The recent sad news that Mr. Emmanuel de Merode, Chief Warden for Virunga National Park in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) was ambushed and shot is only the latest in a series of attacks and assaults around the world against those who protect and preserve national heritage sites. While all of us are grateful for the fact that Mr. de Morde’s condition is stable and he is recovering in Kenya, we are also hoping that more international guidelines and laws could create more support and security for these individuals.

According to Katy Scholfield, Synchronicity Earth website, in August last year, Ranger Kasereka Kipako was killed in an ambush of his patrol post. This had come just a month after two rangers were killed and seven others wounded while travelling from Goma to Rumungabo. More than 140 park rangers have been killed in Virunga in the last decade as reported by BBC. 

Rangers and park workers are targeted directly for a number of reasons. To many they present a threat to the income of militia groups, who are responsible for much of the illegal charcoal production inside the park. Rangers have also been targeted by the state – the organizations who are supposed to protect and ensure their safeguard. Ms. Scholfield also reported last year that Ranger Rodrigue Katembo Mugaruka was arrested and imprisoned in Kinshasa for trying to protect the park from British company, Soco International, carrying out oil exploration.

Earlier this month, Global Witness released a report titled: “Deadly Environment: The Dramatic Rise in Killings of Environmental Land Defenders.”

The report actually revealed some very shocking statistics as outlined in the Scholfield’s blog:

At least 908 people were killed in 35 countries protecting rights to land and the environment between 2002 and 2013, with the death rate rising in the last four years to an average of two activists a week.

The year 2012 was the worst year so far to be an environmental defender, with 147 killings – nearly three times more than in 2002.

Impunity for these crimes is rife: only 10 perpetrators are known to have been convicted between 2002 and 2013 – just over one per cent of the overall incidence of killings.

The problem is particularly acute in Latin America and Southeast Asia. Brazil is the most dangerous place to defend rights to land and the environment, with 448 killings, followed by 109 people Honduras (109) and 67 in the Philippines.

It is very obvious to all of us that more international laws with harsher penalties have to be mandated in order to safeguard those who make sure that the national heritage sites including Virunga National Park is protected and preserved for the future generations.

To read Katy Schonfield’s original blog go to :

http://www.synchronicityearth.org/blog/2014/04/violence-increasing-towards-environmental-human-rights-defenders

It is hard to believe that as we go on with our daily tasks, our planet Earth gets closer everyday to losing another animal species.  In fact, it would be hard to believe, unless you take a closer look. 

The list is long and includes animals like mountain gorillas (Gorilla beringei beringei) living in the Virunga Mountains, bordering Democratic Republic of Congo, Rwanda and Uganda to the giant ibis (Thaumatibis gigantea)  which has been declared the most endangered and evolutionarily distinctive bird in the world. 

So why are these beautiful animals disappearing?  There are many reasons including changes in climate, local and regional unrest, ecological changes, deforestation, and increasing poverty that affect humans and therefore, affect many animals living in different habitats. 

In addition, there are many animals that are reported to be now extinct.  The list includes many animals that most of us have actually never seen and perhaps will never have the opportunity to see. 

One of these animals is Baiji dolphin or “the goddess of the river” and for a long time, the dolphin’s skin was highly valuable and used to make accessories like gloves and handbags.  According to Mother Nature Network, the last documented sighting of China’s baiji dolphin, or Yantze River dolphin, was in 2002. Even though, the species is listed as critically endangered, many scientists believe that it may already be extinct. In 2006, the Baiji Foundation sent a team of scientist on a Yangtze River research expedition. The team traveled for more than 2,000 miles while using optical instruments and underwater microphones, to search for the rare dolphins, but could not detect any sign of it. The foundation published a report on the expedition and declared the animal formally extinct. The decline in the baiji dolphin population has been attributed to many factors including overfishing, boat traffic, habitat loss, pollution and poaching.

It is clear to environmentalists and conservation activists that we should do a better job of making sure that fewer and fewer animals are vulnerable and therefore become endangered and unfortunately extinct. 

Professor Richard Nelson Frye was Professor of Iranian Studies Emeritus at Harvard. He established the Harvard Center for Middle Eastern studies and taught at Harvard from 1948 to 1990, though his impact lingered even after his formal retirement ended.  Many appropriately referred to him as “the Dean of the World’s Iranists”.

Professor Frye was the author of more than twenty books and over 150 articles about the ancient Iranian culture. His work covered the spectrum of Iranian studies and the history of Iran and related cultures across the centuries, with  the relevant sources  and documents in multiple living and extinct languages ranging from Avestan and Old Persian to Sogdian, to present modern Iranian languages.  Early in his career, the editor and compiler of the monumental, encyclopedic Persian dictionary, Dehkhoda, gave him the honorific Irandoost, or Iranophile, which has since adorned the doorway to his office at Harvard.

He received his PhD in history and philology from Harvard in 1946, with his thesis on Narshakhi’s History of Bokhara.  He joined the Harvard faculty in 1948 and later became Agha Khan Professor of Iranian Studies.  Later, he founded the Center for Middle Eastern Studies (CMES) at Harvard.  His books and articles on Iranian history and culture have endured as references on the subject. Some notable titles include Iran (1953), Persia (1968), The Heritage of Persia (1963), The Golden Age of Persia (1975),  History of Ancient Iran (1984), The Heritage of Central Asia (1996), Greater Iran (memoirs, 2005), and History of Bukhara (2007).

He passed away at the age of 94 on March 27^th, 2014.