Saturday, March 5, 2011

DPM Teo opens Lor Halus Wetland biodiversity haven (Singapore)

A good news story from Singapore at

Ottawa, Canada to host local Biodiversity Gathering

International Biodiversity Day on May 22 will be celebrated with a youth gathering of local schools at Ashbury College in Ottawa, Canada.  For more information on this event please keep your eye on our blog!

Thursday, March 3, 2011

Oil Spills in Peru's Amazon rainforest

A new report has uncovered 90 oil spills by Pluspetrol in northern Peru's Amazon rainforest over the past 3 years. Check out http://news.mongabay.com/2011/0303-hance_oilspills_peru.html

MINUTES OF THE YOUTH MEETING FROM FEBRUARY 26, 2011

MINUTES:
Due to the failure of the server at the ASLA school we had to quickly relocate the meeting to the home of Michael and Chloe Leveille.  Fortunately we were still able to reach Lemuel, Chafic, and Eric

DISCUSSIONS:
1- THIRD INTERNATIONAL YOUTH SYMPOSIUM in Auroville, India:
Hoping to connect with Belgium team (GYBO- Willem Laermans) and Japan team (Rieko Kusama). Both wish to run youth events in 2012)

2. NEW PARTNERS- Jim Ries (onemoregeneration.org), Youth for conservation in Kenya

3. YOUTH SUMMIT ON COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT
A wonderful conference on Community Engagement in Montreal, Quebechttp://youthactionmontreal.org/

4. DEVELOPING THE BIODIVERSITY BLOG
    Youth will take on the responsibility to contact some of our partners to place their updates on our blog.  We will focus on their international work first- then national, then local. 
    Here are the following organizations we will distribute between the youth
Jane Goodall’s roots and shoots
POWER Halton
The Otesha Project
Little Rays Reptile Zoo
International Forestry Students Association (Indonesia)- Gillian
Cleveland Metroparks Zoo
Canadian Museum of Nature
David Suzuki Foundation
Teens for Planet Earth
USC Canada
Earth Rangers
Tapir Preservation Fund
Robert Bateman’s Get to Know your wild neighbours’
Ashoka’s youth venture
Its one humanity.org
Onemoregeneration.org,
Youth for conservation in Kenya- Luke Goldsmith


5. LOCAL ISSUES
LOCAL YOUTH CONFERENCE ON SUNDAY, MAY 22, 2012 (International Biodiversity Day)
Proposed location: Asbury College, Ottawa- has been confirmed

Wednesday, March 2, 2011

EASTERN COUGAR DECLARED EXTINCT

The Eastern cougar, a likely subspecies of the mountain lion, was officially declared extinct today by the US Fish and Wildlife Service.  This ends 38 years on the Endangered Species List (ESA). The cougar had not been confirmed since the 1930s, although sightings have been consistently reported up to the present-day.  Sightings are likely Western cougars or house pets.  For more info check out

MACOUN MARSH UPDATE- OTTAWA, CANADA

Imagine finding a trackway in the snow that illustrates the last moments of a little shrew's life!  A large Cooper's hawk descends upon this little animal to carry it away!  What an amazing sight- and here it is!  Poor shrew!  

Tuesday, March 1, 2011

YOUTH MEETING FROM SATURDAY, FEB. 26

 
 
On Saturday February 26th, the Biodiversity Matters Youth Board had their second meeting for 2011. It was held in Ottawa with several youth from around the Ottawa Region and we had three youth that skyped in from the USA, Mexico and Panama. The meeting discussion covered a number of different issues including the Third Youth Symposium in India in 2012, possible activities for May 22nd  2011- Biodiversity day, activities for the year of youth, and the year of forestry! There is a possibility that Ashbury College will host a special one day event on May 22.  Our team will divide our offical listing of partners between us so we can post our partner's work regularily.  We also discussed how to get more youth communicating on our blog- please spread the word! We want to hear from you! We are planning our next Biodiversity Youth Board Meeting on Saturday March 26th at ASLA. We would like to expand the group of youth, so if you are interested bring a friend, please contact us.  All are welcome!