The return of the lynx in Italy.

1920 was the year of the official announcement of the extinction of the lynx in the Italian territory.
Unfortunately, during the same period in almost the whole Europe this beautiful feline was definitively disappearing, because of centuries of deforestation, reduction in the number of preys and direct persecution.

Between 1970 and 1986, 7 reintroduction programs were attempted in Italy, France, Switzerland and Germany. While in the other countries they had success, in Italy the results started to arrive late and only in 1971, after Switzerland had released about 30 lynx, there were the first reports of sightings in the western Alps, precisely in Aosta Valley and Ossola Valley.

From the 80s on the lynx (lynx lynx) has come back in the forests of northern Piedmont, Giulie Alps and Carniche Alps and is now going south, along the forests of the Apennines.

Today, the largest Italian population is in the Gran San Bernardo zone and the data collected by the forest rangers show that these wonderful animals have arrived to the Abruzzo National Park (with 2-3 confirmed pairs).
In spite of all, in Italy the lynx remains very vulnerable because of car accidents, poaching and the destruction of its habitat and of the ecological network in the Alpine valleys, which are too often crossed by highways or railways.

(Thanks to Lorenzo S. for helping me writing this post)

JELLYFISH: a possible solution.

A research of an Italian university showed that the excess of jellyfish in the Mediterranean Sea causes each year high costs for the health service, as well as for some industries and for fishing.

So...this university made a proposal: why don't we eat them?
In China and other countries they're already doing it and jellyfish are considered a prized food. Actually, they have a low caloric content and they are rich of proteins, Omega 3 and Omega 6.

Today the turnover linked to the consumption of jellyfish is higher than 25 million euros. But there's a problem...the EU recognizes as edible only the Asian jellyfish and not the European ones.

The aim of this Italian university is to study in deep the nutritional properties of the European jellyfish, and also to investigate their possible use in the zootechnique and in the pharmaceutical research.

JELLYFISH: a worrying invasion.

For some years now the jellyfish are causing serious damage to fishing and to industrial activities. This is happening not only in the Mediterranean Sea, but also in the Irish Sea and in the Atlantic Ocean, because of the global warming. 

In 2013 they have killed 20.000 salmons in the plants of Marine Havest, off the coast of the Irish island of Clare. Other similar episodes have occurred along the coasts of Tunisia, Spain, Normandy, Catalonia, Norway and Chile. 

This problem is not so known at the moment, but it can't be underestimated. Jellyfish cause trouble to the fish farms, but also in the open seas, where they can choke the boat motors and pile up in the nets, reducing the fish and making it hard to select it. 

Whose is the blame for all of this? 

Of course global warming is playing a fundamental role: in the Mediterranean Sea there are species that once couldn't be found there, like puffers and barracudas and the man exploiting too much the marine ecosystems reduces the competition for food, so jellyfish thrive more than the fish species. 

Furthermore, they resist well to the effects of pollution and to the acidification of the oceans. 

They threaten to wipe out marine biodiversity. 

FISH AT RISK. Be part of the change.

There are some fish in such deep trouble that need special attention: Greenpeace has listed the most serious ones in a Red List. They are on this list because of several reasons: they reproduce in a way that makes the very vulnerable to overfishing and is little or no data available to show that the stocks are healthy or that they are being fished at a sustainable rate; they are often sources from overfished and depleted stocks, or are being fished at such a high rate that stocks are being depleted rapidly; the fishing methods used to catch the fish are often highly destructive to other oceans creatures and/or habitats. 

Some species which are at particular risk are the anglerfish (or monkfish or goosefish), the Patagonian toothfish (or Chilean seabass), the sharks, the skates and rays. There are lots of other species in danger and you can find them by clicking on this link http://www.greenpeace.org/international/en/campaigns/oceans/seafood/red-list-of-species/. 

We all can do something to help the situation change, for example by buying fish from retailers and restaurants that have made a clear public commitment to sourcing and selling better fish. 
We all can be part of the change. 

The Swedish National Heritage...NATURE!

Love for nature unites and characterizes all the inhabitants of Sweden. 
The Swedish territory is vast and nature plays a fundamental role. In Sweden, breathtaking views, pure water, clean air and great outdoors are available to everybody, even just outside the big cities. 

Thanks to its extension, Sweden has a wide range of territories and landscapes. 
Probably the most known is the the northernmost, the Lapp highlands, thanks to their natural phenomena: the midnight sun in summer and the aurora borealis in winter. 

All around Sweden there are forests where you'll find relax and peace. The activities that can be done are many: raft rides, fishing, animal watching, biking. 
The seascape of the archipelagos offers fantastic views, as well as the hills and the flowery fields of Skane. 

Sweden gives you the unique chance to combine urban attractions and nature experiences in an only (even short) holiday. 

Safari...made in Sweden!

When you hear the word "safari" you immediately think of the great African savannas, of the elephant, rhino and lion watching...

However, for some years in Sweden has been launched a new safari concept. Indeed, in this country there's still the chance to observe immense forests and its beautiful inhabitants which once characterized whole Europe. 

Today, lots of tour operators and local guides organize these Scandinavian safaris to let the nature lovers observe bears, elks, wolves and lynx. The tours of lakes, rivers and archipelagos are also very popular: there you can sight fantastic water animals like otters, beavers, seals and porpoises. 
Finally, also birdwatching and butterfly-watching are having increasingly success. 

What to say...you just have to go! 

(Thanks to Lorenzo S. for helping me writing this post)

The cruel story of the moonbears.

In China, Vietnam and Korea the moonbears (so called for a white stain in the shape of the moon on their breast) are abused and tortured to extract their precious bile, used in the Asian traditional pharmaceutical. 

IN CHINA...
In the past, bears were hunted and killed in their habitat but at the end of the 1980s the government decided to set up the bile farms, where the substance is taken from living bears. 
They extract the bile with a technique named "free-dripping": a hole (which is always open) is created in the abdomen of the animal and through it the bile drips out. This is totally inhuman and it provokes unimaginable pain to the bear and a high death rate in the farms, where the moonbears are kept in small cages. 

IN VIETNAM...
The moonbears are subjected to an indefinite number of cruel treatments. Some of them undergo surgeries every two or three months and they often die after three or four surgical operations. 
Bears usually have long needles inserted in the gall bladders to pump out the bile. They are drugged with Ketamine, which is illegal. All of this often leads to the dispersion of bile and to a slow and painful death caused by the peritonitis. 

IN KOREA...
There are only 30 specimens left in the wild. 
In 1992 the bile farms have been forbidden by the Korean government, but there are still 108 left where more than 1300 moonbears are locked. 
The Koreans are among the largest consumers of gallbladders and bear bile and this has created a rich black market between Korea and China. 

The Marsican Brown Bear.

The Marsican Brown Bear (Ursus Arctos Marsicanus) originally lived in the entire central and southern Italy. 
This subspecies of brown bear weighs almost 100-150 kilos and when in upright position it reaches a height of nearly 1,80 meters. 

During the centuries it was ruthlessly hunted because there was the belief that it preyed the cattle grazing. Instead, this solitary and shy plantigrade has strictly nocturnal habits and a vegetarian diet for more than 90% (berries, roots, fruits, tubers) and only occasionally it eats small mammals, birds, reptiles and amphibians. 
Sometimes it eats carcasses of large herbivores that it finds in its territory (which is usually from 10 to 200 square kilometers, depending on the food available). 

Today, the poisonings, the traps and the hunt are severely forbidden but this bear is practically relegated only in the Abruzzo National Park with a population of about 40 specimens (in 1969 they were approximately 60). 

This is another proof of how the mankind adversely affects the environment that surrounds him, often without showing a modicum of respect to all the creatures with which he shares this world. 

(Thanks to Lorenzo S. for helping me writing this post)

South Africa VS Melissa Bachman

Melissa Bachman is a TV presenter who conducts a show called "Winchester deadly passion", in which she is the protagonist of a long chain of hunting parties for any kind of animal, from the lion to the squirrel. 
After every killing she posts on Facebook and Twitter photos (like the one you can see below) with a radiant smile and sentences like "beautiful day in Africa". 
In the US her social contacts have been rapidly swamped by an avalanche of insults and threats and in South Africa a petition has started (which has already reached 12 thousand signatures) to prevent Bachman from entering the African country. 
"She is in total contradiction with the South African conservation culture, of which this country is proud", explains Elan Burman, who promoted the petition. 

(Thanks to Lorenzo S. for helping me writing this post)

Greenpeace victories: Antarctica.

The Antarctic is the only continent which remains relatively untouched by humans. 
Certainly, today it wouldn't be like this if things had ended in a different way almost 23 years ago... 

In the 1980s the Antarctic was threatened by commercial exploitation: it seems that under rocks and ice there is oil and mineral deposits and companies wanted to start prospecting. 
In reaction to that, the MV Greenpeace in 1987 moored in the Antarctic and stayed there until 1991. They monitored pollution from near bases run by the US and New Zealand and shed light on construction work that involved dynamiting the habitats of nesting penguins. 

In the seven years of this campaign, Greenpeace has gone from being considered as an outsider to a respected player in negotiations for the future of the continent. It earned the support of global personalities such as Prince Sadruddin Aga Khan, Jacques Cousteau and Ted Turner. 
International negotiations were routinely accompanied by Greenpeace demonstrations. 

So, Antarctica became a symbol for international cooperation and for the responsible treatment of the planet, underlining an old Greenpeace belief: nothing is impossible. 

When the victims become victimizers.

75% of the terrestrial mammal predators (over 15 kilos) are at risk of extinction. This is a serious problem for the environment and the ecosystems as the herbivores and the smaller predators are becoming too numerous. 
The great carnivores are vulnerable as they are few and scattered over large territories; they also have a low reproduction rate and they are often hunted by man, who considers them as a threat. 

In Australia, in the grazing areas the wild dogs dingo have been killed and this provoked an explosion in the number of kangaroos, which damage the grass, and of foxes, that exterminated small marsupials. 

In Alaska, the disappearence of 90% of sea otters, killed by the killer whales, is causing serious problems to the algae prairies because the sea urchins (once hunted by the sea otters) are devastating them. 

In Yellowstone there were too many deers beacuse there were no predators and this problem was solved by the return of wolves. 

Man can try to solve the excess of herbivores with hunting, but he will never be an efficient predator like the natural ones as he often kills young specimens instead of the old and sick ones. 

(Thanks to Lorenzo S. for helping me writing this post)

This is...an inconvenient truth.

"An inconvenient truth" (2006) is a documentary film directed by Davis Guggenheim about former US Vice President Al Gore's campaign to educate citizens about global warming. 
It is very well made and impressed me a lot. And it also made me think "what if Al Gore had won the elections 2000..? Would this world be as it is today..?". Well, things went like that so it is useless to "wonder if...". 

Anyway, this documentary shows scientific evidence on global warming and on the effects it has today and the ones that it's going to have in a (awfully near) future if we don't reverse course. 
This film had a great impact on the public opinion: 66% of the people who had seen the film said it had changed their mind and 74% said they had changed some of their habits because of seeing it. 
In 2010 an initiative called "Inconvenient truth" was launched: it is built on the belief that young people can help solving climate problems. 

There would be so many things to say about this documentary...but YOU HAVE TO WATCH IT. ABSOLUTELY. It could really change the way you look at all the environmental problems. 
"An inconvenient truth" won two Academy Awards for Best Documentary Feature and Best Original Song. It grossed $ 24 million in the U.S.and $ 26 million in the foreign box office, becoming the 9th highest grossing documentary film to date in the United States. 
It has raised international public awareness and it has reenergized the environmental movement. 

C'mon! Now go watch it!

More than honey.

"More than honey" is a Swiss documentary film which talks about honeybees in California, Switzerland, China and Australia. 
I watched it last week and it was vey instructive: it opened my mind on a world that I didn't know so well and I strongly recommend you to watch it. 
It shows how important the bees are for the survival of a lot of plant species and also of the mankind. 
In the documentary different points of view are shown, from the traditional beekeeper living in the mountains to the American entrepreneur whose bees mean profit to him. 
Today, the bees are disappearing because of some pesticides used in agriculture which contain substances that kill the them. 
The activity carried out by the bees is of fundamental importance and we can't let them go extinct. If you want to do something to help them, sign the petition of Greenpeace that you can find by clicking on this link http://sos-bees.org/#petition/?GPI_action . 

"If bees were to disappear from the globe, mankind would only have four years left to live"
Albert Einstein 

7 billion workers missing in Europe...

...who are we talking about? BEES!

According to a study of English researchers published in the scientific journal Plos One, in the 41 European countries examined the number of bees that are necessary for pollination of several crops is 5 times higher than the real number present today. 

Furthermore, during the last ten years the crops that need a bee pollination have increased by 38% while the number of bees had dramatically decreased. 

The European country with a lower impollinators rate per cultivated area is Great Britain, where the bees are less than the 25% of the necessary! 

From these dramatic data it's easy to understand how it is urgent that the EU forbids the use of medicines and agricultural pesticides which are deadly for bees. 

In accordance with a French study the value of bees as impollinators in the world is approximately 153 billion Euros. 

(Thanks to Lorenzo S. for helping me writing this post)

The White-rumped vulture is in danger!

The White-rumped vulture (Gyps bengalensis) is closely related to the Griffon vulture (Gyps fulvus). This fascinating scavenger bird is native of India and Pakistan, it has sedentary habits and it usually eats the carcasses of bovines in the extended pastures and farms in the rural areas of India. This habit has been very close to provoking its extinction. 

Indeed, few years ago the White-rumped vulture had a great meltdown of almost 99% of the population. After an initial dismay, the researchers found out that the reason of this terrible plague was a new veterinary medicine called Diclofenac, which is used on the herds as an anti-inflammatory. This drug is extremely harmful for these birds' loins. 

Today lots of international organizations and ordinary citizens are pressuring Indian government to ensure that it replaces Diclofenac with Meloxican, an analogue drug which is not harmful for these beautiful birds. 

(Thanks to Lorenzo S. for helping me writing this post)

Just crew! Rainbow Warrior III.

As you can see in my post of the 26th of June, the last weekend took place in Genova an open boat on the Rainbow Warrior III, the flagship of Greenpeace. 
I went there as a volunteer and I worked both Saturday and Sunday all day long. It was very tiring but also an incredible experience! 

The volunteers took the lots of people who came for a guided tour around the ship; they showed them the helideck, the conference room, the dashboard, the wooden statue of a dolphin called Dave on the bow, the bell and talked them about the story of the ship and about Greenpeace campaigns.
The visitors also had the unique chance to know the crew of the ship and its captain, Joel Steward. 
The crew is composed of people coming from differents parts of the world: there are Spanish, Panamanians, Finnish, Dutch, Italians, Americans, Canadians, Germans, Ukrainians, Russians and others. 

The ship is now navigating towards Palermo, where it's being docked the next weekend. This tour takes place in locations endangered by the extraction of fossil fuels to raise awareness among the population of those zones and to make their voices heard by the people who could change the situation. 
Please, help Greenpeace Italy by signing the petition against the use of fossil fuels! You can find it by clicking on this link http://www.greenpeace.org/italy/non-fossilizziamoci/. 

(This is me during the open boat)

Here are some successes obtained by Greenpeace during its 43 years of life: 

- the restoration of Antarctica to the status of best wild continent after an eight-years campaign which consumed half of Greenpeace funds

- the establishment of a whales sanctuary in the Southern Pacific Ocean, protecting the great whales from commercial interests

- the interruption of seal pups killing for commercial gain

- having persuaded the European Community to reduce pollution in the North Sea

- having campaigned to ban the use of CFCs, which destroyed the ozone and having obtained an agreement to remove them from Europe.