topic: Arts

topic: Arts

Social media activity version | Lean version

A feathered cape bridges past and present for Brazil’s Indigenous Tupinambá
- Used in rituals by the ancestors of the Indigenous Tupinambá people in Brazil, sacred capes made from bird feathers were lost in time and today survive only as museum pieces in Europe.
- Only 11 of these capes are known to exist today; one of them, held in Denmark, is set to be returned to Brazil.
- A key player in the negotiations to secure its return was Indigenous artist and activist Glicéria Tupinambá, who in 2020 started making these sacred capes once again.
- “The Tupinambá who made the original cape lived more than 400 years ago, so the first person to make it, to design this cape, [manifests themselves] through my hands,” she says of her painstaking work.

Uncovering the illegal jaguar trade in Bolivia with Emi Kondo | Mongabay Sessions
- In this episode of Mongabay Sessions, Romi Castagnino speaks with documentary director Emi Kondo about her wildlife documentary, “Jaguar Spirit: An Awakening Journey.”
- The documentary delves into the illegal trade of jaguars in Bolivia.
- Mongabay Sessions is a video series that features conservation players from around the world.

Indigenous women filmmakers form collective, using cameras to fight for rights
- In 2022, a group of Indigenous women created Rede Katahirine, a network composed of 60 filmmakers, producers and screenwriters who represent Indigenous women from nearly all of Brazil’s biomes.
- In placing Indigenous audiovisual arts in the hands of women, the network aims to use its cameras as tools to fight for the preservation of Indigenous territories and memory.
- Aside from funding new productions, Rede Katahirine organizes monthly meetings for screenings and conversations.

Australia crackdown on climate protesters grows amid fight against gas project
- The Indigenous ancestral land of Murujuga in Western Australia is home to the world’s oldest and largest collection of petroglyphs, which would be partially destroyed by the country’s biggest fossil fuel project, the Burrup Hub, owned by Woodside Energy.
- As the company argues more gas is needed, direct action tactics by protesters, like releasing non-toxic stench gas or painting on art, have erupted across the state, as well as crackdowns by the police who have begun imposing the strongest form of charges on activists — some facing up to 20 years in prison.
- This is on trend with a general increasing intolerance toward environmental protesters in Australia and an uptick in the use of direct action by protesters who feel the time is running out to meet climate targets and protect endangered species.
- Environmentalists and researchers worry the project will endanger marine life through seismic blasting and say studies show it is not necessary to meet the country’s energy needs.

Fishing ban extension raises hopes for iconic Amazon pink river dolphin
- The Amazon river dolphin, or boto, is an integral feature of the rainforest’s biodiversity and culture, and is central to several Indigenous tales.
- Even though the dolphin isn’t fished for human consumption, it’s become endangered over the decades because fishers use its flesh as bait for catching piracatinga catfish.
- The Brazilian government earlier this year renewed a moratorium on fishing of piracatinga, first imposed in 2014, in the hope of saving the dolphin, but experts say fishers have just been ignoring the rule.
- The measure became even more relevant in October following the detection of more than 100 dead dolphins in an Amazon lake — experts suspect that the deaths are directly linked to the extreme drought affecting the region.

Brazilian Indigenous artists take the forest to the world
- In recent years, several exhibitions held abroad have featured Indigenous people from Brazil and Latin America, giving unprecedented visibility to artists historically erased by gallery owners and museums.
- Some examples include Siamo Foresta in Milan; The Yanomami Struggle in New York, and BEĨ: Benches of Brazilian Indigenous Peoples in Japan.
- According to curators, the works transcend a mere aesthetic vision, being deeply connected to each people’s cosmologies, in addition to taking political and socioenvironmental issues into museums and galleries.

‘They will not put us in a display case’: Q&A with Indigenous artist Daiara Tukano
- In an interview with Mongabay, artist, educator and political activist Daiara Tukano talks about the pathways by which art inspires critical thinking for the general public and helps in the fight for Indigenous rights.
- Daiara Tukano says people need to understand about the immense diversity among Indigenous peoples to dispel with the long-held archetype of the Brazilian “Indian” and recognize that they’re not only native to the Amazon.
- Given the gradual changes in attitude happening at some museums with regard to Indigenous artistic and linguistic expression, Daiara Tukano says the space must be occupied “through the front door,” while being conscious of potential traps laid by power games.
- “What is driving our fight isn’t a cry of rage, but rather a song of love,” she says. “Happiness seems like a far-off dream when you’re born into this genocidal system. But it’s because of these [happy] moments that our people are still standing.”

In Indonesia’s Flores, a lifelong bamboo flautist looks to the next generation
- Flautist Marselus Selu has started a music collective on the island of Flores to foster traditional wind instruments made from native bamboo.
- The 64-year-old taught himself to build and play the instruments as a teenager.
- In nearby Langagedha village, Margaretha Dae has become the first woman to plant bamboo, contributing to improved water storage and reducing carbon emissions.

Wildlife lover and artist records 5 decades of change on iconic U.K. river
- As a youngster in the 1960s, Janet Marsh spent hours beside England’s Itchen River while her father fished, closely observing the teeming life of the small English stream. Her love of wildlife there, and desire to draw what she saw, helped inspire her to become an accomplished artist.
- In 1979, she published her “nature diary,” profiling the life of her beloved river with exquisite watercolor illustrations along with astute observations. She also added her voice and images to a campaign protesting the extension of a motorway over the river. A selection of her Itchen illustrations are featured in this story.
- Decades later, Marsh revisits the river with Mongabay, noting that the motorway itself, though noisy, hasn’t caused widespread damage, with wildlife proving resilient. Far more harmful has been steady human development, with pollution from fish farms, septic tanks and cropland runoff all gradually killing the river.
- The Itchen and other rivers like it have been called England’s coral reefs due to their biodiversity. They are like small watersheds the world over that get little attention, but where the web of life is unraveling due to human-induced change. In such unsung places, local activists often step up to document and preserve nature.

Can celebrities and social media influencers really ‘rewrite extinction’?
- A new conservation fundraising group, Rewriting Extinction, aims to increase awareness about the biodiversity crisis by reaching out to new audiences.
- The group has raised about $180,000 for a range of different schemes in South and Central America, Europe and Asia.
- Critics accuse it of misleading supporters as to how conservation really works and making exaggerated claims on what its fundraising can achieve.
- The real cost of tackling wildlife declines runs into the tens of billions of dollars, and some experts say Rewriting Extinction is selling a false narrative, while others support Rewriting Extinction’s efforts to raise awareness among people who would otherwise be indifferent to the issue.

With protections restored, tribal council charts new path for Bears Ears
- In October 2021, President Joe Biden restored protections to Bears Ears National Monument in southeast Utah after it was drastically reduced in size by his predecessor, Donald Trump.
- The monument is known for its scenic views as well as thousands of sacred, cultural and archaeological sites.
- Now, the Bears Ears Inter-Tribal Coalition — made up of leaders from the Hopi Tribe, Navajo Nation, Ute Mountain Ute Tribe, Pueblo of Zuni and Ute Indian Tribe — is working on a land management plan that keeps the interests of each tribe in mind as the federal government moves forward with its own plan.
- Co-chair Carleton Bowekaty says he hopes the plan will be a “living document” that will be used even when administrations change and that the efforts will keep the land intact for future generations.

History on the walls: Graffiti brings Manaus’s Indigenous roots to light
- Graffiti artists are painting murals recounting the history of Indigenous people and honoring their culture in the capital of Amazonas, the Brazilian state with the largest Indigenous population.
- Indigenous community leaders say they hope the movement will increase the visibility of Indigenous people living in cities, who often face poverty, housing insecurity and stigma that discourages many from maintaining their culture and identity.
- Fearing cultural erasure, Indigenous activists are urging Indigenous people to embrace their ancestry and identify themselves as Indigenous in Brazil’s next census, expected to begin in August 2022.
- As Indigenous people in cities reclaim their identities, occupying public spaces through street art is playing a key role in the fight to make Indigenous people in urban areas more visible.

Photography, nature, truth and war: Q&A with top photographer Ami Vitale
- Mongabay contacted award-winning photographer and former war correspondent Ami Vitale to hear her thoughts about the power of photography at this pivotal time in places like Ukraine.
- In a new interview, Vitale shares her views and also news of a photography sale that she and other National Geographic photographers have donated prints to, toward providing relief to victims of the war.
- “Photography can remind us all that we have a lot more in common than we often realize. If we…dig beneath the headlines and take the time to understand, a universal truth emerges. We are all connected to one another,” she says.
- Photos from the print sale are available until May 10th.

An Indigenous basket-weaving tradition keeps a Philippine forest alive
- Traditional handicrafts like the Pala’wan Indigenous people’s tingkep woven baskets are deeply tied to local ecosystems; experts increasingly understand that supporting traditional practices can aid conservation by creating incentives for keeping forests intact.
- Efforts to support tingkep weavers have been undercut by the COVID-19 pandemic, which has dried up tourism in Palawan as well as reduced disposable income for many potential buyers, dramatically slashing the demand for the handicrafts.
- At the same time, climate change is already affecting the forests from which tingkep weavers gather materials.

Can a new wave of climate fiction inspire climate action? (commentary)
- Storytelling about the climate crisis–called climate fiction or ‘cli-fi’–has generally focused on end-of-the-world stories that serve as a warning. But can they inspire change?
- Research has found that the majority of cli-fi is associated with negative emotions which can lead to apathy, which is the enemy of action. But stories can get through to us in ways that facts aren’t able to.
- Could this mean that we need different types of cli-fi stories to inspire change? A new op-ed argues that it may be time to add new stories to this potentially world-changing genre.
- This post is a commentary. The views expressed are those of the author, not necessarily of Mongabay.

Philippine-UK comic anthology looks to incite action on climate change
- Ten Years to Save the World is an upcoming online comic book anthology that puts the spotlight on 10 pressing climate change issues — five from the Philippines, five from the U.K. — and explores how each one can be addressed in the next decade.
- It’s a joint project between Komiket Philippines, the Lakes International Comic Art Festival (LICAF), and Creative Concern.
- The comic book anthology will be presented to world leaders at the COP26 climate summit in Glasgow, Scotland, in November.

Next to India’s capital, a village looks to the past for its forest’s future
- For generations, a community outside India’s capital has worked to protect their sacred grove from outside interests like mining and real estate.
- Despite being a biodiversity hotspot, the protection status of this grove under India’s Forest Conservation Act remains in limbo.
- But conservationists and experts say they hope new archaeological findings will help the community get more secure legal protection for their grove.

Environmental art initiative aims to help paint a better future for Southeast Asia
- Supported by Wildlife Asia, the PARDICOLOR Creative Arts Fund subsidizes artists producing works that highlight environmental issues in Southeast Asia.
- The arts initiative is intended to complement conservation work in locations like Salween Peace Park in Myanmar and Indonesia’s Leuser Ecosystem.
- “If we can only create what we can imagine, then art and ideas are an integral part of creating an Earth that is sustainable and thriving with biodiversity,” says Pardicolor founder Demelza Stokes.

The art of adaption and survival: A story of Brazil’s Kadiwéu people
- The Kadiwéu Indigenous Land is located in western Mato Grosso do Sul state, Brazil, near the Paraguay border. The protected reserve covers 539,000 hectares (1.33 million acres), spanning both the Cerrado (71%) and Pantanal (29%) biomes.
- The 1,500 Kadiwéu living in the reserve today are descended from larger Indigenous groups decimated by Portuguese and Spanish colonizers. The Kadiwéu were donated their territory by Emperor Dom Pedro II for their role in the 1864-70 War of the Triple Alliance; theirs was the first Indigenous reserve ever established in Brazil.
- The remnant Kadiwéu long seemed headed for extinction, but their culture survived and adapted. Their arts, especially pottery and body painting, were studied by international anthropologists, including Claude Lévi-Strauss. Today, the Kadiwéu are incorporating their designs into international high fashion.
- But the Kadiwéu still face challenges. Their reserve continues to be invaded by illegal loggers and land grabbers. In 2019-20, more than 40% of their reserve burned in the Pantanal biome wildfires — brought on by record drought due to climate change and irresponsible land management by ranchers. COVID-19 also looms.

Bringing color to conservation: a conversation with wildlife artist Morgan Richardson
- Many of the visuals we’re used to seeing in conservation are ones of despair: forests being torn down for palm oil production, pangolins and rhinos being slaughtered for the scales and horns, blue glaciers calving into the ocean, fires destroying majestic trees, and vigils to environmental defenders slain for their efforts to protect the planet.
- Morgan Lee Richardson, a Los Angeles-based artist, takes a different approach. He creates images of wildlife with shockingly bold colors. Richardson — whose artwork has appeared widely from Disney to Nickelodeon to Thundershirts — uses his “kick in the face” style to “introduce people to the amazing biodiversity of our planet.”
- Richardson says new approaches are needed to reach and engage the next generation since it is they who will determine the fate of the species with which we share the planet. He also believes that wildlife conservation needs to become more inclusive if it hopes to thrive into the future.
- Richardson shared his thoughts during a January 2021 interview with Mongabay’s Dave Martin.

Graphic novel version of classic science memoir aims for new audiences
- Published in 1994, Edward O. Wilson’s “Naturalist” has long been known as one of the best scientific memoirs of its time.
- A 21st-century graphic adaptation of the novel brings Wilson’s journey of discovering the natural world as a child, and that journey’s influence on his career choices later in life.
- The adaptation was led by longtime graphic novelist, Jim Ottaviani, with illustrations by C.M. Butzer.

Honoring children and protecting the planet: An interview with musician Raffi
- If you were born in the 1970s, 1980s, or 1990s in the United States or Canada, there’s a good chance you are familiar with the song “Baby Beluga.” The song, which is about a young whale swimming in the ocean with its mother, was written by Raffi Cavoukian.
- That was a big hit, but Raffi turned down lucrative opportunities to commercialize the song and convert it into a franchise. Decisions like that reflect Raffi’s deeper concern about the well-being of children, which extends to the environment upon which they depend.
- In the 40 years since “Baby Beluga” was released, Raffi has developed a comprehensive philosophy on how to create a “humane and sustainable world by addressing the universal needs of children.”
- Raffi discussed these issues and more during a November 2020 interview with Mongabay Founder Rhett A. Butler.

Can an art museum drive sustainability? Q&A with MOCA’s Klaus Biesenbach
- Contemporary art may seem tangential to environmental concerns for many people, especially those who are active practitioners of conservation, but The Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA) in Los Angeles is looking to shift that perception.
- MOCA has formed an Environmental Council that aims to address some of today’s most pressing environmental issues. The council, composed of a diverse grouping of high-profile environmentalists, will specifically focus on climate, conservation and environmental justice and its cross-section with art in Los Angeles and “beyond”, according to a recent press release provided to Mongabay.
- In this exclusive interview, Director of MOCA Klaus Biesenbach speaks about the formation of MOCA’s Environmental Council and what it aims to achieve.

Using photography and indigenous art to help Amazon communities during COVID
- Xapiri, a Cusco-based art gallery and media production studio, is working to raise awareness of the situation and funds to help indigenous peoples navigate the COVID crisis. In response to the pandemic, Xapiri has jettisoned its plans to visit indigenous partners in the field and instead focused on online fundraising campaigns.
- In a June 2020 interview with Mongabay, Jack Wheeler, Xapiri’s founder and director, spoke about his group’s work, the transition to a COVID world, and why now is a more important time than ever to support indigenous communities.

Kenya, conservation and music: Q&A with singer Barbara Guantai
- “Music is a powerful, non-invasive means of disseminating information,” musician Barbara Guantai tells Mongabay in a new interview.
- Based in Nairobi, whose outskirts include a national park where rhinos and more remind one of the country’s deep natural heritage, she is passionate about finding home-inspired solutions to African problems.
- These problems include environmental degradation and climate change, and she spoke with Mongabay about how music can be a tool for conservation.

In Kenya, the indigenous music of Afro Simba promotes environmental stewardship and peace
- Afro Simba is a 10-year old band that explores the music of 9 indigenous coastal communities of Kenya, collectively called the Mijikenda.
- Now based in the capital Nairobi, the group’s Kombo Chokwe Burns spoke with Mongabay about their music that accentuates environmental stewardship and peace.
- “When artists write original music that is cultural and rooted in Kenya, it is not played on air by the country’s broadcasters. It becomes very difficult to pass on messages about the environment and climate change,” he said.
- The band’s debut album “Pandizo” was aimed at redefining & reintroducing Mijikenda music to Kenya and the rest of the world.

Indigenous artists from the Amazon use art for environmental advocacy
- Visual artist Denilson Baniwa and singer Djuena Tikuna are taking the Amazon to galleries and stages around the world, sharing the rainforest’s socio-environmental diversity and bringing up questions about its future.
- Denilson, born in a village in the Middle Rio Negro region, mixes elements of Baniwa indigenous cosmology and contemporary aesthetics to create paintings, photographs and performances denouncing violence against indigenous Brazilian peoples.
- Djuena, born in the far western tip of the state of Amazonas, uses the Tikuna language as an instrument of resistance: in 2017, she became the first indigenous vocalist in history to sing at the Teatro Amazonas, Manaus’s legendary symbol of Amazonia’s elite.

Chilean band Newen Afrobeat sings of a future it hopes to see
- Santiago, Chile-based band Newen Afrobeat’s songs are infused with themes to do with ecology, indigenous and women’s rights, and cultural understanding.
- Heavily influenced by Afrobeat, the musical style made famous by Nigeria’s Fela Kuti, Newen is fronted by a powerful trio of women singer/songwriters.
- Mongabay interviewed percussionist and Newen co-founder Tomas Pavez from his home in Santiago.

Indigenous-made film explores traditional textile making in the Ecuadorian Amazon
- Yanda Montahuano, a filmmaker from the Sápara indigenous people in Ecuador’s Amazon region, has just released a short documentary film to share how his culture makes clothes from a tree-based fabric.
- The Sápara people are fighting to keep oil drilling out of their territory.
- With the film, Manthanhuano hopes to preserve and return millenary cultural knowledge for the younger generations and demonstrate to the world that the Sápara indigenous people remain alive in the Amazon rainforest.

Ecuador’s artisans struggle to save wooden toy culture
- Environmentalists have long been promoting the benefits of wood toys, especially over their plastic counterparts that create massive waste. Plastic toys are often produced cheaply, break easily, are thrown away quickly, and can take hundreds of years to decompose.
- The 87-year-old artisan wood worker known affectionately Mr. Tops has been creating and selling traditional Ecuadorian toys here for over 50 years.

The man who made Ecuador’s wooden Tigua masks famous
- The 73-year-old artisan, woodworker, and painter takes his inspiration from Andean life for his artwork and colorful wooden masks.
- Long a part of traditional indigenous culture, popular use of the masks has declined over time but the art of the craft remains very much alive.

Birds on Broadway: A Q&A with the Audubon Mural Project’s Avi Gitler
- A public art project is bringing new bird life to uptown Manhattan in John James Audubon’s old neighborhood in New York City.
- The Audubon Mural Project is an ongoing collaboration between the National Audobon Society and Gitler &____ Gallery. So far, 80 murals of 101 bird species have been painted, spanning 133rd to 165th street on Broadway. The project will eventually end at 193rd street, at the end of Audubon Avenue.
- In this Q&A, Avi Gitler, co-producer of the Audubon Mural Project and founder of Gitler &____ Gallery, talks about the impetus for the public art project, which focuses on birds threatened by climate change, how he has enlisted the participating artists, and what he hopes public art about climate change-threatened birds can achieve.

Indonesia’s Teater Potlot takes on the plight of the Sumatran tiger
- A seventh-century Srivijaya king, Srijayanasa, believed progress should bring merit to man and creature alike.
- “Puyang,” a play by a South Sumatra theater group, explores the undoing of this pact through the eyes of a mythical tiger.
- Today, there are fewer than 400 Sumatran tigers believed to be living in the wild, as plantation and mining interests raze their forest homes.

‘S.O.S.’ carved out of former plantation shines a light on palm oil-driven deforestation
- A dramatic S.O.S. sign has been carved out of a stand of oil palms on a former plantation in Sumatra, serving to highlight the destruction of Indonesia’s rainforests.
- The work is part of a campaign by a Lithuanian artist, a conservation group and a cosmetics firm to raise awareness about palm oil-driven deforestation in Indonesia, the world’s biggest producer of the commodity.
- Extensive deforestation has for decades threatened the lives of the island’s native wildlife and the people who depend on the forests for a living.

DJ and ornithologists create wildlife music game
- Wildlife DJ Ben Mirin has teamed up with the Cornell Lab of Ornithology and the Cornell Hip Hop Collection on a new online game that uses wildlife recordings.
- Players take sound recordings of wild creatures and transform them into loops, creating a wide variety of song clips. Players also learn about the animals and the habitats they live in.
- Mirin was also a guest on Mongabay’s podcast in 2017.

Films celebrate big cats on World Wildlife Day
- Big cats is the theme of the global celebration of this year’s World Wildlife Day on March 3.
- A big cats film festival hosted by CITES and Jackson Hole Wildlife Film Festival at the UN headquarters in New York City will screen 16 films selected as finalists.
- Big cats are key apex predators that keep ecosystems healthy, and eight species are being celebrated for the event: the clouded leopard, jaguar, cheetah, leopard, lion, snow leopard, tiger and puma.

WildSpeak conservation photography event set for Washington, D.C.
- WildSpeak 2017 will gather some of the world’s leading conservation photographers, filmmakers, and scientists in Washington, D.C. to explore the role of visual media in improving science communication and conservation outcomes on November 14 and 15.
- The annual event is hosted by the International League of Conservation Photographers (ILCP).
- ILCP’s new director Susan Norton shares some incredible images made by ILCP fellows and some thoughts about what’s exciting about this year’s event and the conservation photography field generally.

Transformance: Finding common ground in the Amazon (commentary)
- The Fórum Bem Viver (Good Life Forum) met earlier this month to bring together indigenous leaders, military police, a federal judge, television actors, musicians, journalists, scientists and activists from eight countries and 14 Brazilian states.
- The event, organized by the eco-cultural education nonprofit Rios de Encontro, utilized arts performances and workshops to seek common ground between participants regarding sustainable solutions in the Amazon.
- The event was held in Marabá, Pará state, which is home to the Carajás mine, the world’s largest iron ore mine, and the community sits beside the Tocantins River where a dam is proposed upstream.
- Participants sought solutions for turning Marabá into an “example of sustainable development for the Amazon, the Americas, and the world.” This post is a commentary. The views expressed are those of the author, not necessarily Mongabay.

Conservation comics to the rescue
- Comics are great for sharing conservation science with people of all ages in new ways.
- Kids and teachers can print these comics out and fold them into a mini comic book.
- The researchers and topics shown in these comics are real.

Fantastic Beasts star Alison Sudol talks conservation and inspiration
- In an exclusive interview, the breakout star of the latest Harry Potter movie argues that it’s deeply important for people to connect with nature
- “Art has a profound ability to connect people to their own hearts, and to each other,” she says, and uses her art to inspire others
- She is herself inspired by how much more there is to know about nature, and were she not performing for large audiences, would perhaps like to study marine mammals

Iconic musician Paul Simon announces tour supporting biodiversity
- Twelve-time Grammy winner Paul Simon spoke to Mongabay during a recent conference in Durham, North Carolina.
- Proceeds from the tour will support the Half-Earth Project, an initiative of the E.O. Wilson Biodiversity Foundation.
- He spoke to Mongabay about optimism, life on Earth, and more during an hour-long conversation.
- It was widely reported in 2016 that the performer was considering retirement from touring, but has now heeded Wilson’s call for saving biodiversity.

Are prosthetic reefs the answer to Indonesia’s coral die-off?
- Manmade “fish apartments” are springing up all over Indonesia in response to the shrinking acreage of natural reefs.
- The popular Biorock system for reef building was dreamed up in the 1990s by a German scientist who envisioned floating cities made of the electrically charged material.
- Marine biologists give Biorock mixed reviews as a conservation tool.

Using art and technology to save the Amazon
- At age 26, Lucy Dablin has contributed to the conservation of over 11,120 acres of rainforest.
- Dablin co-founded a production company and is using film to connect conservation to the greater public.
- She established a network to facilitate collaboration between conservation organizations.

Indonesian artist prepares another underwater reef-to-be
- The installation consists of iron and uses biorock technology to spur coral growth upon the structure.
- The local district head says he hopes the project will raise awareness about Indonesia’s embattled coral ecosystems.
- The central government is striving to increase coverage of Indonesia’s embattled reefs.

Artists, musicians, writers protest government plans for massive coal plant in the Sundarbans

Activists stage cultural protest against Rampal coal plant Landsat image of the Sundarbans, the world’s largest mangrove forest. Photo by: NASA. Over the weekend, Bangladeshi artists performed plays, sang songs, and recited poetry all in a bid to protect the Sundarbans—the world’s biggest mangrove forest—from the threat of a massive coal plant. Construction is already […]
Setting the stage: theater troupe revives tradition to promote conservation in DRC

Art-form helping establish new park by acting as communication bridge between conservationists, local people Two years ago, environmental artist Roger Peet set off to the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) to support the new Lomami National Park with bandanas that he designed. This time, Peet is back in Congo to carry out a conservation theater […]
NASA photographs the amazing ‘guitar forest’

After his wife died of an aneurysm at the age of 25, Pedro Martin Ureta set about to plant her a legacy: a forest in the shape of a guitar (see below). His wife, Graciela Yraizoz—who gave him four children—suggested the idea shortly before her sudden death in 1977. While pilots have long marveled at […]
Art, education, and health: holistic conservation group embarks on new chapter
- It’s unlikely conservation organizations can survive if they are unwilling to embrace change: as an endeavor, conservation requires not just longterm planning, but also an ability to move proactively and fluidly to protect species and safeguard ecosystems.
- Environmental and education NGO, the Art of Conservation, is currently embarking on its biggest change since its foundation in 2006: moving away from its base in Rwanda, while leaving a legacy behind.

Leonardo DiCaprio raises over $38 million for conservation

Film actor, Leonardo DiCaprio, raised a stunning $38.8 million for global conservation efforts Monday night through an all-star art auction at Christie’s in New York City. Commissioning 33 works of art, the A-list actor raised record funds for saving species from extinction and protecting natural habitats. “Our goal here tonight is very simple. The funds […]
Warlords, sorcery, and wildlife: an environmental artist ventures into the Congo

Roger Peet (in blue shirt) posing with Forest Rangers. Photo courtesy of Roger Peet. Last year, Roger Peet, an American artist, traveled to the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) to visit one of the world’s most remote and wild forests. Peet spent three months in a region that is largely unknown to the outside world, […]
Imagine a bird without feathers…

Sometimes a book leaves you breathless. Simply breathless. In The Unfeathered Bird, Katrina van Grouw exquisitely combines creative and intellectual curiosity and produces a wonderful book. The Unfeathered Bird simply is a delight. Each page I turned over was like reliving the awe and discovery of childhood. Broad strokes of creativity confined and structured within […]
Innovative conservation: bandanas to promote new park in the Congo

Bandana by Roger Peet to promote conservation and wildlife identification in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). Click to enlarge. American artist, Roger Peet—a member of the art cooperative, Justseeds, and known for his print images of vanishing species—is headed off to the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) to help survey a new […]
High-tech hell: new documentary brings Africa’s e-waste slum to life

Keyboard finds its way to Agbogbloshie. Photo by: David Fedele. Shirtless boys rapidly pull the computer apart, discarding bits and pieces, until they expose the wires, yank them out, and toss them into a fire. Acrid, toxic smoke blooms as the boys prod the wires and the fire strips the plastic around the wires, leaving […]
Could blockbuster animated movies help save life on Earth?

Coquerel’s sifakas kissing. The Madagascar film series helped raise the profile of many of the island’s unique species, including lemurs. Photo by: Rhett A. Butler. Some scientists may scoff at the idea that animated anthropomorphized animals—from Bambi to Simba to Nemo—could have an important impact on conservation efforts to save real-world species, but a new […]
What does Nature give us? A special Earth Day article
- Yet we have so disconnected ourselves from the natural world that it is easy—and often convenient—to forget that nature remains as giving as ever, even as it vanishes bit-by-bit.
- The rise of technology and industry may have distanced us superficially from nature, but it has not changed our reliance on the natural world: most of what we use and consume on a daily basis remains the product of multitudes of interactions within nature, and many of those interactions are imperiled.
- Beyond such physical goods, the natural world provides less tangible, but just as important, gifts in terms of beauty, art, and spirituality.

Feeds: news | india | latam | brasil | indonesia