Interesting ichthyological juxtaposition today in the old feed reader. While kids scour the few, small remaining pools of water for catfish in a parched Botswana, over in a specially stocked lake in Thailand, sports anglers catch a giant dog-eating catfish. 1 I really like the idea of Lake Monster, where anglers can come and pit their wits, and strength, against those of some of the biggest — and rarest — of freshwater fish. Nice way to take pressure off the natural populations, while assembling an artificial fish diversity hotspot for study purposes. I guess a botanical equivalent would be the gardens of medicinal herbs established by and for traditional healers.
Nibbles: Mongolia, Fruit & veg, Lima bean, Biofuels, Peyote, Permaculture, Extension
- Isgelen tarag. You heard me.
- Eat up all your vegetables, Timmy.
- Breeding a better Lima bean.
- Kenya will regret its failure to protect the environment. Wangari Maathai against (specific) biofuels.
- Lophophora williamsii showing classic signs of overexploitation.
- “I have been trying to be very friendly to soil worms…They are our friends.”
- Using radio soap operas in extension.
Nibbles: Statement, Words, Training, Policy, Auberato, Coconut, GIS, Pacific nutrition, Honey
- Convention on Biological Diversity’s head “Highlights Risks of Agricultural Biodiversity Loss.”
- Cowpooling. Guess what it means.
- Training opportunity: A global view of livestock biodiversity and conservation.
- FAO policy brief on sustainable development and agrobiodiversity. Thanks, Eve.
- The wonders of solanaceous grafting. Thanks, Jules.
- Build a better nutcracker. And then analyze all that data.
- Mapping cyclone damage to crops in Myanmar.
- Quantifying Micronesian diets. Thanks, Lois.
- Things picking up for US bees? Meanwhile, in China, they’re trying breeding.
Nibbles: Overexploitation, development, coat colour, water
- TRAFFIC says many traditional medicines are being over-exploited in Cambodia and Viet Nam. Via .
- New model of development more important than new green revolution, says IICA head.
- Baa baa black sheep, have you any genes?
- Food crisis, energy crisis; what about the water crisis? IWMI resurrects 2007 report. More here.
More African silk
A long profile in the Boston Globe of a woman called Catherine Craig. She did field work at Gombe National Park in Tanzania in the 1970s, then became an expert on spider silk, before returning to Gombe a few years ago. The destruction she saw appalled her. So she did something:
In 2003, Craig founded Conservation through Poverty Alleviation International, which took its seemingly simple idea – plant trees, raise larvae, earn income – to Madagascar, a biologically rich Indian Ocean island nation where deforestation is also a problem and which had a tradition of silk production and weaving on which to build.
Which may be good news for Madagascar, but what’s happening in Gombe?
LATER: Almost 20 years later, here’s an update from the always dependable Mongabay.