Who Will Buy ?

Des Glaneuses   JF Millet 1857

Payment for Ecosystem Services

Nature provides us with more than just food, water, & some great views. Every organism on earth serves a purpose & plays a unique role within its ecosystem. These various roles are known as ecosystem services (ESS) and defined  as those goods and services derived from the functions of ecosystems and utilized by humanity.

Aside from furnishing us with things obvious things such as food & water (provisional services), ecosystem services provide us with:

•  Regulating services – filtration of pollutants by wetlands, climate mitigation through carbon  storage and water cycling, pollination. Protection  from flooding

•  Supporting services – soil formation, photosynthesis and nutrient cycling

·     Cultural services – indigenous wisdom/ knowledge, spiritual and aesthetic value & recreation                                                                                                 (Millenium Ecosystem Assessment, 2005)

                                                                                       

A highly effective  scheme to preserve ecosystem services is payment for ecosystem services (PES). Land owners (especially in forested areas) are paid to keep their land intact and cultivate it, rather than degrade it.  They are compensated via a plan certified by an appropriate organisation. The org acquires funding from companies who desire to offset their carbon footprint. So, it’s a win-win for all involved. Local people gain livelihoods & enjoy improved health & wellbeing. Damage from greenhouse gases is mitigated, & ecosystems remain intact.

The Name Game

The Mock Turtle’s Story

"Very true", said the Duchess:                         

"Flamingos and mustard both bite.”

And the moral of that is – 
“Birds of a feather flock together."                       
"Only, mustard isn’t a bird", Alice remarked. 

"Right as usual,” said the Duchess: 
"what a clear way you have of putting things!"                    "It’s a mineral, I think," said Alice. 
"Of course it is" said the Duchess,      
 who seemed ready to agree to everything

                                                       

  Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, 1865                                                 Lewis Carroll 

Since we share our planet with anywhere from 1.5 million-30 million species of organisms, there is a need to 1) identify them; 2) name them; 3) organize these species into categories which reflect their characteristics & evolutionary relationships.  Such is the science of taxonomy. 

Binomial nomenclature (remember high school biology?) refers to the  scientific name (not Latin name- this is a misnomer-as many names have Greek origins) of an organism. Black mustard, for example, Brassica nigra, belongs to the genus, Brassica and the species, nigra.  This precise way of naming things (thanks to Carl Linnaeus ) not only provides us with evolutionary information about the organism, it also allows us to unambiguously refer to and communicate internationally about a particular species.

Do You Believe in Magic?

Brown pelican (Pelecanus occidentalis)

A wonderful bird is the pelican.
His beak can hold more than his belly can. 

He can hold in his beak
enough food for a week.
But I'll be darned if I know 

how the hellican!

              - Dixon Lanier Merritt

Fossil records indicate that pelicans have changed little over the last 30 million years. They are found on all continents except Antarctica and are often persecuted by fishermen who perceive them as competition, although scientific evidence proves otherwise.

Quite iconic, the pelican has long been a symbol in mythology, magic, & religion; the Egyptians considered it a goddess as did early Peruvian cultures. Pelicans frequently peck at their breasts whilst preening, and in Medieval Europe it was thought that these avian mothers were so caring of their young that they wounded their breasts to nurse them with their own blood.  This myth of self-sacrifice launched the pelican into Christian symbolism. Elizabeth I of England wore the symbol on her chest, and the pelican feeding her young appeared in the first edition of the King James Bible in 1611.

Can't Find my Way Home...

Sycamore (Acer Pseudoplatanus)

When we are stricken and cannot bear our lives any longer, then a tree 

has something to say to us: Be still ! Be still ! Look at me! 

              Life is not easy, life is not difficult. Those are childish thoughts. . . .

 Home is neither here nor there. Home is within you, or home is nowhere at all. 

 

                                    Herman Hesse, Trees: Reflections and Poems

                                                                                           Published 1984

You Stepped Out of a Dream

The Sleeping Gypsy, 1897 (oil on canvas)

Museum of Modern Art, New York

'There are some who can live without wild things and some who can't.'
                                                  Aldo Leopold, American nature conservationist

Henri Julien Rousseau, a Post-Impressionist painter, was largely self-taught and did not paint full time until he was 49 years of age.  The jungle is featured in many of his works, however he never actually set foot in one, taking his inspiration from the Jardin des Plantes in Paris and illustrations he found in books. Often described as poetic, The Sleeping Gypsy is one of his most recognizable works and conveys a remarkable sense of serenity.

And Your Bird Can Sing

 Or listening to the  laughter of the loon;

 Or, in the evening twilight's latest red;

Beholding the procession of the pines..

   R.W. Emerson (The Adirondacs) 1858  

Gavia immer, or common loon, is a water bird. Like albatrosses, petrels and shearwaters, they are tube-nosed swimmers, having a salt gland in their heads and two elongated nostrils which they use to get rid of salt. Known as 'divers' in the UK, their song is haunting and evocative. 

Paint It Black

Jaguar    Panthera  onca

The Panther

His weary glance, from passing by the bars,
Has grown into a dazed and vacant stare;
It seems to him there are a thousand bars
And out beyond those bars the empty air.


The pad of his strong feet, that ceaseless sound
Of supple tread behind the iron bands,
Is like a dance of strength circling around,
While in the circle, stunned, a great will stands.

But there are times the pupils of his eyes
Dilate, the strong limbs stand alert, apart,
Tense with the flood of visions that arise
Only to sink and die within his heart.

 Rainer Maria Rilke, 1902

Sadly, there is no such animal as a black panther. Rather, the name  arose from the genus, Panthera, to which many big cats belong. 'Black Panther' is often used to describe jaguars and leopards, particularly those which are melanistic, or, having excessive black pigment in their skin. Typical markings are still visible, but the black colour dominates. Recent research hints that this genetic expression occurs to give a selective advantage to those predators that live in dense forest where there little light.

You Are My Sunshine...

Sunflower (Helianthus annuus) 

She turns, always, 
towards the sun, 
         
though her roots 
hold her fast, 

and, altered,

loves  unaltered.

                          Ovid, Metamorphoses  

                   

    
In Greek mythology, Clytie, a young mortal maiden, fell in love with the sun god, Helios, and followed him every day on his journey across the sky. Pitying her display of unrequited love, the merciful god turned her into a sunflower. 
The rest is botanical history!

Good Reads: Mythology  Edith Hamilton       The Age of Fable  Thomas Bullfinch