The Palm Oil Dilemma for Consumers

Before consumers buy products they are going to eat or drink, they are beginning to turn them around to check for the added sugars, genetically engineered ingredients, and high fructose corm syrup they want to avoid. The palm oil they find listed in snack foods, as well as in ice cream and other products, also is an ingredient in detergents and beauty products. Africans cook with palm oil, and a woman from Nigeria told me it could control high blood pressure. This widespread use results in a constant pressure to expand palm oil plantations and the following unintended consequences.

• Deforestation of rain forests means fewer carbon emissions can be absorbed to limit climate change.
• Deforestation destroys the tropical forest habitats of endangered species, such as orangutans, rhinos, tigers, and elephants in Sumatra, Indonesia. Plus, roads built into forests enable illegal logging and exporters to reach the rare birds that become part of the underground trade in exotic creatures. 
• Deforestation in parts of Indonesia helped cause floods, according to the World Bank.
• Fires used to clear Indonesian oil palm plantations in 2015 caused the smoke that resulted in respiratory problems in Indonesia, Malaysia, and Singapore.
• Although corporations make commitments not to use palm oil from suppliers accused of illegal deforestation and from uncertified mills, they often only honor these commitments when an NGO or other groups uncovers a violation or local law enforcement acts.
• Labor is exploited; living and working conditions on plantations are bad. Migrant laborers from Bangladesh, for example, who work on the palm oil plantations in Malaysia often owe third party company recruiters debts they cannot pay. They find they are like prisoners working seven days a week after being forced to surrender their passports.
• Needed food production decreases when farmers switch to growing oil palm. Their debts rise as they purchase seed and fertilizer from the palm oil companies they supply.
• Expansion of palm oil plantations which encroach on village farm land and grazing pastures leads to conflict. 

Ravenous demand for palm oil from Indonesia and Malaysia, the countries that produce 80% of the world's supply, has not gone unnoticed in Brazil, where research shows almost half of the country's land area is suitable for growing oil palm. At the moment, most of Brazil's palm oil comes from the Amazon state of Para, where plantations employ about 20,000. As in Indonesia and Malaysia, an increase in palm oil production raises fears of illegal deforestation and endangering the biodiverse ecosystem. Rising land prices already have led to land ownership conflicts and even murder.

Relying on Indonesia's environmental laws, eco-warriors now identify illegal palm oil plantations on protected National Park land listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Spotters tell owners of illegal plantations to return the land to authorities or face prosecution. They then cut down each oil palm. In about five years, replanted seedlings begin to help forests recover unless sun burns out young plants or elephants trample them. Altogether, it can take 20 to 200 years for forests to reach their original growth.

Other palm oil players also are determined to combat the effect of deforestation on climate change and to protect endangered animals, birds, and plants. Besides groups, such as the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) that uses an oil palm symbol to identify "Certified Sustainable Palm Oil," the Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA), Greenpeace, the Rainforest Action Network, and Friends of the Earth, banks that finance palm oil plantation owners and investors in palm oil companies have begun to show greater concern about backing firms engaged in deforestation. When the Noble Group, owner of palm oil's Noble Plantations, prepared to issue a bond to finance clearing pristine rain forest in Papua, Indonesia, the HSBC bank involved in the bond issue asked RSPO to investigate charges that development on Noble's concession was about to violate RSPO standards. As a result, Noble's spokesperson announced work on Papua's plantations was on hold while sustainable analysis was pending. Other banks also have begun to require independent verification that palm oil borrowers comply with no deforestation, no peat, and no exploitation policies.

In the United States, the Ceres sustainability organization issued an "Engage the Chain" report to alert investors to the environmental and social threats posed by companies that rely on palm oil and other commodity suppliers.

Negatives associated with palm oil create a search for alternatives. But when the Ecover cleaning company produced a new laundry liquid using oil from genetically modified algae, customers refused to buy it. In the UAE, experiments show a species of alga that grows in fresh and salt water naturally produces the fatty palmitic acid found in palm oil. The University of Bath is experimenting with a yeast that has properties similar to palm oil that can grow in municipal, supermarket, or agricultural waste rather than on land. To date, however, substitutes, including rapeseed and coconut oil, cannot compete with less expensive palm oil that sells from $500 to $1,200 a ton, unless customers begin to recognize the non-price benefits of avoiding palm oil.

When consumers turn around a product and spot palm oil as an ingredient, what might they do?

(Also see the earlier post, "Long Supply Lines Foster Abuses").

Long Supply Lines Foster Abuses

Regarding abuses related to the $88 billion palm oil industry, Rachel Barre, who is L'Oreal's sustainable sourcing manager, acknowledged her company is far removed from the plantation level. And one palm oil industry observer noted it is impossible to delink one company's supplies from the continued deforestation of the industry as a whole.

     Since, along with plantations, small farmers produce 40% of the world's palm oil, abuses at the source of this raw material are widespread. Polluting smoke from the fires used to clear palm oil plantations in Indonesia and Malaysia spreads far beyond local areas and deforestation robs the world of endangered wildlife.

     In lengthy supply lines, problems associated with land acquisition, working conditions, pay, pollution, and deforestation are found where plantations, logging, mines, and textile factories source the food and goods sold to consumers thousands of miles away. Indonesia represents a good example. President Joko Widodo presides over a country of 13,000 islands. He is winning public support for a construction boom in needed roads, railways, bridges, airports, and power plants that the previous government of Suharto failed to address. Yet, projects are hindered by laws and regulatory agencies associated with each project, skilled labor shortages, land acquisition in heavily populated areas, lack of private investment necessitating growing public debt, and lax worker safety requirements.

     Pressured by distant retailers to cut costs and speed up delivery, the clothing manufacturers in China, India, and Indonesia that work with viscose/rayon fibers become major polluters. On one hand, the silk alternative is heralded as a sustainable option, because it is made from the fast-growing, soft wood of beech, pine, and eucalyptus trees. But the process of turning wood pulp into viscose requires sodium hydroxide, sulfuric acid, and carbon disulphide, a chemical linked to heart disease, birth defects, mental health problems, and cancer. Air and wastewater exposed to these chemicals harm factory workers, local residents, and fish.

     What can be done?

1. Organizations, such as the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil, Palm Oil Innovation Group, Forest Stewardship Council, Proforest, Fair Trade Federation, and Sustainable Apparel Coalition, assemble experts to monitor industry conditions, devise best practices, and develop certification programs. Some organizations create logos consumers can use to identify responsible producers.

2. When governments are approached to grant large scale land concessions, they are in a position to require plantation owners to obtain (without manipulation by offering jobs before the concession is granted) consent from local communities, to assure protection of traditional rights to land that is owned, occupied, or used to produce food needed by the local population, and to agree to penalties for violating stipulated working conditions and environmental protections.
     Olam International's palm oil operation in Gabon offers some insight. The company holds a government lease on land for 15 years. Although those who wanted to farm outside the concession could continue to do so, 95% of the local population took jobs with Olam. The company invests $1.6 million a month in community healthcare and development. Yet it took pressure from environmental groups to cause Olam to announce even a one year moratorium on deforestation.

3. Before they suffer bad publicity, companies at the end of supply chains need to realize consumers are becoming better informed about the dangers associated with certain products and industry practices. The need to end pressure on suppliers who cut corners to meet demands and to designate someone to root out untrustworthy intermediaries suppliers may hire to avoid responsibilities is likely to grow. Touting a palm-oil free product became a contested, competitive selling claim in a Belgian court. The supermarket chain, Delhaize, advertised its Choco spread was better for the planet and health than Ferrero's Nutella, a spread that contains palm oil, Although Ferrero successfully argued against Delhaize's claim, the case showed how some marketers have begun to recognize consumers are growing wiser about everything involved with the food they eat and the products they use.

4. With technical, financial, and other support from governments, private sources, and non-profit organizations, more small scale entrepreneurs need opportunities to enter supply chains.

5. To ensure their survival, critically endangered and endangered wildlife, such as gorillas, chimpanzees, bonobos/pygmy chimpanzees, saolas, and orangutan, often need the protection of "no-go zones" and wildlife corridors in concession territories. Palm oil plantations in Cameroon and the Republic of the Congo, for example, already have destroyed chimpanzee and gorilla habitats. Company and government wardens and scientists need to prevent poaching and to monitor animal health in land concessions.

Of course, abuses can be avoided by shortening or controlling supply lines. The missionary nuns who  grow and sell tomatoes to their local communities in Africa short circuit the supply chain (See the  earlier post, "Celebrate Uplifting Efforts to Promote Self Reliance in Africa."). The nonprofit organization, serrv (serrv.org), finds artisans and farmers in areas of great poverty in countries such as Ghana and South Africa, helps them with marketing suggestions to make their goods more attractive in developed countries, and sells these products through catalogs and the retail stores they own.  

When Survival is Reality, Not a Sideshow for Man and Beast

Buddhists call the saola (sow-LAH) the "polite animal." Biologists call it "critically endangered."

Saolas are the cattle-like, grazing mammals with long tapered horns that inspired William DeBuys to write about them in The Last Unicorn. The elusive saolas live in a remote, forested area on the Laos-Vietnam border, where a Hmong team captured one for the private collection of a tribal leader in 1996. Bill Robichaud braved malaria, dengue fever, typhus, and leeches to study the captured saola that lived only 18 days.

Robichaud's experience shows how the protection of wildlife can become an international career for curious young people who grow up hiking, camping, fishing, wondering about different cultures, and testing their survival skills in freezing weather and steamy heat. The following examples of where Robichaud has worked during his career provide a glimpse of job opportunities in the international wildlife field:

• International Crane Foundation
•  Nakai-Nam Theun National Protected Area of Laos
• Bronx Zoo Wildlife Conservation Society
• Global Wildlife Conservation
• Saola Working Group
• International Union for the Conservation of Nature

A day's work for those in international wildlife conservation often entails convincing villagers to protect forest resources by removing the traps used for illegal wildlife poaching. Since Laos knew the United Nations considered the country among the world's least developed, it was a source of pride to discover the forests of their Annamese mountain range housed rare saolas. Laotians also learned their forests and rivers produced commercial bamboo shoots, mushrooms, and fish not only exotic "bush meat" urban consumers consider a status symbol and monkey, rhino, box turtle, and other animal parts Vietnamese wildlife traders collect for traditional Chinese medicine.

Like areas being set aside for the preservation of elephants and tigers, the Saola Working Group hopes to capture all living saolas and breed them in a center in Vietnam. Under the leadership of Poland's Wroclaw Zoo, a consortium of zookeepers is studying methods to keep captured soalas alive in captivity. In 15 to 20 years, these saolas would be released into protected forests in Laos and Vietnam. No saolas ever will be headed to zoos.

Protecting What Is Prized Isn't Easy

If a famous artist's painting is one-of-a-kind and drug trafficking cartels prosper, what will people do? Some will be in the market buying and selling. Others will steal, kill, risk their lives, and try to hide their actions.

     Since those who do things like smuggle slaves in cargo containers and poach rhinoceros horns at night, like it or not young people need to learn to be suspicious and vigilant, to look for abuses, and to ask authorities to undertake the often dangerous security measures needed to regulate or stop these activities. The challenges presented by lumber/wood harvesting, diamond and gold mining in Africa, and the trade in elephant ivory and exotic birds were discussed in earlier posts. Here, let's look at what is involved in regulating the mining of and trade in jade and in protecting an endangered species: the gray wolf.

     In Myanmar (formerly knows as Burma), earning a living by finding and selling jade gems shares the same drawbacks as searching for diamonds and gold in Africa. Big Chinese companies connected with the Burmese military hold mining concessions in the jade fields of northern Myanmar's Kachin state, where the Christian Kachin Independence Army and the Buddhist Burmese military are engaged in a civil war. Despite the threat of deadly landslides, TIME magazine reports up to 300,000 unemployed migrants forage on unstable rubble piles looking to find a fortune among the less valuable stones companies dump.

     The U.S. in 2016 sought to reward Myanmar for solving one problem, replacing military rule with the National League of Democracy party, by ending sanctions banning jade and ruby imports. But Myanmar's democratic reforms, moratorium on new mining licenses and freeze on renewal of existing mining licenses, safety standards, and anticorruption regulations have not closed mines operating without government certification; captured the tax money lost from jade smuggled to neighboring China; ended deaths from jade mining accidents; stopped the military from banning foreigners, except Chinese buyers, from reaching jade fields; financing the civil war with jade sales and taxes collected by Kachins from freelance miners on their lands; or stopping the heroin trafficking that thrives on sales to local migrants and a worldwide trade. Discuss: what can the U.S. or any country, including Myanmar, do to solve these problems?

     Now, let's look at the challenges of placing grey wolves on the U.S. Endangered Species Act or delisting them and authorizing a grey wolf hunting season. Stories like Little Red Riding Hood and Peter and the Wolf have given wolves a bad reputation. But if you've ever tried to see wolves at a zoo, you know they don't come up to look at visitors. You have to really search hard to see them in the shadows of wooded areas.

     How many wolves are too many? No humans have been harmed by the State of Wisconsin's estimated 900 wolves. Farmers in the state, who have sheep, goats, and cattle and live near waterways where wolves follow their wildlife prey, report no problems. They say wolves are smart and, if you have barking guard dogs that warn wolves are present, the wolves move on. Of Wisconsin's 70,000 farms, 47 reported a loss from wolves, and of the state's 3.5 million cattle, wolves were believed to have killed 75 animals. Wisconsin manages this situation by compensating farmers for livestock lost to wolves and by allowing landowners to get permits to kill wolves endangering their livestock.

     Surveys show 65%  of the people who live in what is considered wolf range and 80% outside wolf range consider wolves members of the ecological community that have a right to exist. If wolves are delisted from the U.S. Endangered Species Act and a hunt is authorized, the State does not disclose maps showing where wolf packs are located.Your thoughts?


   

You've Got To Move It, Move It. Trees, that is.

If you've seen the movie, Madagascar, you remember King Julien, the saucy lemur whose dances encouraged other animals to "Move, it, move it."

     Although Arbor Day began in the United States in 1972 as a way to celebrate trees for their ability to provide clean air, shade, lower energy costs, and control of storm water run-off, when rain forests began to be burned or bulldozed and animals, such as the lemur, were endangered because their habitats were disappearing, tree planting conservation needed to move it, move it, move it to other parts of the world.

     Islands like Madagascar, just like the Galapagos made famous by Darwin, have unique biodiversity environments. When Jean Norbert Rakotonirina, known as Dadalioka, guided Dr. Edward Louis, Jr. to his tropical village, the black and white ruffed lemur population was almost gone. By 2009, only eight lemurs lived in the Sangasanga Mountain of Madagascar.

     Thanks to the Madagascar Biodiversity Partnership, which includes the Arbor Day Foundation, 1,700, once unemployed young and old Madagascar residents have worked in nurseries and planted one million trees, especially fruit trees that are a lemur's main diet. Even the lemur population, that increased to 50 in the Sangasanga Mountain by 2015, helps the reforestation effort. When lemurs eat fruit, the seeds their tummies don't digest plant more fruit trees.

     By working on the tree planting project, single mothers in Madagascar have been able to send their children to school, support their aging relatives, start small poultry farms, repair their homes, and trade points for non-polluting stoves and sewing machines. People have learned the value of trees and of the conservation of forests, up to 80% of which were destroyed in Madagascar by 2012.

     What I especially like about the Arbor Day Foundation (arborday.org) is its modest financial request. A tax-deductible contribution of $10 plants 10 trees in an endangered rain forest that produces as much as 40% of the world's oxygen and ingredients for almost a quarter of our medicines. Also, a tree is planted in the recipient's name for each holiday card you purchase and send. Cards are shipped to you within five days. For details, go to arborday.org/giveatree. Other gift ideas, such as rain forest-saving coffee, can be found at arborday.org/holiday gifts.

     King Julien, the original party animal, says, "Thank you, and you've got to move it, move it."

     

Don't Take Any Wooden Nickels

The old saying reminding us to be cautious and know what we're buying applies in the global timber trade. Some woods are much more valuable than others. Shipping a load of Brazil's big leaf mahogany into a country labeled as $9000 worth of less expensive timber can make a huge profit even if it is relabeled correctly and sold below real market prices. The American Forest and Paper Association estimates U.S. firms that use legally harvested domestic wood lose up to $460 million a year competing with this kind of undervalued, illegally logged timber. Globally, illegal logging makes up to 30% of the $150 billion a year trade in forest products.

     There are sustainable, legal ways to harvest timber, but logging companies have taken advantage of poor oversight in some countries by just putting roads in tropical forests and harvesting and exporting endangered, heavily regulated species of wood, like West African kosso. On the world market, those involved in the illegal timber trade also smuggle endangered species, illegal drugs, weapons, and slaves. Harvests of protected rosewood and ebony in Madagascar invite captures of rare wildlife, while orangutan in Indonesia are endangered along with the country's valuable tropical forests. Like the diamond and jade trade, illegal timber sales have been known to finance armed conflicts in the form of genocide, coups, and civil wars.

     Efforts to combat the illegal timber trade and its damaging side effects include government regulations and laws and consumer awareness. The Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) provides regulations authorizing country customs officials to confiscate illegally harvested logs being shipped through the world's ports. In the U.S. the 1900 Lacey Act and its 2008 amendment ban trafficking in illegal wildlife and illegally harvested timber and require seizure of such products and fines. Since the Lacey Amendment also makes it illegal to sell a wood product in the U.S. that contains wood that has been illegally harvested in the country of origin, U.S. retailers and other companies that sell wood products need to be sure to buy from legal sources.

     Celso Correia, Mozambique's new minister for land, environment and rural development, is an African who has learned to play the game illegal loggers used to win by relying on weak law enforcement and corruption. As few as three years ago, a report from the nonprofit Environmental Investigation Agency stated 93% of timber in Mozambique was cut and exported illegally, mainly to China, the world's largest log importer. China's illegal timber imports deprived Mozambique of at least $400 million plus taxes. Mozambique now seizes more illegally cut timber exports, but the country is competing with an insatiable Chinese demand for raw timber. In The House of Unexpected Sisters, which is set in Botswana, Africa, the author writes about a store that sells furniture made from Zambezi teak and mukwa wood, "none of this Chinese rubbish."

      Mozambique and other African countries are facing long odds when they try to replace deforestation with sustainable forest conservation methods that protect woods,  such as the desirable Pau Ferro, and when they try to attract responsible Chinese companies willing to process logs into more valuable planks and furniture within Africa.


     Consumers do have a way to be sure they are buying legally sourced wood and paper products. Just as kids can help adults check for an ENERGY STAR on appliances that save money by using energy efficiently, they can look for the FSC (Forest Stewardship Council) logo of a check mark and tree on wood and paper products. When items like toilet paper, bookcases, doors, and picture frames come from forests that meet environmental, social, legal, and economic standards, they carry the FSC logo. Learn more at fsc.org.

(Also see the earlier post, "Uncover the Economic Value of Wood.")
   

   

Talk with the Animals

Animals are a familiar sight to babies who see lambs on their lullaby mobiles and cuddly teddy bears in their cribs. From an early age, children have ducks and bunnies on their clothes, eat animal crackers, imitate farm animal sounds, play with the family pets, go up and down on merry-go-round horses, and ride real ponies. The fast, smart, and surprising activities of animals make fascinating reading in a book such as Steve Jenkins' The Animal Book. And the games, stencils, stickers, and crafts in The National Geographic Kids: Animal Creativity Book provide another fun way for children to learn about animals.

     The natural affinity children have for animals provides a ready segue to an interest in the countries where animals live. Like the extinct dinosaurs that fascinate boys and girls, every species cannot adapt to every country's environment. A trip to the zoo demonstrates how the environments of countries around the world are not the same; some are suitable for some animals and some are not. In its Children's Atlas of World Wildlife, Rand McNally offers a comprehensive explanation of how climate, food, terrain, and isolation influence where different animals live, and, by inference, how countries differ. Reindeer, penguins, and polar bears found in most zoos live on flat tundras and ice flows in very cold climates. By contrast, giant pandas are only in a few zoos, because they seek privacy by hiding in China's dense mountain forests. Unlike the rare solitary pandas, zoo visitors are likely to find a town of prairie dogs and herds of buffalo from North America's grassland plains. The Lion King prepares children to see lions, zebras, giraffes, and elephants at water holes in the zoo's imitation African veld. For the zoo's hippopotamuses, large pools simulate the African rivers and lakes where they like to swim. The zoo's rhinoceroses, whether they come from Africa, India, Borneo, Java, or Sumatra, also like pools that represent the rivers and wetlands of their natural homes.

     The zoo's monkeys, apes, chimpanzees, gorillas, baboons, and orangutans come from tropical rain forests and dense jungles where they live with parrots and other colorful birds. Children familiar with Jungle Book also know the home habitats of the zoo's tigers, panthers, and snakes. Most interesting, as Charles Darwin observed in the Galapagos Islands, is the unique way animals develop when their environments are confined to an island country such as Madagascar or the island continent of Australia. These are the homes of the ring-tailed lemur, koala bear, kangaroo, wombat, and platypus.

     Just as zoo animals provide an awareness of different foreign habitats, pet origins can do the same. The tailless Manx cat, children learn, comes from the Isle of Man in the Irish sea. Thailand, formerly called Siam, produced the Siamese cat, while the long-haired Angora originated in Ankara, Turkey. Persian cats trace their ancestors to Afghanistan and today's Iran. What also could send children to a map are their first encounters with a wide variety of dogs, including a Mexican Chihuahua, English Sheep Dog, Dutch Keeshond, German Dachshund, Russian Wolfhound, Siberian Husky, Chinese Shar-Pei, Tibetan Lhasa Apso, and Japanese Chin.Parents who field requests for ponies could send their sons and daughters to a map to see how far they would have to go to find one in the Shetland Islands. These children may have to settle for a pony ride at the zoo or petting massive Scottish Clydesdales or French Percherons at a state fair.

Culture creatures

Some countries consider animals such an important part of their cultural identity that they include them on their national flags. Indigenous birds, for example, fly on the flags of Bolivia, Dominica, Ecuador, Guatemala, Kiribati, Papua New Guinea, Uganda, and Zimbabwe. The eagle soars on the flags of Albania, Mexico, Egypt, Zambia, and Moldova. A variety of animals appear on other national flags. Andorra's flag includes cows; Bolivia's, an alpaca; Peru's, a llama; and Sri Lanka's, a lion. Vanuatu uses the curved boar's tusk on its flag to symbolize power and riches. Some British dependencies and independent Commonwealth members continue to display England's golden lion on their flags, and, although the French flag is the official one flown by France's overseas departments, Martinique's unofficial flag has snakes, and leopards grace the unofficial flag of St. Pierre and Miquelon.

      In a country's culture, frequently seen animals also can begin to take on meaning. The Chinese and Japanese zodiacs associate those born in certain years with the traits of 12 animals: rat, ox, tiger, rabbit, dragon, snake, horse, sheep/goat, monkey, rooster, dog, and pig. Many museum stores carry the Japanese netsukes that are little statues of the animal zodiac signs. Children born in the Year of the Dog, 2006, for example, might like to own a dog netsuke to remind them that they are thought to be excellent confidants because they are loyal friends who know how to keep secrets. Different cultures also assign different traits and meanings to the same animal. In India devout Hindus, who consider the monkey god, Hanuman, a symbol of wisdom, righteousness, and strength, believe primates should be free to roam cities not live in forests or zoos. Some cultures consider horses work animals, while others focus on their beauty and racing speed. All may see the turtle as a symbol of security and long life, while pigs may be seen as dirty or food.

Animal activists

If children could talk with gorillas, whooping cranes, and manatees, they would learn that all is not well in the animal kingdom. According to the International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources, one out of every four mammals is in danger of disappearing forever. The same is true for one out of every eight birds and one-third of all amphibians. What is promising, however, is a growing awareness of the need for animal protection and recovery programs. Advocacy organizations, such as the World Wildlife Fund (worldwildlife.org), help the public understand the role each species plays in keeping various ecosystems in balance. They urge governments to crack down on wild animal poachers, the sale of ivory elephant tusks, the exotic bird trade, and the hunt for Atlantic bluefin tuna. On May 6, 2015, New York's Supreme Court will even consider whether or not nonhuman animals that are "sufficiently intelligent," such as chimpanzees, great apes, elephants, whales, and dolphins, can be considered property and held legally.

     There are a number of ways children are involved in animal preservation. Magazines, such as National Geographic Kids, Zootles, and Zoobooks, introduce young people to what wild animals do and how their habitats are disappearing. For a donation to the World Wildlife Fund (WWF), a lucky girl or boy can choose a plush version of 100 species of wild animals. Youngsters who ride the carousel at a zoo in Madison, Wisconsin, come face to face with animals threatened with irreversible extinction. Rather than the typical, colorfully decorated merry-go-round horses, they each go up and down sitting atop an endangered, protected, vulnerable, or threatened animal. National Geographic (shop.nationalgeographic.com) offers an Endangered Animal Discovery Game and the Safari Rush Hour Game.  With a bit of help from adults, all students who are informed about the need to protect vanishing species can write letters or send emails to government officials in the United States and elsewhere. (In its "Nations of the World" section, The World Almanac lists the addresses of foreign embassies in the United States.) As activist and Body Shop founder, Anita Roddick, used to say, "If you think you're too small to have an impact, try going to bed with a mosquito."

     Advocacy campaigns have paid off in the adoption of recovery programs for a limited number of species. In South America, a capture, shear, and release program has managed to both provide coveted fleece and save vicunas from the brink of extinction. Other countries have moved to protect animals by imposing fines for killing endangered animals and setting aside sanctuaries and pristine habitats. Governments also have compensated farmers for losses caused by protected predators, as the United States has done in the case of wolves. To save the bald eagle, the U.S. responded to the admonitions of Rachel Carson in her book, Silent Spring, by banning the use of the DDT pesticide that weakened shells before birds could hatch. Consequently, the bald eagle went from 417 breeding pairs in 1963 to an estimated 10,000 today. As a result of these programs, both the wolf and the bald eagle have been removed from the endangered list in some states.

Spotlighting special concerns

Even more than campaigns to save endangered species, circuses and zoos can cause children to face the reality of cruelty to animals removed from their native countries. Since a trip to the big top is an honored family tradition, the treatment of animal performers is a topic best approached by raising questions rather than by issuing inflammatory pronouncements. To that end, the first question is: How are circus animals trained? Are they like poodles, parrots, dolphins, and chimps whose natural abilities to learn tricks respond to positive reinforcement?

     Now, consider what the circus's lions, tigers, and elephants are asked to do. Has their natural animal behavior in Africa and Asia been suppressed by using electrical devices, bullhooks, and whips and by withholding water, food, sleep, and exercise? How are animals transported from city to city every four or five days? Do they have enough space to assume their normal postures and to move around freely or are they confined in cages or chained in ventilated, but not heated or air conditioned, trucks and railroad boxcars? Based on the considerations raised by these questions, Bolivia's government, for one, passed a law prohibiting the use of animals in circuses. On October 23, 2013, the Los Angeles City Council joined two counties in Florida and two in Georgia that banned bullhooks used to train circus elephants by inflicting pain on tender parts of their skin.

     Natural behavior provides a useful frame of reference for the treatment of zoo as well as circus animals. Bears are too curious to live where they see the same surroundings day after day. What do elephants do in the wild? In groups of as many as 20, African and Asian elephants roam up to 30 miles a day, eat, and bathe in water holes and dust. When only one or two elephants are confined in a zoo, they get bored and develop arthritis and joint disease from standing with all their weight in one place, especially in winter when they stand on concrete floors indoors. Other heavy animals, such as hippopotamuses and rhinoceroses, also develop foot problems unless they have large pools to buoy up their bulk. Giraffes and gazelles share the elephants' need to cover long distances.

     The big cats and primates, on the other hand, seem relatively well suited to zoo life. In the wild, after catching their prey, lions, leopards, jaguars, pumas, and tigers enjoy napping much of the day. The activity level of monkeys and chimps is just the opposite, but if they live in groups and have a stimulating play area where they can use their minds and fingers, they, too, are satisfied zoo dwellers.

     Children who want the best for the circus and zoo animals that come from all over the world will be happy to know that legislators, organizations, and zoo executives are working to eliminate abuses. In the United States, the Animal Welfare Act sets minimum standards for confined, warm-blooded animals. Congress needs to be asked to do more, however, since the number of government inspectors is insufficient and cold-blooded animals are excluded from the Act's protection. Animal behaviorist, Dr.Patricia McConnell, also points out that although there are federal requirements for protecting the psychological wellbeing of primates, there are no such standards for dogs used for research. She finds veterinarians and animal care technicians in laboratories focus on air flow, cleanliness, and food storage but neglect their needs for social bonding, intellectual enrichment, and a stable environment. Instead of relying on government funding, the Performing Animal Welfare Society (PAWS) uses contributions from individuals and community support to operate three California sanctuaries for abused, abandoned, and retired performing animals and animals rescued from the exotic animal trade. The PAWS website, pawsweb.org, invites donations and sells books, t-shirts, artwork, and travel packages to benefit elephant and other animal victims.

     Many zoos have decided to stop exhibiting elephants, and some cities have prohibited circuses from including elephant acts when they come to town. There is a proposal to confine elephants to a limited number of national zoos, just as a limited number of theme parks satisfy children. Tourists already are willing to go all the way to Kenya to see lions, giraffes, and other animals in the wild; to Costa Rica to see the famous blue Morpho butterflies, and to New Zealand for a chance to see an emperor penguin. Once young people realize the animals they love are abused or endangered, they will think of even more ways to support and publicize the countries and activities that protect their friends. As one student's science fair project demonstrated, based on natural behavior, some animals are best suited for the circus, others for the zoo, and most for the wild in the countries where they are born.