Over 50,000 trees!

Friedkin Conservation Fund: Tanzania -- www.friedkinfund.org


It was encouraging to see the efforts of the student environmental groups in establishing tree nurseries and planting trees. Overall, the project is proving to be successful in getting students involved in environmental activities and in planting trees on their campuses and at home.




The project has had varying levels of success in different schools depending on the level of student motivation and the responsiveness of the teachers to get involved and help oversee ad guide the student initiative.



Over 50,000 trees have been transplanted in the first phase of planting over 30 schools since the project started in November 2010. We are continuing to follow-up with the school groups and will continue to offer support to strengthen the initiative and maintain the momentum.

Caribbean’s Largest - Partners with EarthCheck

“Sandals Resorts International has a long-standing history of implementing environmentally-friendly practices throughout its properties. It was important to align with a certification company whose passion for protecting the Caribbean’s unique and delicate eco-system matched our own,” explained Richard May, Group Director of Environmental Affairs. “We are pleased to have found that partner in Earthcheck.”



The partnership further adds yet another level to SRI’s commitment to sustainable tourism. In 1998, Sandals Negril Beach Resort & Spa was the very first all-inclusive resort to earn the Green Globe Certification. Sandals Resorts successfully modified its water systems and energy requirements, adjusted its waste management program and bolstered its already-strong social involvements within the community to earn the important certification.

Within three years, the remaining 13 Sandals Resorts and four Beaches Resorts all earned the venerable award. In 2008, Sandals Negril achieved the highest possible level of certification (Platinum), becoming the first and only hotel in the world to do so. Since implementing sustainability practices, average resource savings achieved by SRI amount to 40 percent (water), 55 to 60 percent (waste) and 40 percent (energy).

The announcement of the partnership arrives in tandem with the one-year anniversary of the The Sandals Foundation, the philanthropic arm of Sandals Resorts International. The Foundation represents nearly three decades of corporate philanthropy focused on action-based sustainable development in areas of education, environment and community.

SRI employees are also encouraged to act in accordance with sustainability policies. Employees receive daily reminders in shift meetings, training courses and environmental awareness sessions. Notice boards and competitions also play a significant role in the changing of attitudes and along with field trips and monthly awards, helps to maintain exposure.

But is the company’s commitment to sustainable practices making any impact upon consumer behavior? Again, Richard May comments; “Many hotels operate in the Caribbean, but we are the Caribbean, fiercely protecting the islands we call home. Over the years, our guests have taken notice. Current programs that allow guests to engage in clean-up activities or community work actually resulted from an increased demand from our guests. These experiences have prompted guests to return year after year with suitcases filled with toys, books and medical supplies for donation to area schools and hospitals.”

“Many of our suppliers and business partners have also developed internal sustainability and environmental policies as a result of our requests for change,” explains May. “They have adopted environmentally enhanced operating processes and those suppliers who have shown an extended resistance to change or fail to consider this new approach are no longer on our list as preferred suppliers.”

With the protection of the environment an important cause for many, SRI has also seen many conference organizers and planners place an increased emphasis on eco-friendly practices. Some – such as Nestle – will no longer book events with conference venues that cannot supply sustainability policies and assist them in staging carbon proceedings.

EarthCheck science has provided SRI with the framework for sustainable operations and the company focuses on expanding its programs to the proverbial next level via the reaches of The Sandals Foundation with its focus on education, environment, and community.

In this manner, SRI is creating a positive ripple upon host communities in the hope that by influencing future generations at a formative stage in their lives, the habits and cultural norms they adopt will imbed sustainability in their very DNA.


EDITOR'S NOTES


Sandals Resorts has earned a worldwide reputation for providing two people in love with the most romantic vacation experience in the Caribbean. Currently, there are 14 Luxury Included® Sandals Resorts located in Jamaica, Antigua, St. Lucia and The Bahamas. Each offers stunning beachfront locations; a choice of à la carte restaurants, from white-glove dining to barefoot elegance; all premium brand wine and spirits, including an exclusive partnership with California's legendary Beringer Vineyards; luxurious accommodations in a range of categories; unrivalled watersports including the Caribbean's largest PADI certification program; Butler Service for truly indulgent pampering; Sandals Weddings by Martha StewartTM; and signature Red Lane® Spas, with services and treatments inspired by the region. In February 2010, Sandals Emerald Bay, Great Exuma, Bahamas made its debut, offering 183 all-butler service rooms and suites, an 18-hole championship Greg Norman-designed golf course and 150 slip marina.

Sandals Resorts has set the industry standard for the Luxury Included® vacation and has been voted the Caribbean’s Leading Hotel Brand at the World Travel Awards for 16 years in a row, and World's Leading All-Inclusive Company for 14 years in a row. For more information, call your local travel agent or 1-800-Sandals (1-800-726-3257) or visit www.sandals.com.

EC3 Global is the world's largest certifier of sustainable travel and tourism operators. With more than 1000 clients in over 60 countries, the company’s EarthCheck Program responds directly to the major environmental problems facing the planet, including climate change, waste reduction and non-renewable resource management. It provides benchmarking, certification and performance improvement systems that result in average savings of 30 per cent for energy and waste stream, and 20 per cent savings for water consumption. Go to www.earthcheck.org www.earthcheck.org or www.ec3global.com

Law enforcement: the elephant in the ivory room

Note from Rock Environmental's President, Britt Hosmer:

The CITES CoP15 in Qatar is taking place over the next few weeks. If you are interested in the debate over the elephant ivory trade - please read through this article. Both sides are laid out in a fair and balanced manor. Thank you to the author of this article, Tom Milliken who is the regional director of the wildlife-trade monitoring network TRAFFIC in eastern and southern Africa and manages the Elephant Trade Information System.

SENEGAL clings to the hope that elephants still live within its borders, even though not a single animal has been observed there in the past decade. The International Union for Conservation of Nature puts Senegal's wild elephant population at 1, but speculates that another nine animals might be out there.

Not likely. Those elephants - or at least their tusks - have probably already passed through the sprawling tourist curio market in the country's capital, Dakar. On a recent visit, the wildlife-trade monitoring network TRAFFIC recorded 169 kilograms of ivory openly for sale. There is certainly a lot more ivory in Senegal than there are elephants.

Dakar's is one of a multitude of unregulated ivory markets across Africa and in Asia. There are no rules, regulations or law enforcement; just ivory business as usual every day.

This week, representatives of 175 governments will be in Doha, Qatar, for a meeting of CITES, the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora. There, the ivory trade will be discussed in what is sure to be a heated session.

African nations are at loggerheads over ivory, specifically whether stockpiles of tusks accumulated through natural elephant deaths and the control of problem animals should be allowed to be sold.

On one side are Tanzania and Zambia, who will ask CITES to sanction a one-off sale of 112 tonnes of stockpiled ivory. They argue that where ivory is harvested sustainably and the profits put back into elephant protection, numbers are soaring. In late 2008, South Africa, Namibia, Zimbabwe and Botswana legally sold 106 tonnes of ivory. All revenues went back into elephant conservation. These countries are home to around half of all Africa's elephants.

On the other side is an alliance led by Kenya but consisting mostly of central and west African nations. They see legalised ivory sales as showing a green light to poachers: if you permit sales under CITES, you stimulate demand which will be met through the illegal slaughter of elephants and the smuggling of their tusks. This alliance argues that the only logical step is to halt all ivory trade for 20 years.

Who is right? Do legal ivory sales really lead to more trade in poached ivory? For 21 years, TRAFFIC has been tracking the illegal trade by collecting records of ivory seizures from around the world. The resulting Elephant Trade Information System (ETIS) is the largest database of its kind, with more than 15,000 records.

So what does it tell us? Both sides of the argument will erroneously claim that it contains data to support their case. For example, since the 2008 sale, illicit trade has climbed alarmingly - apparently supporting the sale-leads-to-poaching hypothesis. But look further, and it is clear the illicit trade started rising at least as far back as 2004, though it turned sharply upwards in 2009.

The pro-sale camp will point to events following the only other legal ivory sale so far, which took place in 1999. On that occasion, Botswana, Namibia and Zimbabwe sold a total of 50 tonnes of ivory, and the ETIS analysis shows a subsequent five-year decline in illegal ivory trade.

What are we to conclude from this? The figures suggest that one-off ivory sales are not, in fact, an important factor driving the illicit trade in ivory. Like ripples from a stone tossed into a moving river, their effect vanishes in the flow.

So what factors are important? Four successive ETIS analyses have found illicit trade to be strongly correlated with the presence of ivory markets unfettered by law enforcement, like Senegal's souk. Such markets are found all over Africa: in Ivory Coast, Nigeria, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Mozambique and even Egypt. In Asia, Thailand has a massive unregulated market. Burma and Vietnam have ivory markets. The list goes on.

Ivory markets that are unfettered by law enforcement are found all over Africa and in Asia

ETIS also demonstrates the role of law enforcement in inhibiting illicit trade. For example, the 13 countries in the elephant's west African range have collectively reported only 30 ivory seizures inside their borders in the past 21 years; Senegal has reported none. At the same time, 28 tonnes of illegal ivory from these countries has turned up in more than 1350 seizures in other parts of the world. Similarly, the seven countries of central Africa have reported only 90 seizures at home since 1989, but over 900 seizures of their ivory have occurred further afield.

In sharp contrast, the 17 countries of eastern and southern Africa have collectively made over 3300 ivory seizures themselves, 1000 more than were made elsewhere involving ivory from those countries.

ETIS also points to the increasing role of Asian-run crime syndicates in moving large volumes of ivory from Africa to Asia. At home, China claims to have a tightly controlled regime for trading in ivory, and imposes the death penalty for large-scale infringements. Yet Chinese nationals living in Africa seem oblivious to this, despite a firm commitment made by China to CITES in 2008 that it would ensure its citizens living in Africa were fully aware of the illegality of dealing in ivory. The promised mission to spread this message has not taken place: it's time to honour that commitment now.

The CITES meeting offers a chance to stem the flow of illicit ivory from Africa to Asia. If governments there commit to act against organised criminal gangs and clamp down on unregulated markets, we can be optimistic there will be a real impact on the surge of illegal trade.

Until then, arguments over the impacts of one-off sales will continue to divert attention away from the real problem: finding ways to stop the flow of illicit ivory at source.