Blog Tag: Endangered Species
A win for activists
Posted by Peter MUIR
Following a major anti-ivory campaign by WWF-Hong Kong, the city’s Chief Executive, C Y Leung, announced recently that the government is actively exploring phasing out the domestic ivory trade. The government is also set to strengthen efforts to tackle the illegal ivory trade.
Every year around 30,000 elephants are killed in Africa for their tusks, primarily to satisfy the demand for ivory products in Asia. Hong Kong is a key part of this trade as a major transit and retail hub, with a study last year revealing that there were more ivory items for sale in Hong Kong than in any other city in the world.
Fish Outta Water – using comic for social action
Posted by Peter MUIR
Dolphin Jai is a naive character who leaves his comfort zone to go on an adventure. When the strip begins, all he wants is to get a fishy dinner in the waters around Hong Kong Airport but to no avail. While he’s tracking down the White Elephant whom he thinks scare off his fish, he encounters a series of characters that represent threats to the environment.
Check out Dolphin Jai’s adventures in the comic strip Fish Outta Water that features on the website Support HK – you may wish to take a look at the social action that this orgniastion supports while you are there.
How could you use creativity and artistic skills for a cause in your Community Engagement?
Protecting Our Elephants
Posted by Peter MUIR
Here Year 7 student Fergus Condon reports on some guest speakers working in animal conservation who visited DC
On November 24th some guest speakers from the organisations The Elephant Society, Big Life and Ol Jogi presented to Year 7 and 8 students. To begin with we had Ted Hodgkinson, co-founder of The Elephant Society, a Hong Kong-based organisation that aims to raise awareness of the plight of endangered species in Africa. He delivered a very moving talk and inspired many students to actively do something to prevent the trade of ivory in Hong Kong. Following this Jamie Gaymer, head of wildlife and security at Ol Jogi Wildlife Conservancy in Kenya, spoke to us about what he does as a ranger and the work he does in protecting theon the endangered eastern black rhino. His talk was very entertaining and gave students a deeper understanding of what is involved. Ol Jogi wildlife conservation covers some 58,000 acres.
Last but not least, Big Life representer Daniel Ole Sambu took to the stage. Daniel, is a Maasai Warrior and was dressed in traditional costume which was amazing and colourful and certainly grabbed the attention of the audience. He has worked with the Big Life Foundation since 2009. Daniel also showed a very powerful and heart breaking video (below) of how wildlife is being destroyed by poachers, it is estimated that within 15 years all wildlife will cease to exist unless we actively do something about it. This has inspired students to raise awareness and funds to prevent the killing of precious wildlife.
Over all, these speakers have convinced students that is time we actively do something to prevent the beautiful wildlife in Africa being completely destroyed. Students will soon be asked to join a petition that will be sent to the Hong Kong government requesting that they stop Hong Kong’s ivory trade.
Protect our elephants
Posted by Peter MUIR
Every year in Africa, over 30,000 elephants are killed, primarily to satisfy the demand for ivory in Asia. A new report by WWF-Hong Kong reveals seven fundamental weaknesses in the regulation of Hong Kong’s ivory market. These weaknesses enable illegal activities to flourish in the city, including the entry of smuggled ivory from poached elephants and the “laundering” of this illegal ivory through the city’s legal stock. As a result, Hong Kong is directly fuelling the poaching of elephants in Africa.
WWF are calling on the government to rewrite the future of elephants by banning the sale and processing of ivory in Hong Kong. Your support is vital to the survival of these majestic animals. Sign the petition now to show that you care about saving Africa’s elephants. But that is not all you could do – get involved in taking further action. Use the Community Engagement framework to assist you in developing your ideas to help reduce Hong Kong’s importation of illegal ivory.
Taking action on HK’s ivory trade
Posted by Peter MUIR
Each year, at least 30,000 elephants are killed in Africa for their tusks, primarily to satisfy the demand for ivory products in Asia. Hong Kong has just been revealed as the world’s number one city for ivory retailing: 30,856 ivory items were found on sale in its main tourist areas, far more than any other surveyed city.
What action could you take to take steps in reducing HK’s ivory trade? Click here and here to find out what some other students in HK are doing, and consider joining this advocacy campaign as a part of your Community Engagement.
HK Shark foundation looking for support
Posted by Peter MUIR
The HK Shark Foundation will host a charity booth at Slide the City HK. They are looking for volunteers to help to hand out flyers, set up the banners, posters and boards, collect floaties for recycling, help with their charity sale and wear the shark outfit to spread the message of shark conservation.
Date: 22-24 August 2015 (Sat- Mon)
Venue: Kai Tak Cruise Terminal Baggage Hall and Outdoor Apron Area
If you’re available, please fill in the online application form. HKSF will then send you more details. Any help is welcome, so bring along as many friends as you can! For more information about the event, please visit HKSF Facebook Page and Slide the City HK Website.
Save the turtles
Posted by Peter MUIR
Do you know that the Lamma Island Green turtle nesting season is about to start at Sham Wan beach? Unfortunately,numbers of nesting turtles have dropped to a perilously low level with only 2 nesters observed in 2008 & 2012.The local population has been decimated by high levels of poaching of their eggs in the past. Hong Kong’s busy waters are also disturbing the breeding turtles just off the nesting beach and marine debris threatens their safety. What action could you take to help protect our turtles? WWF is requesting donations to help support their work in saving this marine animal – click here for details.
Summer Volunteering opportunity in Indonesia
Posted by Peter MUIR
ESF in cooperation with the Masarang Foundation want to offer you a fantastic volunteer opportunity at Tasikoki Wildlife Rescue Centre in North Sulawesi, Indonesia. Masarang Foundation is an inspirational organization that is making real changes and finding real solutions for today’s global problems. Our students will have the chance to play a role in this change at Tasikoki by helping in the rehabilitation and care for the animals of Tasikoki who have been rescued from the illegal animal trade.
At ESF we are continually trying to find ways to improve the learning experience as well as preparing our students for their futures. This volunteer opportunity will give our students the experience of volunteering/working full time, which will contribute towards their growth as an individual and further prepare them for what’s ahead. It is becoming an increasingly competitive world and our students are competing with thousands of other International Students for placements in Universities or the workplace. What will separate the students future applications from the others are valuable hands-on experiences such as this.
This project will embody what the IB CAS program represents which is activities that give our students the chance to take on challenges that will develop them holistically. The students will also get a ‘head start’ in learning what the expectations for a CAS project are for their upcoming senior years at school. Furthermore our students will have pre and post-trip opportunities to work with the Masarang HK Society Limited registered charity in Hong Kong (http://masarang.hk/). These opportunities could form a large component of their CAS program.
The date of the project will be from June 18th – July 2nd, 2015 and students will be selected from each of the ESF schools based on a written letter of application stating why they want to be involved in this project. Most students would have finished their Year 11 exams so the timeframe suits both the supervising teachers’ and students’ schedule.
The overall cost of the trip will be $13,790 HKD based on 28 students attending. These 28 students will be supervised by 4 teachers from across different ESF Schools; as well as the attentive, qualified staff at Tasikoki.
Enriching experiences like this are so valuable and are always remembered. We are extremely excited to offer this opportunity especially since it is with an organization that is making a real difference in the sustainability of a developing country. We look forward to receiving your interest and application.
More details in this document Y11 Tasikoki Volunteer Opportunity – Pamphlet – Please contact Mr Muir if you are interested.
WWF tracking sustainable seafood awareness
Posted by Peter MUIR
The idea of sustainable seafood is becoming more popular around the world. Here in HK, WWF-Hong Kong has been promoting the concept to seafood suppliers across the city. They have recently received some great news: two of Hong Kong’s major seafood suppliers recently reviewed their records and found that sales of sustainable seafood increased by an average of 100% between 2010 to 2013 – equivalent to an increase of 1,200 tonnes!
Now, WWF-Hong Kong want to know what consumers think about sustainable seafood. Please help them by filing out the online “Consumer Demand for Sustainable Seafood Survey”. Your responses will be crucial to helping us track the progress of their conservation work!
