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A new member of the family in Sweden

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We are delighted to welcome our Friends of A Rocha group in Sweden as an A Rocha Associated Project. Kristna för naturvård i Sverige (KriNa for short, or in English: Christians for Nature Conservation in Sweden) is helping individuals, groups and churches in Sweden to care more for creation and protect places for biodiversity, especially locally. Their Hyllie Park Gardens Project is a joint venture with the local church and adult education college and focuses on environmental education and the creation of a meadow, wildlife habitats and nature trail that will promote biodiversity onsite.

Through practical workshops and seminars, people are learning how to make bird houses and insect hotels, as well as finding out about environmental issues such as plastic pollution and how to live more sustainably. Local children and adults are enjoying trips to nature parks and church study groups are learning what it means to be an eco-church.

In time, KriNa hopes to improve awareness of and care for nature among the children and students at its partner schools and to increase their reach beyond Hyllie Park – positively impacting biodiversity and engaging with different churches within Sweden.

Welcome to the A Rocha worldwide family, Kristna för naturvård i Sverige!

Photo by Arne Mörnerud

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New species to science discovered in Atewa

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The Atewa Forest campaign was boosted last month by the publication of a formal description of a new species of frog, known only from Atewa. Discovered in the forest in 2006, for some time it was believed to be the Togo Slippery Frog Conraua derooi. However, subsequent studies have concluded that it is a species in its own right. It has been given the English name Atewa Slippery Frog and the scientific name Conraua sagyimase, which honours the local Sagyimase community that has helped its conservation. The Akan common name for the new species is kwaeɛ mu nsutene apɔnkyerɛne, meaning the ‘frog of the forest streams’.

One of its distinguishing features is its loud and distinctive call. A Rocha International is working with A Rocha Ghana and the Forestry Research Institute of Ghana to survey Atewa’s streams for the frog, using passive sound recorders to record their nocturnal calls. Read A Rocha Ghana’s press release and the academic paper published in Zootaxa.

[Photo: Atewa Slippery Frog Conraua sagyimase by Dr Caleb Ofori Boateng]
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A Rocha India and the COVID crisis

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You will have seen ongoing reports from India where a crisis of historic proportions continues to unfold. The A Rocha India team have not only lost close personal friends, but several have themselves been seriously unwell with COVID-19. Medical infrastructure in Bangalore, where the centre is located, has completely collapsed and daily deaths in the area run to the hundreds.

The team are doing night-time elephant patrols to reduce crop raiding as most Forest Officers are not working, and many have been impacted by Covid. Villagers are now to a great extent dependent on A Rocha for prevention of human-elephant conflict, which has grown worse as wildlife has gained confidence during lockdown.

A Rocha India has also responded to the request to undertake Covid relief work by local government. Avinash Krishnan, who heads up A Rocha India, writes, ‘We are actively campaigning to meet the needs of people and help save lives. I am hoping this call for humanity will render justice in serving the needy through the work of A Rocha India.’

Throughout this terrible time, A Rocha India’s relationship with the local community and government has been strengthened and their reputation enhanced. Please pray this will bear fruit in their ability to carry out impactful work in the years to come.

Read more of A Rocha India’s work during the pandemic.

Photo: Distributing relief supplies to frontline staff of the Karnataka Forest Department. (A Rocha India)

Audrey pruning roses at Mekse Nature Park

A Rocha Lebanon – a new chapter

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Colin and Audrey Gibson did not require much persuasion when they were asked last year to join A Rocha Lebanon as National Director and Engagement Officer respectively. ‘It was perfect timing too as our work with another Lebanese NGO had come to a natural end,’ explains Colin. ‘It is a joy to use my environmental experience and skills in project management and fundraising and for Audrey to develop her passion for outdoor education. 

A Rocha Lebanon’s current conservation work is at a formerly barren 3.5 hectare site where we are working in partnership with the local municipality of Mekse – a town in the fertile Bekaa Valley which was once the ‘bread basket’ of the Eastern Roman Empire. It is good to see that wildlife is already returning as a result of work over the past few years: tree planting and the creation of a pond. We plan to complete the tree planting and are consulting with some local partners about developing a community garden to grow organic fruit and vegetables. We are also looking into how best to achieve the long term sustainability of the site, perhaps through other income generation opportunities such as beekeeping. 

Audrey is busy planning educational activities, mostly that children can do at home, as schools have been closed or are operating online. Ideas include a scavenger hunt and nature detective challenge – linking to our Wild Lebanon website – simple ideas to get children outside and enjoying nature. 

We also hope to produce some resources for churches on creation care in Arabic and we are currently trying to develop partnerships, both locally and regionally, to take this work forward. 

However, we have to be flexible with our plans, as Lebanon is in the midst of a political and economic crisis. This is causing great hardship for many and we are very mindful of this as we engage communities in nature conservation.’ 

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Connecting kids with nature

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‘A mind that is stretched by a new experience can never go back to its old dimensions.’ – Oliver Wendell Holmes

For the past 10 years, the Karioi Project has been offering young people aged 6 – 18 the opportunity to connect with nature, their community and themselves. Through hands-on activities and games, kids become familiar and comfortable with a variety of ecosystems and skills.

The younger groups learn to build survival huts in the bush, trap predators that threaten New Zealand’s incredible native wildlife and start fires with flint and steel. At low tide, they discuss the lives of sea-stars and crabs that inhabit the salty pools at the world-famous surf spots in Raglan. Becoming aware of the role of dunes in preventing erosion leads students to encourage friends, family, and even strangers not to walk through this fragile habitat in an effort to conserve plant and animal life. The students often develop an appreciation and love for a variety of habitats and, in turn, become stewards. Older students learn more practical conservation skills such as predator control and monitoring, mapping with GPS and navigating with a compass.

Karioi participants meet many superstars of their community, including world-famous kite flyers, kayak instructors, ecologists and surfers. They explore ecosystems that might be new, or discovered from a different perspective. Many students come back term after term for the changing activities and growing friendships. The programme uniquely combines youth from five different schools, and youth that might live on the same street but have never met. By learning and playing together, the students develop confidence trying and perfecting new skills and expand their curiosity while engaging with the natural world, and develop their resilience to face whatever comes.

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Get to Glasgow

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For 2021, six families from Northamptonshire in the UK set themselves a challenge: to walk, run, cycle or scoot the distance from their home to the COP26 UN climate change conference in Glasgow, finishing just in time for world leaders to arrive in Scotland this November.

Their journey will take them 353 miles – not actually to Glasgow, but around their local area – and more and more people are signing up to join them as they learn together how to respond to the climate crisis. Around 300 people are now taking part, from all around the UK and from Australia and Canada too.

‘It’s very humbling as momentum has increased without us doing anything other than spending time outside and talking about God and our place in it all.’ says Hannah Persaud. ‘It’s very much a shared pilgrimage – we reflect, listen, learn and pray as we travel together, even though we may be apart. The kids are fully involved and there have already been some very moving stories of connection and lifestyle change, and God moving in people’s hearts as we gently journey on each week, all at our different paces, all in our different spaces, out in creation and open to what He shows us.’

You can join in from wherever you are. Or show your support with a donation to A Rocha UK.

Photo by Henry Xu on Unsplash
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Annual Review 2019/2020

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Our new-look Annual Review is out now and available to read online.

Inside you will read of new leadership as Dr Simon Stuart becomes our Executive Director after some years as an International Trustee (page 6). Our African Forest Programme and Marine Conservation Programme have made great strides (pages 10-13), and national organizations have responded creatively and courageously to the challenges of COVID-19 (page 7).

We pray that you will read these stories – where Christian convictions are being translated into practical conservation – as signs of hope. For hope is now more needed than ever. Thank you for walking with us.

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Securing a future for Dakatcha

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Dakatcha Woodland, on the coast of Kenya, is home to a number of globally threatened species, including Africa’s smallest owl, the Sokoke Scops Owl. Yet this woodland is being destroyed at an alarming rate due to rampant charcoal burning and the uncontrolled expansion of pineapple plantations. Now with COVID-19 hitting the local economy hard and people losing their jobs, the pace of forest destruction has picked up, making the situation even more urgent.

With help from others, A Rocha Kenya has been buying blocks of forest from willing sellers and creating a nature reserve to conserve this unique landscape and safeguard its precious inhabitants. But the recent initiation of land adjudication by the government has led to intensified demand and a rapid escalation of land prices.

Already A Rocha Kenya has acquired 1,517 acres of the planned 10,500–acre A Rocha Dakatcha Nature Reserve, but there is an urgent need to secure 500 acres immediately before they are bought to be burnt for charcoal or ploughed for marginal agriculture.

Throughout the process and as part of A Rocha Kenya’s community conservation approach, the team are involving people adjacent to the reserve in the sustainable management of their land, teaching in schools and churches and introducing restorative farming and income-generating activities such as honey production.

Read more about Dakatcha and how you can help.

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Wildfires, logging and climate change

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With over 5 million acres (2.25 million hectares) burned in three coastal states and fires dotting the US West, many communities have evacuated, and a few have burnt down – over 1,000 homes are gone. Smoke has created very unhealthy air quality and has been detected in Europe.

Mark McReynolds is the Director of SoCal A Rocha. He previously led a federally funded, three-year effort to educate teachers on forest issues and has a PhD in Environmental Studies. He says, ‘People want answers. The logging industry is calling for “fuel reduction”, aka logging, which sounds reasonable, but diverts attention from climate change (the driver of increased intense wildfires), from practical steps to save communities, and from evidence that logging makes fires worse.’

Chad Hanson, a fire ecologist with the John Muir Project and friend of A Rocha, argues that logging does not stop fires. Fires burn hotter and faster in logged forests and do not tend to burn more intensely in dense forests¹ or in forests with high numbers of dead trees². Logging also creates local environmental problems and annually emits more carbon in the USA than residential and commercial sectors combined³ – creating more climate change.

Unless there is change, more and larger fires are likely a new normal. A Rocha USA is encouraging people to ask their elected officials to address climate change and assist communities to develop protective housing construction and zoning regulations that minimize wildfire effects on people.

Photo by Manny Becerra on Unsplash