What we can do

Hello again!

In March I went back to my high school to give a few lectures about primates, conservation, and the work I do with lemurs. The students were seemingly very receptive of what I had to say, they listened to my facts and stories with very few disruptions, and actually asked me a lot of really valid questions which gives me hope for the future. Anyways, across the 4 classes I spoke in, a question recurred: What can we do to help the lemurs? (or help the primates in general).


As you probably know, the situation for non-human primates is getting a little grim to say the least. Deforestation has desecrated much of their natural habitat, then there's the issue of bushmeat hunting, illegal pet trade (and legal pet trade), loss of genetic diversity, and animal testing (but let's save my problems with animal testing for another blog entry... I have a lot to say on that topic, most of which will be highly offensive to most). So what can we do? Well, there are a few options: become a primatologist (which equates to at least 7-9 years of school), donate to reliable species conservation (such as the Jane Goodall Institute), become socially aware of how we are responsible for species loss and endangerment, consider eco-tourism for your next vacation and check out a primate reserve (or any other species!), or perhaps take a more grass-roots approach...


Personally, outside of the research I'm part of, I'm really into lemur conservation. That is not to say that I don't care about the rest, I really really do, but lemurs have a special place in my heart. My contribution to the conservation of other primates was the elimination of palm oil from my diet. This is a pretty extreme move given that palm oil is in a whole whack of things, but I am an extremist and I can't eat anything with palm oil in it knowing where it comes from and what died so I could eat a cheap chocolate bar. If you don't know about palm oil, look it up! Palm plantations (most of them anyway) are planted in what used to be the rainforest. What lives in the rainforest? Umm... most things, but specifically Orangutans, and do you know who suffers from palm oil plantations? Orangutans!


What can you do that isn't as extreme as that? Try buying EnviroKidz "Leapin' Lemurs" cereal. It's organic, gluten free, and as far as childrens cereals go, it's actually pretty good for you. EnviroKidz donates a certain percentage of every sale to a conservation foundation (what you buy is what you support, they also have koalas, gorillas, etc.).




^^ Love.

Also, you can search the internet for the species survival plan of your favourite animal and try purchasing from them. I bought some buttons from the "Catta Closet" at Christmas and gave them to people in cards, cute and helpful to the species!









You can also promote awareness through exposure. For example, Webkinz has a ringtailed lemur plush. Where as they do not seem to donate anything to conservation, people who see the plush toy and ask what it is get an earful from me about lemurs, go-go-gadget awareness!

Finally, you could try a grass roots movement. I am planning on launching a line of lemur jewelry when my exams are done. Half of the proceeds will be donated to a lemur conservation movement, they will look something like this:




^^ the lemur body is 1/2 an inch, the tail is flexible too!

I might also do up some Sifaka (because I love love love sifaka!)


^^ Bendy sifaka with baby keychain charm (and a random piece of spine, I love bones too)


So there are a few options for helping with primate conservation! And here are a few neat links, the first is the species survival plan for ringtails, the second is the website of Erik Patel who is doing some amazing work with Silky Sifaka (which are in the top 25 most endangered primates), and there's a link to an article about palm oil and orangutans.
http://ringtailedlemurssp.org/
http://erikpatel.com/
http://www.janegoodall.ca/Palmoilfrenzythreatenstowipeoutorangutans.php

And that's all for now! I hope this wasn't too long and boring, and I hope you're inspired! The world is amazing and the species on it are what make it so. I don't want to show my kids a picture of a lemur, I want them to be able to see lemurs in the wild, don't you? My worst nightmare is to one day hear the words "Mommy, what's a tree?"
Peace