Hong Kong Wetland Park

Hong Kong Wetland Park is a conservation, education and tourism facility, located at the northern part of Tin Shui Wai, in Yuen Long. It was to be an ecological mitigation area (EMA) for the wetlands lost due to Tin Shui Wai New Town development.
The Hong Kong Wetland Park comprises a visitor centre, Wetland Interactive World, and a Wetland Reserve. The Wetland Interactive World has themed exhibition galleries, a theatre, a souvenir shop, an indoor play area (swamp adventure) and a resource centre.
Wetland Park currently holds the highest recorded temperature in Hong Kong, at on 22 August 2017, the day before Typhoon Hato affected the region.
History.
In 1998, a project named International Wetland Park and Visitor Centre Feasibility Study was initiated by the Agriculture, Fisheries and Conservation Department and the Hong Kong Tourism Board with a view to expanding the ecological mitigation area to a wetland ecotourism attraction. After concluding that it was feasible to develop a Wetland Park at the site without compromising its ecological mitigation functions, and that development of the Wetland Park would also enhance the ecological function of the site to a conservation, education and tourism facility, the concerned parties started the Wetland Park Project, which is one of the Millennium projects of the Administrations.
In 2007, the park was one of five winners of the Awards for Excellence: Asia Pacific Competition, from the Urban Land Institute.
Facilities.
Themed exhibition galleries with floor areas ranging from showcase the importance of wetland on biodiversity, civilisation and conservation. Visitors can learn more about the native flora and fauna of Hong Kong through the animals and models displayed in the Living Wetland Gallery, such as false gharial, mouse deer and green turtle.
The Wetland Reserve consists of re-created habitats designed for water fowls and other wildlife. The Wetland Discovery Centre, located in the Wetland Reserve, provides visitors more hands-on experience on local wetlands. Other facilities include Stream Walk, Succession Walk, Mangrove Boardwalk and three bird hides situated next to the fish pond, mudflat and riverside, leading visitors to venture habitats of wildlife such as fiddler crab, mudskipper and the rare black-faced spoonbill.
Pui Pui Home.
Pui Pui is a crocodile's name, which is a Chinese pun indicating that it came from Shan Pui River and is the apple of the public's eye.
On 29 August 2006, she was moved into her landscaped enclosure and can be easily viewed by the public. Pui Pui's Home was designed to provide the reptile with a healthy and comfortable living environment.
The outdoor enclosure is , of which 70% is pool area. With a maximum depth of , the pool is landscaped with plants to provide sheltered areas, hiding places and basking areas for the reptile. Outdoor facilities include infra-red heaters, a heat pad and a weighing scale. Water in the pool is continuously circulated through a filtration system.
Transportation.
Wetland Park is served by the MTR Light Rail, and the Wetland Park stop and Tin Sau stop belong to Zone 5A for single-ride ticket.


Wiang Kosai National Park

Wiang Ko Sai National Park () is a national park in Northern Thailand. It covers parts of the Wang Chin District of Phrae Province and Mae Tha, Thoen and Sop Prap Districts of Lampang Province.
Description.
Wiang Kosai National Park is located in one of the mountain chains of the Phi Pan Nam Range, with the highest peak, Doi Mae Tom, reaching 1,267 m. The sources of many rivers, such as Mae Koeng, Mae Chok, Mae Sin and Mae Pak, are in these mountains.
The park has two famous waterfalls, Mae Koeng Luang and Mae Koeng Noi, as well as the Mae Chok hot spring.
Flora and fauna.
The mountains are largely covered with dry evergreen and mixed deciduous forest.
The park used to be one of the few protected areas in Thailand where Asian elephants roamed in their natural habitat; formerly Tigers were also abundant in the mountains, but there have been no sightings in recent years. Currently animals in the park area include the Indian Muntjac, the Tree Shrew and the Indochinese Flying Squirrel.


Michael Grzimek

Michael Grzimek (12 April 1934 – 10 January 1959) was a West German zoologist, conservationist and filmmaker.
Life.
Michael Grzimek was the second son of Bernhard Grzimek and Hildegard Prüfer. Already as a child, he assisted his father in his research of wolves and dogs. He spent the last years of the Second World War with his mother and his older brother Rochus on an old farm in Allgäu, which his father had bought in the 1930s.
At 16, he accompanied his father on an expedition to Ivory Coast. The success that followed his father's book "" (No room for wild animals), which describes their 1954 Congo expedition, made Michael persuade his father to make a colour film based on it. Although they had to borrow over 10 000 German marks, to make it and they thought it would be unsuccessful, as the film portrayed animals as peaceful (at that time an unusual thing ), the film unexpectedly won two Golden Bears (one as viewers' favourite film and the other from the International panel of academics) at the 1956 Berlin International Film Festival and was sold to 63 countries (including the Eastern bloc, China and Japan) and grossed a lot of money worldwide. It also won another award, the . The Grzimeks' offered their profits to extend the Serengeti. Peter Molley, the director of the Tanganyikan national parks, suggested that the money would be better spent making a new survey of the number of wild animals and their migration routes so that the borders of the Serengeti could be better established.
During these vast explorations (which also served Michael as a preparation for a university degree), these routes were mapped precisely for the first time, and the number of the animals in their herds could be counted. It was 367 000, one third of the expected number. Both Grzimeks had to get a pilot license and buy a plane, a Dornier Do 27. To make it look natural to the animals, they painted it with a zebra stripes pattern. The code of the plane was "D-ENTE". ("D" stood for Germany, "E" for single engine light aircraft; they could choose the other three letters, and, as they wanted an animal name, they chose "", German for "duck". Bernhard Grzimek joked that they could also have used "", German for "donkey", if they had thought of it then.)
Personal life.
Michael Grzimek married Erika Schoof (b. 31 July 1932) on 26 May 1955. They had two sons, Stephan Michael (b. 1956), and Christian Bernhard (b. 1959, after Michael's death). In 1978, Michael's father Bernhard married Erika and adopted the two children. Erika Schoof – and along with Christian Grzimek since 1980 – became the head of the "Okapia KG Michael Grzimek & Co " which is an archive of photos and files.
Death.
On 10 January 1959, the plane piloted by Michael collided with a vulture and he lost control. He was killed in the crash. He was buried the same day on the top of the Ngorongoro Crater. Later the government of Tanzania erected a stone pyramid over his grave. Bernhard Grzimek was buried there after his death in 1987.
Legacy.
Michael's survey, basically finished by the time he died, were the reason for the enlargement of the Serengeti National Park. Bernhard Grzimek finished their second film, " (Serengeti shall not die), which brought attention to the conservation problems in the area and also wrote an eponymous book. The film was very successful - among other, it won the 1959 'Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature'; it was the first German film to win this prize; and so was the book, which was translated into 23 languages and sold millions of copies.
Three schools, one in Frankfurt, one in Berlin and one in Nairobi, are named after Michael Grzimek. The main building of the Serengeti Research Institute is named Michael Grzimek's Memorial Laboratory.
His tomb bears this inscription:
The same inscription is on a nine-ton steel statue which was erected to Michael's memory in Cincinnati, Ohio in 1969.


List of protected areas of Uganda


Gyeryongsan National Park

Gyeryongsan National Park () is one of 20 national parks in South Korea. It was designated as a national park in 1968, as the second park in the country. It covers an area of . One part of Gyeryongsan, a mountain, is located in the park.
The park is home to a total of 1,121 plant species, 1,867 insect species and 645 animal species. Among the animals eleven are endangered, including Otter, Marten, Common buzzard, and Black woodpecker.


Mengame Gorilla Sanctuary

The 'Mengame Gorilla Sanctuary, also known as Mengame Wildlife Sanctuary, is found in Cameroon. It was established in 2001. This site is 1,218.07 km².


Villa Della Porta Bozzolo

Villa Della Porta Bozzolo is a villa located at Casalzuigno in the province of Varese, northern Italy. It was donated by the heirs of the Italian senator and pathologist Camillo Bozzolo to the Fondo per l'Ambiente Italiano—the National Trust of Italy—who now manage it.
History.
It was built in the 16th century and used as a rural villa and later an aristocratic residence. In the 18th century an impressive Italian garden was added with stairs, fountains, water features and an aedicula decorated with frescoes. Around the villa there are interesting rustic elements, such as a representation of an olive press containing a cycle of rococo frescoes from the workshop of Pietro Antonio Magatti, a painter from Varese.
At the end of the 17th century the villa experienced one of its most important transformations on the initiative of Gian Angelo Della Porta III on the occasion of his marriage to Isabella, daughter of Count Giorgio Giulini. With the assistance of architect Antonio Maria Porani, he set the main axis of the garden parallel to the side of the house—thus contravening the classic rules under which the principal axis must be aligned with the main room of the house, dividing the garden into two symmetrical parts. In 1723, he also built an elaborate fountain cascading from terraces in the hillside, designed by the architect Pellegatta.


Liwagu River

The Liwagu River () is a river in West Coast Division of Sabah, Malaysia, flowing eastwards off the southern slope of Mount Kinabalu into the Labuk River in Sandakan Division. Most parts of the river are covered by primary and secondary forests.
Conservation efforts.
The river is home to various habitat including plant, bird and insect species. Its trail in Mount Kinabalu National Park is considered to be a preeminent birder's trail. The trail varies between open vistas and dense thickets, but is predominantly open, skirting the ridge-top as it goes along the north side of the river gorge. Some of the bird species include "chlamydochaera jefferyi", "chlorocharis emiliae emiliae", "eumyias indigo cerviniventris", "harpactes whiteheadi", "megalaima pulcherrima", "napothera crassa Luzon" and "zosterops atricapilla". Several insects species such as the "graphelmis bandukanensis", "liparthum", stalk-eyed fly ("teleopsis") and "myrmarachne mariaelenae" also found within the river. The intensive agricultural activities in Kundasang Valley area near the upstream of the river basin however has causing problems concerning the river water quality.
Features.
The river is among the destination for water rafting activities in Sabah aside from Kiulu and Padas River.


Meteora

The Meteora (; , ) is a rock formation in central Greece hosting one of the largest and most precipitously built complexes of Eastern Orthodox monasteries, second in importance only to Mount Athos. The six (of an original twenty four) monasteries are built on immense natural pillars and hill-like rounded boulders that dominate the local area. It is located near the town of Kalabaka at the northwestern edge of the Plain of Thessaly near the Pineios river and Pindus Mountains.
Meteora is included on the UNESCO World Heritage List under criteria I, II, IV, V, and VII.
The name means "lofty", "elevated", and is etymologically related to "meteor".
Geology.
Beside the Pindos Mountains, in the western region of Thessaly, these unique and enormous columns of rock rise precipitously from the ground. But their unusual form is not easy to explain geologically. They are not volcanic plugs of hard igneous rock typical elsewhere, but the rocks are composed of a mixture of sandstone and conglomerate.
The conglomerate was formed of deposits of stone, sand, and mud from streams flowing into a delta at the edge of a lake, over millions of years. About 60 million years ago during the Paleogene period a series of earth movements pushed the seabed upward, creating a high plateau and causing many vertical fault lines in the thick layer of sandstone. The huge rock pillars were then formed by weathering by water, wind, and extremes of temperature on the vertical faults. It is unusual that this conglomerate formation and type of weathering are confined to a relatively localised area within the surrounding mountain formation.
This type of rock formation and weathering process has happened in many other places locally and throughout the world, but what makes Meteora's appearance special is the uniformity of the sedimentary rock constituents deposited over millions of years leaving few signs of vertical layering, and the localised abrupt vertical weathering.
The cave of Theopetra is located from Kalambaka. Its uniqueness from an archeological perspective is that a single site contains records of two greatly significant cultural transitions: the replacement of Neanderthals by modern humans and later, the transition from hunting-gathering to farming after the end of the last Ice Age. The cave consists of an immense rectangular chamber at the foot of a limestone hill, which rises to the northeast above the village of Theopetra, with an entrance wide by high. It lies at the foot of the Chasia mountain range, which forms the natural boundary between Thessaly and Macedonia prefectures, while the Lithaios River, a tributary of the Pineios River, flows in front of the cave. The small Lithaios River flowing literally on the doorsteps of the cave meant that cave dwellers always had easy access to fresh, clean water without the need to cover daily long distances to find it.
Excavations and research and have discovered petrified diatoms, which have contributed to understanding the Palaeo-climate and climate changes. Radiocarbon dating evidences human presence dating back 50,000 years. The cave used to be open to the public, but is currently closed indefinitely, for safety inspections.
History.
Ancient history.
Caves in the vicinity of Meteora were inhabited continuously between 50,000 and 5,000 years ago. The oldest known example of a built structure, a stone wall that blocked two-thirds of the entrance to the Theopetra cave, was constructed 23,000 years ago, probably as a barrier against cold winds – the Earth was experiencing an ice age at the time – and many Paleolithic and Neolithic artifacts of human occupation have been found within the caves.
Meteora are not mentioned in classical Greek myths nor in Ancient Greek literature. The first people documented to inhabit Meteora after the Neolithic Era were an ascetic group of hermit monks who, in the ninth century AD, moved up to the ancient pinnacles. They lived in hollows and fissures in the rock towers, some as high as 1800 ft (550m) above the plain. This great height, combined with the sheerness of the cliff walls, kept away all but the most determined visitors. Initially, the hermits led a life of solitude, meeting only on Sundays and special days to worship and pray in a chapel built at the foot of a rock known as Dhoupiani.
As early as the eleventh century, monks occupied the caverns of Meteora. However, monasteries were not built until the fourteenth century, when the monks sought somewhere to hide in the face of an increasing number of Turkish attacks on Greece. At this time, access to the top was via removable ladders or windlass. Nowadays, getting up there is a lot simpler due to steps being carved into the rock during the 1920s. Of the 24 monasteries, only six (four of men, two of women) are still functioning, with each housing fewer than ten individuals.
Monasteries.
The exact date of the establishment of the monasteries is unknown. By the late eleventh and early twelfth centuries, a rudimentary monastic state had formed called the Skete of Stagoi and was centred around the still-standing church of Theotokos (Mother of God). By the end of the twelfth century, an ascetic community had flocked to Meteora.
In 1344, Athanasios Koinovitis from Mount Athos brought a group of followers to Meteora. From 1356 to 1372, he founded the great Meteoron monastery on the Broad Rock, which was perfect for the monks; they were safe from political upheaval and had complete control of the entry to the monastery. The only means of reaching it was by climbing a long ladder, which was drawn up whenever the monks felt threatened.
At the end of the fourteenth century, the Byzantine Empire's reign over northern Greece was being increasingly threatened by Turkish raiders who wanted control over the fertile plain of Thessaly. The hermit monks, seeking a retreat from the expanding Turkish occupation, found the inaccessible rock pillars of Meteora to be an ideal refuge. More than 20 monasteries were built, beginning in the fourteenth century. Six remain today.
In 1517 Theophanes built the monastery of Varlaam, which was reputed to house the finger of St. John and the shoulder blade of St. Andrew.
Access to the monasteries was originally (and deliberately) difficult, requiring either long ladders latched together or large nets used to haul up both goods and people. This required quite a leap of faith – the ropes were replaced, so the story goes, only "when the Lord let them break". In the words of UNESCO, "The net in which intrepid pilgrims were hoisted up vertically alongside the cliff where the Varlaam monastery dominates the valley symbolizes the fragility of a traditional way of life that is threatened with extinction."
Until the seventeenth century, the primary means of conveying goods and people from these eyries was by means of baskets and ropes.
In 1921, Queen Marie of Romania visited Meteora, becoming the first woman ever allowed to enter the Great Meteoron monastery.
In the 1920s there was an improvement in the arrangements. Steps were cut into the rock, making the complex accessible via a bridge from the nearby plateau. During World War II the site was bombed. Many art treasures were stolen.
List of monasteries.
At their peak in the sixteenth century there were 24 monasteries at Meteora in Greece. They were created to serve monks and nuns following the teachings of the Eastern Orthodox Church. Much of the architecture of these buildings is Athonite in origin. Today there are six still functioning, while the remainder are largely in ruin. Perched onto high cliffs, they are now accessible by staircases and pathways cut into the rock formations.
Of the six functioning monasteries, the Holy Monastery of St. Stephen and the Holy Monastery of Roussanou are inhabited by nuns while the remainder are inhabited by monks. The total monastic population of the Meteora monasteries in 2015 was 56, comprising 15 monks in four monasteries and 41 nuns in two monasteries. The monasteries are now tourist attractions.


Ogbunike Caves

The Ogbunike Caves are located in Ogbunike, Anambra State, southeastern Nigeria.
Site description.
Located in a valley blanketed by tropical rain forest, the collection of caves has been in use over centuries by local people for whom it has particular spiritual significance. This spiritual significance is still apparent, as the "Ime Ogba" celebration is undertaken every year to commemorate the discovery of the caves.
Descending into the valley where the caves are located is a lengthy walkway made up of about 317 steps said to have been constructed by the Anambra State Government in the mid 90s. Visitors must remove their shoes before entering the caves, as per tradition.
And women who are having their monthly cycle cannot go in.
The main cave consists of a massive structure with a big open chamber of about 5m high, 10m wide and 30m long at the entrance. There are ten tunnels at the main chamber leading to different directions. Within the tunnels are big chambers and other tunnels of varying lengths, some of which are inter connected. The caves are occupied by a large colony of bats of various sizes. There are streams and body of water at various places. A stream flows out from one of the tunnels into a rapid flowing river (River Nkissa). At the meeting point of the river and the stream one can feel the warm water from the caves and the cold river water.
Beside this portion of the river is a table land of about 5 X 5 square meters used as a relaxation spot by visitors to the caves. The immediate environment of the caves up to about 200 meters radius is a thick tropical rainforest type of vegetation. The site has sufficient boundaries (20 hectares) to protect its values from direct effects of human encroachment.


Protected areas of Ulyanovsk Oblast

The Ulyanovsk Oblast in Russia contains about 118 protected natural areas.


Rimsky-Korsakov Apartment and Museum

The Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov Memorial Museum-Apartment () is a branch of the St. Petersburg State Museum of Theatre and Music.
History of museum's creation.
On 27 December 1971 a museum was founded in memory of the composer Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov in his final St. Petersburg home. The Rimsky-Korsakov family moved to 28 Zagorodny Prospect, St. Petersburg, in the autumn of 1893. This seemingly unremarkable five-storey building is situated in the middle of a yard, surrounded by greenery and set back from the urban bustle. Apartment 39, on the third floor, is where Rimsky-Korsakov lived out his last fifteen years.
After Russian Revolution in 1917 composer's widow, Nadezhda, was forced to leave the apartment and move in with her son Andrei in the early 1918. For a long time the apartment on Zagorodny Prospect served as a ‘kommunalka’, or a communal apartment, inhabited by ten families, with over twenty people in total. Before she moved out, Nadezhda sorted and catalogued her husband's manuscripts, music library, posters, programmes, photographs, treasured gifts, tributes and family heirlooms. This large collection later formed the basis of the museum. At the beginning of the 1920s, Rimsky-Korsakov's children transferred the composer's creative output to the Public Library's Manuscript Department. The dream of setting up a museum only became a realistic idea in 1967 when a decision was taken by the state to found an apartment-museum, following the untiring efforts of three generations of Rimsky-Korsakovs for over fifty years. Major repairs were made to the whole building and the apartment restored. Inside there remained original tiled corner stoves, an elegant marble fireplace, tall folding doors, and window fanlights with bronze handles and bolts. The patterns and colour of the original wallpaper were revealed underneath subsequent layers of wall coverings.
Collection.
More than 250 items, carefully preserved by the composer's family, were given to the museum and put back in their original places in the study, hall, drawing room and dining room. The completeness and authenticity of these rooms make the museum particularly invaluable. The other rooms in the apartment were renovated to create an exhibition room and concert halls in homage to the composer. The materials in the exhibition room give an idea of the diverse activities of Rimsky-Korsakov as composer, teacher and conductor. Various documents tell about his work at the Free Music School, Court Capella and the St. Petersburg Conservatory where he was involved for thirty-seven years. The caliber of the composer's students - Alexander Glazunov, Anatoly Lyadov, Anton Arensky, Alexander Grechaninov, Nikolay Tcherepnin, Nikolay Myaskovsky, Sergei Prokofiev and Igor Stravinsky - attests to his gift for teaching. The most precious exhibit is the ‘golden pen’, given to the composer in 1880 on the première of his opera May Night. From then on Rimsky-Korsakov used this pen to write all of his compositions, letters, and his journal My Musical Life.
The last period of Rimsky-Korsakov's life was his most creative. During this time he composed eleven of his fifteen operas, including Christmas Eve, Sadko, Mozart and Salieri, The Tsar's Bride, Kaschey the Deathless, The Legend of the Invisible City of Kitezh and the Maiden Fevroniya, The Golden Cockerel, and over 40 romances. The composer's study does not contain a piano: Rimsky-Korsakov usually worked at a writing desk, trusting his unique inner ear. At another desk would sit Nadezhda, faithful assistant in all her husband's musical undertakings, making corrections and piano arrangements of his symphonic and operatic works. In her youth Nadezhda had herself composed music and was a brilliant pianist.
Musical soirées would take place in the drawing room. By 1905 these had become such regular events as to be known as the "Korsakov Gatherings". Despite there being no forward planning for these evenings, they always proved entertaining. Composers such as Glazunov, Lyadov, Stravinsky, Taneyev, Scriabin and Rachmaninov gave premières of their own works, and the singers Fyodor Shalyapin, Nadezhda Zabela-Vrubel and Yevgeniya Mravina performed, accompanied by Rimsky-Korsakov's wife. A Becker piano, acquired by Rimsky-Korsakov in 1902, now stands in the drawing room as it did then. The customary "Korsakov Gatherings" still take place to this day, with concertgoers attracted by the warm intimate atmosphere.
Of particular interest in the dining room are the portraits of Rimsky-Korsakov's forebears, painted by unknown artists in the 18th to early 19th centuries. The composer belonged to an ancient noble family descended from Ventseslav Korsak, who came to Russia from Lithuania and whose progeny later russified their surname to ‘Korsakov’. In 1677 Tsar Fyodor Alekseyevich allowed a number of Korsakovs the highest concession of adding the prefix ‘Rimsky’ (meaning ‘Roman’ in Russian) to their surname, on the basis that their ancient forebears had been subjects of the Roman state. Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov belonged to the fourteenth generation descended from Ventseslav Korsak and was the sixth descendant of the original Rimsky-Korsakov.
The museum's intimate chamber concert hall is popular with both novice musicians and established performers. Thanks to its recently opened new concert hall on the ground floor, the museum now attracts large audiences and has significantly increased its activities.


Conservation in Bhopal

This article is about the conservation in Bhopal, the capital of Madhya Pradesh state of India.
Van Vihar National Park.
The Van Vihar National Park is a national park located in the heart of Bhopal. Although declared a national park in 1983, it is developed and managed as a modern zoological park. It covers an area of about 4.45 km².
Crusade for Revival of Environment and Wildlife.
CREW is a society registered in 1997 under the Madhya Pradesh Society Registration Act 1973. CREW's aim is to emerge as Central India's primary centre for policy and enforcement regarding conservation and management of natural resources, wildlife and biodiversity. The Central Indian States of Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh have distinctive characteristics that set this region apart from other areas of the Indian sub-continent. Besides the wealth of natural resources-both forest and mineral--some of the most important archaeological sites, dating back to ten thousand years are located in Madhya Pradesh.
CREW has continued to campaign for the protection of environment, biodiversity, wildlife, forest cover, endangered species and wetlands. CREW uses the visual media and releases b-rolls in digital broadcast quality format on crucial environment related issues to different sections of the media for direct relay and wider dissemination of knowledge and information relating to natural environment and factors threatening environmental balance.
As a major initiative to build awareness regarding the importance of wetlands and their conservation, Crew launched an awareness campaign with its documentary "water Birds of Bhopal" shot mainly around Van Vihar National Park, a huge wetland recognized by the Ramsar Convention as an important wetland site in Central India.
Crew has produced the documentary "Endangered Gharial (crocodilian gharial crisis)" to tell how India's special crocodilian Gharial, considered to be one of the most critically endangered of all crocodilian species, is threatened by the destruction of its nesting and basking sites and shrinking prey base. Gharials get caught in fishing nets and are killed by fishermen and turtle hunters.
In collaboration with the Regional Natural History Museum Crew organised a forest, wildlife and birding training camp for college and university teaching staff in the Satpura Tiger Reserve. Crew also organises birding camps for village children.
A number of risks and practices are threatening forests, wildlife, wetlands and the environment. Crew works hard at preventing them.
These threats include:
Vanishing stripes.
Crew had released two reports Vanishing Stripes-I (1999) and Vanishing Stripes-II (2000) to issue the firm warning that tiger's survival is threatened by poaching and loss of prey-base. Our forests are shrinking at an alarming pace. Human pressure on forest is immense due to rapidly increasing population. The situation gets aggravated by reckless destruction of green cover by the timber and the mining mafia. Forest land is also getting rapidly encroached. Unhindered grazing, minor forest produce and firewood collection are also activities adding to the crisis.
From 710 tigers in the last census, the tiger population in the central Indian State of Madhya Pradesh has now come down to 276. The latest tiger figures were presented by the Wildlife Institute of India and the Tiger Conservation Authority of Government of India at a seminar held at the India Habitat Centre, New Delhi on 23 May 2007. The seminar was attended by Prodipto Ghosh, Secretary Union Ministry of Environment and Forest, chief wildlife wardens and tiger reserve directors from many states.
The latest tiger population estimate glaringly shows that most of those at the helm of affairs have never bothered to realize the gravity of the problem on the tiger front. They have only offered lip-service and exhibited superficial concern for the basic issues involved. They have remained mainly interested in deriving benefits, both financial and political by allowing populist activities to continue even in the core forest areas. Unless ecological balance is ensured on a long-term basis, no living species, including the human beings, may be able to survive.
Our forests are shrinking at an alarming pace. Human pressure on forest is immense due to rapidly increasing population. The situation gets aggravated by rapidly shrinking green cover. We are now confronted with a national crisis. It is important to save the tiger in its natural habitat. The tiger sits at the apex of the biotic pyramid and is an important link in the entire food chain. The tiger will be safe in the wild only when there is prey-base. This would in turn depend on the survival of the flora, i.e., grasses, fruit bearing trees, herbs, shrubs and the water bodies along with all other factors linked with the natural habitat. Only then our rivers would be perennial and the underground water would remain charged.
The two reports-Vanishing Stripes-I; and Vanishing Stripes-II published by CREW reveal the gravity of the problem and point out how gravely the tiger is threatened in its own habitat.
Central Indian Highlands Wildlife Film Festival 2012.
Bhopal, capital of Central Indian state of Madhya Pradesh, hosted the Central Indian Highlands Wildlife Film Festival in 2012. The festival's theme was "The Tiger Habitat". The festival was organised by the Crusade for Revival of Environment and Wildlife.


Chapada dos Veadeiros National Park

Chapada dos Veadeiros National Park () is a national park of Brazil located in the state of Goiás, on the top of an ancient plateau with an estimated age of 1.8 billion years. The park was created on January 11, 1961 by President Juscelino Kubitschek, and listed as a World Heritage Site by Unesco in 2001. It occupies an area of in the municipalities of Alto Paraíso de Goiás, Cavalcante and Colinas do Sul. The park is maintained by Chico Mendes Institute for Biodiversity Conservation.
History.
The Chapada dos Veadeiros region was first developed around the golden mine rush in the 18th Century. Cavalcante was one of the first villages founded in the region, and at one point became one of Brazil's major gold extractors. Some reports say that Isabel, Princess Imperial of Brazil visited Cavalcante, making it capital of the Empire for a day. The necessity of slave labor to work the mines in the Chapada dos Veadeiros was so great that the region is now home to some of the biggest Quilombos communities in Brazil.
Kalungas.
The Quilombos are communities of Afro-Brazilians who managed to escape from slavery, both from agricultural plantations and mines. The Quilombos communities of Chapada dos Veadeiros include a subgroup known as the Kalungas. The word Kalunga meant "something of smaller value" in the past. The term is now a term of pride for the Kalunga group. Their image in Brazil has grown. With the end of the golden period of mining, the Chapada dos Veadeiros had only an isolated collection of villages; they were rediscovered and engage in tourism to support Kalunga communities.
Geography.
Climate.
The average yearly temperature is 24-26 degrees Celsius, ranging from a minimum of 4-8 degrees Celsius and reaching a maximum of 40-42 degrees Celsius.
Altitude.
With altitudes between 600 and 1650 meters, it is the highest plain in Central Brazil. The highest point of the park and of the state of Goiás is Serra da Santana, at 1691 meters above sea level.
Rock formations.
Its rock formations are one of the oldest on the planet. There are quartz with outcrops of crystals. These rocks are exported and appreciated in Japan and England, where for some decades they were used for industrial work. Nowadays therapists and nature lovers seek energies and the power to cure from the crystals and from places like Alto Paraiso.
Rock crystals are present in the soil of the rich cerrado, or open pasture. Forest growth is also still found in the region, where more than 25 species of orchids can be found, besides other Brazilian species such as pau d'arco roxo, copaíba (copa tree), aroeira (California pepper tree), tamanqueira (cork tree), terivá (a variety of palm tree), buritis (wine-palm) and Babaçu (Babassu).
The main river in the park is the Rio Preto, a tributary of the Tocantins River. There are many waterfalls along its course such as the Rio Preto Falls (120 meters high, 80 meters at the base) and the Cariocas Falls. The park is noted for its scenic canyons, with walls of up to high and valleys of up to deep.
List of waterfalls.
Chapada dos Veadeiros National Park is noted for its waterfalls. Those which range from 80 to 120 meters include the Corredeiras, Cannyon I, Cannyon II, the Carioquinhas Waterfall and the Jardim de Maitréya. In properties with controlled access: Águas Quentes, Morada do Sol, Banho das Crianças and Vale das Andorinhas, Salto do Raizama and Cannyon do Rio São Miguel, Vale da lua, Cachoeiras Almécegas I and Almécegas II, Cachoeira de São Bento, Cataratas do Rio dos Couros, Cachoeira do Rio Cristal, Cachoeira dos Anjos e dos Arcanjos, Água Fria, Cachoeira do Rio das Almas, Poço Encantado, Sertão Zen, Cachoeira do Rio Macaco, Território Kalunga, Lago Serra da Mesa, Bocaina do Faria, Cachoeira das Neves, Mirante do Pouso Alto, Alpes Goianos, Cachoeira do Santana, Cachoeira da Ave Maria, Morada do Sol, Pedra Escrita, Cachoeira das Pedras Bonitas, Cachoeira Santa Bárbara, Cachoeira Capivara, Cachoeira Candaru, Cachoeiras Barroco, Cachoeiras do Pratinha, Cachoeira Rei do Prata, Cachoeiras do Curriola, Cachoeira do São Bartolomeu, Cachoeiras Veredas, and Ponte de Pedra.
The local fauna.
The rich fauna of the region includes species, some of which are threatened by extinction, such as the pampas deer (locally known as "veado campeiro"), marsh deer ("cervo do pantanal"), maned wolves ("lobo guará"), jaguar, and others like the rhea ("ema"), seriema, tapeti, giant armadillo ("tatu canastra"), anteater ("tamanduá"), capybara ("capivara"), tapir ("anta"), green-beaked toucan ("tucano de bico verde"), black vulture ("urubu"), and the king vulture ("urubu rei").


Scottish Countryside Rangers Association

The Scottish Countryside Rangers' Association (SCRA) is the professional association supporting rangers and other countryside professionals in Scotland. Formed in 1974, the association has a strong tradition of supporting its members through the provision of advice, training and the facilitation of networking opportunities.
Over recent years, efforts of the association have included organising the International Ranger Federation's 2006 World Ranger Congress in Stirling (in partnership with the Countryside Management Association of England and Wales), producing the Ranger Standards Manual, and starting to implement a programme of continuing professional development for rangers working in Scotland.
Over 300 rangers work in Scotland, employed by local government, by public bodies such as Forestry Commission Scotland and Historic Scotland, and by non-governmental organisations such as the Scottish Wildlife Trust.


Futurewise.org


Namibe Partial Reserve

Namibe Partial Reserve () is a protected area in Angola. It is located to the north of Iona National Park, and separated by a narrow strip of occupied land along the Curoca River. This reserve has IUCN Category IV status and was proclaimed in 1960 by the authorities of Portuguese Angola. It covers . This park is planned to be included into the Iona - Skeleton Coast Transfrontier Conservation Area.
Large sand dunes can be seen here, because the reserve is located in a desert area. Therefore, only plants resistant to this cruel environment can be found, such as "Welwitschia mirabilis", better known as the "desert octopus."
Mammals such as the elephant, kudu, oryx, black rhino and mountain zebra Hartmanns have previously appeared in the area, but their current status is uncertain.


Kokkilai Sanctuary

Kokkilai Sanctuary ( Kokkuḷāy Caraṇālayam) is a wildlife sanctuary in north eastern Sri Lanka, approximately south east of Mullaitivu.
History.
Kokkilai Lagoon and its surrounding area was designated as a bird sanctuary on 18 May 1951 under the "Fauna and Flora Protection Ordinance (No. 2) of 1937". It had an area of in 1990. It currently has an area of .
Following the end of the Sri Lankan Civil War the government announced plans to convert various sanctuaries in the Northern Province, including Kokkilai, into national parks. Four new national parks were created in the Northern Province on 22 June 2015 but Kokkilai remains only a sanctuary.
An Integrated Strategic Environmental Assessment of Northern Province produced by the government with the assistance of United Nations Development Programme and United Nations Environment Programme and published in October 2014 recommended that Kokkilai sanctuary be extended northwards to include Nai Aru Lagoon.
Kokkilai Sanctuary has been subject to illegal deforestation. In 2010 1,000 acres were bulldozed destroying up to 3,000 weaver bird nests.
Flora and fauna.
Kokkilai Lagoon is partly surrounded by mangrove swamps and sea grass beds. The surrounding area includes cultivated land, scrub and open forests. Numerous varieties of water and wader birds are found in the sanctuary including cormorants, ducks, egrets, flamingoes, herons, ibis, pelicans and storks. The sanctuary is a haven for birds migrating along Sri Lanka's east coast. Elephants are also found in the sanctuary.


Maurice Broun

Maurice Broun (1906–1979) was an American ornithologist, botanist, naturalist, conservationist, and author.
He was born in New York City to parents who immigrated from Romania. Both of his parents died from tuberculosis; his mother died when he was two weeks old, and his father died when he was two years old. Living in a New York City orphanage until he was about six years old, he was taken out by a Catholic family but the mother became ill and the foster father returned Maurice to the orphanage. When he was ten years old, a Jewish family became his foster family, and the family moved to Boston. At age fourteen he became interested in bird-watching in Boston Public Garden. He ran away from his foster family when he was fifteen years old and supported himself for the rest of his life. While attending Boston English High School, he rented a room and earned a living by menial jobs. While still a high school student, he published a booklet on birds seen in Boston Public Garden. For about two years he was a bellhop at Boston's Women's City Club. When he graduated from high school, a lady whom he met while bird-watching helped him find work as an assistant to Edward Howe Forbush and John Birchard May, who were completing Forbush's "Birds of Massachusetts and other New England States" (3 vols., 1923–1929). After three years of work on the third volume of Forbush's book, Broun in 1929 went to work creating the Pleasant Valley Bird Sanctuary. There from 1929 to 1932 he cut six miles of trails and built a nature museum.
While he was at Cape Cod, he met Irma Knowles Penniman (1908–1997), an ornithologist and conservationist, and married her on 15 January 1934. In 1934 the wealthy socialite, bird-watching enthusiast, and conservationist Rosalie Edge leased (with an option to buy) to establish Hawk Mountain Sanctuary and hired Maurice and Irma Broun as game wardens to exclude hunters. The land (in Eastern Pennsylvania) was purchased. With the exception of three years from 1942 to 1945 when he was a photographer with the Seabees in the South Pacific, Maurice Broun worked as a curator of Hawk Mountain Sanctuary from 1934 until his retirement in 1966. Maurice and Irma worked as a husband and wife team at the Sanctuary until 1966 and then moved to a farm one ridge to the west of Hawk Mountain. The couple continued work as naturalists and conservationists until he died of cancer in 1979. The couple had no children. After his death, Irma married Richard Kahn, and the Kahns moved to California.


Margaret Thorsborne

Margaret Grace Thorsborne (3 June 1927 – 16 October 2018) was an Australian naturalist, conservationist and environmental activist. She was notable for her efforts, with her husband Arthur Thorsborne, in initiating the long-term monitoring and protection of the Torresian imperial-pigeon on the Brook Islands, north east of Hinchinbrook Island, Far North Queensland. Toward the end of her life, she was involved in the struggle to protect Queensland’s Wet Tropics World Heritage Area and animals such as the southern cassowary, mahogany glider and dugong.
Early life.
Margaret Kemp-Pennefather was born in 1927, the daughter of Lionel Hugh Kemp-Pennefather and his wife, the highly decorated Australian nurse Constance (née Keys).She is also the granddaughter of the botanist and schoolteacher James Keys.
Margaret married Arthur Thorsborne in 1963. Then living on Queensland’s Gold Coast, they were foundation members and office bearers of the Gold Coast branch of the Wildlife Preservation Society of Queensland.
Hinchinbrook.
The Thorsbornes began visiting Hinchinbrook Island in 1964. In 1972 they settled at Meunga Creek, near Cardwell, on a property ("Galmara") consisting mainly of coastal wetlands and rainforest facing Hinchinbrook Island across the Hinchinbrook Channel. The property was given in 1980 to the Queensland National Parks and Wildlife Service to extend the Edmund Kennedy National Park. Arthur Thorsborne died in 1991. The Thorsbornes are commemorated in the Thorsborne Trail, a popular 32 km walking track on Hinchinbrook Island.
Pigeon protection.
Starting in 1965, an early conservation initiative by the Thorsbornes was a long-term and ongoing monitoring program for Torresian imperial-pigeons on the Brook Islands near Hinchinbrook, the southernmost breeding area of the species, to which the pigeons arrive in August every year, departing northwards in March after the breeding season. Though breeding mainly on the islands, the pigeons fly daily to the nearby mainland, as well as to Hinchinbrook Island, to feed on rainforest fruits, including figs and nutmegs. Although the pigeons have been officially protected by law since 1877, birds were still regularly, intensively and illegally shot as they returned in the evening to feed their chicks on the island nesting colonies, and the number of breeding birds had dropped to 3,000 by the time the Thorsbornes intervened. The monitoring program required a regular presence on the island and acted not only to quantify population changes but also to protect the colony. Later, as the population recovered and more help was required to conduct the counting, Margaret and Arthur began a long term collaboration with John Winter (Zoologist) from the Queensland National Parks and Wildlife Service. Winter facilitated a reorganisation of the counting system and an increase in the degree of government support available to the project. Since 1965, the illegal shooting has declined and pigeon numbers have increased to over 40,000.
Political art.
Margaret painted over 2,500 envelopes which she sent to friends, politicians and government agencies, often with conservation messages such 'Azure kingfishers need tree-lined streams', and matching stamps. Her cards were sold at several centres in the region to raise money for conservation.


Sacro Monte di Varallo

The Sacred Mountain of Varallo () is a "Sacro Monte" ("sacred mountain", a type of mountainside Christian devotional complex) overlooking the town of Varallo Sesia in the province of Vercelli, Piedmont, northern Italy. It is the oldest "Sacro Monte", founded in 1491 by Franciscan friar Bernardino Caimi. It is built on a natural terrace on the rocky slopes of Monte Tre Croci ("three crosses mountain"), on the left bank of the Sesia river where it leaves Val Mastallone. It is 600 m above sea level, 150 m above the historic centre of Varallo.
Structures.
The Sacro Monte at Varallo comprises the minor basilica and 45 chapels, either isolated or inserted into the large monumental complexes "Nazareth", "Bethlehem", "Pilate’s house", "Calvary", "Sepulchre" and "Parella’s house" – populated by more than 800 life size painted statues, in wood and terracotta, that dramatically illustrate the life, passion, death and resurrection of Christ. These interiors are vividly decorated with fresco paintings.
The Sacro Monte area is divided into two distinct zones. The first, surrounded by plants, is set out like a sloping garden; here the chapels are positioned at strategic points along the path. Beginning with "Adam and Eve" or "Original Sin", they narrate the story of Christ, from the Annunciation until his arrival in Bethlehem. The second zone, preceded by the "Porta Aurea", is located on the summit, and is built up of palazzi and elaborate porticos, built around the two squares; piazza dei Tribunali ("piazza civica") and piazza del Tempio ("piazza religiosa"). The aim here, was to represent the city of Jerusalem; it does indeed have a city feel about it. The chapels narrate the events of Christ's life inside and around the walls of Jerusalem; here are "The Last Supper", "The Burial", "The Resurrection of Christ" and "The Assumption of the Madonna", to which the basilica is also dedicated. The urban character of this Sacro Monte clearly distinguishes it from the others.
History.
The present layout of the Sacro Monte is the result of a series of interventions carried out from the very end of the 15th century up until the middle of the 19th century.
Father Bernardino Caimi, an eminent political and religious man, was the promoter of the Sacro Monte, with the help of rich local families. He had been rector of the Palestinian Holy Places, and an Ambassador to the Spanish court. A plaque tells us that Caimi tried to recreate the “Holy sites, so that who could not go on a pilgrimage might see Jerusalem”. After his death in 1499, father Candido Ranzo and father Francesco da Marignano, continued his work. Helped by Gaudenzio Ferrari from Valduggia (a key figure until 1529 – painter, sculptor and architect), creator of some of the most enthralling of the sacred dramas: "The Three Kings" and "The Crucifixion". The Lanino brothers Giulio Cesare Luini and Fermo Stella da Caravaggio were the executors of his work.
From the middle of the sixteenth-century work began on a total renovation of the site. At the height of the Counter-Reformation, all the events of Jesus’s life were to be represented, the passion and his death. The area was organized into two zones, the predominantly natural lower portion and the summit, destined to represent the City of Jerusalem. From 1570 to 1590 a substantial number of the chapels in the garden area were constructed, the frescoes were finished and the statues added. From 1593 until 1640, organization of the urbanistic, architectural and figurative elements was carried out in the elevated zone. The configuration of the Sacro Monte was taking place; the cardinal points of the first scenes - "Nazareth", "Bethlehem", "Crucifixion" and "The Burial" - were established in the new layout.
From 1565 until 1569 the architect Galeazzo Alessi played a decisive role in the renovation work, as did the Perugian architect Domenico Alfiano, and Valsesians Giovanni d’Enrico and Bartolomeo Ravelli. The sculptors, Tabacchetti, Giovanni D’Enrico, and painters like il Morazzone, Tanzio, Rocca, the Gherardini brothers, and the Gianoli brothers worked in the same artistic vein established by Gaudenzio Ferrari. However, Morazzone and the d’Enrico brothers, Giovanni and Tanzio, helped concretize the "gran teatro montano".


Lomami National Park

Lomami National Park () is a national park located in the Democratic Republic of Congo in Central Africa. Situated within the middle basin of the Lomami River, it straddles the Provinces of Tshopo and Maniema with a slight overlap into the forests of the Tshuapa and Lualaba river basins. The National Park was formally declared on 7 July 2016. It is the 9th national park in the country and the first to be created since 1992.
Lomami National Park consists of 8,879 km² (887,900 hectares) of tropical lowland rainforest with savanna islands in the south and hills in the west. It is home to several nationally endemic species including Bonobo, Okapi, Congo peafowl, and a newly discovered primate species called Lesula, as well as the rare Dryas monkey known locally as "Inoko". An important population of African forest elephant is still protected in the northern part of the park.
History.
The southeastern range of the bonobo (a Congolese endemic great ape found only on the left bank of the Congo River) was unstudied until 2007. On satellite images the probable area appeared as nearly 40,000 km2 of unexplored rainforest showing no roads, human habitation, or agricultural clearings. Working with the Lukuru Foundation, John and Terese Hart, a couple involved in research and conservation of DR Congo's forests since the early 1980s, launched a dugout up the Lomami River in April 2007. On board were several forest teams ready to inventory the area on foot over the next three years. They named the area Tshuapa–Lomami–Lualaba Conservation Landscape (TL2) after the three rivers Tshuapa, Lomami and Lualaba, whose forests they explored. They found much of the outer forests depleted of large animals by the commercial bushmeat trade, but a rich core remained. This area too was threatened by hunters, many coming from far away – even from other Provinces – to supply the markets with wild meat in the major towns of Kisangani and Kindu.
After the reconnaissance surveys, in close collaboration with traditional authorities and local administrations, the Lukuru team focused on the areas that still contained a diverse and abundant fauna. In the first year, a monkey was encountered that was eventually determined to be new to science, the lesula ("Cercopithecus lomamiensis"). They found that TL2 was home to populations of other endemic and endangered species such as Okapi, Congo Peacock, Forest Elephant and significant populations of many non-human primate species including the rare dryas monkey and some other interesting phenotypic varieties of known species. All these findings showed an exceptionally rich and interesting eastern edge to the Congo River's central basin forest block.
With meetings in village centers and town halls, with outreach missions led by ministers, chiefs and deputies, the process to establish a national park got underway. From 2010 through 2012, legitimized through Tambiko ceremonies in which the ancestors were consulted, the surrounding villages defined the limits of the national park. By 2013 the governors of both Maniema and Tshopo (Oriental at the time) Provinces declared provincial parks, making all hunting within the parks illegal.
On July 7, 2016, the result of nearly a decade of collaborative work, the Lomami National Park was officially decreed by DR Congo's national government.
Geography.
The Lomami National Park is located in two provinces: Tshopo and Maniema. It lies south of Kisangani, the capital of Tshopo Province, and northwest of Kindu, the capital of Maniema Province.
The Lomami River forms the western border at the southern limit of the park and flows through the center of the northern part of the park. This river – as a biogeographic barrier – has influenced the evolution of wildlife in the region. Two other rivers, Tshuapa and Lualaba, define the general east-west limits of the TL2 landscape.
Edaphic, hydromorphic savannas, emerge from the forest in the southernmost part of the TL2 landscape, whereas forest cover is more consistent in the north, although varying from hill-forest to low elevation upland forest to seasonally flooded forest and riverine forest.
Local population.
The people living in the buffer zone of the Lomami National Park belong primarily to seven different ethnic groups: Lengola, Mbole, Mituku, Langa, Tetela, Ngengele and Arabisé. The approximately 100 small villages live primarily on agriculture, hunting, and fishing.
Biodiversity.
Early exploration in 2007 verified that the southern distribution of bonobos included the east bank of the Lomami River. These bonobos were shown to be genetically distinct from other bonobo populations, establishing the Lomami River as a probable geographic barrier.
Other important populations of rare or endangered animals were found in various parts of the park.
Approximately 500 African Forest Elephants remain in the northern forests of the park. As in so much of its range, the forest elephant was hunted to local extinction in the south of the park. Also in the north, the Okapi, a rainforest giraffe and Congolese endemic, occurs only on the west bank of the Lomami. This finding raises questions about the historic range of the species since the Okapi is known also on the east bank of Lualaba River but not between the Lomami and Lualaba.
In the south, the dryas monkey is so far (2016) known only from Maniema Province and on the right bank of the Lomami River. Before this discovery, the species distribution was thought to be limited to a small area in Equateur Province, 400 km to the northwest.
Significant agglomerations of grey parrots, a target species for the illegal pet trade, live in and around the park and the endemic Congo Peafowl can be found in forests throughout the park.
The Lomami National Park is outstanding for its ape and monkey species. These following primates can be found in the park:
Threats.
The major threat to wildlife in the Lomami National Park is the commercial bushmeat trade. The Lukuru Foundation found that the origin of hunting pressure is not just the local communities, as many hunters are from other regions and, importantly, the trade is driven by a strong demand from urban markets and city-dwelling traders who come to the villages on bicycles and motorbikes to bargain directly on site. Lukuru Foundation monitoring revealed that about 85% of all the bushmeat from the TL2 landscape in Maniema was transported to the provincial capital of Kindu.
Elephant poaching represents another threat to the park. Commercial ivory trade not only pushes a rapid decline in elephant populations but contributes to facilitate insecurity in remote areas. With military arms and ammunitions, criminal gangs prey not only on the park's wildlife but also on surrounding communities.


Lavkumar Khachar

Lavkumar Jiva Khachar or K.S. Lavkumar (24 February 1930 – 2 March 2015) was an ornithologist, nature and wildlife conservationist from India.
Biography.
Khachar was born on 24 February 1930 in the royal family of the former princely state of Jasdan, Gujarat, India. He was educated at Rajkumar College, Rajkot and completed his B.Sc. from St. Stephen's College, Delhi. He later taught biology and geography at Rajkumar College in 1956.
Career.
His involvement in ornithology began in the 1950s and was associated with other ornithologists like Salim Ali, Humayun Abdulali and Zafar Futehally. He was closely associated with Bombay Natural History Society (BNHS) and World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) India. He was funded by WWF to conceive and initiated the nature education movement in 1976. He also served as director of the Nature Discovery Centre at the Centre for Environment Education (CEE) in 1984. He advocated and worked in the creation of Marine National Park in Gulf of Kutch, the first marine national park in India. He was involved in wildlife conservation of Gir Forest also. He worked for education and involvement of youth in nature conservation. He was the founder of the Hingolgadh Nature Conservation Education Sanctuary created by Jasdan royal family. He was a member of Delhi Bird Club.
He died on 2 March 2015 at Rajkot, Gujarat, India. He was married and had a son and a daughter.
Recognition.
He was awarded the Salim Ali – Loke Wan Tho Lifetime Achievement Award for Excellence in Ornithology for his contribution in the field of conservation of birds and their habitat. He also received Certificate of Merit from His Royal Highness Prince Philip. He was also awarded Venu Menon Lifetime Achievement Award in 2004.


Oroklini

Voroklini (), more commonly and unofficially known as Oroklini (), is a village in Larnaca District, Cyprus, to the north-east of Larnaca. Its population in 2011 was 6,134, and is mainly divided between Cypriot and British residents.
Oroklini refers mainly to the village behind Oroklini Lake, however, some coastal neighborhoods in Livadia and on Dhekelia Road are usually also designated as outskirts of Oroklini.
History.
The region around the village was inhabited in ancient times, when there was intense mining in that region, especially for copper. It was an estate of despots, and was probably destroyed by Saracens. Leontios Machairas in his "Chronicle" mentions raids by the Saracens in that region during the reign of Janus of Cyprus (1398-1432). Oroklini and the surrounding villages were abandoned in the fifteenth century, resettled, then again temporarily abandoned before being resettled in the sixteenth century.
In the seventeenth century it is mentioned in Venetian documents as Vorochini: during this period the village was abandoned yet again. It was finally permanently settled in the eighteenth century.
Industry.
Although copper is no longer mined, there are a number of quarries of grey soil, umber and tera alba.
Bird protection area.
Oroklini Lake is designated as a Special Protection Area (SPA) and was subject to a three-year project starting in January 2012 to bring the lake to ″favourable conservation status″. Black-winged stilt ("Himantopus himantopus") and the spur-winged lapwing ("Vanellus spinosus") were the main target species along with fifty-eight bird species that migrate through, or overwinter within the SPA. The shallow salt lakes are also home to greater flamingo.
Churches.
There are several deserted chapels in the area next to the mountainside. The old small church of the Archangel Michael from the 17th century is built in the Byzantine style. It was rebuilt in 1867. The new church of the Archangel Michael was built in 1986.
The small church of the Prophet Elias was built in the 16th century on the hilltop west of the village. There was also the Church of Saint Thomas, which was a monastery from the 10th century.


Historic City of Ahmadabad

The Historic City of Ahmadabad or Old Ahmedabad, the walled city of Ahmedabad in India, was founded by Ahmad Shah I of Gujarat Sultanate in 1411. It remained the capital of the Gujarat Sultanate and later important political and commercial centre of Gujarat. Today, despite having become extremely crowded and dilapidated, it still serves as the symbolic heart of metropolitan Ahmedabad. It was inscribed as the World Heritage City by UNESCO in July 2017.
History.
The earliest settlements were situated in south of current old city and on the bank of Sabarmati river. It was known as Ashaval or Ashapalli. Asha Bhil Was king of Ashaval . In the eleventh century, Karna of Chaulukya dynasty ruling from Anhilwad Patan (1072-1094) made the town his capital and named it Karnavati (Karan's town) or Shrinagar (prosperous city) and Rajnagar (king's town).
Ahmed Shah I laid the foundation of Bhadra Fort starting from Manek Burj, the first bastion of the city in 1411 which was completed in 1413. He also established the first square of the city, Manek Chowk, both associated with the legend of Hindu saint Maneknath. His Gujarat Sultanate (1411-1573) ruled from the city until 1484. His grandson Mahmud Begada transferred capital from Ahmedabad to Muhammadabad from 1484 to 1535 but carried out second fortification of the city. Later Ahmedabad again became capital of sultanate until it fell to Mughals in 1573. During Mughal rule (1572-1707), Bhadra Fort served as the seat of Governor of Gujarat. The city flourished with addition of several settlements in and around the city. Of the population of the city no estimate has been traced. There is some estimate of the size of city in works of the time: "Ferishta", the "Ain-i-Akbari", and the "Mirat-i-Ahmadi". According to the "Ain-i-Akbari" (1580), there were 360 "puras", of which only eighty-four were then flourishing; according to "Ferishta" there were, in 1600, 360 mahalla, each surrounded by a wall ; the "Mirat-i-Ahmadi" in one passage says, such was once its populous state that it contained 380 puras, each pura a considerable quarter almost a city; in another passage he mentions twelve city wards and others outside, and in his detailed account of the city he mentions by name 110 suburbs of which 19 were settled under Mughal rule. German traveller Mandelslo (1638) mentioned the suburbs and dependent villages are nearly seven leagues round. During Mughal and Maratha struggle (1707–1753) to control the city, the city was harmed and several suburbs were depopulated. The city walls damaged in battles and the trade was affected. The city revenue was divided between Mughal and Maratha rulers. Later during Maratha rule (1758–1817), the city revenue was divided between Peshwa and Gaekwad. These affected the economy of the city due to more extraction of taxes. In 1817, Ahmedabad fell under British Company rule which stabilized the city politically and improved the trade. The population rose from 80,000 in 1817 to about 88,000 in 1824. During the eight following years a special cess was levied on "ghee" and other products and at a cost of £25,000 (Rs. 2,50,000) the city walls were repaired. About the same time a cantonment was established on a site to the north of the city. The population rose (1816) to about 95,000. The remaining public funds after the walls were finished were used for municipal purposes. The old city continued to be the centre of political activities during the Indian independence movement under Mahatma Gandhi.
Forts and Gates.
Forts.
Square in form, enclosing an area of about forty-three acres, the Bhadra fort had eight gates, three large, two in the east and one in the south-west corner; three middle-sized, two in the north and one in the south; and two small, in the west. The construction of Jama Masjid, Ahmedabad completed in 1423. As the city expanded, the city wall was expanded. So the second fortification was carried out by Mahmud Begada in 1486, the grandson of Ahmed Shah, with an outer wall 10 km (6.2 mi) in circumference and consisting of 12 gates, 189 bastions and over 6,000 battlements as described in "Mirat-i-Ahmadi". The city walls of second fortification, running on the west for about a mile and three quarters along the bank of the Sabarmati, and stretching east in semi-circular form, include an area of two square miles in past.
Gates.
Most people believe that Ahmedabad had 12 gates but some historian suggested to have 16. Later some Indologist found that Ahmedabad had 21 gates. Bhadra fort had eight gates, three large, two in the east and one in the south-west corner; three middle-sized, two in the north and one in the south; and two small, in the west. In the city walls of second fort, there were eighteen gates, fifteen large and three small. Of the fifteen, one was closed, and two were added later. These gates were, beginning from the north-west corner, three in the north-wall, the Shahpur in the north-west, the Delhi in the north, and the Dariyapur in the north-east; four in the east wall, the Premabhai, a gate built by British, in the north-east, the Kalupur in the east, the Panchkuva, a gate built by British, in the east, and the Sarangpur in the south-east; four in the south wall, the Raipur and Astodiya in the south-east, and the Mahuda, the closed gate, and the Jamalpur in the south; seven in the west wall, the Khan Jahan, Raikhad and Manek in the south-west; the three citadel gates, Ganesh, Ram, and Baradari in the centre; and the Khanpur gate in the north-west. Two new gates, Prem Darwaja and Panchkuva Gate added by British after opening of railways in 1864.
Neighbourhood.
A "Pol" is a typical housing cluster of the old city. There are as many as 356 pols described in historical works. The form of housing cluster was established during the divided Mughal-Maratha rule (1738-1753) due to religious tension between Hindu and Muslims. Afterwards (1780-1832), when the city walls ceased to shelter from robbers, the pol gate and watch became necessary protection. Chabutro is a unique pole like structure for feeding birds which can be found in several Pols.
Heritage walk.
Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation in association with CRUTA Foundation, organizes a walk across old city starting from Kalupur Swaminarayan Mandir and ending at Jama Masjid every morning. The walk covers several social, religious and architectural places associated with history and culture of Ahmedabad.


Wadi Wurayah

Wadi Wurayah () is a wadi between the towns of Masafi, Khor Fakkan and Bidiyah in the United Arab Emirates. It has been designated as Ramsar Wetland of International Importance.
Protected area.
On 16 March 2009, the Wadi Wurayah became the first protected mountain area in the United Arab Emirates, after a three-year campaign by the Emirates Wildlife Society in Association with World Wide Fund for Nature, with the support of HSBC Bank Middle East Limited. In addition to the conservation of the area's delicate ecosystem, EWS-WWF have also set up camera traps to photograph the more elusive wildlife, and arranged field trips for students to help raise awareness of the area.
Flora and fauna.
Wadi Wurayah is home to more than 100 species of mammals, birds, reptiles and amphibians, as well as more than 300 species of plants. It is famous for its scenic waterfall set amid the Hajar Mountains. It has streams and pools dotted around the rocky outcrops. It is one of few remaining places in the world where the endangered Arabian tahr still roams free. Conservationists believe it to be among the last places in the UAE where the Arabian leopard, which has not been seen in the UAE since 1995, still survives. A footprint of a leopard was found here. The same is true for the caracal. The wadi is also home to the "Garra barreimiae", a type of freshwater fish that lives only in Al Hajar Mountains. Among the 208 species of plants is a species of wild orchid unique to the area, the "Epipactis veratrifolia". In 2018, an Indian crested porcupine was spotted here.
In January 2020, a few Indian fritillaries ("Argynnis hyperbius") were found in the park by Binish Roobas, an Indian naturalist based in the UAE, who managed to photograph a male and female. He was visiting the area to survey the diversity of flora and insects, after there had been heavy rainfall in the country from October 2019 to January 2020, along with park ranger Sami Ullah Majeed, biologist Nuri Asmita, and the Chairman of the Dubai Natural History Group, Gary Feulner. It is thought that the fritillaries, which were found flying with members of a physically similar species, the plain tiger ("Danaus chrysippus"), came here as opportunistic migrants, because of the suitable conditions made by the rainfall, and thatthey would not stay during the summer.


Major Land Resource Areas

In United States conservation policy, Major Land Resource Areas (MLRA) are geographically associated land resource units delineated by the Natural Resources Conservation Service and characterized by a particular pattern that combines soils, water, climate, vegetation, land use, and type of farming. There are 204 MLRAs in the United States, ranging in size from less than to more than .


Tundi Spring Agardy

Tundi Agardy (born May 10, 1957) is a marine conservationist and the founder of Sound Seas – a Washington DC-based group specializing in working at the nexus of marine science and policy in order to safeguard ocean life.
Education and inspiration.
Hungarian by descent, Agardy was born in the United States after her parents and sister fled Hungary. She had the good fortune of being selected to participate in a high school expedition to the U.S. Virgin Islands to learn about field biology, and there cemented her desire to focus on the sea and the challenges to preserving its wonders. After studying at Wellesley and Dartmouth Colleges in New England (USA), she returned to the Virgin Islands to lead an Endangered Species Management Program in cooperation with the US Fish and Wildlife Service. Years later she returned to graduate school at the University of Rhode Island (URI), where she simultaneously worked towards her Master of Marine Affairs (specializing in fisheries management) and her Ph.D. in Biological Sciences (sea turtle population dynamics and genetics). While at URI she joined the nascent Coastal Resources Center, exporting US experience in coastal planning to developing countries. Agardy then went on to do a post-doc at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI), and was a Marine Policy Fellow there for several years. It was while at WHOI that she began working with the multilateral institutions that would shape her interests and work in years to come: the Man and Biosphere Reserve Programme of UNESCO and the International Union for the Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources (IUCN). The love of the sea that her husband Josh Spring and children Alex, Sophie, and Christopher all share is a continuing source of inspiration.
Environmental NGO work.
In 1990, Agardy moved to Washington to work as Senior Scientist for World Wildlife Fund (WWF). At the time there was no formal marine program, but country programs were encouraged to do more in the marine conservation realm, and Agardy assisted in priority-setting, project design, and project execution, working in Africa, Asia, the Caribbean and Central America, and Europe. As much of this work centered on marine protected areas, she used the wealth of knowledge acquired in her experiences to write the acclaimed book “Marine Protected Areas and Ocean Conservation”. During this time, Agardy also worked closely with IUCN field and headquarters programs, and chaired the Marine Advisory Group that guided the Union’s marine conversation activities over multiple triennia. She later joined Conservation International to launch CI’s Global Marine Program, and shortly thereafter founded Sound Seas, looking for ways to interface between the scientific community, the international policy arena, and the NGO and multilateral institutions relying on scientific information and policy frameworks in order to achieve effective marine conservation.
Assessment and evaluation.
Sound Seas began with small teams addressing the needs of philanthropic foundations to conduct evaluations and undertake strategic planning. Through Sound Seas Agardy conducted a strategic evaluation of the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation’s Population, Consumption, and Environment Program, and assisted the Oak Foundation in its early efforts to support marine protected area initiatives worldwide. Agardy worked with colleagues to design the Coral Reef Targeted Research Project of the World Bank, and prepared a feasibility study for the institutional arrangement that supported it. Sound Seas explored the feasibility of establishing a research station on Palmyra Atoll for The Nature Conservancy (TNC), and conducted evaluations for the United Nations Development Programme in the Black Sea region, United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) for its support of WWF climate change work in Cameroon, Fiji, and Tanzania, and International Financial Corporation (IFC) in its support of TNC work in Komodo, Indonesia. She is continuing to work with UNEP's Mediterranean Action Programme, coordinating an initial assessment of the Mediterranean Sea to promote the Ecosystem Approach in the region. This builds on the work she has done in marine protected areas, targeted marine research, and identification of ecologically important areas, in Italian waters and in the Mediterranean as a whole.
In 2001, shortly after founding Sound Seas, Agardy began brainstorming with colleagues from the World Resources Institute about how to recognize the value of natural ecosystems for humanity. This led to her involvement with the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment (MEA), which in 2005 published the first global evaluation of the status of ecosystems in relation to human well-being. Agardy headed the coastal portion of this comprehensive assessment, and was co-author of the summary document “Ecosystems and Human Well-Being: Biodiversity Synthesis".
Coastal and marine management and training.
Building on experiences gained in promoting marine protected areas, policies aimed at marine biodiversity conservation, and integrated coastal and marine planning, Agardy published several books that continue to provide guidance for marine managers today. A co-authored publication entitled “Biodiversity in the Seas” has been credited as spurring many marine conservation activities that followed the adoption of the Jakarta Mandate of the Convention on Biological Diversity, focusing world attention on the value and status of life in the seas. Her innumerable publications on marine protected area (MPA) and MPA network design, on science and information needs in planning, and on integrated or ecosystem-based marine management have helped to add rigor to the field of marine conservation. Her book “Ocean Zoning: Making Marine Management More Effective" explores the tool of zoning in Marine Spatial Planning and integrated management more generally. Working through the Center for Biodiversity at the American Museum of Natural History, Sound Seas created several teaching modules on marine conservation biology, international treaties, and marine protected areas. Her 2011 UNEP publication describes the core principles behind EBM and outlines steps to achieve it, and this book serves as the basis for training and capacity building in various regions around the world, including in the Mediterranean Sea (through the Barcelona Convention and its Mediterranean Action Programme) and the Red Sea region (PERSGA).
Marine ecosystem services and market.
Recognizing the inadequate resource base that exists for doing marine management effectively around the world, Agardy joined Forest Trends in 2006 to explore innovative financing for marine conservation. The focus of the MARES (Marine Ecosystem Services) Program that she launched is on assessing the value of coastal and marine habitats for the myriad ecosystem services they provide, and identifying opportunities for Payments for Ecosystem Services (PES), offsets, or other market-like mechanisms to generate revenues that support conservation (and, very often, local communities that provide stewardship).
Communications.
Agardy is Science and Policy Director at the World Ocean Observatory and writes on ocean issues for the organization's Ocean Observer. She is also Contributing Editor of MEAM (Marine Ecosystems and Management) - a publication on ecosystem-based management produced in association with the University of Washington (USA).
Awards and honorary positions.
In 2006, Agardy was selected to receive the University of Miami’s Rosenstiel Award for Significant Achievement in Oceanography and Marine Policy. She was given the Civic Scientist of the Year Award by the Earthwatch Foundation in 1998, and the Secretary of State Open Forum Distinguished Public Service Award in the same year. The URI Alumni Association granted her the Award for Excellence in Research in 1996, and in 1995 she was selected by TIME Magazine as one of the fifty most promising young leaders in America. She serves on numerous Boards of Trustees, international advisory bodies, and sat on the US Federal Advisory Committee on Marine Protected Areas.


Curieuse Island

Curieuse Island is a small granitic island in the Seychelles close to the north coast of the island of Praslin. Curieuse is notable for its bare red earth intermingled with the unique coco de mer palms, one of the cultural icons of the Seychelles, only growing on the two neighboring islands.
History.
Originally named "Ile Rouge" due to its red coloured soil. In 1768 the French claimed possession of the island, naming it after the schooner "La Curieuse", a ship that was under the command of explorer Marc-Joseph Marion du Fresne. Like a number of islands in the Seychelles, there was a native giant tortoise population that was quickly extirpated.
In 1829, Curieuse was first used as a leper colony, and it functioned in this capacity until 1965. This helped protect the ecosystem from human influence. Today, ruins of the leprosarium remain, as well as the former physician's residence at Anse St. Joseph (now an educational center and museum).
Conservation.
In 1967 a fire destroyed much of the vegetation on the island, including more than 150 coco de mer palms. Following this event, the government took ownership of the island and introduced various restoration and conservation projects.
In 1979, Curieuse and surrounding waters were declared the Curieuse Marine National Park in order to protect the native wildlife. Between 1978 and 1982, a conservation project relocated Aldabra giant tortoise from Aldabra to Curieuse. Today, it is the home of more than 300 Aldabra giant tortoise, some staying around the Ranger's Station and the rest roaming around elsewhere on the island.
On the southern part of the island is a mangrove swamp that is traversed by a walkway for park visitors. The island is also known for coco de mer palms, giant takamaka trees, a large hawksbill turtle rookery and several bird species, such as the rare Seychelles black parrot "Coracopis nigra barklyi", a parrot found only here and on Praslin. Though black parrots are found here, it is worth noting no breeding has been recorded to occur. Instead it is recorded in the mature palm forests of Praslin. Among the plant species on the island, several are native and endemic to Curieuse; Porcher (Cordia subcordata), Bois Chandelle (Dracaena), Lalyann dile (Secamone schimperiana, Bwa bannann (Gastonia sechellarum) and Bois Cassant de Bord Mer (Guettarda speciosa)
There is also currently a satellite camp for the Seychelles branch of Global Vision International, a volunteer group that focuses on conservation of the island and surveys local fish, coral, turtle and coco de mer numbers.


Communal Areas Management Programme for Indigenous Resources

The Communal Areas Management Programme for Indigenous Resources (CAMPFIRE) is a Zimbabwean community-based natural resource management program. It is one of the first programs to consider wildlife as renewable natural resources, while addressing the allocation of its ownership to indigenous peoples in and around conservation protected areas.
Background.
CAMPFIRE was initiated in 1989 by the Zimbabwean government as a program to support community-led development and sustainable use of natural resources. The 1975 Parks and Wildlife Act set the legal basis for CAMPFIRE by allowing communities and private landowners to use wildlife on their land, marking a substantial shift from colonial policy that made it illegal for local populations to utilize wildlife in any way.
Population pressures in Zimbabwe have led to people living in communal lands, much of which is arid and unsuitable for agricultural farming. CAMPFIRE would allow individuals to earn income on these communal lands through sustainable use of the environment and wildlife. CAMPFIRE is managed through Rural District Councils (RDCs) who distribute contracts for safari hunting and tourism and allocate revenue to local wards. Poaching was to be suppressed by the people in these hunting areas. While some endangered animals were killed, the program aimed at supporting these populations in the long run by managing hunting, decreasing illegal poaching, and strengthening the economic prospects of the community through environmental protection and revenue generation.
The US federal government has supported CAMPFIRE, principally through the United States Agency for International Development, or USAID. CAMPFIRE received $7.6 million initially and $20.5 million in 1994 from USAID. USAID did not renew its funding once their commitment ended in 2000.
Results.
CAMPFIRE has been implemented widely across Zimbabwe, encompassing 36 of Zimbabwe's 57 districts. CAMPFIRE earns revenue through safari hunting, the sale of animal products, and tourism contracts. During 1989–2001, CAMPFIRE generated over US$20 million of transfers to the participating communities, with 89% of revenue being generated through safari hunting. Twelve of the 37 districts with authority to market wildlife produced 97% of all CAMPFIRE revenues, reflecting the variability in wildlife resources and local institutional arrangements.
Benefits to Households.
While crop and livestock cultivation are more susceptible to drought or irrigation failures, wildlife serves as a more dependable source of income due to their comparative advantage in the environment. The scale of benefits varies greatly across districts, wards and households. Rural district councils typically allocate 40-60% of revenue to wards, either through direct benefits or through funding projects. It has been estimated by the World Wildlife Fund that households participating in CAMPFIRE increased their incomes by 15-25%.
Communities also receive indirect benefits through community projects, such as the construction of schools, clinics, grinding mills, or prospects for additional income through employment as a game monitor or a related job. Depending on wildlife population density, some wards have diversified their revenue streams. For instance, the Mahenye ward had no elephants or large wildlife immediately around its district and opened game-viewing lodges to generate revenue in place of hunting contracts. Wards with higher per household revenue have encouraged immigration in order to increase population density in a way that would warrant the development of roads, schools, and other infrastructure suited for high population densities.
Wildlife and Land Management.
Environmental benefits have been witnessed since CAMPFIRE's inception; elephant numbers have increased, buffalo numbers are either stable or witnessing a slight decrease, and habitat loss has diminished, and in certain regions, even reversed. Between 1980 and 2000, wildlife management as a percent of total land in Zimbabwe increased by 21%. Because rural district councils have an incentive to maintain revenue streams, hunting laws are heavily enforced and instances of illegal poaching have decreased.
As a result of CAMPFIRE, wildlife monitoring has increased but remains inconsistent and focused on large species, such as elephants. CAMPFIRE manages wildlife populations by maintaining a certain agreed upon hunting quota; the quotas take both species endangerment and sex ratios into account to maintain wildlife populations, since hunters tend to selectively hunt male animals for sport. CAMPFIRE has experimented with moving wildlife populations to different wards to benefit communities with lower populations and reduce wildlife competition within certain areas.
Because benefits were clearly linked to wildlife, CAMPFIRE helped to develop positive attitudes surrounding animal conservation; in districts, celebrations around the opening of grinding mills and other community projects would be accompanied by performances with animal costumes. Villagers are more likely to report neighbors for illegal poaching activity. Surveys have found that public awareness campaigns funded by CAMPFIRE revenues have been effective in reducing harmful community behavior, such as indiscriminate tree cutting and damaging fishing techniques.
Criticisms.
The sustainability of protecting wildlife is contingent upon market demand for safaris, hunting, and other wildlife commodities. After increased violence around land ownership, investment and tourism decreased, resulting in a decline of revenue generation across wards. Furthermore, CAMPFIRE's model is based on the sustainable consumptive use of endangered species as a strategy to increase the value of their remaining populations. This position clashed with the majority preservationist, anti-hunting public sentiment in the US as well as national and international law, in particular CITES. In 2014 the US stopped the importation of elephants and ivory into the US, halting much of the hunting and revenue carried out in CAMPFIRE communities. More recently, the Trump administration has lifted the US' ban on trophy imports.
Following Zimbabwe's economic downturn in the 2000s, CAMPFIRE experienced a greater degree of elite capture, with villagers reporting that council positions and CAMPFIRE-related employment opportunities being held by friends and family members of sitting councillors. RDCs have retained an increasing percentage of CAMPFIRE revenues and are criticized for being unresponsive to local concerns. In some areas, the communal projects are initiated but are not sustained, while the income from CAMPFIRE revenues is insufficient to substitute agricultural income.
Villagers express concern that wildlife protection supersedes their own safety and livelihood strategies. Some wards have restricted immigration, settlement expansion, and the use of natural resources. Physical restrictions on land expansion bar villagers from accessing more fertile land. Villagers have expressed that wildlife presents safety concerns for themselves, crops, and livestock.


Society for Conservation Biology


Golden Gate, Vladimir

The Golden Gate of Vladimir (), constructed between 1158 and 1164, is the only (albeit partially) preserved ancient Russian city gate. A museum inside focuses on the history of the Mongol invasion of Russia in the 13th century.
Golden Gates existed in the holiest cities of Eastern Orthodoxy: Jerusalem, Constantinople, and Kiev. On making Vladimir his capital, Andrew the Pious aspired to emulate these structures, commissioning a lofty tower over the city's main gate to be erected in limestone and lined with golden plaques. According to ancient Russian chronicles, the masons were invited from Friedrich Barbarossa. The main arch used to stand 15 meters tall. The structure was topped with a barbican church dedicated to the Deposition of the Virgin's Robe and symbolizing the Theotokos's protection of Andrew's capital.
The gate survived the Mongol destruction of Vladimir in 1237. By the late 18th century, however, the structure had so deteriorated that Catherine the Great was afraid to pass through the arch for fear of its tumbling down. In 1779, she ordered detailed measurements and drawings of the monument to be executed. In 1795, after many discussions, the vaults and barbican church were demolished. Two flanking round towers were constructed in order to reinforce the structure, and artisans then reconstructed the barbican, following the drawings made in 1779.


Archaeological Landscape of the First Coffee Plantations in the South-East of Cuba

The Archaeological Landscape of the First Coffee Plantations in the South-East of Cuba are the remains of 19th-century coffee plantations located in the foothills of the Sierra Maestra. During the 19th and early 20th centuries, eastern Cuba was primarily involved with "coffea" cultivation. The remnants of the plantations display the techniques used in the difficult terrain, as well as the economic and social significance of the plantation system in Cuba and the Caribbean.
In 2000, the Archaeological Landscape of the First Coffee Plantations in the South-East of Cuba was added to the UNESCO list of World Heritage Sites.
Under UNESCO, the "Archaeological Landscape of the First Coffee Plantations in the South-East of Cuba" meet two criteria that allows it to be a world heritage site. Under UNESCO it is seen to meet criteria ii & iv, which means under criteria (ii) to exhibit an important interchange of human values, over a span of time or within a cultural area of the world, on developments in architecture or technology, monumental arts, town-planning or landscape design. And under criteria (iv) to be an outstanding example of a type of building, architectural or technological ensemble or landscape which illustrates (a) significant stage(s) in human history.


Krka (Una)

The Krka () river is a long tributary of the Una river. It is a border river, constituting natural border between Bosnia and Herzegovina and Croatia for about of its 6 kilometers long course. It is also important natural feature of the Una National Park.
Special Reserve Krka.
The Krka's entire course together with its abounding wellspring is a part of the National Park Una, protected as a Special Reserve. The river rises at the foot of the specious plateau of Cvijetinić, with eponymous villages Veliki and Mali Cvjetnić. The Krka wellspring is karstic, characterized with large discharge, so that river itself is already formed and rich with water. Access to it through the canyon is cleared and marked but still quite demanding, and as part of tourist attraction it gives the possibility of full-day excursion through woods as well as barren karstic hills. The wellspring is in secluded valley, with an old mill is also still present.
Fly fishing.
Although the river Una as well as the Unac are popular fly fishing grounds, among the largest in Europe, rich in salmonid species, primarily grayling and brown trout, with the Una being one of the famous huchen destinations, fly fishing like all other angling methods is allowed only in certain section and under strict rules and regulations. Meanwhile, the Krka, like most of the Unac watercourse within the National Park, is completely excluded from all water and underwater activities.


Azaria Alon

Azaria Alon (15 November 1918 – 19 January 2014) was an Israel Prize-winning environmentalist, and a co-founder of the Society for the Protection of Nature in Israel (SPNI).
Biography.
Azaria Alon was born in Ukraine. His family immigrated to Palestine in 1925, settling on Kfar Yehezkel, a moshav in the Jezreel Valley. They moved to Kiryat Haim in 1932, the year in which he graduated from the Hebrew Reali School. Alon returned to the Jezreel Valley at the age of 20 to live on Kibbutz Beit HaShita. In 1952, he married Reut, with whom he had four children.
Awards and recognition.
Alon received an Israel Prize for lifetime achievement in 2012. He had previously been nominated for the Israel Prize when the SPNI won it in 1980.
Alon also entered the Guinness Book of World Records as the anchor of the oldest radio program.


Monterosso al Mare

Monterosso al Mare () is a town and "comune" in the province of La Spezia, part of the region of Liguria, Northern Italy. It is one of the five villages in Cinque Terre.
Overview.
Monterosso al Mare is located at the center of a small natural gulf, protected by a small artificial reef, to the east of Punta Mesco in the Riviera of La Spezia. It is the westernmost of the Cinque Terre. In the west part of the original village, beyond the hill of the Capuchins, it is the village of Fegina, natural expansion and characterized by a relatively modern tourist resort facility compared to the ancient village that is reachable through a tunnel of a few tens of meters. The local train station is located at Fegina and the beaches are relatively larger compared to the narrow cliffs that characterize the other villages of the Cinque Terre.
The town is divided into two distinct parts: the old town and the new town. The two areas are divided by a single tunnel that caters to pedestrians and the very few cars in the town.
The beach at Monterosso runs along most of the coast line and is well used by tourists and locals. The beach is the only extensive sand beach in the Cinque Terre. Monterosso is a small town overrun by tourists in the summer months.
The village was briefly excluded from the Cinque Terre trail in 1948, but was re-introduced in mid-1949. Italian officials considered the village too large to be considered part of the historic trail.
Crops.
The area is famous for its many lemon trees that can be seen throughout Monterosso. It is also renowned for its white wines, grapes, and olives.
History.
In 1870, the Italian government built a railroad line into the city, which opened it up to the outside world. It is the main way in which people enter the city.
During World War II, many young men from the Cinque Terre fought for the resistance against the fascist regime of Benito Mussolini, and the subsequent Nazi German occupation of Italy.
Monterosso giant.
In Monterosso, near the beach of Fegina, is the statue of the Giant/Neptune created by the Italian sculptor Arrigo Minerbi (the favourite artist of Gabriele D’Annunzio) and the architect Francesco Levacher.
In the past, the impressive fourteen-metre high sculpture stood on the promontory as part of the decoration of the luxurious Villa Pastine (built in the early 1900s). In addition to the trident, Neptune bore a gigantic shell on his head, which acted as the terrace of the villa.
During World War II, Monterosso was bombed by allied forces, and the Neptune statue (along with the villa) suffered serious damage. It was damaged even further by heavy seas in 1966.
Village life.
Historically, many of the villages on the Mediterranean were walled to protect against attacks from the sea. This area of the coast was often attacked by pirates.
Accessibility.
Originally, the village was only accessible by sea or by mule paths that connected the villages of the Cinque Terre and to Via Roma, the main road that connected all of Italy to Rome. These mule paths have been maintained and used over the centuries and now provide hikers with a more intimate view of the sea-swept Cinque Terre. The area was recently designated as part of the national park system and is considered a protected area, to the effect of limited development and resource usage. The Cinque Terre hiking trails have been taken over by the national park system and there is now a fee to hike on all portions of the trail.
Today, the best way to go to Monterosso is to take local trains from La Spezia or Genoa or Intercity trains from Milan, Rome, Turin, and Tuscany. The village is connected to the E80 highway via a narrow, steep and winding long road. The train network reaches the other villages of Cinque Terre as well.
Twin towns — sister cities.
Monterosso al Mare is twinned with: