Category Archives: Deforestation and frogs

11/7/09

Frogs: Angels of the Forest

In early September, we wrote a post about The Prince’s Rainforest Project contest to name its rainforest frog mascot. I’ve just learned that they picked a name: Orifiel, which means angel of the forest.
Meet Orifiel

Meet Orifiel

I did a little research because I had never heard of this angel. Orifiel is an archangel, one of the angels that are part of Jewish, Christian, and Muslim traditions. Unlike the more charismatic angels like Gabriel, Rafael, or Michael, Orifiel is a bit more mysterious. In fact, I could only find information about him/her on a couple of angelology sites. On these sites, Orifiel is described as the angel of the wilderness who helps save the wild areas of earth.

We like the image of frogs as angels of the wildnerness!

10/16/09

Help the Rainforests with Your Next Latte

This week, October 12-18, is World Rainforest Week. Recently, I learned about an organization that has practical solutions to helping the rainforests: the New York-based Rainforest Alliance, which helps to conserve rainforest biodiversity and the livelihoods of people who make their living from the rainforests by transforming land use practices, business practices, and consumer behavior.

So what does this mean for you? You can help the rainforests by being a savvy consumer and by “voting with your dollars” in the kitchen (buying agricultural products from Rainforest Alliance Certified Farms), your living room (buying furniture from Forest Stewardship Council Certified Forests), and by choosing eco-friendly travel options.

Here’s one example: Like most Americans (and people everywhere, for that matter), Susan and I drink A LOT of coffee, but we’re beginning to learn about the devastating toll that modern coffee-growing practices take on the environment.

According to the Rainforest Alliance:

For more than 150 years, coffee was widely grown under the leafy canopy of native rainforest trees. Agronomists in the 1970s began promoting a new farm system where the sheltering forest is cleared, and coffee bushes are packed in dense hedgerows and doused with agrochemicals. These monoculture farms produce more beans, but at a tremendous environmental cost. The traditional, agroforestry system is good wildlife habitat. The new monocultures have little habitat, accelerate soil erosion, and pollute streams.

Coffee Beans

Certified, forested coffee farms, on the other hand, can be bio-rich buffer zones for parks, protect watersheds, and serve as wildlife corridors. These “coffee forests” are also important sources of firewood, construction materials, medicinal plants, fruits, flowers, honey, and other goods. Many farms in the certification program protect native forest reserves and community water supplies.

This week, consider buying coffee with a Rainforest Alliance Certified seal on it. As reported in the Brisbane (Australia) Times, companies are now “keen to kiss the green frog.”

certified_seal

Won’t it be nice to know when you drink your cuppa Joe in the morning that the coffee was grown on farms “where forests are protected, rivers, soils and wildlife conserved; workers are treated with respect, paid decent wages, properly equipped, and given access to education and medical care,” and from a farm that provides shelter and food for FROGS, birds, and other animals.

I went to the supermarket today and instead of buying my usual brand, I bought a brand called Caribou Coffee, which had the Rainforest Alliance seal. I noticed another brand, too, with the seal. Newman’s Own coffee is Fair-Trade Certified, and certain types of Starbucks coffee are shade-grown (for example, Organic Shade Grown Mexican). It is more expensive, but it still costs less than the price of two lattes at Starbucks. Also, my rainforest-friendly coffee tastes better than my regular brand. I’ll drink to that!

Photographers also take note. The Rainforest Alliance is having a photo contest–the deadline is November 1, 2009. Categories are nature and landscapes, wildlife, conservation in action, and sustainable tourism. The first prize is an eco-trip for two to Costa Rica. Check it out!

Teachers: Here’s the education page with fun stuff for kids and lesson plans for teachers.

Coffee photo courtesy Rainforest Alliance website

10/3/09

Sting's Message in a Bottle: SOS for the Rainforest

We received a new video from the Prince’s Rainforests Project of Sting singing “Message in a Bottle,” his own personal SOS to the world about the destruction of the rainforests. The Prince’s Rainforest SOS Campaign is their final push to ensure that the call for emergency action to protect rainforests is heard by those who have the power to make change happen. It is particularly directed toward world leaders before the forthcoming global climate change negotiations in Copenhagen in December.

While Sting and the frog are cute, his message is serious—and it is heartbreaking to see the trees cut down. Check out the Prince’s site to find out ways that you can become involved and spread the message!

07/22/09

Frog Lover: Wangari Maathai

Last week, I wrote a post about Prince Charles’ Rainforest Project, which included a video featuring celebrities with a green frog. Today I came across another Rainforest Project video, this one featuring African environmental activist Wangari Maathai with a frog. I’ve alway admired Maathai and even quoted her in our Mission statement for this blog.

Wangari Maatha, born in Kenya, was the first African woman to win the Nobel Peace Prize (in 2004). She started The Green Belt Movement in Kenya in 1977, with the idea that communities across Kenya would plant trees to help with the problem of deforestation. To date, over 40 million trees have been planted, mainly by women.

I few years ago, I wrote a children’s book manuscript about Maathai called “The Tree Lady” (unpublished). To write the story, I did a lot of research about her. I learned that she called herself “Mary Jo” when she studied in the United States. I am a fairly reluctant Mary Jo, so I’m glad she switched back to her African name when she returned home!

Professor Maathai often talks about how watching frogs and tadpoles as a child spurred her interest in nature and biology. When she returned home to Africa from the United States, she was saddened to find that the frogs were gone: the stream by her home had dried up due to deforestation.

In an interview with Marianne Schnall, appearing today in The Huffington Post, Maathai touches on many issues, but, as always, she mentions frogs:

Sometimes when I talk to little children I remind them of the fact that when I was growing up myself, I used to play with frog eggs and tadpoles and I used to walk in the field, I used to literally copy whatever my mother was doing on the land. And that may be the reason why I eventually developed the passion for green and for the Earth. So it is extremely important for adults and especially those who are in charge of cities to make sure that we do not lose touch with the land and with the environment. And especially our children.

So in honor of Wangari Maathai, spend some time this summer enjoying nature with your kids—and try and see some frogs, too!