There are islands of hope in each and every one of us. It is a kernel of truth, of beauty and of the desire to live, and live well. This connects us to all of life and cannot be taken from us. With this inner sense, we know that all life is free. This nurtures us and gives us strength, and is the work of One Earth Conservation in our Nurture Nature Program.
Yellow-naped Parrots and Green Parakeets flying in front of Concepcion Volcano during one of our yearly counts, which is part of parrot population monitoring efforts
There is another level, an outer level, where each living being lives in freedom, choosing to interact with their environment on their terms. Circumstances restrict the outward expression of this freedom, and of this flourishing. This causes great suffering among marginalized human communities and the biotic communities in which they are embedded, and the individuals within. The outer work of One Earth Conservation is to diminish this harm, pain, and loss, which means we resist the powers and community structures that would visit disaster upon the whole, the many, and each and every one.
Dr. LoraKim Joyner with the LOCOs, who manage and lead parrot conservation efforts on Ometepe, along with Flora and Fauna International
To accomplish this inner and outer work, One Earth Conservation and companions are going to Ometepe Island, Nicaragua this week where we will work with our partners. We will nourish our inner lives and each other by growing our five intelligences (emotional, social, multispecies, ecological, spiritual) in a mini Nurture Nature Retreat that includes activities interspersed around conservation activities. We will nourish the life outside of us by joining with the people and parrots of Nicaragua as we do this work. We seek to be in solidarity with a people whose tortuous history was brought about in part due to the United States' relations with this country over the years, including the Iran Contra Affair and one of our citizens taking over the country as its President. We will join the work of their hands, helping them restore life as together we seek to be in solidarity with the diminished parrot communities of this land, brought about by the wildlife trade that bled feathered life from here to the USA before 1992 when the trade in parrots was banned.
Really what we are after is freedom, for none are free until all are free.
This is the work of conservation. This is the work of all of us. For we all are conservationists. We all have to be conservationists.
