Have you ever asked yourself: What are all these broken cell phones doing in the  drawer?  And then your “other” voice says:  They are not really in the way, I’ll throw them out later.

I had a friend bring me a bag of 6 phones and chargers last week. They were in a box in his garage for 2 years. 6 phones? There are 2 people in his family! We cannot keep up with the cell phone revolution and our landfills should not have to either. To make matters worse, every phone not recovered and recycled is equal to minerals and resources coming directly out of the African Congo. Everyone says – “What can we do?”. Here is what you can do and it really makes a difference.

Bring your cell phone to the zoo for recycling and help save wildlfe, and people, in Africa. Civil wars and rebel groups thrive on the illegal trade in the resources which make our phones,  laptops, digital cameras, and video games run. There is a mineral in our phones called coltan and it acts as a capacitor in your phone. Armed groups in eastern Congo that control minerals, mines and trading routes generate an estimated $180 million each year by trading four main minerals: tin, tantalum (colton), tungsten, and gold.

And with these groups comes habitat destruction, illegal poaching and bushmeat, as well as the loss of human life due to the civil unrest. Something as simple as a cell phone has created a power struggle over resources. By recycling that resource so that it can be refurbished and re-used, we cut down on the amount of product imported, and hopefully slow down the trade.

Want to start a company wide collection program? Schools, Scout troops? Wildlife can use everyone’s help. Contact conservation@houstonzoo.org for more information.

Greetings. Valerie here.
Art of Conservation’s students are now more comfortable looking at maps and locating the country of Rwanda as well as the precise locations of the endangered mountain gorilla habitat!

With a colored pencil, Olive locates Rwanda and colors it in. Following Rwanda, Olive locates the East African Community country members which includes Rwanda: Burundi, Tanzania, Kenya, and Uganda.

I begin our geography lesson with Planet Earth. Children discover the compasses on maps and globes representing north, south, east, and west. They locate and say over and over the names of the seven continents. I ask the kids what surrounds the continents… AMAZI they respond, which is water in Kinyarwanda. Earth is a water planet with its surface consisting of approximately 70% water. Together we locate the equator on the various maps now on the classroom walls and worksheets. Students learn that Rwanda is located 2 degrees south of the equator in the southern hemisphere.

A FEW WORLD FACTS
Although the source of the Nile River is and maybe always will be argued upon, we know it takes its source in or near Rwanda. Flowing from Central Africa it empties into the Mediterranean Sea. Children color in the Mediterranean Sea on their worksheets with their colored pencils.

What’s the highest mountain in Africa? Mt. Kilimanjaro in Tanzania. What’s the biggest desert in the world? The Sahara. More coloring in on their worksheets.

I pass out visuals of the Nile River, Mt. Kilimanjaro, and the Sahara Desert.

My big challenge is to teach the kids about the difference between the Democratic Republic of Congo and its capital Kinshasa with the ‘other’ Congo and its capital Brazzaville. That’s going to take some time to master!

This student is busy locating Mali, one of the many countries where the Sahara Desert is located.

I started BIG with a look at the world, then to the continent of Africa, and to end our lesson we study a map showing the endangered mountain gorilla habitat- Bwindi Impenetrable National Park and the Virunga Massif. I want the children to realize that they live in a unique and important place in the world along side a rare animal species. With a better concept of this, they will gain a better understanding of why flocks of tourists travel here to climb the volcanoes day after day and what effects, both positive and negative, it has upon them.

Our students loved this lesson and now they can locate their place where they live on the globe.

Thanks Valerie and Art of Conservation for all their great work at the foothills of the Virunga Mountains, home to half of the world’s Mountain Gorilla population.

The World Conservation Union recently posted an article debating the issue. As the battle between poachers and park rangers escalates, what’s needed to protect the people who put their lives on the line for nature?

The article opens: Two AK-47 rifles and 30 rounds of ammunition; one ranger shot in the shoulder; three suspected poachers and five elephants killed: just another day for the Kenya Wildlife Service, in a nation where more rangers have been killed since the beginning of 2011 than in the same period of any other year. Further west, in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), at least 12 rangers are murdered each year protecting gorillas, reflecting a worrying increasing global trend in ranger deaths.

True conservation heroes continue to fight, and die, for the survival of their native wildlife. This is an open debate with comments welcome. Read the article and comment if you like : http://www.iucn.org/knowledge/publications_doc/world_conservation_debate/?7206

Turn in your cell phone at the Houston Zoo table by customer service in the Toyota Center on March 11th and receive 4 free tickets to the Houston Aeros/San Antonio Rampage game on March 19th and 1 free children’s admission to the Houston Zoo.

Booming chickens on prairies and adventures to find bear hair in the Big Thicket. Leech infested forests? Monsoons? Leg swallowing mud and Sea Gull poo? Wild Orangutans that use bridges and toads with implants.  Confused? Don’t be. Join us and interact with local and global conservation on our new Houston Zoo Conservation Facebook page. Keep up with the conservation department and our partners in the field, and don’t forget to comment along the way!

Link here and follow along: http://www.facebook.com/#!/houstonzooconservation

Here is a 3 minute video you should watch – come on, it’s only 3 minutes:Rwanda Schoolchildren speak about Art of Conservation

Rushubi Primary School, Rwanda

The new school year has just begun this month for both the Art of Conservation and schoolchildren in Rwanda. The Art of Conservation is not part of the regional curriculum but teaches one additional class every afternoon to two selected group of 50 students studying at Rushubi Primary School (5th grade) and one group of 50 students at Nyabistinde Primary School.

Innocent from AoC teaching students at Rushubi Primary School

Rushubi Primary School, Rwanda

photo courtesy S. Kaufman

The population of critically endangered mountain gorillas living in Africa’s Virunga Massif has grown by 26.3%  to approximately 480 individuals in the past seven years according to the newly released results of the 2010 mountain gorilla census. The last mountain gorilla census of the Virunga region in 2003 estimated a total of 380 animals. The Virunga Massif encompasses national parks in Rwanda, Uganda, and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). Some 302 additional mountain gorillas live in Uganda’s Bwindi Impenetrable National Park, which was not included in this year’s census.

“These amazing results show how the team work of three countries and multiple NGOs collaborating on mountain gorilla conservation has been truly effective,” says Dr. Mike Cranfield, Director of the Mountain Gorilla Veterinary Project (MGVP). “Not only is the census news great, it’s also a measure of the success of the Mountain Gorilla Veterinary Project’s ability to save gorilla lives in field as well as the dedicated efforts of other organizations and the national park authorities.”

The Houston Zoo is proud to support the Mountain Gorilla Veterinary Prorgam One Health Program. To read more go to:

http://www.gorilladoctorsblog.org/field-blog/2010/12/7/mountain-gorilla-population-in-virunga-increases-by-incredib.html

That’s right – you can give the Gift of Gorilla this holiday season through the Mountain Gorilla Veterinary Project’s Orphan Guardianship program.

MGVP’s Gorilla Doctors care for four critically endangered orphaned Mountain Gorilla patients; Ndakasi, Ndeze, Maisha, and Kaboko. You can directly support their vital on-going medical care  by becoming their Gorilla Orphan Guardian^™.

Your Guardianship includes a unique downloadable photo certificate of your chosen gorilla to proudly display and enjoy on your computer’s desktop.

Go to http://www.gorilladoctors.org/orphan-guardianship.html for more information

Yesterday we highlighted the Ape Conservation Initiative so today we would like to show you who the zoo association funds will support:

The following projects were funded by the Ape TAG Conservation Initiative with a total of $411,250:

1) Establishment of a National Chimpanzee Disease and Health Monitoring Programme based at Budongo Conservation Field Station, Uganda

2) The Bonobo and Congo Biodiversity Initiative: Preserving the bonobo (Pan paniscus) in the Salonga National Park through holistic conservation, Democratic Republic of Congo

3) Combating Illegal Wildlife Trade in Central Africa, The Last Great Ape Organization (LAGA); Cameroon

4) Protection and monitoring of Grauer’s gorillas, Gorilla beringei graueri, in the lowland sectors of Kahuzi Beiga National Park, Democratic Republic of Congo

5) Assessing chances of survival of the orang-utan in man-made landscape: the future of the species? Kinabatangan Orangutan Conservation Project, Sabah, Borneo, Malaysia

6) Ketambe Reforestation and Ecotourism Development Initiative (KREDI), Orangutan Information Centre (OIC); Sumatra, Indonesia

7) Long-term ecological research and conservation of Cao Vit gibbon in China

Population mapping of gibbons Kalimantan, Indonesia: Correlates of gibbon density and vegetation across the species range, Orangutan Tropical Peatland Project and Wildlife Conservation Research Unit; Central Kalimantan, Indonesian Borneo

In addition to the eight projects, a percentage of the funds are dedicated for ape sanctuaries in Africa and Asia.  Sanctuaries play an important role in ape conservation, particularly through their efforts in law enforcement and conservation education.