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News
Dave Foreman, Rewilder Conservationist Dies
Dave Foreman, cofounder of Earth First! and founder of the Rewilding Institute, died in September. He was always looking to bring nature back into the conversation and for ways to protect and restore wild earth. Dave was the author of Rewilding the Earth and Man Swarm: How Overpopulation is Killing the Wild World. He will be greatly missed. For more information.
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Minden Pictures Photo Embeds for Free
Specialty stock photo agency Minden Pictures represents top wildlife and nature photographers, including many National Geographic freelancers. Minden Pictures has partnered with SmartFrame Technology to release a collection of over 140,000 fully-licensed images as photo embeds that can be freely posted to blogs and websites and shared on social media. The intent behind this new product launch is that access to premium images at no cost can help conservation and science writers make their online posts more compelling and their messaging more effective. Minden Pictures Embeds are streamed still images that may be posted and shared as easily as a YouTube video by copying and pasting code into your HTML editor. When shared to social networks, an eye-catching thumbnail links back and drives web traffic to your original post. You can use embeds in current projects or refresh existing posts. Embeds may be used in any context except for selling products or services.
If this resource is of interest, you can learn more about Minden Pictures Embeds at the following links:
Photo Embeds - What are they and how do they work
Introduction to Minden Pictures Embeds by SmartFrame,
Browse the Minden Pictures Embed collection
Sample Photo Embed published in an online textbook
Questions or comments are welcome. Reach out to Robbie Schmelzer (ILCW Associate, USA), Minden Photo Embed Guy, +1-808-747-6476. Or callrob@gmail.com.
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 Xtinct—New Magazine Seeks Articles
The Ian Player Foundation and Planet Savers have partnered with Sign of the Times Publishing and some of the globe’s most powerful wildlife and environmental foundations to create Xtinct Magazine – The global mouthpiece for what is left of our planet, a mouthpiece for environmental individuals, businesses and corporate sustainability, including all good works by environmental groups. The first issue debuted August 22, 2022 and Xtinct is calling for writers to submit articles for future issues.
If you are interested:
- Articles should be around 500 words
- Accompanied by at least 3 high resolution images
- Declare the topic you are writing about. See Xtinct’s Editorial Synopsis here.
- State the fee you will charge for the article or if the article is pro bono
- Send to: kat@xtinctmagazine.com
The magazine’s website is: https://xtinctmagazine.com/
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Green Podcasts
Green Radio Hour with Jon Bowermaster, this podcast features Pete Lopez (Scenic Hudson) on the future of PCBs in the Hudson Valley, New York (USA).
Rewilding Earth Podcast featuring Liz Hillard discussing Wildlife Connectivity in the Pigeon River Gorge, corridor of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park in North Carolina and Tennessee (USA). Regarding the redesign of bridges and other barriers to accommodate wildlife.
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Commercial Captive Lion Industry Coming to End in South Africa
 When the Blood Lions campaign was launched following the premier of the film in 2015, taking on the captive predator industry seemed a near impossible task. Today, we are at the cusp of seeing the closing down process begin, and all those that have held the vision and participated in the process can take credit.
Recently, some significant and welcome steps have been taken by the South Africa Department of Forestry, Fisheries and Environment (DFFE) to end the captive lion industry. The gazetted draft White Paper on the Conservation and Sustainable use of South Africa’s Biodiversity provides an overarching policy context for biodiversity legislation, regulation and implementation in South Africa.
"The White Paper is a substantial document. There are shortcomings, even contradictions, but in the main it heralds significant progress on many of the issues that have needed attention in our welfare and wildlife management legislation. The authors and Ministry need to be commended" - Ian Michler, Blood Lions Director.
It is a progressive though ambitious document recognising the intrinsic value of wildlife and biodiversity, recognising the importance of well-being of individual animals in the definition of sustainable use and purposing the adoption of One Health and One Welfare approaches. This document maps out a new vision for people and wildlife and many of its clauses should have direct impacts on those involved in breeding predators, canned hunting and the exploitation of wildlife in tourism facilities.
Following the announcement in May 2021, when Minister Creecy stated that South Africa will no longer breed captive lions, keep lions in captivity, or use captive lions or their derivatives commercially, she is now in the process of appointing a Ministerial Task Team. This panel of experts will be required to identify voluntary exit options and pathways for lion breeders from the captive lion industry, and oversee the implementation and monitoring of these.
"After decades of opposition and a strong mandate from a High-Level Panel in 2020, we welcome the Government’s announcement that it will begin the process of closing down the captive lion industry. A voluntary exit route laid out and monitored by a ‘task team’ of experts seems to be a sensible way to start," says Michler.
For this Task Team, who will take the first steps towards ending the captive lion industry, Creecy is looking for people with specific expertise and experience in areas such as animal welfare, veterinary care, disease risk, traditional practices associated with lions, and labour law and trade unions with particular reference to business closure and retrenchment.
This team of experts will be established as soon as possible and their work is due to be completed by end March 2023, info=bloodlions.org@mlsend.com.
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Member News
Do you have news?
Let us know if you have won an award, written a new book, or launched a creative endeavor to bring awareness to conservation. Chances are the ILCW membership is not aware of these things, so be sure and tell us. Send items to:patty@ilcwriters.org
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Member Writing
TEMICTLA
At night, all the forests on this side of the world breathe shrouded by subtle shades of light.
The eyes of vigilant and roaming nocturnals sparkle with vibrant songs of wooded nightlife.
In a world of silhouettes, shadows glide with the slow flight of the moon.
Time, sleepy, stretches and yawns, gobbling constellations over the crest.
On a narrow ledge half-ways up on this vertical rock,
Eye-level with pod-laden canopies,
Abreast the roots of copals and other natives,
Below boulders, agaves and trees reaching high,
I am graced by quietude
And the precious calm
That allows for random proximities of wing-borne beings.
In guise of stillness, the ravine is action-packed.
Daytime, hundreds of tiny birds inspect branches, leaves and flowers,
Finding everywhere the goods that power their wings
Into creating zillions of tiny whirlwinds,
Swirls in the air, unseen yet real.
How odd are cities oblivious of all this!
The tiny worm that inches its way along a leaf and suddenly plummets,
Saved by its silk,
Then swings to find a next foothold to prod...
And the dry twig that unbelievably dances,
Balanced but on the tip of a leaf and a point of the rock...
And the deep hues of the owl-song,
And those other rhythmic hums, grave, unrushed,
Born on a tree and resounding on every single leaf and rock,
Petal, thorn, feather, antennae and soft flesh,
Imbibing this blessed ravine with continuous moments of Life as it is without us.
A moment of Life such as now,
As the sun flows down unto the last sunset of the year.
In silence, a leaf falls.
It lands on a shrub.
Soon enough, on a time-scale quite different from mine,
It will reach the soil and thence, at large, shall find her essence emerging again on the canopy
As the consciousness and intelligence that has allowed for mine to write
About how sunlight streams through the pods outlining their seeds.
- beatrizpadilla, on December 31st 2014, in dedication to my grandfather Ezequiel on his 126th birthday, and to my father, Edgardo, three days before the first full year of his passing, during a Vision Quest in the Chalmita Valley, Ocuilan, central Mexico.
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New Books by
ILCW members
 Living in Two Worlds: Addressing Humanity’s Greatest Challenge
Living in Two Worlds, by Ian McCallum (Fellow, South Africa) and Ian Michler (Fellow, South Africa), is the result of a four-month, 5 000 km non-motorised journey – walking, kayaking, and cycling through six countries across southern Africa, from the Atlantic Ocean in the West to the Indian Ocean in the East. The insights that emerged from this epic journey form questions that demand to be answered by all human beings. These are concerns that highlight the greatest ecological challenges of our time; climate change, the loss of species and habitat as well as our collective search for sustainable ways of living. The book also addresses the urgency of the need for self-examination, for a willingness to be disturbed and with it, a renewed perspective of human co-existence with all living things. These answers will determine the fate of our existence on the only home we know – our planet Earth.
 Both Ian McCallum and Ian Michler are well-known in African conservation, ecotourism and environmental spheres as they have been working in these sectors for a number of decades. Published by Quickfox Publishing, distributed by Blue Weaver, available on Amazon, Takealot and at bookshops in South Africa and perhaps beyond.
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 New Book from Dr. Guinness Madasamy
Dr. Guinness Madasamy (Fellow, India) has published an environmental dual language book, Thalakkettillatha pusthakam (A book with out title) in two dravidian languages (Tamil and Malayalam). The book was announced by Mr .Dean Kuriakose, a member of Indian Parliament, at a recent event. The bilingual text is used to inspire and  encourage students and the public about the green deal and Dr. Madasamy’s thoughts on justice, world peace, sustainable development goals and environment issues. Yes Press Books from Perumbavoor, Kerala is the publisher and more information about Thalakkettillatha Pusthakam can be found here.
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 Sanjay Gubbi
Leopard Diaries: The Rosette in India
2021, Westland Publication
Paperback, 239 pages
The leopard is perhaps one of the world’s most beautiful creatures. The spots on its body are even romantically called ‘rosettes’. It is social but solitary, inconspicuous but significant in numbers, large but ubiquitous, and does not fit any of the pigeonholes of large-cat conservation. In India, the leopard is a poster boy of the fight to preserve wildlife, but in many countries, it faces either ecological or local extinction. A worrying phenomenon, given that these cats carry out important ecosystem services that have not been fully understood yet.
In Leopard Diaries; The Rosette in India,Sanjay Gubbi, who has studied and documented the leopard for nearly a decade, gives us a close look at this fascinating creature. From detailing its food habits to throwing new light on how the young are reared, from offering suggestions on tackling leopard–human conflict to imagining the future of this arresting animal, this book is a 360-degree view of the leopard, its ecological context, its fraught relationship with the human world, and how wildlife and human beings can find a way to co-exist.
With over a billion people and more leopards than any other country in Asia, India is a fascinating test-case of humanity's ability to live with large carnivores. Through the lens of rigorous science, Sanjay Gubbi shines a revealing light on this grand experiment, showing how both big cats and conservationists must navigate an intricate landscape of obstacles, setbacks, and danger. As the only researcher I know who has experienced first-hand the terrified fury of a leopard hemmed in by people, his narrative is unique. This is a captivating and valuable contribution to the growing literature on the leopard in India.
--Luke Hunter Ph.D., Executive Director, Big Cats Program, Wildlife Conservation Society, New York
About the author
Sanjay Gubbi’s work is a scientist, conservationist and writer. His work integrates science, contemplative studies of the natural world, and society. His conservation work has been consistently of the highest quality and exhibits an infectious enthusiasm that few in the country have been able to match.
Working on leopards has been central to his research work. The complex and ambivalent world of leopards is sometimes marked by horrifying tension between the humankind and the natural world. This he writes about in a sharply observant style, lucidly and at times wittily.
Gubbi holds a doctorate in leopard ecology and conservation. Along with his scholarly research, Gubbi has also written extensively in the popular press. A self-taught conservationist, he was the winner of the Whitley Award (popularly known as the Green Oscars) in 2017. He was listed as one of ‘Tomorrow’s 25 Leaders’ by The Times of India and is the recipient of the Co-existence Award, the Carl Zeiss Conservation award and various others.
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See all Books by ILCW members here
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