We were lucky to find a connection to home on our trip: we met Jeff Muntifering, a Conservation Biologist for the Minnesota Zoo. Jeff and his family live in Namibia, where he has worked with Save the Rhino Trust (SRT) since 2002 to protect endangered black rhinos. We’ve learned a lot about things people have …
In two cities in South Africa, Johannesberg and Cape Town, we connected with a great organization called Food and Trees for Africa (FTFA). FTFA runs a number of programs that have to do with green things — their programs involve tree planting, food security, carbon offsets, education and more. Johannesberg: Hug a Tree (Trees for …
We’ve seen lots of African elephants on our trip — in South Africa, Namibia, and especially, Botswana. In some places in Botswana, there are herds of elephants right by the side of the road (and numerous road signs reminding drivers to slow down and watch out for elephants.) In Chobe National Park (Botswana’s second-largest national …
In Mozambique, we learned about something different: soapmaking. What does soapmaking have to do with the environment? If you’ve ever read the label on a bar of soap, you know that soaps can be made of many different things. Many soaps are made with palm oil. In Costa Rica, at the beginning of our trip, …
Can Coral Reefs Recover? In our last post, we shared a conversation we had with Madhu (MD Madhusudan), one of the founders of NCF (Nature Conservation Foundation). We talked about how conservation should be rooted in science. And how the best solutions include partnership with local people to be successful. Our last post was about tigers and …
In our last post, we talked about tigers. Here, we’ll share some more thoughts about how tiger conservation programs (and other conservation programs) can be created successfully. We went to the Nature Conservation Foundation to find out about conservation in India. We left after learning about many other things, too: science; government policy; climate change; …
Imagine a fort, deep in India’s forest, called Ranthambore Fort. Now imagine you’re a maharajah — an ancient king, hundreds of years ago — vacationing there. The forest is your playground — you hunt tigers there for sport. You practice conservation, of a kind — you hunt, but not too many, so there will still …
In Cambodia, we did a homestay (like we did in the Mekong Delta, in Vietnam). Jamie did a video post about our homestay, which you can see here. We learned a lot about how local families live, and even went to a Cambodian wedding. And, we made a stop to see the Irrawaddy river dolphins …
In Vietnam, we visited the Mekong Delta. A delta is an area where a river flows out to the sea in many smaller channels. As the smaller rivers spread out from their source, they often make the shape of a fan. Some famous deltas include the Mississippi River Delta and the Nile Delta (in Egypt). …
During our visit to Vietnam’s Cuc Phuong National Park, we got to see lots and lots of turtles at the Turtle Conservation Center (TCC). They currently house 650 turtles! There was a lot of turtle trade in the 1980s and 1990s, mostly for food and traditional medicines. Turtles were used in Vietnam, and many were …