Category: People

The Billion Oyster Project: Bringing back New York Harbor’s Ecosystem One Oyster at a Time

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The Billion Oyster Project (BOP), started by the students at New York Harbor  School has worked to grow and restore oysters in the New York Harbor. Oysters reefs used to occupy over 220,000 acres of the Hudson River, and were a large part of the ecosystem. Oysters are known to filter the water around them, and provide a healthier habitat for other marine species and plants. Unfortunately, there are virtually no oysters left in the harbor because of pollution, over-harvesting, and dredging. The loss of oysters, and rise in water pollution, has rendered the current ecosystem unable to filter the water. Without the oysters, the Harbor reefs have disappeared and without these protective habitats the shoreline is more vulnerable to storms and destructive waves. BOP has five stand alone programs in place to restore the Harbors ecosystems that include: Oyster Production, BOP Schools, Reef Construction and Monitoring, Shell Collection, and Public Programs.

The Billion Oyster Project engages local students in hands on ways. In their mission statements, BOP says that students have “learned to SCUBA dive safely, raise oyster larvae, operate and maintain vessels, build and operate commercial-scaled oyster nurseries, design underwater monitoring equipment and conduct long-term authentic research projects all in the murky, contaminated, fast moving waters of one of the busiest ports in the county.” (BOP, 2016) One of their BOP Schools, the Harbor School, grows 10 million oysters a year and the students there are the ones that sustain the BOP’s projects. As of this year, BOP works in partnership with 36 public schools to provide these hands on opportunities to learn about science and math. Today there are more than eleven million oysters back in the New York Harbor thanks to BOP and it’s partners.

New York City always takes care of it’s own, and with a project like BOP, that directlybenefits the New York Harbors, many local businesses are getting in on the action. The Brooklyn Brewery and BOP have teamed up to create a limited edition oyster beer. The beer is called the Brooklyn Brewery’s Billion Oyster Saison, and was brewed with whole oysters! While this may sound strange to some, Irish brewers have been brewing with oysters for years and the taste is supposedly delicious. Garrett Oliver, the Brewmaster at Brooklyn Brewery, said that the collaboration with the BOP was easy since, “Water quality is incredibly important to us because it makes up about 95% of the beer we produce. Needless to say we take the issue very seriously and are happy to support the case in the best way we know-making a beer!” It will be premiered at the third annual Billion Oyster Party this May and will benefit the Billion Oyster Project, as well as the New York Harbor Foundation. Partnerships like these are mutually beneficial, and help to not only raise money but also awareness! With the kind of partnership and support that the Billion Oyster Project has received they are getting closer to their ambitious goal of restoring the reefs and bringing one billion oysters back into the New York Harbor every day!

Morgan McGoughran

Restore Our Harbor. (n.d.). Retrieved May 24, 2016, from http://www.billionoysterproject.org/about/

Brooklyn Brewery Promotes New York Harbor Restoration with Billion Oyster Saison Brewbound.com. (2016). Retrieved May 24, 2016, from http://www.brewbound.com news/brooklyn-brewery- promotes-new- york-harbor- restoration-billion- oyster-saison

Levine, A. S. (2016). New York Today: The Big Oyster. Retrieved May 24, 2016, from http://www.nytimes.com/2016/05/10/nyregion/new-york- today-the- big-oyster.html?_r=0

Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment in Africa

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In many countries in Africa and beyond, women have very little power and are stuck in rigid gender roles and expectations. Women in Africa endure a long list of gender-based hardships including sexual and physical violence, limited decision-making, limited land and property owning, lack of proper education, and little to no access to reproductive healthcare. A recent study concluded that 37% of African women have been sexually abused by an intimate partner. In a culture where sexual violence is used as a tactic of war, women and girls live in fear or simply accept the foregone conclusion that it will happen to them. Women should never have to endure sexual or physical violence. There are no exceptions.

These women have been oppressed for thousands of years, so what has sparked this rapid change in gender equality in Africa? Well for one, in countries that have granted women more rights, freedoms, and job opportunities, they have seen economic growth when the world’s economy is in the toilet. By giving women more freedoms, education, and opportunities, Africa can create a more inclusive and thriving economy. In 2009, African leaders adopted the African Union Gender Policy that is working towards equal rights and freedoms for women and girls. This policy addressed the need to change the social and cultural constructs that have long constricted women’s rights, and even addresses that there are cultures that militate women’s rights. This policy sparked African Leaders to create the Women’s Decade 2010-2020, which is helping to speed up the process for women’s and girl’s rights. Halfway through that decade, Africa’s Agenda 2063 was proposed. Agenda 2063 is a 50-year plan to transform Africa and has a series of environmental, socio-cultural, scientific, political, economic, and technological goals set to be achieved over that time. While not every country is on board with equality, many countries are pushing for these changes. At this time, women own around a third of allAfrican businesses and hold nearly one-third of the seats in parliament in 11 countries. Countries like Rwanda, Liberia and Senegal have already seen the rewards of an inclusive government, and their success will hopefully spark other countries to adopt the same ideas.

One area in which women play a major role is food security. Women are involved in every step of the ‘food process’, including planting, growing, selling, purchasing and preparing. These women manage to tend to the crops and take care of their families, despite all the gender-based discrimination I mentioned previously. By empowering instead of oppressing these women, and allowing them to own their own properties for farming, there would be a significant increase in farm yields. With climate change causinglonger dry seasons and destroying the arable lands in Africa, a higher farm yield during these viable times would significantly help makeup for the predicted losses. By allowing women a better education, the ability to take out credit on their own, and access to technology they didn’t have in the past, woman can own thriving businesses that contribute to their community’s well being and the economy.

Although all of this is awesome, there is still so much that needs to be done to achieve gender equality. While allowing women more rights, freedoms, and better education to help the economy is great, things like reproductive health care and sexual violence aren’t being put in the forefront like they should. In sub-Saharan Africa, nearly 5 million women die every year from unsafe abortions. This number is not only astronomical, but completely preventable. Some of these women are in such desperate situations, that they risk their own lives by enduring unsafe and unsterile abortions. The African governments need to come together to figure out how to reduce this completely preventable number, whether through legalizing abortion or promoting the use of contraception. A recent statistic stated that on average, 400 African women die every  singleday in a reproduction related complications. While some of these may not have been preventable, many of these deaths occurred simply from lack of reproductive health careavailable to women. The people who suffer the most from the lost of a mother are her children, and families often don’t bounce back well from the loss of their primary caregiver. With more aggressive health care initiatives, as well as continued efforts toward equality and education, great strides will hopefully be made toward gender equality for women in Africa.

Morgan McGoughran

From the article "Women in Africa Stories of Gender (In)Equality in South Africa. (2015). Retrieved from https://iycoalition.org/stories-of- gender-inequality- in-south-africa/

OSAA, Africa, UN and Africa, United Nations and Africa, Special Adviser, UN, United  Nations NEPAD, African Union. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.un.org/en/africa/osaa/peace/women.shtml

Empowering Africa's women is the key to economic wealth – Europe's World. (2014). Retrieved from http://europesworld.org/2014/02/24/educating-africas- women-is-the-key- to-economic- wealth/

 

The Great (Green) Wall of Africa

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Africa is facing a very big problem: desertification. This is a problem that 40% of Africa is facing. Desertification results in land that is unsuitable for crops, and with many of the Sub-Saharan Africans dependent upon the land for jobs and food, poverty and hunger are running rampant. While this desertification may seem inevitable due to climate change, the Great Green Wall for the Sahara and the Sahel Initiative plans to make a valiant effort at stopping it. The plan is to plant an actual “wall of trees” in order to stave off further desertification in these areas. By replanting indigenous trees and plants that can withstand the arid climate, the Great Green Wall will need very little maintenance and basically take care of itself. In the areas where the ‘Wall’ has already been planted, they have seen an increase in indigenous animals that hadn’t been seen in these areas for the last 50 years. With amazing results (so far) in the areas that have really pushed the initiative, hope and revitalization are spreading as the wall does.

The Great Green Wall will be a group effort, involving all of the countries stretching from Dakar to Dijbouti. The plan is dependent upon cooperation between these countries, and as of right now 20 countries are partnered to make this Wall a reality. Stopping land degradation is vital to the well-being and prosperity of these suffering communities, which has acted as a great motivator for locals who don’t want to turn to other means of making a living or migrating to another area. Currently, each of the countries that has partnered with the Great Green Wall Initiative have created their own regional action plans to achieve this goal. In an interview concerning this level of cooperation, Elvis Paul Tangam, the African Union Commissioner for the Sahara and Sahel Great Green Wall Initiative, has said, “That is the biggest achievement, because now they own it. It’s about ownership, and that has been the failure of development aid, because people were identified with it. But this time they identify. This is our thing.”

Beside the more obvious problems of food security and poverty, land degradation in these regions also has social consequences. If these young men and women can no longer find jobs working on the farms or in the markets, they will need to look elsewhere for an income. Young men and women in Africa harbor the responsibility of providing for their families, and without arable land their options are limited and bleak. Many young men end up turning to different rebel and terrorist groups, like the Boko Haram, to help them earn a living and give them purpose. With the Great Green Wall Initiative moving along, many of these at risk young people are now participating in planting these new trees and protecting them. They are staying in their communities because they understand the land’s arability is returning, and by helping with this initiative, they are providing a valuable service.

Although the plans for the Great Green Wall were proposed in 2007, only about 15 percent of the actual ‘Wall’ has been planted at this time. Like any ambitious environmental goal, it takes time to get each individual country and region on board with the program before the actual action really begins. The UN has already stated that without intervention, nearly two-thirds of Africa’s arable land will be gone in the next ten years. Those kinds of statements only provide more motivation for projects such as the Great Green Wall Initiative to succeed, no matter how long it takes to finish. At this time, those most closely involved in the initiative believe it will take about 25 years to complete. For the sake of the arable land, I hope that generation-long timeline started in 2007 and is completed before it is too late.

Morgan McGoughran

Africa's Great Green Wall is making progress on two fronts. (2016). Retrieved from http://www.pri.org stories/2016-05- 02/africas-great- green-wall- making-progress- two-fronts

The Waste-preneurs of South Africa

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The Wildlands Conservation Trust of South Africa has created a Recycle for Life program that allows thousands of community members to collect recyclable waste and barter it to the Wildlands Trust for sustainable support. The program is a green economy initiative that promotes recycling, re-using and recovery of waste while creating jobs for under employed people in South Africa, giving opportunity for work to youth and women.

Waste collectors are linked with waste buyers interested in purchasing specific waste materials for their own re-use, such as aluminum cans, glass bottles, paper recycling, cardboard, plastics, and other recyclable materials. The Waste-preneurs collect and sort the waste, keeping the area clean and organized while also receiving an income from the buyers that can get use out of particular waste, in an effort to minimize the amount of waste going directly into landfills. This allows an abundance of recycled materials to be used more effectively. Some waste collectors receive goods or services in exchange for their efforts rather than pay, such as food and educational services.

Since 2010 the Waste-preneur program has grown immensely and this past year the Wildlands Trust has seen over 4,200 Waste-preneurs collect and trade 8.2 million kilograms of waste through their depots in exchange for livelihood support. The program currently incentivizes 86 schools and 71 businesses for recycling responsibly, and organizes clean up days on the national holiday, Mandela Day, and at different marathon races around the country.

Not only is this program providing a cleaner environment with increased well being for all, but it is also allowing people to sustain themselves better by creating a stronger sense of community that involves direct communication and exchange between groups for improved interconnectedness and quality of life. This program most noticeably works towards minimizing waste production with responsible consumption and production, while also working in line with many other SDGs such as reducing poverty and hunger through livelihood exchange, creating decent work opportunities and economic growth for many citizens, as well as educational opportunities for women and children; thus, improving the issue of inequality, while also helping to fight climate action, and create a better life on land. The best part of it all is that this program is completely replicable and easily scalable for any community to use in their own area. The only requirement for this program to be successful is participation and enthusiasm from the local community!

Alexa Bender

http://wildlands.co.za/project/recycling-for-life/

Recycling for Life – Wildlands. (n.d.). Retrieved May 22, 2016, from http://wildlands.co.za/project/recycling-for- life/

Wildlands ‘Wastepreneurs” | Go Yonder. (2013, April 2). Retrieved May 22, 2016, from http://www.goyonder.co.za/galleries/photographs/

Malaysian Villages go ‘Smart’

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Smart Villages seek to provide the same opportunities and access for rural areas that urban cities maintain, making it possible for rural residents to have access to careers, clean water, healthcare, education, and communication—without leaving their remote and community-oriented villages. Originally, smart villages were created to tackle rural poverty in developing countries, through a public/private partnership with the UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network. This primary model, in Malaysia, is already being used all around the world to tackle impoverished areas in many different countries. The smart village in Malaysia has 100 homes built on about 50 acres of land, with access to educational, training, and recreational facilities, as well as sustainable agricultural systems, which provide a reliable food source and a supplementary income for residents. Additionally, this particular village has a four-level aquaculture system hosting guppies and algae, which provide food for larger fish like protein-rich tilapia. Filtered water from the fish tanks is also used to irrigate trees, flowers and crops. This system optimizes nutrient absorption, minimizes waste, and allows crops to grow on previously non-arable land. It uses a sort of “looping system” for a take on modern farming that can exist virtually anywhere, even in urban settings, making replication very realistic all around the world with few limitations.

This project helps provide a source of income for the intimate group of residents living in the village, and has essentially taken them out of poverty, while also improving their quality of living with more sustainable infrastructure, food, water, and agriculture. Smart villages are creating a network of small communities that make up a larger community of sustainable living that can eventually eliminate the pockets of severe poverty within and around the country. Further projects are being added to these villages, such as carbon reduction and biomass waste-to- wealth initiatives; demonstrating how these villages are simultaneously working towards many SDGs. These smart villages tackle the issues of poverty; hunger; good health and well-being; quality education; clean water and sanitation; affordable and clean energy, through self-sufficient solar panels complimented by biomass and hydro; decent work and economic growth within the village; sustainable innovation and infrastructure created to last; and most effectively model sustainable cities and communities that can be replicated all around the world. Finally, smart villages practice responsible consumption and production, ultimately affecting the global initiative to combat climate change.

Overall, this model is indeed very “smart” as it allows rural villages to have the same advantages of urbanized cities, on a much more intimate, community- based level. Each reproduced village can be tailored to its geographic location and cultural way of living because it is much more manageable and adaptable on a smaller scale. In terms of scalability, this project is intended to function on a small-scale in order to maintain the integrity and intimacy of the community practice and nature of the system. This particular model would still function if scaled slightly smaller or slightly larger, but ultimately, it would still need to be reproduced in a rural area with a community of residents that are all able to agree on a similar way of living as an entire unit

Alexa Bender

Knight, M. (2012, July 26). 'Smart Village' ties modernity with sustainable living. Retrieved May 22, 2016, from http://www.cnn.com/2012/07/26/world/asia/smart-village- malaysia/

Malaysia's 'Smart Villages' and 9 other proven ideas for sustainable development. (2014, September 17). Retrieved May 22, 2016, from http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2014-09/tca- mv091414.php

Incentivize the Future

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It becomes increasingly clear in everyday life that as human beings, we can and must change our ways and develop new lifestyles that allow for the rising population as well as rising global temperature. Rising populations, large infrastructure, deforestation and the burning of fossil fuels are warming the Earth, harming ecosystems, degrading soil and the destruction of the sheer beauty our planet has to offer. That being said, these issues are not being confronted with the necessary sense of urgency by most of the world leaders and large corporations. There are however, examples of countries doing the right thing.

The country of Navarre is very dedicated about the prospect of and necessity of becoming more sustainable in the way we are living our lives. The “Navarre Network (NN)” is a collection of local governments and actors such as businesses and schools. The Navarre Network understands the importance of spreading awareness of the real issues facing our planet.

Initiatives have been taken by Navarre to become a leader among European countries in both sustainability and renewable energy. The article also describes how Navarre practiced involving non-­public actors and its citizens in the process and really motivated people into feeling the need to participate in creating a better future. The government did such things as give awards to those who have shown excellence in the name of sustainability, embark on cycling initiatives, and purchase composts from both public and private entities. The way Navarre has encouraged its population and rewarded its citizens for working towards a better future is something very important that needs to be taken into consideration as the social (uniting people under a positive cause) aspect of changing our ways as a species and protecting the rights of future generations.

The Navarre Network tackles the UN’s sustainable development goals from a community standpoint. While legislation and subsidies have proven to be powerful tools and will no doubt be necessary in order to get the human network on the same page with these issues, of equal importance is building communities, people caring about their neighbors, educating the population and creating a local sense of togetherness. Sustainability starts with widespread awareness and using the media and local governments to do so, Navarre Network is proving that this is a tangible method that yields results and is helping create a better future.

Kyle Noviello

Google Images, pyrenalis.com.

Callow, J. (2012). Sustainablecities.eu. http://www.sustainablecities.eu/local­stories/navarre­2