Photo: Thomas Roche

Global warming.

Polar ice cap and glacial melt.

Habitat devastation.

The environmental problems our generation must confront are frightening.

But amid the daily chatter we hear about these three problems, another serious environmental challenge has been largely overlooked by mainstream media: desertification.

According to the U.S. Geological Survey,

The world’s great deserts were formed by natural processes interacting over long intervals of time. During most of these times, deserts have grown and shrunk independent of human activities.

Since the 1930s, however, desertification has been an increasingly worrisome problem around the world–even in the United States–as people who live in and around deserts overgraze, implement destructive farming practices, and change their habitation patterns, increasing erosion and decreasing the utility and stability of arid land.

Despite the documentation substantiating that desertification exists, scientists and environmental activists have had difficulty defining and quantifying the extent to which desertification is a problem… until recently.

As the video here indicates, desertification has become such a problem that its effects have become even more acute than damage to the physical environment: desertification is even sparking off human conflicts–and genocides. United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon states desertification is directly responsible for the current crisis in Darfur, Sudan.

The implications of desertification indicate just how important it is to act to stem the problem of this particular environmental crisis. Check out the video below to learn more about how one group, the Village Reforestation Advancement Initiative, is working to halt desertification in Sudan:

Photos courtesy of the author

I met Thien on the second day of my volunteer assignment at the Thuan An boarding school for the hearing impaired in Vietnam. The school yard was filled with the noise and energy of 300 excited children hard at work making art and flower baskets in anticipation of Teacher Appreciation Day.

Hands fluttered as the students communicated to each other in sign language. I was taking in the swarm of activity around me when I suddenly felt a tap on my elbow. “Chau Co,” the greeting came with a smile from the clean-cut teenager with glasses standing next to me.

“My name is Thien,” he wrote in perfectly scripted English on a pad of paper. When I responded with my own name, he flashed me a smile and excitedly began to write some questions.

Word about our ability to communicate shot around as it only can on school playgrounds. I instantly became an A-list celebrity on campus.

Over the next few weeks, I spent a lot of time with the kids in the three English classes I taught and in stolen moments between class, after dinner, and during weekend activities.

Students ranged from 5-20 years old, and came from diverse backgrounds and life situations, but the boarding school environment and the uniqueness of their disability bonded them into one large family.

They were as interested to learn about me as I was about them. We shared stories in a linguistic cross between written English, simple Vietnamese, and international sign language.

The questions posed to me ran the gamut: from “What do you eat for breakfast?” to “Did you vote for Obama?” to “What animal do you want to be in your next life?” to my favorites: “Does snow taste like sugar?” and “How long does a boy have to wait to kiss a girl in America?”

I admired the passion and tenacity of the teachers to help these students in spite of meager resources, limited training, and outdated technology. The town where Thuan An is located is gritty and desolate, but hope and love are very much alive in this special place.

A lot of that has to do with Thuy, the executive director. She has devoted her life to the school since she arrived almost 20 years ago. Thuy has a quiet peace about her and the kindest eyes of anyone I have ever met.

Thuy and I had many deep conversations about the challenges facing deaf education in Vietnam and where help is needed.

Bright, highly capable kids like Thien are fated to become field laborers or factory workers because the system does not provide the handicapped with an education beyond the seventh grade.

Thuy and others are working to increase awareness about the issue and to change the perception that these kids are limited in their ability to learn and become productive members of society.

Thuy and I bonded on a personal level as well. She would call me into her office, close the door, and break out a bowl of peanuts or a large piece of fruit. For the next few hours, we would share stories about our lives while the rain fell outside.

When I first learned about this volunteer assignment, I thought it would be a great opportunity to give back. This experience was better than any plan to simply visit Vietnam and its tourist attractions. I helped to make a difference at Thuan An, and left a changed person in the process.

Community Connection

Frequent Matador contributor Hal Amen has just begun a year-long volunteering journey. Follow along with his regular column, Volunteer Voice.

Lead photo courtesy of www.faveladodarocinha.com. Other photos courtesy of the author.

It was my first night in Rio de Janeiro. From the balcony of a friend’s apartment, I could see the brightly lit Christ the Redeemer on Corcovado Mountain. But then I noticed some sparsely shining lights on a nearby hill.

“What’s that?” I asked my Brazilian friend. “That is one of the many favelas of Rio. It’s a very dangerous place; make sure to stay away from there.”

Many of these “illegal” barrios in Rio sit atop the city’s best real estate, enjoying views from their high locations alongside the mountains. The favelas are surrounded by a beautiful peak on one side and an upper class neighborhood on the other. Favelas exhibit a typical scene in Brazil, one of extremes: the rich living next to the poor, yet largely unaware of them.

The warnings from locals were fairly alarming. Some advised me never to enter a favela, while others said to visit only with a trusted tour or friend. My Brazilian host said he would never enter a favela.

Would favela life be like the movie “City of God”? Who lived there? Were wars constantly being fought between police and drug lords? Would I be in danger of being robbed? How does one see a favela without exploiting a group of people living in a poorer environment? The questions continued.

I found the aptly named Favela Tour, run by Marcelo Armstrong for the past 17 years. He assured me we’d be safe visiting the two favelas on the itinerary (Rocinha, the largest favela in the country, and Vila Canoas).

And just as importantly, he explained that the tour does not exploit the favelas, but helps them through:

• 1. Funding a community school for children in Vila Canoas, Para Ti, with a percentage of the tour’s revenue.
• 2. Bringing in tourist dollars to buy local arts and crafts.
• 3. Promoting awareness of life within favelas.

Para Ti was founded by an Italian family who had migrated to Rio de Janeiro. When the family members saw the slums around their affluent neighborhood of Sao Conrado, they decided to help. The Favela Tour donations (roughly 25% of the tour’s price) now help keep the school in operation, as well as promoting local artisans.

Overall, the Favela Tour’s mission is to help Brazilian society (along with the world) understand these communities. As Armstrong noted, “It [Favela Tours] changes the general idea that favelas are simply no-go areas dominated by criminals only, and opens a new perspective [about] Rio society.”

Our guide, Isabell, was quick to explain that the residents of the favelas are the waiters, the maids, and other honest working people of Rio. According to Isabell, only 0.5% of the population is involved in the drug trade and wars. Yet entire communities have received a bad name, a condition they don’t deserve.

But the tour did not gloss over real dangers. Shootings do occur sporadically. Most times, the shots are fired by police trying to find drug lords with a shoot-first-ask-questions-later mentality. These drug lords run the majority of favelas.

However, they do so with laws keeping the societies in tight order. For example, if you steal from someone, your arm will be broken or your hand will be shot. These are very effective measures; hence, robbery and theft are not prominent in the favelas.

Armstrong feels that the favelas have become more integrated into Brazilian society over the past 17 years, though more work needs to be done.

Regarding attitudes about favela dwellers, Armstrong said, “People in Rio [should] start to see that ignoring favelas is not the solution. The answer is to promote more citizenship through actions of…integration made through music, culture, sports and social initiatives.”

Roughly 20% of Rio’s population calls one of the city’s 750 favelas home. This is no small part of the society; as such, it is important to include favelas and their residents in the city’s social agenda. Marcelo Armstrong’s Favela Tour seems to be on the right track to bring about this change for a better Brazilian future.

COMMUNITY CONNECTION

Favela tours, slum tours, and disaster tours are controversial forms of so-called “dark tourism” and have raised passionate conversation here on Matador. Do you agree with the conclusions Dominic reached after his visit to a Rio favela? Contribute to the conversation below.

Feature photo by alex_lee2001 / Above photo by Vertigogen

5000 years ago, the first recorded landfill was built in the Cretan capital of Knossos. Garbage was buried in large pits and soil layered throughout. We’ve progressed since then.

With our creativity and technology, we’re now dealing with buried waste in an effort to make it safe for the environment. We’ve even found a way to harness the power from landfill gases released when organic materials decompose.

It’s just too much

Despite the efforts of scientists and experts, landfills remain a massive problem. Simply put, we create too much garbage. In our culture of disposable convenience, millions of us toss away items like plastic bags and take-away coffee cups every day.

Photo by wallofhair

Today’s gadgets are cheaply produced, which translates into products of degrading quality. It’s more cost-effective to replace these things than to repair them. Where does the old stuff end up? In our rubbish bins of course, which are conveniently carted away every Wednesday morning, out of our lives forever.

To illustrate how big this problem is, here are some of the world’s worst offenders:

1. Great Pacific Trash Gyre

The world’s largest landfill isn’t even a landfill at all. In the northern Pacific Ocean is an area roughly the size of Africa, stretching from Hawaii to Japan, which is swirling with our throwaways.

The Patch is really two separate entities– the Eastern and Western Garbage Patches– connected by a 6,000 mile current that is also full of trash. Four-fifths of all the refuse comes from land, and 90% of it is plastic.

Plastic breaks down into tiny particles that soak up toxins like a sponge and are then consumed by filter feeders. A host of other animals, including humans, are exposed to these poisons via the food chain. Additionally, sea birds and animals such as turtles inadvertently feed on things like lighters and bottle caps, clogging up their digestive systems.

The Hawaiian archipelago acts as a filter for trash spewed out from the Eastern Garbage Patch, with some beaches buried under five to 10 feet of refuse. Some are covered in “grains” of plastic that are near impossible to clean up.

2. Fresh Kills Landfill, New York

Closed in March 2001 and temporarily reopened after the 9/11 attacks to receive debris, at 2,200 acres Fresh Kills was formerly the largest landfill in the world.

During its most active period the site welcomed up to 20 barges, each carrying 650 tons of garbage, daily. At the time of closing, the landfill’s tallest peak was 25 meters higher than the Statue of Liberty.

Shutting the gates doesn’t make the trash go away. The mounds are being capped, soil laid on top, and a park is being built above the dump over the next 30 years. As a continuous chore, leachate– liquid produced by decomposing trash– must be monitored and dealt with, as does the landfill’s gas emissions.

Los Angeles photo by wallofhair

3. Puente Hills Landfill, Los Angeles

With Fresh Kills closed, the Puente Hills landfill in sunny California is now the largest active dump in North America. Up to 13,200 tons of refuse– the legal limit– is brought in by up to 1,600 trucks daily. The landfill rises up to a height of 150 meters and the site is almost 700 acres in size. (By comparison, Canada’s largest landfill is a paltry 240 acres.)

The use of this site is permitted through 2013,

at which time a new dump is planned to be opened at an abandoned goldmine in the Californian desert.

UK photo by Vertigogen

4. Collective landfills – United Kingdom

As a nation, the UK ranks at the top of the European Union as far as binning rubbish is concerned. From the most recent comparative figures between EU countries, UK residents sent to landfill an amount equal to what the bottom 18 countries combined did in the same time period. This is despite the UK’s population being half that of these countries’ put together.

A time for action

Yes, beautiful green spaces can be built over landfills and energy derived from their emissions to power cars, but these are just pretty band-aids on a large wound we’ve inflicted upon the Earth.

Continuing to bury our refuse is not a sustainable option. We must scale back our production of waste.

Community Connection

Looking for inspiration in how you can cut down on the amount of trash you produce? Check out these blogs:

A New York Family’s Efforts at Making Zero Net Impact to the Environment

BBC blogger Christine Jeavans says goodbye to plastic for one month

One man’s attempt to not throw anything away for a year

Pitch in. Do what you can. The planet can only take so much.

[Editor's Note: Rafael Smith was featured in The New York Times' "Bright Ideas" section in its Education supplement on January 4, 2009. Matador editors were so intrigued by Smith that we dispatched regular contributor Juliane Huang on a mission: Track down and interview Smith. This article is the result.]

All images courtesy of Rafael Smith

A few weeks later, he stumbled upon an article about the need for better shelter solutions in refugee camps. It was then that Smith knew he wanted to focus his design on refugee shelters.

“From the beginning I knew I wanted to get away from consumer products, which is a grand majority of what we concentrate on as industrial design students. I knew I wanted to do something that addresses the basic needs of the living,” Smith said. “I wanted to design a project that would impact people’s lives.”

Conceptualized as Smith’s senior undergraduate thesis project, Über Shelter is quickly gaining national attention for its innovative and philanthropic attributes.

Primarily made of recycled aluminum, the refugee shelter Smith designed utilizes lightweight materials and focuses on sustainability. The Uber Shelter is collapsible and intentionally designed to be erected with few tools, minimizing potential transportation and construction complications. Additionally, each structure is stackable, which can help cut the size of refugee camp sites in half.

As a base unit, Über meets the immediate need for shelter after an initial crisis. But Smith is also focused on providing the most beneficial design for refugees. After speaking directly with a Sudanese refugee about camp needs, Smith decided to incorporate the three modern conveniences of a stove, electric lights, and a refrigerator in his design.

These conveniences are shipped and distributed in a separate upgrade package after basic shelter needs have been satisfied. For Smith, Über is a “shelter solution that meets the needs of emergency response but also provides refugees with a more personal place to live.”

While the Über Shelter is the recipient of designer, environmentalist, and activist acclaim, it still has a long road of refinements ahead. Smith is currently focused on reducing the shelter’s weight and cost for easier shipment and maximum dispersion.

“I think the base idea is very strong; however, there are several improvements that need to be made before this idea will be a serious candidate for replacing other shelter solutions,” Smith said.

“My plan is to create the best possible product with the resources I have. If the idea is good enough, I have no doubt that along the way the right people will help take this to the next level.”

Among those who have taken an interest in Smith’s project is Josh Messmer, who offered his civil engineering skills to help refine Über’s structural stability and engineering issues. Smith knows that for Über to become a truly useful shelter solution, he needs the input of other professionals.

With this in mind, he elicits opinions and criticism from other designers and engineers; he also presents his project in front of panels of competition judges. Smith also admits to the personal need to experience poverty first-hand in order to design truly effective products to help combat it.

“I come from a middle class western culture,” Smith said. “A dream for me would be to live or volunteer somewhere in the developing world, in order to better understand certain environments and situations. My goal is [to design] products that assist the developing world, especially products that will assist people living in extreme poverty.”

For Über, Smith ultimately hopes the final product can be shipped all around the world by being able to adapt to different climates. Once a crisis is resolved, the shelters can be cleaned out, packed up, and shipped to the next location that needs them.

“I realized how much potential and need there is for design as a means to address poverty. The separation that exists between rich and poor nations and individuals became very real to me during this project,” Smith said. “If [my] idea is truly good enough, I can’t imagine any better feeling than seeing people benefit from this product in a refugee camp or after a disaster.”

COMMUNITY CONNECTION

Learn more about refugee situations by reading “Waiting for Life to Begin in a Burmese Refugee Camp.” If you’d like to make a direct difference in the lives of refugees, be sure to peruse more than 350 organizations in Matador’s community, many of which provide services to various refugee groups.

Photo above by Dave Bezaire & Susi Havens-Bezaire

[Editor's Note: This is the second in an ongoing series by regular contributor Hal Amen, who is volunteering in South America in 2009. Read the first article in the series here.]

Final Approach

As the bus from La Paz crested the pass and began its harrowing descent into the Cochabamba Valley, my stomach sank. Though I’d later learn that this was the result of the street food purchased the night before (and the start of a two-day bout of traveler’s diarrhea), at the time I chalked it up to nerves.

For someone who puts the furniture in storage and beelines it to the opposite side of the globe every couple years, I don’t handle life changes very well. Leaping headlong into South America to begin a year of volunteering certainly falls in this category.

Over time though, I’ve learned a few tips for helping survive the transition:

Photo above by Phillie Casablanca

Tip 1.Define your personal goals before you arrive.

Are you planning to take language lessons in addition to volunteering? Do you hope to travel frequently in the region? What do you want your life to look like during the next days/weeks/months?

My grasp of Bolivian culture was non-existent, my Spanish decidedly subpar. Sustainable Bolivia, my placement organization, seemed reputable but had been founded only recently, so there was no way of knowing exactly what lay in store.

Primarily, though, the apprehension I felt stemmed from my volunteer placement. Energética was a development agency that engineered and installed green energy systems, a technical field I had no experience in.

Assurances were given that my lack of expertise was not an issue, but was this true?

Photo above by Phillie Casablanca

Landing

2. If there’s something that doesn’t work for you, whether in your living situation or your volunteer position, speak up as soon as possible.

There’s no point in wasting time following a dead-end road.

3. Ask as many questions as you can think of, establishing that everything on the ground matches up to what was advertised.

Sustainable Bolivia was indeed a young organization, just a year and a half old. I wasn’t the only new face around, either. Several staff members had begun their tenures just two weeks before, along with a handful of volunteers.

4. Don’t be intimidated by your fellow volunteers, even if this is your first stint and their seventh.

You’re all there for the same reason, and no one’s going to question your credentials or sincerity. The agency’s youth was not a shortcoming as I had feared; rather, it was exciting to feel that I was getting in on the ground floor.

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Moreover, the volunteer housing was nice, the promised wireless Internet connection functioned, and everyone seemed intent on ensuring my individual needs were provided for.

5. Don’t be afraid to make a request.

Do you need a desk for your room, or help acquiring a cell phone on the local network? The organization wants you to want to stay, so assistance should be offered generously and cheerfully.

In fact, the hardest part about settling into my new home proved to be remembering how to live with roommates again. Not since college had I been forced to share my kitchen and bathroom space. But in time, the communal nature of the volunteer house would serve to enrich my experience.

6. Set your standard-of-living expectations low.

You’re not schmoozing about on a luxury tourism junket; you’re giving your time to the less fortunate. Besides, preparing for the worst will almost certainly leave you pleasantly surprised on arrival.

After a quick interim spent touring Cochabamba and recovering from the untimely TD, it was time to begin what I’d come here to do.

Photo above by Habitat for Humanity in the
Dominican Republic

Getting Down to Business

7. Approach your volunteer assignment with the proper mindset.

This isn’t a simple summer vacation alternative or an excuse to travel to an exotic locale. It’s work. You signed up for it, and you should put as much effort into it as if you were getting paid.

A team from Sustainable Bolivia accompanied me to the offices of Energética. My anxiety had hit a peak. Energética is a Bolivian organization, plain and simple. Its entire staff is local, with Spanish clearly the operational language. As stated, my Spanish barely operates.

8. If the company handling your placement is separate from your actual volunteer organization, find out who’s responsible for what.

Who do you contact if you need to call in sick? To whom do you pay your fees, and who oversees your work?

I’ll admit I was literally shaking at the knees as we visited the desks of 30+ Energética employees, exchanging cursory Spanish salutations and cheek kisses (per Bolivian fashion). It wasn’t until the next day, when I had the opportunity to meet with the director, that my fears were finally put to rest.

9. Above all else, make sure you understand what your position entails.

Everyone loses if you’re wandering around lost, uncertain about exactly what it is you’re doing. The director had obviously been briefed on my background, work experience, and interests, and had several project ideas lined up for someone with no engineering or technical experience.

Translating the website? Check. Photographing system installations? Check. Interviewing project beneficiaries and putting together a publication? Check, check.

Enveloped in the humid perfume of the Cochabamba Valley, and charged with a specific purpose, at last I felt I’d arrived.

10. Wear a smile.

No matter how twisted your insides or how fast your mind is racing, convey to those around you that you’re happy to be there and ready to help. After all, you have a lot to be thankful for.

COMMUNITY CONNECTION

Read more about Sustainable Bolivia here. To learn more about Bolivian politics, check out Hal’s dispatch about the recent constitutional referendum.

Feature photo by joiseyshowaa. Photo above by Tim Hussin

It’s all rendered a green blur as I fly down a zipline 150 feet above the ground. Just ahead hangs a two-story house in the trees where I’ll spend the next two days.

Walking into the tree house, I finger the smooth walls, made with local and sustainably-harvested teak. After washing my hands with piped in rainwater and organic soap, the waste water is flushed into a biodigestor, where it’s converted into fertilizer and given back to the cycle.

Bellavista founders Matt and Erica Hogan are setting new precedents for sustainable living as they forge a community here. “If you had told me this is what I’d be doing three years ago, I would have laughed,” Erica says, tiny dimples accentuating her smile.

Photo by Tim Hussin

The former newspaper editor and her husband came to Costa Rica in 2006 in search of a small piece of land for a surf shack or bungalow, but fell in love with 62 acres overlooking the Osa Peninsula, which has since spread to 350.

After spending just a short amount of time in the property’s almost eerie majesty, I find it hard to believe it was on the market as a timber harvest site.

Below the primary rainforest that stretches high into misty mountains, secondary growth now flourishes. Over 1,000 native trees have been planted by the community to help heal past wounds inflicted by industry. “Fifty years ago, this whole area was clear cut,” Matt says.

After writing up the concept for the Bellavista community, Matt showed it to his brothers, who work as conventional developers. “They said we were eco-Nazis and that it would never work, but that’s exactly what I expected to hear. Nobody’s ever done something like this before.”

Building regulations are demanding. All structures must be either arboreal or stilt built. All electricity currently used is harnessed from the sun, while a hydroelectric turbine will be installed alongside one of the two whitewater rivers flowing through the farm.

Photo by Tim Hussin

Rather than tearing through trees to construct roads, the lots are connected by footpaths and a sophisticated network of zip lines, dubbed the SkyTrail network. “I can’t complain about my commute to work anymore,” Matt says.

The response to Bellavista has been overwhelming. While their business plan estimated three to five years to sell out phase one, all 30 parcels were spoken for within eight months, and phase two is moving quickly.

People from all walks of life are moving to Bellavista, and everybody involved seems to have a role in the emerging society. In the future, a vegan chef will film a cooking show from his tree house as a retired couple lives out their golden years and young parents raise babies.

Living off the grid in the jungle is no easy feat, though, particularly while preserving creature comforts like Wi-Fi, electricity, and international cuisine. The tree house currently uses propane for cooking while the hydro grid awaits installation, and gasoline fuels vehicles when residents venture out for supplies.

“Nothing is insurmountable, but we have to be realistic,” admits Erica. “People expect everything on site, but it takes years to develop.

“We use organic soaps, but is shipping down soap from North America sustainable? I don’t think so, and we’re exploring local alternatives. Within five years, we hope to grow all of our food here, and when technology allows for it, we want to have a few communal electric cars that we charge with our hydro grid.”

Although each lot has plenty of privacy, a sense of community is central to the Bellavista philosophy. There’s already a communal kitchen and lounge; soon, a health and wellness center will float high in the canopy for yoga sessions and massage therapy.

The couple is also working with their alma mater, Western State College of Colorado, to establish on-site higher learning facilities where students will have hands-on experience in subjects ranging from canopy construction to biology to Spanish.

Photo by maveric2003.

Even with the ambitious plans already in motion, the untapped potential of Bellavista seems limitless. Matt envisions a bungee cord playground à la “Tomb Raider,” white water kayaking, rock climbing… the list goes on. “We have so many ideas,” Erica says. “We have no idea what this place is capable of.”

As the sunset reflects off the clouds we all feast on Erica’s savory veggie and chicken dish doused in a soy peanut sauce. I listen to giddy future residents gush over plans for their parcel until Matt invites me to the hammock lounge up the hill for an after-dinner drink, where we watch insects and discuss everything under the sun.

Finally, we take to the SkyTrail and zip to the tree house, Matt howling into the stars like Tarzan. I drift into sleep with the chorus of insects and surging water below.

Community Connection:

Have you ever visited a sustainable community, or attempted to develop one at home? Tell us your story in the comments!

A sleepy Asiatic lioness tries to take an afternoon snooze. Photo by Tambako.

We are witnessing the largest mass extinction since the end of the dinosaurs. That humanity is at fault is beyond question in serious scientific circles, and it is our duty to save what species we can, both for their sakes and ours.

Every animal that disappears from the earth is a tragedy with enormous repercussions, and to ignore the small and mundane for the cute and fascinating is to miss the point of conservation entirely.

Still, some animals are just downright interesting – what environmentalists call “charismatic megafauna” – and would be a shame to lose from an aesthetic point of view as well. Here are 11 of them:

1. Solenodon

The solenodon has the distinction of being one of the only venomous mammals on the planet (along with certain kinds of shrew and the equally bizarre platypus). Nocturnal and extremely secretive, the Cuban species was thought extinct until its rediscovery in 2003. The Hispaniolan solenodon was in the news recently after being finally captured on film.

2. Black, Javan, and Sumatran Rhinoceroses

Sumatran rhinos. Photo by W. Alan Baker

The Sumatran and Javan rhinos inhabit the rainforests of Southeast Asia, but probably not for much longer (populations are estimated at about 300 and 50, respectively). Both are confined to small, isolated pockets of forest and are frequent victims of poaching for Chinese medicine.

The black rhino is faring slightly better, with about 3,600 individuals left in parks across eastern and southern Africa.

3. Baiji and Vaquita

Cetaceans (whales, dolphins and porpoises) aren’t doing very well on the whole, but the baiji and vaquita are the most critically endangered of all. The vaquita is a small porpoise that lives in the Gulf of California, and like so many marine species, fishing nets have reduced its population to barely sustainable levels.

The baiji is a river dolphin that inhabits the Yangtze, and due to pollution from China’s rapid industrialization, it’s been declared “functionally extinct” – there may be a few individuals left, but they’re so few and far between that there’s no coming back.

4. Wild Bactrian Camel

Photo by Silvain de Munck.

Bactrian — or two humped — camels, are used all over Asia as domestic beasts of burden, but in the wilds of the Gobi Desert they number fewer than 1,000. Though they live in areas completely inhospitable to humans, their survival is threatened by mining and the exploitation of oases.

5. Golden Toad

First discovered in Costa Rica in 1966, the last golden toad was seen just two decades later in 1989. The International Union for Conservation of Nature lists the golden toad as extinct, and while it’s possible there are still a few left, the chances are slim. The golden toad is now a poster child for the conservation movement, highlighting the plight of amphibians in particular.

6. Tasmanian Devil

Photo by Linksman JD.

After being hunted to near-extinction, devils were protected in 1941 and began to bounce back. In the past decade, however, a mysterious and contagious cancer has wiped out entire populations. Causing horrific facial tumors, the disease eventually leaves the animals unable to eat or drink.

The Tasmanian government and conservation agencies are taking steps to halt the spread of the disease, lest the devil go the way of the Tasmanian tiger (or thylacine).

7. Ivory-billed woodpecker

Once ranging throughout Cuba and the Southeastern US, the ivory-billed woodpecker was feared extinct for much of the 20th century. Recent sightings have raised hopes that there may still be populations of this fantastic bird in Arkansas and Louisiana, but they remain unconfirmed.

It has become something of a white whale for ornithologists, and a $50,000 reward stands for its rediscovery.

8. Przewalski’s Horse

Photo by Jeff Kubina.

There are plenty of untamed horses roaming the plains of North America and Australia, but they are the offspring of pack animals. Przewalski’s horse is the only true wild horse left, having never been domesticated. After becoming extinct in the wild in 1969, its captive populations from zoos around the world were cross-bred to increase genetic diversity.

Sixteen were released in Mongolia in 1992, and since then, their population has grown to about 250.

9. Kakapo

Photo by Brent Barrett

A flightless, nocturnal bird endemic to New Zealand, the Kakapo is the only parrot that exhibits either of these traits. Despite conservation efforts going back to 1891, only 90 birds remain (so few that every single one has been named). Extensive recovery plans were recently put in place, and its population has been steadily increasing.

10. Pink Galapagos Land Iguana

Only discovered in 1986, the pink iguana is still up for debate among scientists; it’s not clear whether it is distinct enough to be classified as a separate species. Regardless, it is highly endangered — pink iguanas only exist on one volcano in the Galapagos, and there are fewer than 100 left alive.

11. Asiatic Lion and Cheetah

We usually think of cheetahs and lions as African animals, but they once roamed most of Asia, too. Today, there are only about 300 Asiatic lions left, all in one small area of Gujarat. The Asiatic cheetah isn’t faring any better – there are fewer than 100 remaining, and only in Iran.

To learn more about these and other endangered species, check out the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species.

COMMUNITY CONNECTION

The disappearance of animal species is directly related to the disappearance of their habitats. To read about 10 disappearing natural wonders, click here. To learn more about Matador member organizations working to conserve endangered species, read about the Red Panda Project.