In her travels across Africa over the last decade, Diane Brinkmann has come to deeply appreciate and love elephants. Here she shares her experiences at an elephant camp in the Samburu National Reserve in Kenya with Elephant Watch, and the dire need to protect these magnificent creatures from illegal wildlife trafficking.
We’re witnessing a major demographic shift in agriculture. Over the next two decades, as aging farmers retire or leave their land to the next generation, 70 percent of the nation’s private farm and ranch land will likely change hands. One report predicts that women may own 75 percent of this transferred farmland. Rachel’s Network is working with American Farmland Trust to learn about and support these landowners.
While doing field work in the Bahamas for her master’s degree in marine conservation, Martha Davis experienced firsthand the alarming decline of the islands’ queen conch population, a species of edible mollusk. Her nonprofit, Community Conch, conducts conch population surveys and advocates for conservation efforts to preserve this vital species. “With the support of the Department of Marine Resources and the Bahamas National Trust, we are using the information we collected at stakeholders meetings to reform regulations. It has been very rewarding to present our data at conferences and have scientists from the Bahamas and other Caribbean countries thank us for our work,” Martha says.
