When pieces of the puzzle go missing
A piece of Biodiversity Day went missing recently as one of our fellow National Geographic Explorers, Tom Lovejoy, passed away. He designed the idea of the Earth’s biological diversity as one of the most important and largely overlooked aspects of our collective survival.
And when pieces go missing, the puzzle is ever more confusing and incomplete. When one of the planet’s large big tusker elephants is taken from us by poachers or hunters, no matter what you think about that heroic act, it reduces the chances of a robust biodiverse planet one step at a time.
Pick a subject… air pollution, carbon, climate change, and, if given enough interrogation, you will settle on biodiversity as the solution, if we can keep it robust. A study of two central African rainforests – one without elephants to knock down trees and one with elephants – shows that the forest with elephants absorbs about 14% more carbon than the one that is stagnant from change and devoid of elephants.
This is why Great Plains is ramping up to an announcement about a collective effort to enhance the biodiversity and wildlife loads in certain areas significantly. Watch this space!
Wildlife is the fuel in the engine that is the landscape that propels us all to our desired destination, a future that is prosperous and harmonious. The journey makes us stronger and more resilient to obstacles. So when someone steals the very fuel that drives this all forward, it is a theft from us all, now and in the future.
Each piece in the puzzle that gets lost hurts us all, but this stimulates us to change, lean into the wind more, make sure there is never a Cecil the Lion again, and preserve biodiversity intact and fuelling our future.
Our plans, and call for collaborative action, will be announced in two weeks. Tourism never let Africa down; the pandemic caught us all.
Tourism can play a role in rebuilding it, one piece at a time.