Wild world – Merci Canada, Gracias Carlos Slim

Following through on a promise made two years ago – Barack Obama please note – the Canadian government announced this week final plans to expand Nahanni National Park in the southwest corner of the Northwest Territories to over 30,000 square kilometers, more than six times its former size. The new Nahanni will be more than three times the size of Yellowstone.

This is a glorious victory for the Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society, the Canadian Boreal Initiative, and especially the Dehcho First Nations, all of whom have devoted years to this cause, and a tremendous boost to the Y2Y Initiative, for which Nahanni is an essential building block.

Beautiful photos, maps, and more info about Nahanni, the first World Heritage Site recognized by UNESCO, at all the above links. Congratulations to all involved!

That little enclave is the site of the Prairie Creek Mine. Its exclusion from the park, and special legislation authorizing easement to it across park land, was the price of the endorsement of Canada Zinc. As always, politics is the art of the possible.

The Disappeared

Andean flamingos

Birdlife International estimates that there are perhaps 34,000 Andean flamingos remaining, and still classifies them merely as Vulnerable. However at one of their main nesting grounds, this year all 2000 eggs were abandoned and died, one of a number of recent disastrous dieoffs in Chile that have left the country and scientists scratching their heads. Long lived birds typically reproduce slowly and indifferently; they cannot afford many years like this.

This story has become so prominent that even Time magazine can’t ignore it.

Carlos Slim antes $50 million for Mexican biodiversity

WWF Mexico will match his contribution in a new conservation initiative in cooperation with the Mexican government.

The six Regions:

• Gulf of California
• Chihuahuan Desert
• Mesoamerican Reef
• Monarch Butterfly Region
• Oaxaca
• Chiapas

Some seventeen priority areas are targeted within the regions. For instance, one within the Chihuahuan Desert is Cuatrociénegas.

One hundred milllion might not sound like that much. But we are not talking about establishing national parks but seed money for microfunding of local projects to provide employment and development that is consistent with and promotes biodiversity conservatioin.

Slim has stated this is only the beginning. If the projects are successful, he may turn on the tap.

“It’s an initial investment to get the project started,” Slim said in Cozumel. “The possibility of increasing it is being contemplated.”

It is not appreciated by most Americans that Mexico is one of the most biologically diverse countries on earth. Some estimate that it is home to ten percent of all global species.