What type of wildlife conservation management is most effective and sustainable? CAMPFIRE (Communal Areas Management Programme for Indigenous Resources), designed and managed entirely by Africans, was created in the mid 1980's. It encourages local communities to make their own decisions about wildlife management and control so that plants, animals and people - the whole ecosystem - all benefit. Campfire also helps to provide legal ways for such communities to raise money by using [...]
Is addressing basic human needs the key to successful biodiversity conservation? Health in Harmony, a Portland-based nonprofit founded in 2005, works in Indonesia to address human health and deforestation. Health in Harmony partners with Alam Sehat Lestari in Indonesian Borneo to provide low-cost health care to marginalized communities in exchange for a commitment to protect natural resources and reduce deforestation. In the past five years, their collaborative effort led to a 68 percent [...]
Addressing the Anthropocene's large-scale, complex challenges - beyond reductionist problem solving The Blindspot Think Tank, based in England, aims to develop solutions informed by system-change opportunities that are widely overlooked. One of their projects is ‘Planet levers’: a problem-solving method and ready-to-use policy options designed to match the complexity, scale and speed of today's problems (http://blindspot.org.uk/projects/#planetlevers). They suggest that breaking big problems into pieces has become the standard approach, even though this has never worked for [...]
Can a formal appeal to human decency and traditional national values cause a massive uprising that might impact how a country is governed? And can celebrities help the cause? The Leap Manifesto is a call to arms to create a Canada based on caring for the Earth and each other. The Manifesto outlines a set of demands ranging from implementing rights for indigenous peoples, to a complete shift to green energy, to national childcare [...]
Can corporations and economic powers just DECIDE to act more ethically towards citizens and the environment? How effective might a social covenant be? The New Social Covenant (http://newsocialcovenant.org/about_us.php) was developed at the World Economic Forum in Davos. There are at least 36 entities that have signed on. Covenanters agree to act in the interest of three universal aspirations: (1) the dignity of the person; (2) the importance of the common good that [...]
Cities are tackling many environmental issues that have proved extremely challenging to deal with at larger scales. Are cities an efficient and effective scale at which to take action on challenges in the Anthropocene? 100 Resilient Cities (http://www.100resilientcities.org) is a program initiated by the Rockefeller Foundation that aims to help cities around the world become more resilient to environmental, social and economic problems. The program aims to help cities develop strategies to [...]
Can biodiversity and love of nature be promoted in the world's densest urban areas? The High Line is an elevated freight rail line transformed into a public park on Manhattan’s West Side. It is owned by the City of New York, and maintained and operated by Friends of the High Line. Founded in 1999 by community residents, Friends of the High Line fought for the High Line’s preservation and transformation [...]
Is it easier to change systems, markets and human behaviour at smaller scales, and can this add up to global change? A transition town, or more generally a transition initiative, is a grassroots community project that seeks to build resilience in response to peak oil, climate destruction, and economic instability by creating local groups that uphold the values of the transition network (https://www.transitionnetwork.org/). Values include: Respecting resource limits Promoting inclusivity [...]
Are more democratic systems necessary before important social-ecological transformations can occur on a large scale? Podemos is a Spanish political party that appeared in early 2014. The relevance of Podemos as a seed lies in its potential to democratize politics by challenging the two-party system that has ruled Spain for 30+ years. The most remarkable aspect of this initiative may be the degree to which Podemos has been able to activate [...]
Are people more likely to be inspired towards stewardship by a love for their local surroundings and cultural connections to nature than by traditional conservation movements? Common Ground is a charity that explores the relationship between nature and culture through music, sculpture, poetry, film, markets, photography, architecture, gardening, publishing and pamphleteering. The idea of Local Distinctiveness, pioneered in 1985 by co-founders Sue Clifford and Angela King, is at the root of all Common Ground projects. [...]