New York City will enlist young people to make a commitment to help endangered mountain gorillas and the people of Africa. The summit will explore the connection between the urgency of wildlife preservation and inter-related humanitarian issues.

This event and the gorilla conservation campaign it spearheads were born out of a commitment to action made at the 2007 Clinton Global Initiative shortly after last summer’s massacre of 10 of the world’s remaining 720 mountain gorillas, of which, 380 live in the Democratic Republic of Congo’s Virunga National Park.

A project of the William J. Clinton Foundation established by the former U.S. president, the Clinton Global Initiative convenes global leaders to devise and implement innovative solutions to some of the world’s most pressing challenges, such as the planet’s dwindling biodiversity.

An endangered mountain gorilla in the
DRC. (Photo by Paul Taggart courtesy
Wildlife Direct)

The gorilla conservation campaign brings together some of the world’s most respected names such as Kenyan conservationist Dr. Richard Leakey, founder of Wildlife Direct, and South African Anglican Archbishop, activist and Nobel Peace Laureate Desmond Tutu.

Turtle Pond Publications and Scholastic, in association with Dr. Richard Leakey’s Wildlife Direct and the Desmond Tutu Peace Foundation through the catalyst of the Clinton Global Initiative, are the partners in this effort to protect the mountain gorillas.

Dr. Leakey started Wildlife Direct in 2005 to raise awareness and funds for conservation in some of the worlds most endangered and dangerous places. Operating deep in the jungles of eastern Congo, blogs written by rangers last year alerted the world to the crisis facing mountain gorillas in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Funds raised through the blogs have enabled the Congolese wildlife authority, the Congolese Nature Conservation Institute to continue wildlife conservation activities on the ground despite the ongoing crisis that pits rebels and government troops against each other for control of the area inhabited by the gorillas.

“Wildlife Direct was conceived as a way of facilitating exchanges between the front lines of conservation and the rest of the world, to create a community of people concerned about conservation and to allow for direct interaction with and support to the conservationists on the ground,” Dr. Leakey says on his blog.

The Kids Gorilla Summit will now be part of that community. Participants will discuss the new children’s book, “Looking for Miza: The True Story of the Mountain Gorilla Family Who Rescued One of Their Own, published by Scholastic Press. It was written by the best-selling team of Craig, Isabella and Juliana Hatkoff, photographer Peter Greste, and ecologist Dr. Paula Kahumbu who is in charge of conservation, policy and partnerships at Wildlife Direct.

Some 180 students in grades five to seven will view short videos of the gorillas, as well as special animated “Gorillasodes” that were created by students from the United States and Rwanda to help spread the word about the gorillas’ plight.

The young people will discuss the issues with Leakey, Kahumbu and Hatkoff, and they will meet four reporters who are members of the Scholastic Kids Press Corps, reporting from Africa.

After learning about the gorillas and the region, the students will develop their own ideas for solutions with the help of educational, web-based technological tools.

At the end of the summit, participants will be asked to sign the Kids Global Act Pact, which will declare their commitment to taking action to make a difference.

Students nationwide can participate via a live national webcast at http://www.scholastic.com/miza and will be able to email questions to participants.

In addition, http://www.scholastic.com/miza and http://www.miza.com, created jointly by Turtle Pond and Scholastic, will offer students up-to-date information on the gorillas brought from Wildlife Direct’s field-based blogs written by the Mountain Rangers and other activities and resources.

The new curriculum and online portal will be distributed to a million students to teach them about the gorillas, their habitat and the Mountain Rangers, and is intended to empower them to become advocates for change.

View This Story On Eco–mmunity Map.

DES MOINES, Iowa, January 17, 2008 (ENS) – Two Iowa organizations have partnered with the government of Rwanda to create the Rwanda National Conservation Park on land that used to be one of the largest forests in the country.

The Rwandan government, Great Ape Trust of Iowa and Earthpark Monday announced that the Gishwati Forest Reserve in Rwanda’s Western Province is the future site of the conservation park and chimpanzee field study area.

Much of Gishwati now looks like
this with small farms covering
deforested hillsides interspersed
with patches of forest. (Photo
courtesy Great Ape Trust of Iowa)

Extensive deforestation occurred in this area when refugees were allowed to resettle following the civil war and genocide a decade ago. Grazing and farming have degraded water quality and caused soil erosion, flooding, and landslides – as well as the isolation of a small population of chimpanzees.

The restoration and ecological research effort will focus on reestablishing a self-sustaining population of chimpanzees in the forest as an international model for biodiversity restoration.

The national conservation park project was unveiled at the Clinton Global Initiative by Rwanda President Paul Kagame and Ted Townsend, the founder of Great Ape Trust and Earthpark.

President Kagame said the joint 10 year program would develop both a national conservation park and a field station for reforestation and conservation of great apes, including mountain gorillas, which currently number around 700 worldwide.

Great Ape Trust is a scientific research facility in Des Moines that conducts noninvasive interdisciplinary studies of the cognitive and communicative capabilities of all four species of great apes – chimpanzees, bonobos, gorillas and orangutans.

Earthpark, a learning campus proposed near Pella, Iowa, plans to plant a tropical rainforest, build a large aquarium and host hundreds of species of plants and small animals to demonstrate sustainable and restorative solutions to ecological threats.

Ted Townsend, center, and
Benjamin Beck, right tour
Gishwati with Rwandan hosts.
(Photo courtesy Great Ape Trust)

A team from Great Ape Trust and Earthpark toured the Gishwati region this month, in the company of representatives from the Rwanda Environment Management Authority and Rwanda National Forestry Authority.

“This was the first step in what will be a very long but powerful journey. What we’ve learned about Gishwati has given us an even bigger vision of what can be accomplished in Rwanda,” Townsend said. “It’s a signature moment to participate in this conservation effort that is new and beyond anything attempted before.”

In Rwanda, Townsend and Dr. Benjamin Beck, director of conservation at Great Ape Trust, met with President Kagame and Patricia Hajabakiga, Minister of Lands, Environment, Forestry, Water and Mines.

“The significance of this project is twofold – the restoration of forests and biodiversity in Gishwati and the improved livelihood of those people living in the region,” Minister Hajabakiga said. “This is important to Gishwati, important to Rwanda and important to the world. To see the hills of Gishwati covered with forest again will be beautiful.”

Scores of villagers from the Gishwati region of Rwanda turned out for details from government officials and Great Ape Trust representatives about the proposed conservation initiative.

Stakeholders have established goals for the Gishwati project that include creation of the park and restoration of natural biodiversity, with special emphasis on chimpanzees as a keystone species.

These children collected
firewood from stumps on
farmland near the border of
the Gishwati Forest Reserve.
Firewood is their primary source
of fuel for cooking. (Photo
courtesy Great Ape Trust)

Other goals include restoration of water quality, reduced soil erosion and flooding, fewer landslides and increased sequestration of carbon. A goal crucial to making the entire project work is the generation of income through ecotourism, investment opportunities and local employment.

The Rwandan government has said ecotourism will be key to the country’s future economic growth. Restoring the forest and reestablishing a self-sustaining northwestern chimpanzee population are important to that effort, President Kagame has said.

“Poverty is a threat to conservation, so we must simultaneously protect and study the Gishwati chimpanzees, expand their forest habitat, and foster the economic development of the local human population,” Beck said.

Great Ape Trust will be the first international conservation organization to focus on Gishwati. “President Kagame’s inspiring recognition of the importance of biodiversity is a driving force for our efforts,” said Beck.
The Iowa organizations have an annual budget of $150,000 for the Gishwati conservation work.

Once the second largest indigenous forest in Rwanda, Gishwati covered 100,000 hectares (250,000 acres) in the early 1900s. By the late 1980s, Gishwati was about one-fourth its original size.

Resettlement by refugees following the 1994 genocide reduced the forest to just 600 hectares (1,500 acres). Reforestation efforts during the past several years have nearly doubled that forested area.

View This Story On Eco-mmunity Map.

Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson recently talked at the Clinton Global Initiative in New York. Paulson advocates the removal of any trade tariffs on environmentally sustainable technology. ‘It’s economically and morally indefensible to have tariffs on environmental goods and services,’ said Mr. Paulson. Paulson believes that the path to environmental health lies through developed countries working with developing countries to make sure technology development is sustainable. He mentioned that the US advises China on how to reduce sulphur dioxide emissions, the implementation of clean coal technology, and to develop sustainable logging.

Mr. Paulson goes one step further to suggest that the World Bank should finance emerging nations who want to develop energy and transportation infrastructures. One has to wonder what strings would be attached to World Bank financing? Perhaps some experts on finance would like to comment on this issue? Could it be possible that sustainable technologies could be financed on consignment, with a percentage of profits from the use of the technology paying off a loan over a number of years?

All of these remarks come at this juncture because the Bush Administration is holding talks on Global Warming in Washington DC. The White House wants to control the debate and to be the player that sets up the terms of repairing the environment. As one major nation that did not sign the Kyoto pact, the U.S. seems to be trying to force the other 175 nations that did sign the pact to do it the American way, and only that way. Because of this attitude, China and a few other nation’s ambassadors have said that they will attend the climate meetings in Washington but that they prefer to attend the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change that will be held later this year. Could it be that the rest of the world is irritated by a U.S. environmental policy standpoint that seems a little bit arrogant?