Washington, June 20: In a bid to save wild tigers from extinction, the Smithsonian Institution and the World Bank Group plan to link relevant institutions in India, China, Indonesia, Russia, Thailand and other tiger range countries with global conservation science and professional training centres.
The National Zoo’s Conservation and Research Centre located in the Shenandoah Mountains in Front Royal, Virginia, will serve as one of the initial launch-pads for development of the proposed conservation and development network.
The net network is being set up under an agreement signed here Friday between the Smithsonian and the World Bank. It will train hundreds of rangers, foresters and other habitat managers in the latest cutting-edge practices in biodiversity management, with a specific focus on preserving and increasing wild tiger populations
The World Bank will dedicate more than $1 million over the next year toward these training efforts, and the Smithsonian and World Bank will work to expand the alliance to include other members and raise additional financing for implementation. The Year-of-the-Tiger Summit is scheduled to be held in the second half of 2010.
World Bank Group president Robert B. Zoellick said: “Working together, we can unite hundreds of conservation practitioners and dozens of institutions across the tiger range countries of Asia to arrest the terrible loss of tiger populations and bring these magnificent species back from the brink.”
As poaching, habitat loss and other issues have reduced the global tiger population in the wild to less than 3,500 and the losses continue, the new programme under the Global Tiger Initiative (GTI) will help stabilise and restore wild tiger populations and save this endangered species from extinction in its natural habitats.
The training is aimed to lead to more effective measures against illegal trade and trafficking of tiger parts, and intensify surveillance, detection and conviction of poachers.
In addition to promoting stricter implementation of conservation laws and laws against illegal trade and traffic, the network will also allow countries to more efficiently share information about poaching activity, leading to more robust efforts to combat the problem.
The agreement comes one year after the launch of the GTI, a collaborative effort between the World Bank, the Smithsonian Institution, Global Environment Facility, the International Tiger Coalition, and other members to assist the 13 tiger range countries with their efforts in restoring wild tigers and preserving their habitats.
–Agencies
European countries should pay attention to refugees: Jolie
New Delhi, June 20: Hollywood beauty Angelina Jolie, who along with her superstar partner Brad Pitt, has donated $1 million to help refugees and displaced people in Pakistan, feels European countries should take up the cause of aiding homeless people across the world.
The Oscar-winning actress, who is a goodwill ambassador for the UN refugee agency UNHCR, says she is shocked that it is only the US that has given large amounts of aid, close to $300 million, for the refugee crisis.
“I think they (European countries) should pay attention to what’s happening. I’m not a political person. But I think it doesn’t take much to understand that this is the frontline of us fighting against extremists where all that we hold dear and all that we value is really on the line,” Jolie told CNN International’s Anderson Cooper in an interview.
“I think at least what we can be doing is assisting the humanitarian crisis and assisting the people and the desperate families and the children. And I think all countries have a responsibility to do that. And they certainly are able to. And I think more should step in,” she said on the occasion of World Refugee Day Saturday.
Considered to be one of the largest mass movements, around three million people in Pakistan have fled the fighting in the country’s northwest.
Jolie, a mother-of-six, has been backing refugees since 2001.
The 34-year-old also wants her kids to visit refugee camps and impoverished countries.
“Some of my kids are from countries that have seen conflict… I usually just explain to them that there are other families in the world that aren’t as fortunate as ours and other kids… And they’re not as fortunate as we are.
“I tell them that it’s important for all of us to do what we can and then go to these places and understand what’s happening. Hopefully, I’ll take them to as many countries as I can and raise them with an education of the world…
“I think by witnessing them, by meeting them, by making friends with these type of people and these type of children, it will make my children better people as they get older,” she added.
Jolie and Pitt’s family includes adopted kids Maddox Chivan, 6 (Cambodia), Zahara Marley, 3 (Ethiopia), Pax Thien, 4 (Vietnam), and biological children Shiloh Nouvel, 3, and twins Knox Leon and Vivienne Marcheline born last year.
The actress confessed to being influenced by a 15-year-old boy “who had been shot in the back and paralyzed” and “passed away”.
“He taught me a lot about just the strength and spirit. I think of him and I can’t complain about anything. I can’t do anything but be grateful for what I have because he was grateful and he had nothing and had suffered everything. There are many and there are millions like him,” she said.
Asked if she was planning to expand her brood, she said: “Always. We love children… we want a big family. So we never say no.”
The interview was aired Friday on the show “Anderson Cooper 360” on CNN International.
-Agencies
Delhi schoolchildren ‘journey into outer space’
New Delhi, June 20: What makes the earth go around the sun, aeroplanes fly and volcanoes erupt? A group of 35 Delhi school students has been busy unravelling the mysteries of the universe and understanding basic science through a programme prepared by US space agency NASA.
The children – from at least eight schools in the capital – were part of a five-day summer camp ‘Journey into Outer Space’ being run by Mad Science, a global organisation working to spread science literacy among children in the age group of 7-12 years.
All the exercise kits at the camp were designed by NASA scientists and professional educators.
“We have learnt how scientific principles work in our day-to-day life through some simple experiments,” said Hardik Surana, a Class 7 student from Sardar Patel School.
“They gave us some practical demonstrations on what makes the sun rise and set, how solar and lunar eclipses take place and the time, temperature and seasons change on our planet Earth.”
In the capital for the first time, the camp sent children on a quest for exploration of outer space and understanding the fundamental laws of nature.
“Our mission is to spark imaginative learning through these workshops so that children are able to touch, feel and taste what science is really about,” Anirban Chanda, managing director of Blueprint Science Edutainment, a franchise of Mad Science in India, told IANS.
“Science education in our schools is limited to theoretical teaching and concepts are never cleared – which makes science a complex subject for the majority of students. Our aim is to make them understand what science is all about and how it effects the world around us,” said Chanda.
The workshop was divided into five sections – Earth and Beyond, Astronaut-in-Training, Solar Launch, Eye on the Sky and Space Voyage.
For the children, science was never so simple. They now understand how scientific laws work. They have been trained to recognise comets, planets, stars, constellations and participated in their own space mission through activity-based exercises.
Sitanshu Kumar, a student of St Columba’s School, who aspires to become an astronaut, said: “I never thought science was so simple and the workshop has helped in clearing my basic concepts related to the laws of nature.”
“I enjoyed it very much as we learnt everything about outer space through fun activities. I used to find science very difficult as in schools we are made to mug up everything like how a solar eclipse takes place or various layers of atmosphere and their properties. Here we saw them in practical and it is easy to remember them now,” said Nysa Kejwani, a student of Shri Ram School, Vasant Vihar.
The organisation charged Rs.4,500 per child for the workshop.
Shuchismita Majumdar, a trainer with the organisation, said: “It is a query-based training where we ask several simple questions to make children think. Our purpose is not to replace the elementary school education but help students get their concepts cleared through such programmes.”
“We involve them in creative activities based on scientific principles. It includes a three-dimensional solar system puzzle, steering a laser beam through a laser maze to find how laser technology works, rocket construction and propulsion principles,” she said.
The organisation has also tied up with several schools in Kolkata where they train children through curriculum-related hands-on science workshops.
-Agencies