Noteworthy. (2015). Solutions 6(3): 6-11.
Idea Lab Noteworthy Poachers Beware! Combating Snow Leopard Poaching in Kyrgyzstan by Maisam Alahmed Snow leopards, a strikingly magnificent species of wild cats, are facing the risk of decreasing rapidly into extinction. Although snow leopards are spread across the mountains of 12 Asian countries, a range of over 750,000 square miles, scientists state that there are only 3,500 to 7,000 snow leopards left in the wild. With the increasing prevalence of poachers, their numbers are declining fast. In Kyrgyzstan, poachers could not be stopped easily due to the fact that they are influential figures and that park rangers lacked the funding and resources to have a strong impact in keeping away illegal hunters. Citizen Ranger Wildlife Protection Program (CRWPP), a project led by the government of Kyrgyzstan and the Snow Leopard Trust Fund, is proposing a comprehensive plan to level the playing field between the poachers and the rangers. CRWPP will use the incentives of both a monetary award amounting to US$250 and recognition with the presentation of a certificate to empower park rangers and local citizens to report any poacher to the authorities. The CRWPP hopes to leverage the local community, in that recognition for rangers and citizens will be just as important to them as the financial reward. The Snow Leopard Trust Fund stated in a press release in March 2015 that, “National recognition raises social profile and respect for rangers while publicly celebrating and positively reinforcing community collaboration and best practices.”
Roger Blackwell
Snow leopard populations in Asia are declining steadily, in part due to poachers.
The CRWPP that began as a pilot program in limited areas in 2014 has managed to expand greatly in all of Kyrgyzstan’s 19 nature preserves and state parks in 2015, and includes coaching for rangers, investigation capacity, and law enforcement training. That expansion became possible due to the extended support of the Snow Leopard Trust Fund and a grant given from the UK’s Illegal Wildlife Trade Challenge Fund. Furthermore, the increasing demand of the marketplace drove supply to an all-time high of US$10 billion in 2011, despite long-term
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efforts to ban the sale of endangered animal products. Meanwhile, other sellers attempted to sidestep the 1972 law against selling endangered animal products by making them and falsely labeling them as vintage. In realization of the illegality of selling both newly made and vintage products made out of endangered animals, the Snow Leopard Trust Fund launched an online petition in 2013 to enforce this ban, which was signed by 33,000 people. This petition convinced the popular online website Etsy.com to ban the sale of all items containing material from endangered animals.
Idea Lab Noteworthy International Hackathon Empowers Women by Audrey Pence
In higher education as well as the worldwide workforce, women are underrepresented in the STEM fields, particularly in computer science and technology. According to the National Science Foundation, only 25 percent of the workforce in computer and mathematical sciences is composed of women. Although women earned over 57 percent of bachelor’s degrees in 2011, they only earned 18.2 percent of the bachelor’s degrees in computer sciences. The Global Fund for Women led an International Girls Hackathon in February of this year. The event included over 70 young women coders in five
cities around the world in a 24-hour hackathon and was directed at finding inventive solutions to issues facing women worldwide through coding. A range of inventive solutions were developed. One group in Travandrum, India developed a website to combat the lack of sex education in the country. The website allows for users to chat with counselors, locate health services near them, use discussion toolkits to prepare for talking to family members or others, and read articles about sexual harassment with self-defense tips. Another group in Oakland, California developed wearable sensors and an application to help locate women or girls in dangerous situations. Users have a profile with contact information and settings on
safety ranging from green for safe to red if in danger. Users also have a friends list where they can see the status of friends and send messages of support. Each user also has a list of five emergency contacts that are automatically notified if users indicate that they are in trouble. The winning solution was Não Me Calo, or “I Will Not Shut Up,” from Brazilian women aged 18 to 22. The application, called “Yelp for women’s safety” by the Global Fund for Women, allows women to review and rank venues according to how safe they are for women and girls. It provides a source for women as well as data for business owners and government representatives to monitor different venues.
Corinne Warnshuis
Women are underrepresented in computer science and technology. A hackathon hosted by the Global Fund for Women included over 70 young women coders. www.thesolutionsjournal.org | May-June 2015 | Solutions | 7
Idea Lab Noteworthy Mobilizing Literacy: Cell Phones Help Afghan Women Learn to Read by Audrey Pence
The literacy rate of women in Afghanistan is among the lowest in the world, with UNESCO reporting only 24 percent of women over the age of 15 as literate in 2015. The Afghan Institute for Learning (AIL) has led a creative initiative to combat low literacy rates among women. The initiative brings mobile phones into the picture to be used alongside classroom teaching for women in rural communities. At the start of the four-month program, 80 percent of
the students could only recognize the basic alphabet at best. After the four months, 80 percent were able to read at a fourth grade level or higher. AIL was the first NGO to start learning centers for women in Afghan refugee camps and has continued to work to provide education to women across Afghanistan for over a decade. Their learning centers train teachers, provide health education, and lead other workshops for women. The Mobile Literacy Program was combined with AIL literacy courses in 2006 to bring the course from a nine-month period to only four months by using mobile phones to encourage active engagement
within and outside of the classroom. Messages are sent to students with fill-in-the-blank problems or openended critical thinking questions, and each student is provided with a mobile phone with enough credit to complete assignments. Around 1,000 girls have already completed the program. AIL is faced with the challenge of earning the trust of rural communities in the usage of mobile phones, especially by young women. They work to include members of the community to advocate among families and to employ trusted local teachers. Women enrolled are also able to build communities and communicate
Direct Relief
The Afghan Institute of Learning develops programs to support disenfranchised Afghan women, in part through education. Here, a woman studies at an AIL program. 8 | Solutions | May-June 2015 | www.thesolutionsjournal.org
Idea Lab Noteworthy
Farhana Asnap / World Bank
A man scours through trash in Jakarta, Indonesia. Nevhouse recycles plastics from streets and landfills into building panels for sustainable houses.
with their peers. Dr. Sakena Yacoobi, founder and president of the Afghan Institute of Learning said in an article for the Huffington Post, “The impact that access to mobile phones and knowledge of how to use them has on Afghan women is far greater than just accelerating literacy. The women can build and maintain relationships with other women to whom they are not related, something that is incredibly difficult in Afghan society. When women have access to mobile phones, they build a network of friends. Friends who share information, ideas, hopes and dreams.”
From Sustainable Surfboards to Smarter Housing Solutions by Colleen Maney
Nev Hyman is famous in the surfing world for founding Firewire, one of the world’s largest and most successful manufacturers of surfboards. What’s lesser known is the company’s core principal of sustainability. This mission toward sustainability brought Hyman from surfboards to housing with his new initiative, Nevhouse. The driving solution behind the initiative is two-fold, addressing
both waste surplus and suitable housing shortages in developing countries. Nevhouse collects plastics from streets and landfills in local regions, which are then recycled into a composite plastic compound and reshaped into panels suitable for building. These panels are flat packed for easy transportation and assembled into prefabricated home building kits. The kits are assembled onsite, requiring only basic tools for construction. The resulting homes are designed to be low-maintenance, waterproof, fire and earthquake resistant, and easy to clean.
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Idea Lab Noteworthy The company is the first to supply prefabricated homes from composite recycled compounds. In an interview with the Huffington Post, Hyman described a Nevhouse home as “a house that’ll last 100 years, that’s impervious to bacteria, free of maintenance, and to a degree [can] withstand hurricanes and earthquakes. So from this perspective they are important tools for disaster relief and can be built and taken down in just two days.” Operations are currently in place in Indonesia and Papua New Guinea, with headquarters in Singapore. Partnerships with governments and NGOs help to deliver the low-cost homes primarily to families living in slums, working in remote areas, and those who have lost their homes to natural disasters. Hyman hopes to
expand the company to have plants built in 100 countries worldwide, to “respond to the changing nature of demand for plastics on a global scale” as tons of waste continues to accumulate in developing countries. If his housing solution is half as successful as his surfboard empire, Hyman’s Nevhouse holds great promise as a social enterprise.
A Historical Alliance Takes a Stand against the Coal Industry by Colleen Maney
On Thursday, May 14, an unprecedented alliance took a stand against the North American coal industry. The historic gathering brought
together nine tribes from Montana, Washington, and British Columbia to oppose a permit for what would be North America’s largest coal export terminal. All nine tribes signed a declaration urging the US Army Corps of Engineers to deny a permit for the proposed Gateway Pacific Terminal in the Salish Sea by the company SSA Marine. Tribal leaders argued that the proposed terminal would threaten their communities, cultures, and the shared future of all people. The coal development would infringe upon treaty-protected resources and sacred sites, thus breaking obligations that the US has agreed to in protecting the tribes’ rights. The tribes are joined by grassroots activists and organizations such as
Katrin Lorenzen
Revelstoke National Park in British Columbia. Nine tribes from the region joined together to protest against a coal terminal in the Salish Sea that would threaten the wellbeing of all communities. 10 | Solutions | May-June 2015 | www.thesolutionsjournal.org
Idea Lab Noteworthy the Sierra Club in their efforts to resist coal development in the Pacific Northwest. The May 14 event was followed by a day of meetings with local and national environmental groups and representatives from the faith-based community to discuss the greater impacts of coal development on all local residents. At a press conference following the event, Reuben George, Ceremonial Sundance Chief of the Tsleil–Waututh First Nation, expressed the spirit of the alliance bridging tribes and greater communities, saying “we collectively stand together to protect what we love; the earth is a part of who we are.”
Swipe Right for Peace: A Dating App for Conflict Reconciliation by Colleen Maney
What happens when Tinder meets the Israel–Palestine conflict? A new dating and friendship app that aims to tackle misperceptions fueled by segregation and spark meaningful dialogue between young Isrealis and Palestinians. Designed by New York-based developer Matthew Nolan, Verona is a new app that is specifically meant to connect Israelis and Palestinians. In an interview with the Peace and Collaborative Development Network, Nolan explained the simple rationale behind the app, saying, “I very much believe that the basis of any relationship is communication, so if these two cultures are forced to be separate in all this conflict, forming relationships between them could be the glue that hopefully ignites a shift in consciousness.” The app was launched in March of this year and is designed based
Ian Burt
A painting on the Israeli West Bank Barrier. Verona offers the opportunity for cross-community friendship, allowing users to use cell phones to cross barriers, create relationships, and gain perspectives.
on the widely popular dating app Tinder. Users log in via Facebook and select whether they identify as either “Israeli” or “Palestinian.” They are then presented with prospective matches in their area who identify with the opposite group. If uninterested, the user swipes left. If they like someone, they swipe right. If both parties swipe one another right, they are then “matched” and have the opportunity to message one another through the app. Although only yet available for Android devices, a free beta test of the app had been downloaded over 1,000 times as of April 24, less than a month after its launch. While many of these initial downloads were within the New York area, a “surprising number” were coming from Tel Aviv, Jerusalem and the West Bank, according to Nolan.
Verona’s slogan, “world peace, one swipe at a time,” captures the optimism and power of a generation of tech-savvy youth. While simplistic, the potential is great. One user, who identifies as Israeli, described her experiences thus far with the app as a series of positive exchanges. “I’ve heard a lot of people’s stories, their family history, so I’m getting some perspective,” said the 27-year-old user. “It’s interesting to hear what it’s like to be Palestinian in that area.” The power of simple conversation can be great, but often segregation is one of the greatest barriers to conflict resolution. Verona is harnessing technology to overcome the physical and spatial barriers segregating young Israelis and Palestinians, bringing meaningful dialogue straight to their phones. The solution is as easy as swiping right.
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