Feature photo by markgee6 Photo by leonardlow

1. Great Barrier Reef

Flourishing with more than 1,500 fish species and the endangered hawksbill turtle, Australia’s Great Barrier Reef is the largest coral reef ecosystem in the world. But the Blue Outback is fading to white due to coral bleaching. Increasing carbon dioxide and temperature levels are projected to render the reef functionally extinct by 2030.

Photo by warrenh

2. Amazon Rain Forest

Teeming with millions of species and one-fifth of the world’s fresh water, the Amazon is the world’s largest tropical rainforest. However, global warming and deforestation are reversing the forest’s role as a carbon sink, converting 30-60% of the rainforest into dry savannah. Projections show the forest could disappear completely by 2050.

3. Yangtze Region

Shrouded in the dense mist of the forests of the Yangtze region of China is the endangered giant panda. But downtown, a rapidly developing economy and commercial logging industry cause flooding and habitat destruction. Nearby, the Three Gorges Dam, the largest dam in history, is destroying the Yangtze River ecosystem.

4. The Everglades

The shrubby wetlands of the Everglades are the only place in the world to find the endangered Florida panther. But the Everglades cover only half the land area they used to. This “River of Grass” has been carved into a grid of canals and crops to feed and water the encroaching cities.

Photo by bobjagendorf

5. Cape Floral Region

Blooming with 6,200 endemic plant species, the Cape Floral Region of South Africa encompasses one of world’s six floral kingdoms. Global warming is projected to increase mean annual temperatures by 1.8 ºC by 2050 which is bad news for the 1,400 species that are critically endangered and sensitive to small changes in climate.

6. Congo Basin

Chopped into logs and tilled into agriculture, the Congo Basin rainforest is projected to disappear by 30% by 2030. As the human population grew over the past decades, the endangered mountain gorilla population dwindled to 700 individuals. As the world’s second largest tropical rainforest, the basin regulates climate and water flow.

7. Madagascar

Because Madagascar broke off from Gondwanaland 160 million years ago, its species evolved in isolation and occur nowhere else on earth. Deforestation, agriculture, and erosion may cause lemurs and chameleons to go extinct before the end of the century. The aye-aye, silky sifaka and Goodman’s mouse lemur are considered three of the most evolutionarily distinct and globally endangered animals.

Photo by plizzba

8. Mt. Kilimanjaro Glacier

With its conspicuous snowy peak standing out over the surrounding savannah, Mount Kilimanjaro is topped with a glacier uniquely situated near the Equator. Persisting for over 10,000 years, the glacier suddenly retreated by 82% since 1912 due to global warming. At current rates, the glacier could melt completely by 2020.

Photo by tambako

9. The Phillipines

With only 7% of its original forest still standing, the Philippines is one of the world’s most biologically-rich yet most endangered areas. The remaining forests are disappearing at a rate of 1186 acres per day. Illegal logging is a $700 million per year business, resulting in erosion and flooding, as evidenced by the 2004 landslides.

10. The Himalayan Glaciers

The Himalayan glaciers are melting faster than ever at a rate of 33-49 feet per year due to global warming. Melting glaciers could flood India, China, and Nepal and destroy habitat for the endangered snow leopard. Unpredictable weather is creating dangerous conditions for climbers of Mt. Everest.

Photo by mckaysavage

All over the world, wildlife is being replaced by cars and rivers are being redesigned by dams and canals. Many natural wonders may fall victim to concrete jungles and flooded cities within 50 years.

If our generation does not act, the next generation may never see these treasures. Conservation efforts must engage local communities and governments as well as the global community.

To help, contribute to the local economy rather than a foreign-owned resort when traveling to sensitive areas.

Community Connection!

You can connect with hundreds of grassroots organizations on Matador!

A list of NGOs focusing on Environmental and Conservation issues can be found here.

To explore opportunities with organizations working to stop natural wonders from disappearing completely, visit Amazon Conservation Association, and Flor de La Amazonia in the Amazon Basin and ReefDoctor in Madagascar.

Feature photo by pingnews Photo by kenbondy

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service lists 1237 endangered species. The following ten species are key because of their roles in the ecosystem and and dangerously low numbers.

Mountain Gorilla

Photo by mrflip

Africa’s mountain gorilla (Gorilla beringei beringei) is the largest and most powerful primate, but is very peaceful and sociable,
despite their portrayal in movies such as King Kong and Tarzan.

Gorillas are our closest relative after chimpanzees with an almost 98 percent DNA match. The remaining 600 individuals face habitat loss through deforestation, poaching, circus use, effects of political unrest, and human diseases such as measles.

Florida Panther

Once prevalent throughout the southeastern U.S., the Florida panther (Puma concolor coryi) is now restricted to south Florida. Cities and farms dump pollutants into waterways that feed the Everglades, an ecosystem that occurs nowhere else on earth. To boost numbers and prevent inbreeding among the remaining 50 individuals, humans bred the Florida panther with the Texas panther resulting in a genetically different hybrid.

Giant Panda

Photo by tanukigirl

China’s giant panda (Ailuropoda melanoleuca) habitat is situated at the top of the Yangtze Basin, one of the world’s most critical regions for biodiversity conservation. Because of their notoriously low sex drives, captive pandas are shown pornographic videos to encourage mating. After more than a century of debate, recent DNA analysis concludes that the giant panda is more closely related to bears than to raccoons.

Beluga Sturgeon

The ancient beluga sturgeon (Huso huso), while persisting for over 200 million years, may not outlast current threats. Its caviar is one of the world’s three most expensive foods, selling for over $100 dollars per ounce and encouraging illegal trade and poaching.

Dams along the Volga River block migration from their breeding ground to the Caspian Sea. Historically, Belugas lived for 75 years, weighed more than 2 tons and grew to 28 feet in length. Now, the typical adult is younger than 18 years old and weighs only 77 pounds.

Blue Whale

Photo by scotts101

Antarctica’s blue whale (Balaenoptera musculus) is the largest creature on earth. The largest terrestrial animal, the African elephant, could stand on the whale’s tongue. UV radiation through a hole in the ozone layer depletes its food source, zooplankton. The blue whale is the loudest animal on earth, using low-frequency rumbles to communicate across hundreds of miles of ocean. Click here to listen to its call.

Blue Poison Dart Frog

Photo by upton

The blue poison dart frog (Dendrobates azureus) is one of the most brilliantly colored animals on the planet. Humans harness the poison as a potential ingredient in painkillers and the indigenous Chocó peoples of Columbia dab it on blowgun darts for hunting. The tiny frogs inhabit South American rainforest, which is disappearing at a rate of four football fields per minute.

Southern Cassowary

The ancient southern cassowary (Casuarius casuarius) is a helmeted flightless bird in Australia’s Wet Tropics. As voracious fruit-eaters, they spread seeds, regenerating the rainforest in the face of deforestation. Even though the large birds weigh 130 pounds, they fall prey to non-native feral pigs, which were also responsible for the extinction of the dodo.

Loggerhead Turtle

The loggerhead turtle’s (Caretta caretta) habitat extends through many countries, requiring international cooperation and treaties. Despite requirements to install turtle excluder devices on fishing gear in some countries, turtles continue to die as bycatch in countries without such measures. Pacific loggerheads migrate over 7,500 miles from their nesting habitat in Japan to their foraging habitat off the coast of Mexico.

Polar Bear

Photo by Amanda Graham, 2006

The world’s largest terrestrial carnivore, Arctic polar bears (Ursus maritimus) are threatened by global warming. They must fast longer in the summer due to melting sea ice. In 2007, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service proposed to list the polar bear as a threatened species under the Endangered Species Act. As of May 14th 2008, the Polar Bear was listed on the ESA. The decision was crucial as 29.7 million acres of the Chukchi Sea, which supports polar bear populations, are set to be opened to oil and gas activities.

Elkhorn and Staghorn Coral

Elkhorn and staghorn coral (Acropora palmata and A. cervicornis) are the first species to be recognized as threatened by global warming. The new status provides leverage in future fights against threats to other habitats from global warming. Coral reefs provide habitat for thousands of species of fish.

What can be done?

Through pollution, habitat degradation / depletion, and worldwide environmental impact, humans are largely responsible for the extinction and endangerment of species. Thus it is humans who can help preserve animals and habitat by changing behaviors.

Ride your bike. Join your local Audubon chapter. Create backyard wildlife habitat. Write to your representatives. When corporate behavior cannot be changed by legislation, use your consumer power to boycott. The best approach to conserving wildlife is to conserve habitat. Keeping “common species common” prevents wildlife from becoming too rare and costly to restore.

Photo by kresta-king-cutcher

Kathryn MacLaughlin is the US Field HR Outreach/Recruitment Officer for Doctors Without Borders/Medecins Sans Frontieres. She is based out of the New York office and has been with MSF since 2003.

Her assignments have taken her to China during the SARS outbreak, South Sudan, and Liberia. Her last postings were in Guinea-Bissea dealing with a cholera outbreak and Ethiopia for a measles vaccination campaign.

Photo by hdptcar

Kathryn has an adventurous spirit that has seen her backpacking through Chile and Argentina, working in Hong Kong and Honduras, and vacationing in Thailand and the Philippines. She considered MSF after working in the private environmental/civil engineering sector for about 8 years.

“The professional experience with water and sanitation, the hands-on knowledge of health conditions in developing countries, and the time in my life, made MSF a perfect fit,” she says, noting that MSF was also attractive because it is an independent humanitarian organization, with no religious or political affiliations with its work.

Not your typical day at the office

Kathryn recalls working with villages in South Sudan. The group had to expand a dirt airstrip and create several “roads.” But In order to bring in a truck and a drilling rig by plane they had worked for weeks with no mechanical help, all by hand, machetes and wheel barrows.

She figures “a car hadn’t been in the area for about ten years. It was the first truck some of the children had ever seen in their life!” When the plane arrived, it was welcomed by several thousand villagers, all of whom had turned out to see the truck and the drilling rig.”

Photo by sockeyed

Working with MSF?

MSF is strictly an emergency medical organization. All logistics and construction work are done to support emergency medical services. Jobs are on the medical side but there are non-medical positions available as well.

The most up-to-date information including job postings, recruiting process, and recommended readings can be found in the working with us section of the MSF website.

The best piece of advise from Kathryn’s perspective is to understand yourself: “You really have to know who you are both personally and professionally to do field work with MSF. As a field worker, you hit the ground running, usually in unstable and trying conditions; your focus has to be completely on the people you are serving.”

Kathryn notes that after each assignment with MSF you walk away with a new perspectives on the world. “China was interesting because of its deep cultural history and how it so starkly in contrast with ours (group vs. individual); Sudan was fascinating for its isolation and the strength of the people; and Liberia was intriguing because of the people’s true hope and determination to rebuild their country after war. I have learned humility, humility.”

_____________________

For more, please visit: Doctors Without Borders

Feature Photo by sparkyluma. Photo above by carpeicthus

Organization: Culinary Corps

Opportunity: Short-term volunteer travel projects in New Orleans

Organization Overview:

“My elevator speech is ‘Culinary Corps is the Peace Corps for cooks,’ says founder and director Christine Carroll. Carroll, a professional chef, founded Culinary Corps in 2006 after attending a conference in New Orleans and identifying a gap in the existing volunteer services.

Carroll has a long history of volunteer experience. When she was 18, she worked in Alaska as a member of the AmeriCorps VISTA Program. “I had few applicable skills as a college student,” she says, “but now, as a seasoned cook, I do. Unfortunately, culinary professionals are not tapped for immersion volunteer projects as often as they could be. I wanted to provide opportunities for cooks to use their talents to make a difference.”

The result is Culinary Corps, which designs, organizes, and facilitates volunteer experiences for skilled culinary students and chefs.

Photo by sparkyluma

Opportunity Overview:

Currently, Culinary Corps’ efforts are focused on providing services in New Orleans, and the next trip is scheduled for June 1-6, 2008. Volunteers pay their travel expenses to and from New Orleans in addition to a nominal fee that covers on-the-ground expenses (housing, meals, and ground transportation).

The trip is an intense, active, hands-on experience in which participants prepare meals for volunteers and community members, as well as coordinate food-related events with community partners (past events have included food field days for local schools and a fundraising brunch for a community-supported agriculture program). The emphasis of every project is respecting the local culture’s culinary traditions, creating sustainable connections between volunteers and community members, and supporting rebuilding efforts through collaboration and “culanthropy.”

Ideal Volunteer Profile:

-21+ years of age

-Advanced cooking skills, with professional cooking experience preferred

-Hard-working, collaborative, spirited, patient, sensitive, responsible, flexible, and invested in the organization’s core values

Expectations of Volunteers:

Volunteers are expected to work together as a diverse team to fulfill each day’s cooking tasks, as well as participate in all planned activities with community hosts and partners.

Photo by sparkyluma

Bonus Points for Culinary Corps!

-Lodging is provided by Xavier University, a historically black university with the ultimate purpose of promoting a more just and humane society.

-Each trip involves hands-on learning experiences for participants. Culinary Corps provides a pre-trip package with resources about local food and local culture, and organizes events that bring participants into direct contact with both. Past events have included a tour of the Crescent City Farmer’s Market and meals with the curator from The Southern Food and Beverage Museum.

-Culinary Corps is currently planning expansion of its volunteer activities to include a service trip to Nicaragua in November, 2008.

Details:

For full details about Culinary Corps and to download an application and instructions, please visit http://culinarycorps.org. (The application for the June 2008 trip will be available March 1).

Feel Good Story:

Angela Sagabaen relocated to New Orleans after her March 2007 trip with Culinary Corps, and is now working as a test kitchen chef at Emeril’s Homebase. She reflects upon her experiences: “I did my deed and felt good about my volunteering efforts, which I hadn’t felt in a long time working with other organizations or in restaurants. I worked hard and got little sleep, but I also laughed and played hard. And in the end, I think that is the point of [CulinaryCorps]…to not only help your fellow man, but to create warm and meaningful relationships during the process that not only makes another person’s world brighter, but yours as well.”

Photo from TinyFarmBlog

First night at the farm

Some time very late I was startled by a rustling, no, more like a crunching sound, coming from the woods behind my tent. I sat up and reached for the knife Don had given me the previous morning. “If something decides to poke its nose into your tent, you want to be able to poke back,” he’d said.

The thing kept coming closer, so close I heard it brushing up against my tent. I could smell it then, a pungent, musky odor. Scared out of my wits, I slapped the side of the tent and let out a smallish scream (I didn’t want to wake anyone up), and heard it run away.

I woke up at first light to the crowing of the neighbors’ rooster and peaked out of the tent cautiously, half expecting to be greeted by a bear or a mountain lion.

Then I saw them – three deer, three little Bambis with their spots still on, munching away at the flora behind my tent. They raised their heads when I came out, stared for a moment with expressions of sheer panic, and then bolted.

Greatly relieved (and only mildly humiliated), I got dressed and prepared for a day of work on the farm.

What is WWOOF?

Farmer and philosopher Wendell Berry once quipped, “Our model citizen is a sophisticate who before puberty understands how to produce a baby, but who at the age of thirty will not know how to produce a potato.”

One of my goals as a WWOOF (World Wide Opportunities on Organic Farms) volunteer, was to make sure that the second half of this statement would not apply to me.

Wwoof-ing, as it is known by WWOOF volunteers (or wwoof-ers), is a great way to take a relatively inexpensive trip that’s also an incredible learning experience. A WWOOF working vacation can range in length from a week or less to an entire season or more.

Through the WWOOF website, potential volunteers purchase a list of farms in the country in which they want to wwoof.

Artichoke flowers in front of Author’s tent. Photo by Jim Proctor.

It is up to volunteers to make their own arrangements with hosts for length of stay and the terms of the exchange. Typically, volunteers agree to work for four hours a day in exchange for room and board. Accommodations range from a simple tent site to a private room. Likewise, the type of labor and skills required range widely. As with everything WWOOF-related, it is up to volunteers and hosts to make arrangements that work for them.

Elkdream farm

I first met Don and Elin of Elkdream Farm at a diner in Eugene, Oregon. Over eggs, we talked about the sorry state of eating in America, the possibilities of permaculture, food production in a post-oil world, and the challenge of shifting from urban living to homesteading.

The couple had lived in San Francisco for many years until a dock fire cut off shipments of food into the Bay. Within two days, grocery store shelves were empty.

The author with Don, Elin, and Kory of Elkdream farm.

That experience, and the grim reality that oil shortages would produce similar shortages in the future, convinced Don and Elin that it was time to find a place where they could grow most of their own food. They have been in southern Oregon for 17 years now.

I chose Don and Elin’s farm because it was small and diverse. I was attracted to the homesteading element of their operation; they describe themselves as being almost fruit- and vegetable- self sufficient, growing all year round in what Elin describes as less a farm and more “a large garden”, rotating crops to take advantage of different parts of the growing season and increase soil fertility.

When I arrived at Elkdream, the plum trees were bearing fruit, apples were beginning to ripen, and wild blackberries were everywhere. There were also green beans, artichokes, potatoes, lettuce, grapes, tomatoes, kale, broccoli, collard greens, sunflower seeds, rose hips, lavender, blueberries, and garlic.

I spent my first afternoon on the farm harvesting potatoes (Take that, Wendell!), digging through straw and dirt for the golden spuds that lay there like Easter eggs, unconnected to anything. The potato plants had flowered and died weeks before, leaving only the mature tubers just below the ground.

We worked with simple tools – a shovel, a wheelbarrow, a spade – reveling in a quiet interrupted intermittently by logging trucks traveling back and forth from a clear cut up the road. Elin would shake her head in disgust each time a truck drove by.

During my time at Elkdream, I became accustomed to the quiet rhythm of life on a farm. Early mornings harvesting and mulching and planting; long, lazy afternoons reading and resting, avoiding the intense heat of the late-summer sun; hearty dinners Elin and I cooked together with fresh fruit pies for dessert. In the evenings, we might work again, or Don would prepare me a bath of solar-heated water in their large, outdoor bath tub.

Don and Elin took an active interest in sharing their knowledge with me. When I arrived, they presented me with a packet of reading materials. We had frequent discussions on everything from how to farm with less water to the excesses of the American lifestyle. By the time I left Elkdream, I felt a deep connection to Don and Elin and to their way of life.

And I was even sleeping soundly in my tent.

Resources and recommendations

Although WWOOF is the biggest, most popular organization to offer farm work exchanges, there are many others.

• 1. Transitions Abroad offers a list of international farm work programs that includes WWOOF and others.
• 2. Help Exchange is another organization that connects volunteers with farms and ranches, as well as hostels and even sailing boats.
• 3. For those seeking an experience living in community, there are several eco-villages that offer internship opportunities. For more information on eco-villages, see the Intentional Communities website. Larger eco-villages such as Earthaven , Dancing Rabbit, and Lost Valley offer educational internships that focus on building, planting, and organization.
• 4. Idealist.org offers a searchable data base of internship and volunteer opportunities in a variety of fields, including farming and agriculture, in all 50 states and around the world.

If you go:

Choose your farm wisely. If you don’t like animals, pick a farm that doesn’t keep them. Likewise, if you’re dying to learn how to milk a cow, don’t go for a farm that only grows vegetables.

Be clear about your arrangements with your host. Make sure you know what kind of work you will be doing, how much work you will be expected to do each day, what meals will be included, and where you will be sleeping.

Choose when to go. If you go early in the season (late spring – mid summer) you will probably be doing different work than if you go during the harvest (late summer). Since Don and Elin plant throughout the year, I was able to do multiple kinds of work, but this may not be the case at all farms.

A few essential items to bring: good work gloves, a sun hat, sunscreen, shoes and clothes that can get muddy.

Frog backlit on Musaceae leaf. Photo by Trond Larson, Amazon Conservation Association

Ready for a life-changing experience? Reach out to others around the world by volunteering abroad during your travels. By giving a piece of yourself- time, sweat, work and effort, you will receive back tenfold: joy, proffered hot meals, and gratitude.

You only need to bring the essentials: a willingness to get your hands dirty and a desire to help your neighbor. Among the hundreds of incredible volunteer opportunities worldwide, here are 10 of the best:

Voluntario Global Buenos Aires
Buenos Aires, Argentina

“Every corner of Buenos Aires has a pulse…a pulse that is worth listening to.” While partnering with Voluntario Global you’ll be aiding locals with small business administration, or providing street children with a safe place to gather and play at the local recreation center.

Only have a day in the region? Voluntario Global provides a 4 hour tour of shanty towns designed to spread awareness of living conditions, and give an ear to residents’ concerns. Weekends can be spent taking regional trips to visit Mar del Plata, Iguazu falls, and other nearby trips in Argentina and Uruguay.

Unity Charitable Trust
Tamil Nadu, India

Teach young girls computer skills, help them get jobs and become self sufficient on the weekdays, and let your weekends take you to local shrines and temples.

Dynamic Hands Youth International

Dynamic Hands Youth International
Ho, Ghana

Got organizational skills? This endeavor is in the process of formally organizing. Dynamic Hands needs help in setting up its training and living assistance programs. Opportunities are child and youth oriented, and some include a healthy living component for those who are health conscious. Once settled in Ho, you’ll be unable to take your eyes off nearby Mount Adaklu. Ask a local to help you get to nearby tourist destinations such as the Vakpho Cave system or the Mole National Park to see wild elephants.

Volunteer Action for Cambodia
Phnom Penh, Cambodia

Good at brainstorming? Looking to hone your leadership skills? VAC is looking for “new impulses and fresh ideas.” Designed primarily for recent college grads and current students, VAC offers volunteer opportunities in the areas of human rights, legal rights, and humanitarian issues.

If you’re looking for an opportunity to get in on the founding and establishment of a new direction, this is your opportunity. Of course, visitors can check out the gorgeous architecture of the Royal Palace, plus local temples and pagodas, along with the crush and excitement that comes from being in a populous urban center.

Volunteer for Community Development
Kathmandu, Nepal

You’ll know when you’ve arrived to Kathmandu; the crowded cityscape against the serene mountains is unmistakable. You’ll be welcomed by colorfully adorned shrines, fresh marketplace products and the melodic Nepali language in your ears. VCD Nepal is currently focusing its volunteer efforts on teaching English within the schools, but opportunities to work inside monasteries or on sanitation and health care projects are also available. Use your time off to venture out of Kathmandu into rural mountain communities or the nearby Chitwan wildlife sanctuary.

Navti Foundation
Bamenda, Cameroon

Enjoy a cool African city that is highly engaged in local artisan crafts and coffee trading. Work on fund-raising, AIDS education or agricultural development. The Navti Foundation offers to individually match your skill set and interests to an appropriate project. Nearby farming communities harvest tea and coffee, and the area is perfect for those looking for a quiet hike.

Fundatia COTE
Iasi, Romania

Use the UK Social Services System’s “PathWay Aproach” to aid institutionalized teens in making the leap to independent living in Romania. While you’re there, you’ll have a chance to visit medieval Transylvania and all the best that Eastern Europe has to offer.

Creative Corners Global Arts Project CIC

Creative Corners Global Arts Project CIC
La Paz, Bolivia

Help sustain a newspaper started and sold on the streets by children. Writers and photographers are needed to keep the project going after approximately 9 issues. After work, immerse yourself in this South American urban center.

Relief and Friendship
Chisinau, Moldova

Visit the banks of the Bac River in the largest city in Moldova, and put your efforts into helping the women of the area to promote programs that teach about gender equality and women’s rights. If you visit during October, celebrate with the locals during the annual Wine Festival, or, for more solitary travelers, enjoy the lush hills and sunflower-filled fields.

Green Camel Bell
Lanzhou, China

Help out the local economy and environment by volunteering with this Chinese authority on sustainability and environmental education. Here in the ancient city of Lanzhou you can explore the Yellow River.