1
<p>Hello everyone! I'm a portuguese high school graduate that wants to pursue wildlife conservation in the future. In my country, sunny Portugal, wildlife conservation is not something that most of the population is aware of. Sure everyone knows that polar bears are highly vulnerable but only a minority recognizes that we are also facing extinction in our own little country. For instance, the Iberian Lynx was declared extinct in Portugal in 2007 and efforts have been made with Spain in order to bring this beautiful animal back to Portugal. However, most people aren't even aware that such animal exists! </p>
<p>Hence I believe that in my country, the biggest problem is the lack of awareness and therefore more efforts should be made in order to show to the entire population, the amount of unique biodiversity that lives in our country.</p>
<p>Portugal has a lot of great organizations that are trying to raise awareness and are working hard to try to reverse the country's current situation. However, with the current economical crisis it is even harder for such devoted organizations to get the funds they need. Additionally, most people aren't even aware that there are such organizations in Portugal so how can they give money and support to them?</p>
<p>Two years ago, me and a couple of friends decided to help one of these organizations and raise some money for them. We started a campaign called "Every Day is Earth Day" and we tried to sell pins with that slogan in our school when the school's eco-council was organizing an eco-week. Obviously the eco-week NEVER took place so we got stuck with 100 pins. We tried to sell them to latives and close friends but I still have loads of pins left. Nevertheless we were able to raise a bit of money and hopefully more people became aware of <a href="http://www.gec.pt/default.aspx">this organization</a>.</p>
<p>Now that I'm on summer vacations I finally have time to do something that I've always wanted to do: volunteer at the Lisbon Zoo. I really love the zoo and I think that Zoos contribute very positively to the current extinction crisis. Not only do they shelter endangered species and participate in breeding programmes, but also they show to their visitors how the animal kingdom is beautiful and diverse. I have been to the Lisbon Zoo loads of time, with different people, and they all enjoyed and felt sad for the fact that some species are endangered.</p>
<p>The Lisbon Zoo is home to several endangered species such as the Sumatran Tiger and there are a lot of posters alerting to the fact that there are so few of them in the wild. One poster in particular, has all the subspecies of tigers, each belonging to a tube. In each tube there are little white balls, each ball representing one tiger of that subespecies. Some tubes are empty and they have a big red banner saying "EXTINCT".</p>
<p>Every time I pass by that poster i fell so sad and then I look at the poor tigers that are living in the zoo and I feel sorry for them, for the fact that their only chance of survival is to be caged in an artificial glass-box instead of being free in the wild with the rest of the animals.<br />
So I decided to volunteer and help the zoo, help the animals but even the volunteering service is not very efficient it seems... </p>
<p>Other volunteering opportunities in Portugal with animals are scarce and the few that exist are sometimes restricted to people with a certain schedule, in other words, it is not available for everyone. </p>
<p>To keep myself informed, I subscribe to many organizations worldwide, on <a href="http://www.youtube.com/user/larihoops">youtube</a>, <a href="http://www.facebook.com/lauragiln">facebook</a>, <a href="http://twitter.com/larihoops">twitter</a>,<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/solero/">flickr</a>, <a href="lauragiln@gmail.com">email</a>... And so I constantly receive news from many different projects. Also I joined the WWF passport and I try to join as many causes as I can. Recently I proudly "faced the G8" :)</p>
<p>But another problem with the extinction crisis in Portugal is that some people don't think that the extinction is that important and that some species should disappear.They think that, for instance, the country would be safer without the Iberian Wolf and this kind of mentality prevents the country to move forward and fight for the preservation of the species. They believe that the extinction of the pigmy hippo won't have an effect on their daily life and they much rather prefer to be focused on other issues, such as the economical crisis, that they feel will affect them more. Yet, when they visit the Lisbon Zoo and they see these cute creatures, they all fall in love with them and take loads of pictures! </p>
<p>It seems that the portuguese, and others, don't understand the importance of biodiversity, how it maintains a balance between all the species, how it allows us to be able to do so many things. Moreover, biodiversity makes Planet Earth so colourful and pretty that if we lose it, then all the colours will only be found in textbooks and everywhere we look, we will always see the same. </p>
<p>Going to the Zoo, or simply spending an afternoon in my garden, and looking at the nature's amazing colours, makes me so happy and makes me appreciate the natural world so much that I can't imagine knowing that it can all be lost and do nothing about it.</p>
<p>Portugal has incredibly beautiful, unique animals, and I think that if more people learn to appreciate it, then it will be a giant leap and an important step to fight the extinction crisis, locally and globally as well.</p>
<p>This is when I say goodbye to everyone and thank all of you for caring and helping on the preservation of the species.<br />
Many kisses an hugs from sunny Portugal ;)<br />
<a href="http://larihoops.deviantart.com/">Laura Nunes</a> </p>
2009-07-02T11:12:35Z
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2098
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2096
Portugal and the Extinction Crisis
20
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2009-08-26T13:12:13Z
13173
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