The Way Home

Founded in 1996 by Sergey Kostin, The Way Home "provides medical and psychological rehabilitation and social reintegration programs to homeless people, street children and drug users living on the streets in Ukraine."

"Sergey Kostin is a geologist by training. Shortly after the collapse of the Soviet Union, he became involved in the restoration of Odessa's major architectural treasures. To get help with his project, he set up a series of small workshops to teach carpentry, sewing and icon painting. In attempting to rescue the old buildings of Odessa, he rescued instead the exponentially growing numbers of homeless people, prostitutes, street children and drug addicts who roamed its streets. Kostin began The Way Home by offering a series of workshops similar to the ones he had run during his restoration work, seeking to build the skill base of those who had fallen on hard times. However, he soon discovered that the socially disenfranchised needed more than workshops. Thus, The Way Home rapidly expanded its programs and geographic scope to address this growing need across the Ukraine."

Excerpt from Outstanding Social Entrepreneurs 2010, the Schwab Foundation for Social Entrepreneurship

Saving Captive Wild Animals

It’s hot and dusty; the sun is about to set; the grass that covers the plains is brown, wilting, wishing for rain that rarely falls. When the lions start to roar, you could forgive yourself for thinking you are in the African savanna.

But you are not. You are at the western edge of the North American Great Plains, stretching from the Rocky Mountains to the Mississippi River and from Northern Canada to Mexico, covering about 2.5 million square kilometers.

The roar of the lions is not a hallucination. Neither is the howling of the wolves, nor the growling of the bears. You can find all of these animals and more at The Wild Animal Sanctuary (http://www.wildanimalsanctuary.org/) just a few miles northeast of Denver, Colorado, in Keenesburg.

According to their website, “The Wild Animal Sanctuary is the oldest and largest nonprofit Sanctuary in the US dedicated exclusively to rescuing captive exotic and endangered large carnivores, providing them with a wonderful life for as long as they live, and educating about the tragic plight faced by an estimated 30,000 such animals in America today.”

The very knowledgeable staff member who greeted us as we entered the facility on a sweltering Wednesday evening informed us that there are more tigers being held in private hands, in basements and garages, in the state of Texas than are living in the wild in the world. That is some scary stuff, and underlines the need for the Sanctuary. Unfortunately, people who take on large carnivores often find that they cannot actually take care of them – as they grow up they become a danger to their host families. When they are abandoned, someone needs to take them in or they will be put down.

“Countless other great cats, bears, wolves and other large carnivores live in abusive conditions in roadside stands, circuses, magic acts, traveling shows, and other substandard situations. Untold numbers of animals suffer and die each year due to neglect, abuse or because they are abandoned and left to die, starving and alone,” says their website.

“Comprising 320 acres and sheltering more than 200 lions, tigers, bears, leopards, mountain lions, wolves and other large carnivores, it is the first sanctuary of its kind to create large acreage species-specific habitats for its rescued animals,” it continues.

We are told upon arrival that the facility is 100% non-smoking and if we choose to ignore this rule, we will be summarily removed from the site. This is because the bears in the Sanctuary that have been saved from roadside shows are nicotine addicts. The nicotine is what the trainers used to get the bears to do their tricks. Thus even the smell of a cigarette can have devastating consequences. It is a good thing no one in our group smokes.

The three main points of the organization’s mission are to rescue captive large carnivores that have been abused, abandoned, illegally kept or exploited; to create for them a wonderful life for as long as they live; and to educate about the causes and solutions to the captive wildlife crisis.
On site, it is obvious that they are committed to their mission. The animals that have completed their rehabilitation program roam freely in their large enclosures, encountering others of their kind. They look healthy from afar. As they are wild animals, I will obviously not climb into the enclosures for a close inspection, but trust in the organization to do what is necessary.

2010 Is the International Year of Biodiversity: This Is Good News for the Planet

The United Nations declared 2010 to be the International Year of Biodiversity, a celebration of life on Earth and of the value of biodiversity for our lives. This is good news for the planet, highlighting steps that have already been taken and those that can yet be taken to safeguard the variety of life on earth: biodiversity.

According to the United Nations Environment Programme, “restoring lost and damaged ecosystems - from forests and freshwaters to mangroves and wetlands - can trigger multi-million dollar returns, generate jobs and combat poverty.” It maintains that “far from being a tax on growth and development, many environmental investments in degraded, nature-based assets can generate substantial and multiple returns.” These include restoring water flows to rivers and lakes, improved soil stability and fertility vital for agriculture and combating climate change by sequestrating and storing carbon from the atmosphere.

And governments worldwide are already taking action. For instance, initial studies compiled by The Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity indicate that restoration of grasslands, woodlands and forests offer some of the highest rates of returns. Examples include:

• The Turkish city of Istanbul has increased the number of people served with wastewater treatment over 20 years from a few hundred thousand to over nine million ‑ 95% of the population ‑ by rehabilitating and cleaning river banks, relocating polluting industries, installing water treatment works and re-establishing river-side vegetation.


• In Vietnam, planting and protecting nearly 12,000 hectares of mangroves has cost just over $1 million but saved annual expenditure on dyke maintenance of well over $7 million.


• In Rwanda, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Uganda, strict law enforcement has helped restore the critically endangered mountain gorilla population back to a slight increase in the Virungas National Park ‑ and is generating large revenues from tourism.


• Restoration of over 500 hectares of mangroves in India's Andhra Pradesh region has increased the population of edible crabs and fodder for livestock thereby boosting local incomes while increasing biodiversity such as otter and birds, at a cost of only $3 million over seven years.


• Coastal ecosystems in Biscayne Bay, Florida have been restored for annual benefit worth $1.7 million.


• Banning unsustainable fishing methods, reintroductions of native fish species and re-planting of native aquatic grasses have transformed the once highly polluted and degraded Lake Hong in China. Since 2003, water quality has improved dramatically, rare birds like the Oriental White Stork have returned after 20 years and fisher folk have seen incomes triple.

Beyond governments, businesses are also lending a helping hand. Cimpor’s Conservancy in South Africa has eradicated some 65% of invasive plants. In addition, a large portion of this successful clearing exercise has seen the reintroduction of indigenous grasses that serve as a major food source for certain birds. In Brazil, the company’s quarry in Atlantic Forest area, one of the most endangered tropical biomes in the world, and considered as one of the largest biodiversity repositories globally, is being carefully rehabilitated. CEMEX is also doing conservation and restoration in Costa Rica, Mexico and France, among other places, to keep its quarries and surrounding areas healthy. Mondi has a sustainable wetlands program in South Africa, and Syngenta has one in Spain. Lafarge protects onsite wildlife and biodiversity.

And the list goes on. All of these drops in the bucket eventually overflow and the result is a healthier world with greater biodiversity benefitting all inhabitants.

According to Achim Steiner, UN Under-Secretary General and UNEP Executive Director: "The ecological infrastructure of the planet is generating services to humanity worth by some estimates over $70 trillion a year, perhaps substantially more.” Due to the impact of biodiversity on all our lives, 2010 is thus THE year to undertake biodiversity efforts and highlight what has already been done.