Saving planet earth, one species at a time

Today Online 5 Jul 08;

I HAD an experience recently that, to quote the motto of this newspaper, really set me thinking.

My son, Tejas, and I went on an eight-day bird-watching trip to Bolivia, and what we experienced there gave me an insight into how the world is changing, and showed me something we can do to save our planet — one species at a time.

We had been to South America five times before and we wanted to try somewhere new.

We thought: “What about Bolivia?” I typed “Bolivia + bird watching” into Google, and, among other sites, I found Bird Bolivia. I knew nothing about the species, but we had arranged bird-watching trips via the Internet before, so I sent them an email.

Very quickly, I got a reply from Bennett Hennessy, a Canadian who set up Bird Bolivia with his Bolivian wife, Ruth Alipaz. You might be thinking, so what? People do this all the time. How is this changing the world? But wait; there’s more to come.

Ruth was born in a village in the Amazon (yes, the Amazon drainage basin is so huge that part of the Amazon extends into northern Bolivia). She was born in a village that, up to this day, has no roads to the outside world, no electricity and no telephones.

She is an example of a new kind of entrepreneur, someone from a remote, almost subsistence communitywho has become a modern businessperson through the power and reach of the Internet.

Ruth and Bennett arranged for us to spend three nights at the Red-Fronted Macaw Lodge on the bank of a river north of Santa Cruz, in Eastern Bolivia. There we could see, among many other species ranging from condors to hummingbirds, the (no extra points for guessing this right) Red-Fronted Macaw. Macaws are the largest parrots on earth, and they are spectacular birds.

For some reason that nobody knows, the Red-Fronted Macaw breeds only in the cliffs along the banks of this one river in Bolivia, so it is what scientists call an “endemic species”.

Because the range of this bird is so small, it is extremely vulnerable to extinction. Macaws are also very sociable and conspicuous, which makes them vulnerable to trapping.

The Red-Fronted Macaw was also something of a pest to the local people, invading their farms and eating their crops, so farmers would kill the macaws when they could.

So, what are Ruth and Bennett doing to save our planet — one species at a time? They bought a section of the river where the macaws breed and set up the Red-Fronted Macaw Lodge. They recruited local people from the village that is pestered by the birds, and trained them to run the lodge. Ruth organised cooking classes for some of the teenage girls, and the food they prepared for Tejas and me was as good as the food we have eaten in five-star lodges elsewhere.

So, now the local people are making money from the steady stream of birdwatchers who come to stay at the lodge. You see, bird-watchers (me included) are a weird group. We like to keep something called our “life list”. It is a list of all the species of birds we have seen in our life, all over the world.

However, if I want to add a “new tick” to my list, and I want it to be the Red-Fronted Macaw, then I have to go to the Red-Fronted Macaw Lodge to see it. And there are enough people like me to guarantee the success of the lodge.

Now, how is this relevant to us here in Singapore?

It seems to me that if Ruth and Bennett, in a poor country like Bolivia, can find the money to buy the land and build the infrastructure to save a rare endemic species, then here in a very rich country like Singapore we should be able to find the money to save some of the rare endemic species in our region.

I would like to see us working, through already existing organisations like the Singapore International Foundation, to identify places where we could help to buy land that would preserve the ecosystem for a species of animal — or plant — that is endemic to South-east Asia, and help to set up nature lodges that can employ local people from subsistence communities and give them a reason to protect animals and plants and preserve the ecosystem.

If you think this is a good idea, too, then ask yourself who you can work with to help save our planet — one species at a time.

The writer runs a training company.