Month: July 2018

Our Mangrove Day ©

By Suzanne Maxx ©

 

Do you know what [wiki title=”Mangrove”]Mangroves[/wiki] are?  The 26th of July 2018 is what some call the International Day for the Conservation of the Mangrove Ecosystem.  You are probably thinking what, mangroves?  Our Sustainable  Solutions Ocean Opportunities on Small Island States (SOS_IS) joins the UN Ocean Conference Community of Ocean Action on Mangroves today in celebration.

Our approach to mangroves is not to just design an optimal preservation, but to also explore the best way to better educate ourselves and others about the experiential value of mangroves with their role in all that is rapidly changing.

We’ve also done some replanting with youth in Fiji, along the way for conservation.

We’ve educated tourists about the importance of mangroves, not only for the preservation of islands but also as a nursery for most aquatic life’s early years sheltering a host of marine organisms. We’ve witnessed mangroves to be a safe nursery for baby dolphins and other cetaceans to play and grow. We intend to show how mangroves are a breeding ground for baby sharks and other fish.

We are examining other regions in different parts of the world’s mangrove parks and preserves for design, and how they made use of mangrove trees, with gazeboes, providing canopies for this natural arboretum.

The mangroves root system’s water purification has much we plan to look at more closely for bio-mimicry, design, and observation of nature’s critical ecosystem for public education.

We have updated our SOS-IS‘s website here:  http://sos-is.org

Here is a recent relevant blog post on our World Team Now Bloghttps://worldteamnow.org/blog/2018/06/21/for-the-love-of-the-ocean/

 

 

The Vision for the Environment and EPA’s Leadership

By Suzanne Maxx © 

The Environment, our collective home and in the USA the leadership of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has undergone a much-needed change— Scott Pruitt has resigned. Read more here:

For me, this event touches both the personal and professional areas of my life. As I’ve shared in prior blogs “Growing Up With EPA” and “EPA in Action-Moving Forward” here:

Growing Up With EPA

EPA in Action-Moving Forward

The question I asked as a child under the age of 10 still remains unanswered, in honest. “Who is in charge of the Environment?” The answer brings up a huge inquiry that we are collectively beginning to prioritize and bear witness to—what role does humanity play with the environment? How important is the environment to humanity?

This controversy with the United States “Environmental Protection Agency” is serving to awaken more people to the challenge of how to manage governance of collective resources. Does it truly serve us all to have one agency that is influenced by national politics? We know that we humans can imagine better systems for our earth and our environment. We are so thankful more people are awakened to this issue, and unfortunately, it all too often takes a crisis or scandal, to arise to do better. Surely the investigation of the present EPA leadership will continue, and now the second in command will temporarily lead with the same mandate, but as the drama unfolds our hope is that more people will be engaged in understanding, participating and get into action to show respect for our common home.

Yet in contrast, on the other side of the planet in the Pacific Island Region, during the annual session of the Forum Fisheries Committee Ministers Meeting in Raratonga, Cook Islands, someone who brings knowledge and experience for the people and the environment was given an opportunity to serve. The next Director-General of the Forum Fisheries Agency was just awarded to a well-qualified dedicated professional woman, Dr Manumatavai Tupou-Roosen.  Secretary-General Dame Meg Taylor said, “I am very proud that a daughter of the Blue Pacific has been appointed Director General. The Forum Fisheries Agency plays an extremely important leadership role for our fisheries, one of the most important resources for our people.”

Our vision is that one day there will be a leader who can lead with the mandate of an agency like EPA—to protect the environment. Maybe they will even enroll others beyond country to follow. It brings to question, does it truly work to have our collective environment regulated by individual countries?

Perhaps there is a better model of a representative from each region of the world that could join together to address these collective challenges with our common oceans, sky, and earth.
The United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are on a track to explore opportunities to unite beyond country through 2030. Can we address and organize quickly enough to respond to the changes happening in our environment through political structures?

Will people rise to explore what “We the People…” really means beyond country? What role will people play, with our environment ultimately?  These are questions our World Team project has been and continues to explore with our non-profit World Team Now, and in the future with World Team®.

Other blog postings that mention the EPA:

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