Comment - January 2010
Happy New Year!
It was the last day in the office and for many the Christmas break had already begun. Would there be any last minute cards and greetings? Yes, but not what I was expecting. Here with a flurry of foreign stamps that at a Christmas past would have brought great joy to any stamp collection - was a report on medicinal plants in Kakamega Forest, Kenya's only tropical rainforest.
The plight of the world's rainforests is frequently reported because of mankind's rapacious devouring of the timber, but less coverage is given to the loss of the plants growing beneath the trees. The Kenyan report was produced by Nickson E. Otieno of the National Museums of Kenya and Caleb Analo of the Kakamega Environment Education Project who successfully applied for funding from The Conservation Foundation's Young Scientists for Rainforests scheme.
Nickson and Caleb were concerned that an increasing population and encroaching agriculture added to having too much knowledge in the memories of too few, elderly people was a recipe for extinction. There was therefore a need to gather information as quickly as possible and so during 2009 details of the medical qualities of 40 plants have been recorded.
Cures range from coughs and hiccups to prostate cancer and sexually transmitted diseases using bark, leaves or roots.
(You can read more on http://www.conservationfoundation.co.uk/content.php?id=51
We hear so much of the loss and destruction of our environment that is uplifting to discover these examples of cures for humans and animals discovered through generations being recorded for future use and development. The wonders of the world continue to inspire us and at a time when so many found doom and despondency in the corridors of Copenhagen it was great to hear the Archbishop of Canterbury's sermon in the city's cathedral when he said -
" Love casts out fear. If we begin from the belief that God wants us to rejoice and delight in the created world, our basic attitude to the environment will not be anxiety or the desperate search for ways of controlling it; it will be the excited and hopeful search for understanding it and honouring its goodness and its complex, interdependent beauty. If there is any 'fear' around here, it should be fear of spoiling the heritage given us, of forgetting the overwhelming scale and depth of the gift and of our responsibility and care for it, fear of forgetting that we are called to show consistent and sacrificial love for the created world as we must show towards our fellow-human beings. And, as we should have learned by now, the truth is that we cannot show the right kind of love for our fellow-humans unless we also work at keeping the earth as a place that is a secure home for all people and for future generations.
Whilst the Archbishop was in Copenhagen I was in London reading a number of 'good news' stories: a nationwide coordinated count of count of critically endangered white shouldered Ibis in Cambodia found 3120 individuals the highest number ever, evidence that the population is larger than previously estimated; endemic forests are thriving on the island of Timor hosting 63 species of birds; In Egypt a local environmental NGO has persuaded the country's largest construction group to stop dumping waste in Lake Qarum; villagers around Tanzania's Lake Natron have vowed to protect the lake and its Lesser Flamingos from industrial development, and an expedition to find the critically endangered Fiji Petrel at sea has returned with stunning images and new information on one of the world's least known seabirds. And Birdlife International also report that the global population of Gurney's Pitta may be several times that of previous estimates - the results suggest the species is tolerant of, and even benefits from forest disturbance, though it certainly cannot survive in oil palm plantations. From Kew Gardens comes the news that giant rainforest trees with exploding seed pods and seven types of wild coffee plant are among nearly 300 new species discovered by Kew's scientists during 2009. We can only wonder as to how many of these species may have secrets waiting to be discovered to bring benefits to mankind.
Of course there are problems and major issues to be sorted, but nature and mankind working together are still a great combination and an inspiration to start a new year.
Positive environmental news was featured in nearly twenty issues of the Parish Pump News. Unfortunately lack of sponsorship to cover the publication and distribution means that copies have not been produced during 2009. However, many of the items which would have appeared are now featured on the web: www.conservationfoundation.co.uk/news_other.php New stories, publications and events are added regularly.
