Museums and the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs): The Hawaiian Land Snail Extinction Prevention Program

Meet George. 

George is the last known living individual of Achatinella apexfulva.  David Sischo and his team from the Department of Land and Natural Resources (DLNR) named him “in homage to …Lonesome George, the Pinta Island tortoise who was the last individual of his subspecies.” George’s home would normally be the mid elevation forests on the Hawaiian island of O'ahu rather than the safe environment of the new labs of the DNLR, but he’s here, having outlived his siblings. Nearby there are another 500 at-risk snails of other imperiled species, safely tucked into protective nests of ‘ōhi'a lehua, 'ie 'ie, and branches of other native plants, in climate controlled Caron Growth Chambers.  

There are 44 Hawaiian land snail species listed as endangered under the US Endangered Species Act. The other 706 that are known and described haven’t been studied enough to receive listing status. Achatinella, George’s genus, is the most studied, but conservationists estimate Achatinella species are only 6% of the native snail species present in the islands; the other 87% are largely unresearched but likely declining at similar rates. That gap in understanding seriously limits work to prevent their extinction.

That’s where the museum and zoo fields are helping the natural resources team. 

Norine Yeung is working to gain intellectual control of the largest collection anywhere of Pacific Island land snail specimens, and the 2^nd largest malacology specimen collection in the world (over 6 million). It is at the Charles Montague Cooke, Jr., Malacology Research Center at the Bishop Museum. The collection’s field notebooks tell us the story of 100 years of original research, conducted by scientists from all over the world. George is a member of the first species of Hawaiian land snail to be described by researchers. It was part of a lei giving to a Captain George Dixon while he was on Oʻahu in 1786-1787.  

Yeung’s goal is to create research access, and public access, which is one of the first steps to take to start clarifying Hawaiian Land Snail systematics: naming species (taxonomy) and determining relationships among its groups (phylogeny). Systematics supports the applied conservation that David Sischo and his team at DNLR, George’s keepers, conduct on a daily basis. Conservation scientists need this access and information to help them understand the evolution of a species, species relationships, the likely threats to the species, and how species become dispersed among the mountain ridges and valleys throughout the Hawaiian Islands. This knowledge guides decisions when identifying and rescuing snails, protecting new habitats, and reintroducing sufficient populations into predator-proofed and legally-protected areas.

Yeung became interested in malacology (study of mollusks) in 2008 when she accepted an invitation to join a survey team from University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa.The team recorded 200 new species in 10 native families during almost a decade of work. Seeing the threatened state of the snails, and realizing how very few scientists studied and protected them, Yeung chose to change her focus from ornithology to malacology (study of mollusks). She procured a grant for her position at the Bishop in August 2016, and started bringing the focus back to research, which Charles Montague Cooke, Jr. had in mind when he became curator of the deparmtnet in 1907. The collection has not had a curator or researcher for about 15 years, but has been maintained primarily by a half-time malacology technician (Regina Lkawamoto), and extraordinarily-committed volunteers, including the retired curator, Dr. Carl Christensen. Now, with the help of a research assistant supported by funds from the National Science Foundation, Yeung is stepping-up the work to improve access to the collections.

They are rehousing the specimen collection, inputting taxonomic data, which includes spcies name, collection locality and date, into an in-house database that will be used to create a searchable database. They will also digitize  the historical field notebooks collected by Cooke and his peers from the early 1900s . These notebooks are a treasure trove of information on extinct, endangered, and threatened species. They tell researchers what specimens alone cannot. Once the collections database work is complete, DNLR’s Sischo and other researchers worldwide can query by geographical location, taxon, and other collection data to improve their understanding and support their critical conservation work.

The biodiversity of the islands is at stake. O'ahu is part of the most isolated island chain on the planet. 99.5% of the land snail species are endemic to the Hawaiian Islands. So many of the plants and animals “co-evolved” here on Oʻahu or the other seven islands that “the extinction of one species could lead to cascading extinctions of other species” according to Hawai’i’s DNLR.  Such serious losses threaten the ecosystem and Hawaiian cultural heritage. George’s extinction is due mostly to introduced invasive predators, habitat destruction through widespread and rapid development of wild spaces on the island, over-collection, and limited knowledge of the snail populations across this island. But it’s not just about George; it’s about how his story is a Pacific Islands story.

Loss of land and habitat, and the introduction of invasive species forever change the appearance and usefulness of the landscape, and remove it from cultural access. The land snails are part of historic native Hawaiian chants, they support folk stories and heritage symbolism, and their shells were used for making ceremonial lei. The snails are also an important component of healthy native ecosystems. Fewer snails mean fewer food sources for native birds, and loss of ecosystem benefits to keep the forests healthy: detritivore snails eat the dead plant materials on the forest floor and recycle nutrients for plant growth; other snails eat leaf-based fungi that thrive in the moist environment and potentially threaten plant health. Snails are tiny, but mighty.

Still, with no way to escape disease, habitat loss, introduced predators, or climate changes, George and the rest of the snails depend upon humans to reverse these changes or create alternative solutions. Sischo and his team study snail habitats and food sources, and work with community members to identify new protected spaces. They rescue snails, cultivate stronger and larger populations, predator-proof the new habitats, and release and monitor the snails. This is a tough battle that requires teamwork. Recently Hawaiʻi’s DNLR and the Division of Forestry and Wildlife have expanded the Snail Extinction Prevention Program team of collaborators to include The Honolulu Zoo. In 2017 the Zoo will open a new Reptile and Amphibian Complex. It will have an invertebrate research and recovery lab that is a separate location for Hawaiian Land Snail populations – a duplicate gene pool for safety - and public engagement space promoting conservation in Hawai'i. Laura Debnar, Curator and Conservation Chair of the Zoo’s Aloha ‘Āina Conservation program, says this is one example of how the zoo expects to increase involvement in Hawaiian conservation programs and engage citizens in science and conservation.

This Hawaiian Land Snail Extinction Prevention Program is a perfect example of the future of conservation. I met Sischo and Yeung as they presented at the International Union for the Conservation of Nature’s (IUCN) recent World Congress.  The conference leaders emphasized that to protect biodiversity and the planet’s air, land, and water resources, it requires partnerships of research scientists and informal educational institutions. These conferences and partnerships strengthen science by raising awareness, teaching skills, and creating agency among many more of the planet’s citizens, than conservationists can alone.

Sischo, Yeung, Debnar, and their colleagues at the Bishop Museum, Honolulu Zoo, DLNR and DOFAW, are doing the hard but, important work of furthering the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goals through their passionate commitment to George and his friends.

SDGs #13 Climate Action, #15 Life on Land, and #17 Partnerships for the Goals.   

Creativity - Museum Practice/Green Practice

In 2014 Linda Norris and Rainey Tisdale co-wrote an awesome book Creativity in Museum Practice.

Their ideas are inspiring, encouraging, enabling, wide-ranging - you get the gist.

Readers can apply Linda's and Rainey's examples, resources, stories, and tips to almost any situation touching our field, and touching our individual worlds.

So you know this is headed toward environmental sustainability.... Here are a few takeaways I use as I work with individuals and whole institutions going green - whatever the scale.

1) "Let's be crystal clear: creativity is not something that only certain people are born with..." p. 20. What got us into this environmental mess won't get us out of it. New ways can. Each of us can think and behave creatively, and can use those abilities to think in new ways to solve an old problem. You know more about your job than anyone else does. Who better to improve upon it? If you apply creativity to thinking about your job, you become the best resource for turning any unsustainable practices into beneficial ones on many levels.

2) SCAMPER: a method developed by Michael Michalko "to guide people through he process of generating ideas." p. 53.  

• Substitute something
• Combine with something else 
• Adapt something to it
• Modify or Magnify it
• Put it to some other use 
• Eliminate something
• Reverse or Rearrange

Thinking through this series of challenges to business-as-usual helps me help a group generate potential new approaches to reducing waste from exhibits or special events; creating new construction guidelines; or developing new approaches to reducing water use.

3) Pay extra attention: "All of us get used to the places we see every day. What this means is that we don't look closely at what could be different...." p. 111. Habits and assumptions allow us to continue to use energy when we don't really need to (does the first someone in the door turn on all the lights because that's the routine rather than the thoughtful response?). Those habits allow us to buy the same products when we run out even though we hate all the packaging  that comes with the usual brand and we suspect there's a more sustainable option sold somewhere.

Atlanta's Southface Energy has an awesome green roof - look, I tried it!

4) "Don't worry about the perfect change....Try one change and try again, and again....a series of small changes can often be much more effective than a top-to-bottom renovation ... each step lets you understand something...." [more about your challenge]. p. 111.  Prototypes (p. 126), pilots, small-scale tests all help you test new practices or products with less risk, cost, and resource use. So, when you're sure the plants you're choosing for your green roof actually survive in that location under those conditions, then go ahead with the install.

5) Observe how people think, how they behave, what they feel. p. 125. Context is critical whether you're designing for energy efficiency or human behavior change. That's why it's important to watch how people use the recycle, compost, and waste bins as you design and test your new waste management approach. I can spend a lot of time watching people throw stuff out - there's opportunity there and the answers are in how people behave now.

There's so much more this book has to offer the field and the practice of environmental sustainability. Unleash your creativity for good - you'll be amazed at how fun it is to make your museum's environmental impact a positive one.

Book Review: Ecoliterate

Ecoliterate: How Educators are Cultivating Emotional, Social and Ecological Intelligence Goleman, Daniel, Lisa Bennett and Zenobia Barlow with professional development sections by Carolie Sly.  (Jossey-Bass, 2012.) 

The museum field is actively exploring how to be better at communicating environmental messages. It’s good, new, hard work and I’m very excited about it. This is the third book in my journey through the related literature.

I was struck by this early sentence as an apt description of why we’re in this state of environmental misunderstanding: The complexity of the web of connections that characterize our global society has created a vast collective blind spot about the effects of human behavior on natural systems.

I am continuously concerned that I don’t know what I don’t know, that is, I don’t realize what I’m not understanding or discovering. I am sure this is what has led me to systems thinking and environmental impact. I want to know what to expect and what I’ve missed. To understand the system at least helps me in that. It’s the key to improving understanding our environmental impact.

 

I was greatly helped in my conundrum by the discussion about the intelligences it focuses on: emotional, social and ecological. Their words are far better than mine, so I quote many here: Social and emotional learning was embraced by many schools on the promise that helping children develop the capacities for self awareness, self management, social awareness, and relationship management would increase their likelihood of success in school and life. Now, extensive research shows, that these do lead to important student gains and reduced risks for failure....Research studies examining the influence of an environment-based context have revealed similar encouraging findings...the Center for Ecoliteracy ...has found that socially and emotionally engaged ecoliteracy advances both teacher and student involvement and achievement through hands-on, experiential, contextualized learning in the natural world and the community.

 

There is a valuable summary of what the Center for Ecoliteracy has identified as "The Five Practices of Emotionally and Socially Engaged Ecoliteracy":

• Developing Empathy for All Forms of Life
• Emracing Sustainability as a Community Practice
• Making the Invisible Visible
• Anticipating Uninntended Consequences
• Understanding How Nature Sustains Life

All of that helps me with my own worries about not knowing what I don't know, and it surely is a recipe for helping individuals, institutions and communities "strengthen and extend their capacity to live sustainably".

The essays in this book are memorable examples of someone not knowing and someone else discovering; they are encouragement that none of us needs to know it all, but that reduce our negative impact on the planet and on each other we must be willing to seek and to adapt and improve -- and that wonderfully astonishing things happen as a result. Even good things you didn't know would happen. 

This approach goes against our training of learn, then do, and move on. This approach is more similar to learn, test, learn more, keep testing, and change course as we constantly improve in new directions. That means you’re never done, you’re never “there”. That of course is why this green stuff is called a journey. 

Ecoliterate's stories highlight people who worked for incremental change and achieved much larger goals; individuals who stood up against companies and governments for change; a woman who simply told nature’s story wherever she could, and created significant change. The stories are about native shrimp, school children, coal and big oil, local farms, and classroom curriculum. And they all relate to so many other challenges we face.

 

This book is very valuable to those who:

• can benefit from reassurance that they have to know it all, that they have to get green right, or that there is a right way to go about this,
• those who have been working at environmental sustainability awhile and are in need of next-level ideas for community engagement,
• and those who have been pursuing changes and could use encouragement to push on.

What you will learn, if you’re an educator, outreach coordinator, institutional leader, and/or individual practitioner, is that the personal and systems relationships really, really matter. Send your attention and energy to understanding those, and then use your educator or manager training to transfer that knowledge to the opportunities in your museum, zoo, garden, park or nature center. You will have discovered what you know and what you don’t know, and will have the relationships to discover how to make change work for you and the planet.

 

Reading List

This is the third book in my reading journey, after The Handbook of Sustainability Literacy, and Ecological Literacy: – please join me by sharing books for me to review; reading along with me and commenting. 

AAM 2011 Session: Climate Change & Collective Action

I have a tendency to attend any presentation on any topic by either Wayne LaBar or Emlyn Koster, both of Liberty Science Center, NJ, but this time they were really speaking my language - museums and their role in increasing human practices of environmental sustainability.

Wayne and Emlyn are part of a mostly-Australian dialogue on how museums can collaborate to address climate change...how museums can help humans navigate the Anthropocene (see Wikipedia...new, unofficial term for the geologic age where climate is changed by human activity...see also Curt Stager with Tom Ashbrook and Bill McKibben March 24, 2011 interview. The project is Hot Science Global Citizens and it's an Australian Research Council Linkages Project. Wayne and Emlyn's presentation was sort of  'news from the field' as they reviewed the project's early-stage exploration of museum interventions, intersection of science and humanities, and responsibilities of citizens and the media. 

Two parts stood out - Emlyn's discussion about why tackling climate change is so difficult for the field (with me loving that we agreed on many points, but I also learned a good bit); and Wayne's discussion about how museums must work to address the realities of public response to climate change understanding.
Emlyn listed museums' structural disinclination to address climate change meaningfully. For the most part, museums still tend to:

• focus on collections
• rely on exhibits primarily
• are slow to collaborate deeply and meaningfully
• are poor at integrating past, present and future
• their funders are cautious
• museums tend to avoid the risk of controversy
• museum schools, which might have tackled this topic mightily, have not been a widespread success
• grants tend to support the status quo, not innovation
• and museums are rarely visionary and do not take global leadership positions

Wayne pointed out that "Climate change is no longer a science event, but a cultural change and it won't be solved by science policy." And he tackled the question of "why are people slow to change in response to climate change?"  The collaborative project discussions have articulated two critical disconnects - one of time and risk, and one of science and emotion. 

First:  Education about climate change is scientific; response to climate change (perception of personal risk exposure followed by changes in behavior) is emotional.  Water and oil. 

Second:  Since the risk of loss or injury due to climate change has an uneven and unpredictable timeline for each human perceiving it (will rising sea level affect me anytime soon or in a way I can see? Did a hurricane just him my house?), the debate about when and how much change there will be becomes a distraction that leads to a stalemate.

So Liberty Science Center, instead of doing an exhibit on climate change, much they way they might do an exhibit on skyscrapers or on human health, has chosen to educate about sustainability across all exhibit platforms. It's not a science fact to be learned in a few discrete lessons, but a cultural issue that must seep into human processes from many, many sources.

As a field I believe we should work hard to address the science/emotion and time/risk factors, but let's also use our position as educators, collaborators, and authorities to emphasize positive aspects of environmental sustainability: cost savings, resource conservation, and livable communities, so that we don't lose our audience.     

I'm delighted to be introduced to the Hot Science Global Citizens Project and will follow their further adventures.

Green Revolution – SITES’ Green Path for a Traveling Exhibit

It’s my dream com true: an exhibit in a PDF, with a guide to green community engagement.
Well, not exactly just a PDF, but darned close.

The staff at the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago (MSI) together with the Smithsonian Institution Traveling Exhibition Service (SITES) have combined the scientific sustainability content you crave for your audience, with a reduce-reuse-recycle exhibit-installation philosophy that makes Green Revolution affordable, very low-carbon, and just the ticket for involving your audience in making green changes.

Here’s how it works:

1) You license part or all of the exhibit (total cost up to $5,000…eminently fundable by a community grant). This gives you access to all the design materials, guidebooks, and support you need. You can choose among five topics: waste, energy, greening your home, carbon footprint, and composting/gardening.
2) With your staff and volunteer partners, read all the materials and view installation photographs, talk with the SITES staff, and then start planning your personalized version of Green Revolution.
3) Collect ‘found’ materials (a few optional interactives have small cash costs)
4) Use the exhibit-build process as a museum outreach activity
5) Follow suggestions for, or make up your own, programs and activities to help your audience learn about sustainability and make greener choices.
6) When you choose to end the exhibit, you can repurpose the materials or recycle them.

Then you and your community work together to create the exhibit your way and with your community situation in mind. Here on the Chesapeake Bay, we would probably focus on watershed impact factors such as not fertilizing the lawn, keeping roads clean to reduce nutrient build-up in the rivers, and reducing energy or using alternative sources so we don’t build a power line across the Bay. I can see having the Boy & Girl Scouts, 4-H, the Maritime Museum, and Adkins Arboretum all working with the River Keepers to create a community exhibit out of materials collected through Scouting activities and our Habitat for Humanity’s new ReStore. There is no shipping, no packaging, no big notebooks of installation instructions, and no changes to your spaces. Now that’s green, and that’s creative.

What kind of museum should do this? Any kind.

Obviously Science and Nature and Children’s museums are naturals, so are Zoos and Aquariums, Gardens and General museums. There are all kinds of cool options for Art and History museums. Think what you could do using art in your collection to illustrate these themes, or what a great backdrop your historic house would be for the energy and home sections. For many, it would be a great way to engage a new audience with a new message and experience.

And you can have faith that it works. The MSI folks premiered it, and the Bob Jones Nature Center in Texas tested it. SITES hopes to present at AAM on its experience. In the meantime, check it out at www.sites.si.edu/exhibitions/exhibits/greenRevolution/index.htm.

Let Green Revolution help you with your public engagement, while letting your audience know that your community’s health is important to you.

Just like the SITES materials say: “Green Revolution is more than an exhibition, it’s an event and experience for your entire community.”


Photo courtesy Smithsonian: In Southlake, Texas, the average daily water consumption per capita is 290 gallons. For their version of Green Revolution, the Bob Jones Nature Center displayed this surprising community stat by hanging 300 cleaned gallon milk jugs from a tree.

Sustainable - buttons?

Sustainable buttons - who knew? But there they are at my fabric store, ready for me to replace the not-so-great ones on the jacket I just bought. My fab friend and artist, Maggie, http://maggiestern.com/ms_people.html , will reuse the old ones for her creations and I can make a thoughtful choice for their replacements...or can I?

I chose handsome yet inexpensive cocoanut ones - but yikes! the fine print says to dry clean! So I chose a handsome yet inexpensive set of bamboo buttons instead and will be careful to turn the jacket inside-out when I wash it.

To be fair, my online research shows a great source for cocoanut buttons that does not specify dry-cleaning, just the inside-out rule. The site is a great resource for other thoughtful knitting and sewing work, too. http://www.nearseanaturals.com/index.php

The episode is a reminder of buyer-beware for green materials - even in buttons - and an opportunity: perhaps the Near Sea Naturals folks can become a resource for any museum's Historic Costuming program intersted in going green.