LoraKim Joyner's Blog, page 3

One Earth Conservation Goes to Washington

Our USFWS Macaw Team before the meetingsI discovered my inner sixth-grader this past week when Gail Koelln and I were the guests of the US Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) in Washington, DC. They invited us to join them on Capitol Hill as they highlighted our project in La Moskitia, Honduras, and the film they produced about that project, “Poachers and Protectors”. Their goal was to bring awareness to those in the government who have the ability to help the people and parrots of the Americas through community conservation. USFWS awarded our partner, INCEBIO, a grant that has made such a difference to our work, and they would like to continue supporting efforts of those on the front-line of conservation. Flying high at the Capitol by showing our "Fly Free Parrot" wristbands (LoraKim and Gail)An overview of the collaboration between the USFWS, One Earth Conservation, our in-country partner organization, INCEBIO, and the village-centered conservation project were presented to a handful of both House and Senate staff from the Environment and Public Works, Foreign Relations, and Natural Resources Committees. This was pretty amazing to be talking about parrot conservation to national and international political operatives. One can’t be but a little hopeful to have key people listen to you and your esteemed colleagues.I went beyond hope, to almost giddiness. The multitude of acronyms aside, I was able to follow enough of the side chatter and questions to ascertain that there is a mutually understood process for how to govern, and what each stakeholder’s role was in each of the dark-paneled rooms we passed through. Staff members knew what they were doing and were there to learn all they could to serve the public. Could our government actually be able to work, and could what I do and say actually matter, even a little, at the national level? I hadn’t touched such thoughts in decades. Map made by the USFWS showing the expanding nature every year of the territory protected by community patrols in Moskitia, Honduras 2014-2019.When asked if we wanted to walk outside by the USFWS congressional liaison, or alternatively ride the train through the underground tunnel, of course we said the train! When asked if we wanted to tour the Capitol Dome Rotunda room, of course it was yes. When asked if we wanted to see the historical old Supreme Court Chamber, I replied, “Look, my answer to everything is yes!” Posing in the Brumidi Corridor of the panel where we found our cherished scarlet macaw (Levi Novey, Gail Koelln, LoraKim Joyner, Ani Cuevas)The hallways were embellished with historical paintings, objects, statues, and plaques, rich in USA history, and, oh yes, deep in colonialist, patriarchy, and environmental devastation symbolism. But even with that, my eyes were wide and mouth near agape to imagine, just imagine, that the voices of the underserved and oppressed, might one day be able to echo ever more so through these walls.A sign of that possibility appeared as we spied on one of the walls an old, beautiful painting of a scarlet macaw. Our scarlet macaw team, who came together during this visit in solidarity with the Moskitia, Honduras project, gathered near the painting in reverence and gratitude. We saw the bird and, hopefully because of our day in DC, others will now as well.And maybe, just maybe, we can have a government of the people, and parrots, and for the people, and the parrots.

Conservation as a Replicable Process (Part 2)

Last week we wrote about how conservation is an art and an extremely creative process that involves so many variable involving humans, other species, cultures, and biomes. Even though conservation is continually uniquely created nearly in every moment, like any artistic endeavor, there are certain techniques that result in beauty. One Earth Conservation has that goal in mind - beauty and worth expressed in our process that we replicate wherever we can. Our Replicable Conservation Process has this goal in mind: To improve the lives of parrots and people in the Americas. This mission is achieved by standing in solidarity and witness to threatened parrot populations and the marginalized human communities that protect them. Through consultation and capacity building, One Earth conservation aims to stabilize and recover parrots while contributing to the overall health of human individuals, organizations, and communities in Latin America.Specifically we seek these Objectives:To stop the negative impact of poaching on individual parrots and species in Latin America.To grow capacity in avian conservation medicine and parrot conservation in Latin America.To improve the lives of homed parrots in Latin America.To instigate and then initially support parrot conservation projects in the most needed areas.Needed areas are defined as:Where there is very little to no parrot conservation efforts or capacity.Where communities are marginalized due to socioeconomic factors.Where there are endangered birds.Where we can have the most impact for our size.Where there is little funding.The first step in the process, then, is to identify needed areas. Next steps include to:1. Conduct an inexpensive exploratory trip to a region to seek possible partners, conduct interviews, and survey parrots.2. Depending on the needs of the people and parrots, ask partners and communities what they need and see if there is a fit between those needs and what One Earth Conservation can offer.3. Support partners from afar and then return to a country to offer services, while also growing relationships, knowledge, and the scope of a project. This includes beginning to offer stipends to local people to continue the work and to coordinate with One Earth.4. Readapt conservation strategies with ever-growing number of partners, and then increase financial support from One Earth Conservation while seeking more funders and donors to increase funding even more, hire more people and positively impact more communities and parrots.5. Expand the budget and scope of a project, so One Earth is just one of the many funders, continuing to engage and support all entities.6. Seek ways that the project is sustainable without One Earth’s direct involvement, such as training local project managers and identifying alternative sources of income.7. Remain in contact, solidarity and celebration as local communities and organizations become capable of directing and funding a project on their own, and parrot populations recover and stabilize.8. The above steps can happen rather quickly, in one case in less than six months, and in others, over a period of five to eight years. We have yet to have a project that has reached the seventh step, as we suspect that it may take 20-50 years to get there.One example of our Replicable Process is our project in La Moskitia, Honduras. What began as a $1000 project a year in 2010 now is funded in 2019 for over $100,000. Also the acreage patrolled has exploded in recent years from approximately 37,000 hectares to 500,000 hectares (500 square kilometers or 1,235,527 acres). Such growth occurs because of the maturation of the process and the funding that supports a maturing project (approximately 40% of this area is only patrolled 1 time a week, 60% is patrolled 7 days a week). This kind of success is only possible because of the commitment of the indigenous people, the local communities and organizations, the funders, and our supporting organizations. To read more about our Replicable Process and the great people that make it so, please read our annual report.

Conservation as Art and a Replicable Process (part 1)

We have always said that conservation is an art, and cannot be replicated across regions, cultures, habitats, species, organizations, or specific personalities. Each contributes to the creative pursuit that is conservation. What works in one situation, might not work in another, or even in the same project in a different year, as many of the areas are volatile with increasing pressure from outside influences that seek to extract wildlife, ravage habitats, and displace indigenous cultures. Also, what does “work” mean? In the short run, what one year might look like failure, may turn out over the years to be an amazing contribution to people and parrots in surprising locations. For this reason, we cannot avow that One Earth Conservation has a replicable model, but instead a Replicable Process, that appears to generally produce ever increasing benefits for the teams with which we work. This process is heavily dependent on compassion, empathy, and relationships, with a commitment to stay engaged with all actors in the conservation drama for decades at a stretch.We do mean decades, and we do mean “generally produce,” for there are no guarantees to outcomes in conservation. The forward progress can be difficult to detect, and often there are temporary upsets that cause great anxiety, because we fear the bad news could be permanent. For instance, we experienced a setback with our projects in Nicaragua because of the current political situation there. One of our partner organizations had to fold and in another, the leader was experiencing governmental persecution. Furthermore, we have increasing pressure from buyers to buy parrots eggs throughout the region, and we have our highest rate of poaching in Honduras in three years due to the international trade in macaw eggs. Still, we have seen how over time teams increase their commitment, their efficacy, their funding, and the territory over which they can exert positive influence. Time and time again, what began as a short trip by One Earth Conservation to one area to investigate parrot populations and possible partners, is transformed into a major conservation effort for parrots by the communities over which the birds used to fly more numerously.These teams reflect One Earth’s overall strategy – to have confidence in community-based teams to fulfill the mission while year by year, One Earth exerts more and more influence in the world of conservation. Let us repeat, there are no guaranteed outcomes. Our funders could withdraw their generous donations and our grants could run out. Projects and objectives might lay fallow for a while, while others overwhelm us with the exuberance of a highly awaited spring. So, we have to be in it for the long run, throwing out seeds to see what might sprout and grow. We aren’t the only ones planting for the future. Each of our funders, each of our donors, each of our team members, and each of our volunteers is a kernel of possibility. Each individual comes to One Earth like a seed of hope, casting their fate upon the fertile ground of our processes, so that together we grow into the biodiversity we and other beings crave. We together become flocks of seed dispersers, just like the parrots, upon which the earth depends for biodiversity.If you have been part of our growth, your contribution is treasured. If you would like to cast your hope and fate with us, you are warmly welcomed. The parrots and people of the world need us to be with one another for the long term, and we thank you for this commitment.If you'd like to know more about our Replicable Process review our2018 Annual Report and read next week's blog.

Seeding Conservation with Love

I just returned this week from our parrot conservation projects located in a tiny village, Mabita, in La Moskitia, Honduras. It is largely made up of two interrelated families that came to this area in the 1980's. They were escaping the violence on the Coco River which divides Honduras from Nicaragua. This area was wracked with guerrilla activity and inundated with refugees during the Nicaragua Revolution. The violence continued long after the war ended. One of the founders was detained by the authorities for a crime he didn't commit, and then tortured to the extent that he never walked again. Later, drug trafficking, gang rivalry, and land invaders kept the people fearful and vulnerable to robbery and assassination. A wild 11-week old scarlet macaw chick after a health exam, being cared for and protected. The young chicks of our project are the seeds of future hope for a flourishing population of parrots, and people, in this regionThough violence seeded this village and has accompanied it's growth, so has beauty and hope. Recently I was told a new story of the origin of the village's name. One of the other founders saw a beautiful lagoon here with flowers, and thought she would call the area "Mab" which means "seed" in Miskito, and the name then perhaps morphed to "Mabita," meaning "little seed." The conservation team at one of our camps, made up of members of Mabita, and its sister community. Rus Rus. These communities together are the center of where efforts have been planted to grow conservation in the region. (Dr. Joyner far left)Mabita indeed began small. At first only a few people in the village were interested in preserving their disappearing macaws. Now, poaching in the village has virtually stopped, and there are 11 villages in total participating in conservation actions and patrols across more than 5,000 square kilometers. A tiny seed has grown into the largest community protected parrot conservation project in the world. The team mimics macaws flying free (above) and then has a little fun (below).I don't know if human kind can ever avoid the tragedy and violence inherent in our species and societies, but there will always be fertile ground for the flowering of something beautiful and powerful beyond all thought of possibility. Wherever you are, don't hesitate, do something to witness to and guard life, even if it is a small effort. For conservation action is love, and you are a seed. A rescued, then liberated, adult scarlet macaw, enjoying the fruits (and seeds and leaves) of the labor of the villagers in Mabita and Rus Rus, who have built a sanctuary for wildlife. Because of them she and many like her are free and flourishing.

Take Them or Leave Them

Macaw chicks in their nest cavityDid you know that this Friday is Endangered Species Day? I didn’t and I’ve been working on endangered species-related issues for more years than I can remember! Apparently, Endangered Species Day was founded 13 years ago by the Endangered Species Coalition, a nonprofit organization that works to educate people about and advocate for endangered species. I’m glad to know that this group and such a day exist.It seems particularly timely this week, then, to talk about some of the challenges involved in helping endangered species on the ground. As you know, One Earth Conservation works on a daily basis to help some of the most endangered parrots in the world. Rev. Dr. LoraKim Joyner is currently in Honduras, working with our partners there to save, among other species, the scarlet macaw. Yesterday, LoraKim sent me a video that dramatically illustrates some of the quandaries conservationists face (you can watch the video below). The bottom line is, when the team in La Moskitia, Honduras, found a nest of scarlet macaw chicks, they also found evidence that poachers had already climbed the tree looking for eggs or chicks. Since the chicks were there, the team assumed there was no active nest when the poachers were there.So, the tough decision is this…should we take them or leave them? If the conservationists leave the chicks there for their parents to raise them, there is a high risk that the poachers will return and steal them out of their nest to sell them (if they survive the rough handling they will have to endure). If the conservationists take them to raise them at the Rescue and Liberation Center of Mabita, they will cause the parents and chicks great distress and they will be raised in a less than ideal environment. However, the chance they will survive and fly free will be significantly greater.So, what do you think we should do? Take them or leave them? I’ll update you about what actually happened when I hear from LoraKim again.A wild scarlet macaw sits outside of a rescue center for macaws in the small town of Mabita, Honduras. Credit: Art Howard / Christi Lowe Productions

Making Time to Despair...and to Hope

(Photo from IPBES website) Yesterday morning I freaked out. It doesn’t happen often, but it happens. I stumbled upon the headline, “UN Warns That 1 Million Species Risk Extinction,” on, of all places, the Weather Channel’s website. I somehow had missed that the UN’s Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on biodiversity and Ecosystems Services (IPBES), which is the equivalent for biodiversity issues to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), had released a major report on this topic the previous day (May 6). I then commenced on a too-frantic search for more information, which led me to the original press release issued by IPBES and an article in TheNew York Times ("Humans Are Speeding Extinction and Altering the Natural World at an ‘Unprecedented’ Pace").This really wasn’t news to me. I had already read the best-selling book, The Sixth Extinction: An Unnatural History, by Elizabeth Kolbert. I’m mired in the details of endangered and threatened species daily through my work with One Earth Conservation. Yet, for some reason, those headlines shook me to the core. And led me to despair.Knowing that despair is not a place you want to hang out in for too long, I made some phone calls until I found a sympathetic ear in my fellow Climate Leader and friend, Harriet, of the Climate Reality Project’s Metro New York City Chapter. She reminded me how, yes, things are dire, and it may be too late for humanity to avert real crisis. Or maybe it’s not too late. We commiserated about how long we’ve both been doing this difficult work and what kind of future our young adult children will face. I cried a bit and ranted a bit and she listened. Finally, Harriet reminded me how important our work is and how, no matter what, we cannot give up. This resonated greatly with me and I hung up the phone feeling lighter and ready to begin another day.Lately, those of us who care deeply for other beings, nature, the environment, our children, our children’s children and humanity in general come face to face with despair far too often. Harriet reminded me that we cannot let this stop us from doing the work that MUST be done. Please take care of yourself and continue to follow your passion, whatever that may be. Humanity’s future depends on every one of us grieving when we must, moving back to hope and then doing what we can to help.[Side note: One way to move back to hope is to be in nature. Join LoraKim and I for our first 2019 Wild Walk at the NY Botanical Garden on May 25. Click here for more information.]

Guatemala Census and Celebration!

Las Tarrales, one of our six sitesIn 2017, One Earth Conservation invited visitors from the United States to join us on a trip to Ometepe Island in Nicaragua to learn about and participate in parrot conservation efforts in that beautiful place. This coming June, we again invite interested visitors from the U.S. (and elsewhere) to join us and our conservation partners, this time in Guatemala, for a participatory tour and volunteer opportunity. This Guatemalan Census and Celebration will be held from June 10 to 15, 2019.Thirty years ago, the south coast of Guatemala was teeming with tens of thousands of yellow-naped amazons living and breeding there. Sadly, now there are likely only 500 or less individual birds that remain. Seventy years ago, scarlet macaws with their rainbow colors still flew over the same part of the country, but now there are none. Before they lose a second species and thus part of their heritage, Guatemalans wish to protect the yellow-naped amazon, which is endangered throughout its range. If, in regions where their birds used to thrive, local people can relieve the pressures of habitat loss from agri-business and poaching for the illegal wildlife trade, they can stabilize the population of the yellow-naped amazon.Every year after the nesting season, project members go to these six sites to count parrots. This way they can see how many juveniles and young chicks are flying with adults, and this helps tell them how many nests were successful. One Earth Conservation and partners there invite you to join them at four of the sites, as two are private ranches (fincas) that do not want to advertise their parrots to the public. Dr. Joyner will be leading the tour, offering wisdom, information, and stories of parrot conservation, not only about Guatemala, but from the many other countries in which she has worked.You can read more about this exciting opportunity here. Please let us knowif you are interested so we can hold you a spot and make sure you have lodging. Also contact us for more information and guidance on arranging your trip. Participants in the 2017 Journey to Ometepe learning to count endangered yellow-naped parrots

Nurture Nature, Yourself and Your Relationships

One Earth Conservation’s Nurture Nature Program is for anyone who desires a better world for themselves and for others. Deep within we know that something is amiss, and that a more beautiful world is possible, for everyone. By nurturing your emotional, social, multispecies, ecological, and spiritual natures, you will experience greater belonging, beauty, reverence, wholeness, joy, and vitality, and so might your families, communities, and organizations.To inspire people to nurture themselves and others, One Earth Conservation has published a new book, "Nurturing Discussions and Practices: Nurture Nature, Yourself and Your Relationships," that is now available on Amazon. This workbook is specifically designed to serve as a companion guide to One Earth’s Nurture Nature Programs (including our Wild Walks, Nurture Nature Workshops, Nurture Nature Webinars, etc. For more info, see https://www.oneearthconservation.org/nurture-nature).The workbook includes eight guides for discussion that can be used in small groups or worked through individually. They provide guidance for community formation and personal transformation and commitment and are adaptable for a wide variety of circumstances. The overall goal of this program is to support the health of individuals, relationships, and communities of all species.Here’s a sample of what you will find in the book (from Guide #3: Awe and Wonder). Enjoy!“People report having three awe-inspiring experiences a week. How many do you have? Think back on this week – how many times did you drop your jaw or open your eyes in amazement? Do you wish you had more wonder in your life? Whatever you answer, there are reasons to cultivate more wonder…Wonder helps us connect with that which is good. Wonder, like other emotions, evolved as a motivator to help us move towards satisfaction or benefit, and away from discomfort or harm. It balances with other emotions. A classic example of this is how people react to live encounters with a bear in the wild, at least classic for those of us who have lived in Alaska where all life can be distilled down to bear stories or metaphors. Wonder draws us out to the woods in hopes of seeing a bear, and fear makes us keep our distance. Too much fear and we never go out, too much wonder and we are lunch.”Sample Weekly Nurture Nature Practice regarding Awe and Wonder:“Take a Walk Until the World Lights Up – You might want to start early in the morning or in the evening right after dinner. You could also set aside a Saturday afternoon. Whenever you start, your one rule is that you can’t stop until awe has crossed your path. In a sense, this exercise is an act of faith – faith that awe is scattered all over the place waiting for us to notice it, rather than believing that awe is this one rare thing that only shows up a precious few times in our lives.”

Merchants and Parrots: Selling Parrots is Selling Our Souls, Freeing Parrots is Freeing Ourselves

Red-and-green macaws in Paraguay where so few are leftLast week I wrote about a village in Guyana where parrots are waiting, waiting, for us to set them free. I didn't mean that each with a homed parrot should open the cage doors and let the birds out into a likely hostile environment for which they are inadequately prepared. I did mean that the wildlife trade in parrots is devastating parrot populations and bringing untold suffering to individual parrots and parrot families. The forests and the wildlife that depend on the forest are also harmed by the trade, for parrots are seed dispersers, "the farmers of the forest." Without them we lose biodiversity, and the rich promise of the web of life that supports us all. Not only are parrots and forests harmed, but so are the people who lose the connection to their precious biodiversity and to the species that belong to the lands where their ancestors have lived for hundreds of years. Others are harmed physically in their pursuit to rob nests - they fall and become injured, and often die.I grew up in North America, and the last Carolina parakeet died 100 years ago. We have lost our very own parrot species here, and I mourn for them. I am less because they and their forests are gone. A world without parrots imprisons me by a worldview constructed and controlled by my own kind. There is no wild parrot here to chew away the bars of human exceptionalism that makes it okay to extract and imprison wildlife.But there are still wild parrots in other locations where I work and I hear them screaming at humans now -"Free us, free us before we go extinct, before you go extinct! "The captive and homed parrots are also joining the chorus that says, "If you humans want to live in freedom, you must free everyone."The connection between parrot and human freedom appears at times like poetic rendering, for the interweaving of oppression and liberation is difficult to delineate by hard science and social analysis. What shines as a beacon on the path towards liberation is the hard truth - we are losing our parrots on this planet because we live under the paradigm of domination that harms us all.I spend much of my writing and public speaking hoping to make clear the interconnections of oppression that harm person and parrot alike, and have gathered essays here to that aim. We need more voices, One Earth's conservation teams and partners cannot do this alone.Today I highlight a fable, "The Parrot and the Merchant," by Jalaluddin Rumi whose life and works contributed greatly to Sufism and to spiritual thought around the world. You can access the whole story here and also view the video below. A children's book has also been written.In this story a merchant collects birds, and his favorite is a parrot. He asks the parrot what gift the bird would like him to bring back from his travels to the land of the parrot's past, from which he was captured. The parrot asks for the merchant to ask his wild counterparts for advice. When the merchant finds a wild flock and asks advice on behalf of his parrot, one of the wild parrots falls to the forest floor, dead. When the merchant relates this back home to his parrot, the captive parrot, like the wild one, falls dead to the cage floor. The merchant gasps and laments his words and actions, and brings the bird out of the cage to hold him. The parrot then awakens and flies off, showing the importance and way to freedom, not just for parrots, but for humans.What is the road to freedom? Could it be:1. Helping others to become free?2. Truly empathizing with the suffering and death of others?3. Letting individualism and human exceptionalism die?4. The extinguishment of the self so that we can see how we are part of the whole and every being?Only by diminishing our ego's need to dominate, can we live truly free. Love dissolves the bars of perceived separation. We live joined to the "beloved," as the poet Rumi would say, and we are beloved and we are beloving.And love means that none are free until all are free.If you'd like to see what you can do to free parrots, and free yourself, visit this global campaign, None Are Free Until All are Free.

Parrot's Patience Wearing Thin

January 2019, Surama Guyana Entrance to Surama VillageWe came into Surama Village, a well known tourist destination for the Rupununi area, which is in southern Guyana. They have been set up years to share their culture and wildlife with visitors as an ecotourism enterprise, though they did not have a particular orientation towards parrots. They agreed to meet with us to see if we could work with them on parrot conservation.I was ushered quickly towards the school building where the leaders were meeting, when a scarlet macaw swooped over me to land in the trees over the school. As I walked up the scarlet macaw was flying and interacting with several children, landing near them and then entering, and quickly leaving the room where the committee was waiting for me. Two homed parrots of Surama joining us for the evening countI was enthralled and asked the nursery school teacher the story of the bird. "We rescued him, Rio, as a chick, and he follows the children everywhere, especially one in particular." Then the meeting started with me saying a few words, and as I got up to speak, I noticed two other parrots perched in the room by the windows - a red-bellied macaw and an orange-winged parrot. It was a bit disorienting - was this a meeting of humans, birds ,or both? (and shouldn't all our meetings include all of life?)The leaders of the village agreed to work with us for two days of parrot population monitoring, and we could lead an outing with the wildlife club the next day. "I'd like to scout out areas to count, can anyone show me areas to count?" "Yes, you can go with Harmon." A boy, Harmon, in the back went right to the two parrots, had them perch on a stick, and followed me out of the room. He and his parrots and friends loaded into the truck to show us places, and later to help us count at the lodge. While counting there he told me how he didn't trap these birds, but rescued them from other trappers in the area. He also told me that the red-bellied macaw lost his/her mate a few months ago to a hawk. Hawk near Surama VillageThe next day we met with the wildlife club, and the ever present parrots of Harmon (3 photos of count below - thanks to Danika Oriol-Morway of Foster Parrots for many of these photos and for the two videos). He was such a good observer of parrots, knowing nearly all the many species found there. During the count I quizzed the children on the calls of the parrots by playing back recordings on my phone When I played the recording of the red-bellied macaw, the surviving mate vocalized (video below).Also helping us was a guide of the lodge, who had been the major parrot trapper in the village years ago. The village had forbid him to trap, and so he left. The desire for community eventually called him back home, and he has turned his parrot love to conservation. After the count we met with the children to give them a presentation, and to show them two parrot conservation films. And of course, the two parrots joined us (photo below).The next morning we did an early count with the ex-parrot poacher, who told us how much fewer parrots there were throughout Guyana due to trapping. The manager of the lodge told us during breakfast that he used to eat parrots, "but there were a lot more here when I was young." As we drove away I imagined the skies over Surama with many more parrots. Instead all I saw was Rio perched in the trees over the school, patiently awaiting for school to get out. It was touching how bonded the parrots of this village were to the children. Compton and Danika showing their "Sun Parakeet Fly Free" during the morning countParrots have been such good company for humans, but I wonder if their patience is wearing thin, waiting for us to love them so much that we no longer take them from their wild homes against their will, needs, and desires. For once where there were scarlet macaws and sun parakeets flying abundantly over Surama, there are none, or only one, waiting, waiting..