Zeventien meiden van de afdeling Metta van Fier Leeuwarden, tussen de 12 en 23 jaar en met ernstige trauma's of dubbele diagnoseproblematiek, beleefden op vrijdag  8 mei een mooie dag. Het zonnetje werkte uitbundig mee om van het bezoek aan Alertis en Ouwehands Dierenpark Rhenen iets feestelijks  te maken. Het begon al vroeg in de ochtend toen er in Leeuwarden op de afgesproken locatie een originele, knalgele Amerikaanse schoolbus verscheen. Met aan het stuur Pé Veldt, directeur van beveiligingsbedrijf Regio Control uit Opmeer met als bijrijder zijn vrouw Amber. Hij stuurde de passagiers, hun vier begeleiders en Esther (PR) veilig naar Rhenen waar de groep werd opgewacht door José Kok, de drijvende kracht achter Het Berenbos in Ouwehands Dierenpark.  Daar stond Fier-medewerkster Annemarie  van Rijn samen met Gerry Mink (Stichting Hulpverlenersrespect), Wanda Beemsterboer en Leo van Gelderen (Nadine Foundation) samen met José van Het Berenbos klaar om de groep te ontvangen.

Na ontvangst met koffie en thee en welkomstwoorden van Gerry, Wanda en de directeur van Ouwehands, Robin de Lange, ging het richting de beren. Deze uit erbarmelijke omstandigheden bevrijde bewoners van het bos lieten zich in de ochtenduren nauwelijks zien. Hun wekker bleek niet afgestemd op de bezoekers. Wel kreeg de groep een goed beeld van de zee aan ruimte die de beren in Rhenen hebben. Een bos van twee hectare dat ze vreedzaam delen met een paar  wolven die hun neus wel lieten zien. Het was trouwens een opvallende overeenkomst; de beren die dankzij de tomeloze inzet van Alertis genieten van hun nieuwe leven krijgen bezoek van een groep leuke meiden die dankzij Fier een tweede kans krijgen.

Na een uitstekende lunch mochten de meiden hun eigen route kiezen. Toen waren de bolle bewoners van het bos wel goed in beeld. De een rustig sjokkend, de ander heerlijk op haar rug genietend van de zon als  een volleerd Zenmeester. Rond een uur of vier werd er weer verzameld en begon men aan de terugreis richting Leeuwarden. Uitgezwaaid door de medewerkers van het dierenpark en Alertis. Dit mooie initiatief werd mogelijk door de inzet en sponsoring van Stichting Hulpverlenersrespect, Nadine Foundation, Regio Control, Ouwehands Dierenpark en Alertis.

Tekst: Leo van Gelderen, Nadine Foundation

Informatie over Fier: www.fier.nl

Nadine Foundation: www.nadinefoundation.nl

The following text concerns an interview with Free the Bears director Nev Broadis that was published in the Brisbane Times on 25 April. The photo is by Peter Yuen. Free the Bears has been an Alertis project partner for many years..

Title: Chinese demand for bear-bile keeps Free the Bears director

Source: http://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/business/chinese-demand-for-bearbile-keeps-free-the-bears-director-20150425-1mof1q.html

Zoologist Nev Broadis committed to the conservation cause last century when the world looked "pretty ugly".

"Going in to the 90s, we were hearing a lot more about environmental destruction. I remember the clean-up operation for the Exxon Valdez and the destruction of the Amazon rainforest — thousands of hectares each week, global warming, and coral bleaching on the Great Barrier Reef: all things that were very prominent," says the south-east Asia-based Broadis, 34. "There were also the dancing bears and bear-baiting,"  he adds. 

Broadis is the regional director of the Australian non-profit Free the Bears. Free the Bears increasingly serves Indochina's sun bears, Asiatic black bears and India's sloth bears. When rescuing a bear from the forest, if it is caught in a snare it must be sedated by dart gun. In other cases involving cages, Broadis and his team coax captives into a travel crate. Or the creatures are young and "handleable", he says, adding, "There is nothing typical about rescuing bears: no two situations have ever been the same."

Broadis' taxing, hands-on, high-powered role demands the following qualities: patience, understanding, a good sense of humour, and a good knowledge of the illegal wildlife trade and the factors driving it now and which will do so in future. Today, the trend is toward hand-rearing cubs that should be with their mothers, he says.

The toughest part of his job is facing the realisation that a captive bear must be abandoned: "It's tough leaving, say, a bile farm. Leaving all those bears, knowing that their faces are staring at your back as you leave," he says, adding that most farms and farmers are well-connected: they apparently operate "in spite of the law". The hardest lesson his animal welfare work has taught him is not everything about bears is black and white.

"Most people just say: 'Why can't you just put them back in the forest?' It's not that simple. Their habitat is disappearing at such an astounding rate that there is often nowhere to put them back to," he says.

From Scotland, Broadis is the son of an electrical engineer father and youth-worker mother. After earning a Glasgow University zoology degree, he worked as a research associate in South America, the Caribbean and Australia. In 2003, a Free the Bears volunteer friend introduced him to the non-profit and Broadis ventured to Cambodia to see if he could lend a hand. Now in charge of some 60 staff, he is contracted to do a 50-hour week but works double, he says. As crises arise, he rushes around Indochina, embedded in Laos one moment, Cambodia the next, daily rewarded by rescued bears' happy faces, he says.

According to him, Free the Bears has rescued over 800 from the bile trade, which hinges on extracting a kind of acid from bear gall-bladders, for traditional Chinese medicine use. Because some consumers believe bear bile remedies work wonders, the substance is valuable. Broadis refuses to say how valuable in US dollars because the information "kind of drives the trade", he says.

"Not everyone will say, 'Wow that's so bad.' Some will say, "Hmm, that's cheap — I might buy some,"' he says.

In theory, bear bile is worthless because science judges it all myth, no medicine. The biggest myth surrounding Broadis' field is that humans can treat the earth how they like and she will recover, he says. Still, he insists that the chances of bears bouncing back are good – if we act now.

Hieronder treft u een verslag van het interview met Free the Bears directeur Nev Broadis. Het artikel verscheen op 25 april in de Brisbane Times. De foto is gemaakt door Peter Yuen. Free the Bears is al jarenlang partner van Alertis.

Titel: Chinese demand for bear-bile keeps Free the Bears director

Bron: http://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/business/chinese-demand-for-bearbile-keeps-free-the-bears-director-20150425-1mof1q.html

Zoologist Nev Broadis committed to the conservation cause last century when the world looked "pretty ugly".

"Going in to the 90s, we were hearing a lot more about environmental destruction. I remember the clean-up operation for the Exxon Valdez and the destruction of the Amazon rainforest — thousands of hectares each week, global warming, and coral bleaching on the Great Barrier Reef: all things that were very prominent," says the south-east Asia-based Broadis, 34. "There were also the dancing bears and bear-baiting,"  he adds. 

Broadis is the regional director of the Australian non-profit Free the Bears. Free the Bears increasingly serves Indochina's sun bears, Asiatic black bears and India's sloth bears. When rescuing a bear from the forest, if it is caught in a snare it must be sedated by dart gun. In other cases involving cages, Broadis and his team coax captives into a travel crate. Or the creatures are young and "handleable", he says, adding, "There is nothing typical about rescuing bears: no two situations have ever been the same."

Broadis' taxing, hands-on, high-powered role demands the following qualities: patience, understanding, a good sense of humour, and a good knowledge of the illegal wildlife trade and the factors driving it now and which will do so in future. Today, the trend is toward hand-rearing cubs that should be with their mothers, he says.

The toughest part of his job is facing the realisation that a captive bear must be abandoned: "It's tough leaving, say, a bile farm. Leaving all those bears, knowing that their faces are staring at your back as you leave," he says, adding that most farms and farmers are well-connected: they apparently operate "in spite of the law". The hardest lesson his animal welfare work has taught him is not everything about bears is black and white.

"Most people just say: 'Why can't you just put them back in the forest?' It's not that simple. Their habitat is disappearing at such an astounding rate that there is often nowhere to put them back to," he says.

From Scotland, Broadis is the son of an electrical engineer father and youth-worker mother. After earning a Glasgow University zoology degree, he worked as a research associate in South America, the Caribbean and Australia. In 2003, a Free the Bears volunteer friend introduced him to the non-profit and Broadis ventured to Cambodia to see if he could lend a hand. Now in charge of some 60 staff, he is contracted to do a 50-hour week but works double, he says. As crises arise, he rushes around Indochina, embedded in Laos one moment, Cambodia the next, daily rewarded by rescued bears' happy faces, he says.

According to him, Free the Bears has rescued over 800 from the bile trade, which hinges on extracting a kind of acid from bear gall-bladders, for traditional Chinese medicine use. Because some consumers believe bear bile remedies work wonders, the substance is valuable. Broadis refuses to say how valuable in US dollars because the information "kind of drives the trade", he says.

"Not everyone will say, 'Wow that's so bad.' Some will say, "Hmm, that's cheap — I might buy some,"' he says.

In theory, bear bile is worthless because science judges it all myth, no medicine. The biggest myth surrounding Broadis' field is that humans can treat the earth how they like and she will recover, he says. Still, he insists that the chances of bears bouncing back are good – if we act now.

Op 9 april verscheen er een uitgebreid artikel in de online versie van The Guardian met als titel Is the end of 'house of horror' bear bile factories in sight? Hierin staat dat Kaibao, de grootste producent van berengal en bovendien verantwoordelijk voor 50% van alle berengal binnen de Chinese markt, druk doende is met het ontwikkelen van een synthetisch alternatief. Dit alternatief is gebaseerd op kippengal en 'biotransformation technology'. Het bedrijf krijgt voor de ontwikkeling ook financiële steun van de Chinese overheid. Organisaties zoals Animals Asia en TRAFFIC hebben voorzichtig positief gereageerd op dit nieuws, maar plaatsen nog wel kanttekeningen. Er zijn al goede alternatieven voor berengal, gebaseerd op natuurlijke kruiden. En in de VS is al een synthetisch alternatief geproduceerd. TRAFFIC directeur Chris Shepherd zegt dat de kans van slagen van dit alternatieve product staat of valt met de bereidheid van de doktoren in de Chinese Traditionele Geneeskunst om dit product te gaan voorschrijven in plaats van berengal. Die kans acht hij wel veel groter dan het Amerikaanse product, omdat het door de grootste leverancier zelf wordt ontwikkeld. Het is wel een beetje wrang dat het synthetische alternatief ook weer van een dier afkomstig is. Hoewel het nog niet officieel bevestigd is, lijkt Kaibao het alternatief echter te willen baseren op kippengal van kippen die al op boerderijen worden gehouden.

Al met al overheerst toch een positief gevoel, nu ook de berengal industrie zelf inziet dat de huidige situatie niet langer houdbaar is, vanwege het grote dierenleed van de naar schatting 12.000 beren in de beerboerderijen. Daarnaast oefenen beerboerderijen grote druk uit op de wilde populaties doordat veel beren in de beerboerderijen afkomstig zijn uit het wild. Alertis heeft als hoofdsponsor van de in 2012 tijdens het IUCN congres in Zuid-Korea aangenomen motie (WCC-2012-Rec-139: Bear farming in Asia, with particular reference to the conservation of wild populations) de uitfasering van beerboerderijen in gang gezet. Binnenkort start onderzoek naar het effect van beerboerderijen op de wilde populaties beren, dit zal samen met Chinese experts worden uitgevoerd. Dat de grootste leverancier van berengal start met de ontwikkeling van een synthetisch alternatief, is weer een stap in de goede richting.

Bron: http://www.theguardian.com/environment/radical-conservation/2015/apr/09/bear-bile-china-synthetic-alternative

Foto: Imagechina / Corbis

On April 9th an extensive article appeared on theguardian.com with the title Is the end of 'house of horror' bear bile factories in sight? It states that Kaibao, the largest producer of bear bile and responsible for 50 % of all bear bile within the Chinese market, is currently developing a synthetic alternative for bear bile. This alternative is based on poultry bile and ‘biotransformation technology’. The company is receiving Financial support from the Chinese government for this development. Organisations such as Animals Asia and TRAFFIC have responded with tempered enthusiasm, but do raise a few comments. Such as the fact that there are already a lot of good herbal alternatives. And in the US a synthetic alternative has already been produced. TRAFFIC director Chris Shepherd believes the odds for success depend entirely on the willingness of the doctors in Traditional Chinese Medicine to prescribe the new product instead of bear bile. That chance is bigger though than the American product, as it is developed by the biggest supplier and is home based. It is ironic that this synthetic alternative will be based on an animal. Although Kaibao has not made an official statement regarding this issue, it is believed that they will use already farmed poultry.

All in all the announcement has created a positive vibe, now that the bear bile industry itself has noticed that the current situation cannot be maintained, because of the immense suffering of the estimated 12.000 bears living in bear farms. On top of that the bear farms form a great threat for the wild populations as many bears in bear farms are taken from the wild. As main sponsor of the motion that was carried during the 2012 IUCN congress (WCC-2012-Rec-139: Bear farming in Asia, with particular reference to the conservation of wild populations), Alertis has started the phasing out of all bear farms. Soon research into the effect of bear farms on the wild bear populations will start. The research will be carried out by famous (IUCN) bear experts together with the Chinese government. That the biggest supplier of bear bile started developing a synthetic alternative, is another step in the right direction.

Source: http://www.theguardian.com/environment/radical-conservation/2015/apr/09/bear-bile-china-synthetic-alternative

Photo: Imagechina / Corbis

In Albanië worden helaas nog steeds veel beren in gevangenschap gehouden. Ze leven in kooien, bijvoorbeeld naast restaurants of benzinepompen. Maar ook gewoon bij mensen thuis, als speciaal huisdier. Veel mensen weten niet dat het houden van beren illegaal is, en denken vaak dat het wel mag omdat zoveel mensen het doen. De NGO 'Protection and Preservation of Natural Environment in Albania' (PPNEA) zet zich al jaren in voor deze beren, en de bescherming van de kwetsbare populatie wilde beren. Alertis steunt PPNEA al jaren met dit project.

Onlangs heeft PPNEA een TV spot gemaakt om het probleem van de gevangen gehouden beren onder de aandacht te brengen. Het Ministerie van Milieu heeft de spot goedgekeurd en zijn naam aan de spot verbonden, een prima zaak! De TV spot zal in de maand april drie maal per dag worden uitgezonden op Top-Channel, de best bekeken nationale zender van Albanië.

De spot is te bekijken op YouTube.

Unfortunately there are still a lot of captive bears In Albania. They live in cages, for instance near restaurants or gas stations. But they are also kept privately, as special pets. Many people do not know this is illegal, and presume it is allowed because so many people keep bears. The NGO 'Protection and Preservation of Natural Environment in Albania' (PPNEA) has been helping these bears for many years, and commits itself to protect the fragile wild population as well. Alertis has been supporting PPNEA for many years.

PPNEA has produced a TV commercial to raise awareness for the captive bears in Albania. The Ministery of Environment has approved the commercial and even linked their name with it, a good example! The TV commercial will be aired throughout April three times per day, on Top-Channel, the best viewed national channel in Albania.

The TV commercial can be viewed on YouTube.

Het Pole to Pole campagneteam bundelt haar krachten met het Sustainable Development Solutions Network (SDSN) om zoveel mogelijk handtekeningen te verzamelen voor de actie: 2 graden is de limiet. Samen kunnen we de klimaatverandering afremmen door de gemiddelde temperatuur op aarde met niet meer dan 2 °C te laten stijgen. Dierentuinen en hun bezoekers nemen maatregelen om de snelle klimaatverandering af te remmen. Het wordt tijd dat politici en wereldleiders dit ook gaan doen! De opwarming van de aarde vraagt om drastische maatregelen.

Helpt u mee? Laat uw stem horen! Teken de petitie en kom in actie tegen klimaatverandering!

Alle handtekeningen, en we hopen dat het er héél veel zullen zijn, overhandigen we in december 2015 aan de wereldleiders tijdens de klimaattop van de Verenigde Naties in Parijs. U kunt meedoen, door de petitie online te tekenen.

U kunt het petitieformulier ook downloaden en familie, vrienden, collega’s vragen om ook hun handtekening te zetten. In de loop van 2015 zetten we nog diverse acties op om zoveel mogelijk handtekeningen te verzamelen zodat we met een indrukwekkende ‘stapel’ naar Parijs kunnen afreizen.

Kijk voor meer informatie op http://www.poletopolecampaign.org/kom-in-actie-2-graden-is-de-limiet/. Of stuur een email naar info@alertis.nl of info@ouwehand.nl onder vermelding van ‘Pole to Pole’.

By Emily Gertz

It’s conventional wisdom that most people will change their behavior only when it saves them money. That kind of price-consciousness makes Western consumers a tough sell when it comes to paying a premium for some environmentally beneficial goods, such as clothes made with eco-friendly fabrics or electric vehicles. When researchers at the University of California, Los Angeles, asked participants at the beginning of an energy-use study what information would probably get them to cut their electricity consumption, the participants answered that it would be messages on how much money they were saving. They said environmental facts, such as how many trees it would take to absorb all the carbon dioxide their energy demand created, would be less persuasive.

It turns out, though, that those reminded only that using less electricity would save them money didn’t turn the lights off and the thermostat down, according to the study, which was published this week in the journal PNAS. But those participants who were told that saving energy would cut toxic air pollution curbed their electricity use an average of 8 percent. Households with children were even more motivated, slashing their use by 19 percent.

“We’re finding that you have to bundle the public good with the private good,” said environmental economist Magali Delmas, the lead researcher on the study, in a statement. “Our message about health and the environment reminds people that environmentalism is also about them and their kids.”

That suggests that many Americans would use less electricity if informed of the environmental benefits, not just the economic. Increased energy efficiency at home alone could cut the United States’ greenhouse gas emissions by 7 percent. Delmas and her colleagues argue that the environmental health message was motivational because it showed a dual good to reducing electricity use: lessening air pollution as well as the risks for illnesses associated with those pollutants. To figure out how motivational financial versus environmental information would be in encouraging lowered electricity use, they created a competitive atmosphere between participating households, similar to gamification techniques that some energy companies have been using on their customer statements for the past few years. After six months of establishing baseline electricity use, the participants got weekly updates for four months, showing how their electricity use compared with that of their most energy-efficient neighbor.

One group of participants were also told how many more pounds of pollution they were responsible for and were reminded about the links between air pollution and certain diseases, while the rest learned how much more they were spending on electricity compared with that neighbor.

Source: http://www.takepart.com/article/2015/01/13/people-cut-energy-use-environment-health-ucla?cmpid=san

Rhenen, 2 februari. Vandaag hebben Alertis en Ouwehands Dierenpark besloten om beer Diesel te euthanaseren. Diesel, die sinds 2007 in Het Berenbos woonde, liep al enige tijd wat moeizaam. Hiervoor werd hij regelmatig geobserveerd. Zijn conditie verslechterde afgelopen dagen onverwacht snel. Toen hij vandaag uit zijn hol kwam, gebruikte hij zijn achterpoten helemaal niet meer.

Voorkomen van lijden
Na grondig overleg met de dierenarts  kwamen we tot de conclusie dat het lijden van beer Diesel te groot was om van een beerwaardig bestaan te kunnen spreken. Autopsie heeft uitgewezen dat de gehele ruggenwervel inclusief tussenwervelschijven hardnekkige vergroeiingen vertoonde, van kop tot staart, waardoor uitval van de achterhand (verlamming vanaf de middel) ontstond. Het is helaas een typische diagnose voor beren in gevangenschap met een traumatisch verleden. 

Een beer met een verleden
Beer Diesel is net als de beren Duuk en Igor afkomstig uit een dierentuin in Rustavi, Georgië. Hier leefden zij in een klein betonnen verblijf. De dierentuin moest sluiten, en er kon geen opvangplek voor de beren worden gevonden. Even zag het ernaar uit dat de beren zouden worden afgemaakt, maar Alertis slaagde erin de drie mannetjesberen in 2007 naar Het Berenbos te transporteren. De drie onstuimige vrienden waren erg aan elkaar gehecht, en struinden vaak met z’n drieën door Het Berenbos. Beer Diesel was een vriendelijke beer die met alle beren in Het Berenbos overweg kon. Hij is tien jaar oud geworden.