Truth and Independence

Restoring reefs: Giraffe Hero Aki Allagholi

“If we manage to get a stable ocean, there won’t be so many drastic climate changes and we will all look at a brighter future”. Giraffe Hero Aki Allagholi put up an organisation: coralive.org, a small NGO doing everything to protect, manage and restore coral reefs. How he got to that point, what it takes to restore a coral reef and how to become part of it, he explains in a very detailed, yet easy to follow manner for anybody, familiar or not to the topic. Aki finds some very honest and personal words on how to stop feeding the system but get inspired instead and see what’s the right path for everyone deep inside.

https://freethebees.ch/en/ Climate change Aki allagholi – former ibm and bank worker following a comfortable lifestyle, today is doing everything to protect and restore coral reefs Realised that it was not fulfilling anymore. I lost touch with my inner self, with myself to nature. So change will anyways come in your life so you might as well embrace it. So when I started to travel this change really started. I knew – anyways, in case it doesn’t work, I could always go back and find a new job. But you know, once you’re out there, you’re never going to go back…to this chains. So I went travelling for a few years and I realised also the privilege we have as Westerners – so I realized I needed some purpose to my travelling. So I found the reefdoctors where I could volunteer. Later I did my masters in Mexico and then I worked again for an NGO in the Philippines. And that is when I realised I had to do it on my own, and its when I started the coralive organisation. So one project led to another…some are bigger, linked to other partners, who are also paying for it. The corals are so important to the ocean. If there was a storm that took off all the coral reefs – the outcome is usually a rubble(?) field. A flat ocean floor with lose calcium pieces – so nothing can grow there for 25-30 years. So what can help is to place three dimensional structures. The way we do it is to make these structures made out of steel – so we use these corals of opportunities, make smaller fragments and put it to these structures. It will be overgrown quickly and will become part of the coral reef. The inside will remain hollow and that is where fish, octopus etc. can be safe from bigger fish. If we would plant out a coral fragment in that area it would at least take 25-50 years to be similar. Within 5 years we can have a decent result to have at least decentralised microcosmos with fish around it that then can be left by itself. So to be honest, the only thing I do is to initiate this process and give nature a hand to jumpstart this process. There are several sources of income, inflows I mean. People who donate on the internet, find us. Another way is through a project. For example in hotels as a guest experience or to have a reef for the hotel as a guest adventure and then it’s basically a job for a private financer and then obviously the money that comes in the NGO stays there and can be used to do other projects like a fishing community in the Philippines, costs are not so high there, so we can sponsor money for a project like that -money stays in the NGO and flows back to the ocean again. Climate change – heating of the ocean – not an exactly good thing for the corals. Every seven years there used to be a heat wave, used to be, so nowadays its almost every year which makes it different. So any temperature over 30 degrees for three months is mortal to corals and if it happens all the years its hard to adapt for them. And also there wont be any offspring, because they are stressed and there wont be any sexual reproduction. There are plenty of reasons why corals are so important. Annual value of 30 billion us dollar. Its not something that you directly get. But nobody gets a direct return of investment, that’s why its difficult to find sponsors. And even though if it wasn’t there anymore, you have losses in the billions. Hotels, tourism etc. will collapse. So these investments would totally make sense, but since us humans we are shortsighted, it’s not being seen – even though it doesn’t take so much to protect them. I need to make sure, if I get the opportunity to talk to big donors, to make clear to them, that even though we are small, we have an impact and really make things work. The survival rate is 90%, it does really work. If you want to join, you can create a profile on our website. There you have to get through a questionnaire. Obviously if you bring certain skills, study marine biology or have diving experience, definitively it’s a plus. So if we have projects and no budget we make sure to reach out to them. Unlike other NGOs, we’re not making money out of that. So the only thing we expect is, you have to get there, we take care of everything else. So volunteering is one way to be part of that. The other way is to be a donor, sponsor a reef, sponsor what you want. The money that we receive from donors, 90% will end up directly to the ocean, the overhead costs, servers and all will be the remaining. If theres no blue there is no green. So if you don’t take care of the oceans, you won’t have… (If you manage to get a stable ocean, there won’t be so many drastic climate changes and we will all look at a brighter future… Finds some very honest and personal words to everybody how to stop feeding the system but get inspired and see what’s the right path for everyone deep inside.) Bees. beekeeping, bee colonies, Corals, coral reef, malediven, seychelles, fregata, greece, thailand, coral restauration, nursery The Giraffe we want to introduce you to today is Dimi. Dimi is a filmmaker who has produced several documentaries on shoestring budgets. About his most recent one, which is still in the making Not your bee, he will give some fascinating insights in this talk. He’s asking the right questions, like who do insects belong to and what might be the consequence of this possessive idea men tend to have about bees – about the environment in general. Other than that he’s revealing very moving stories about his other activities, be it as a filmmaker doing guerrilla actions to demonstrate the consequence of the refugee politics, or be it as a social worker trying to reunify families and help depressed young people. He’s explaining us how the open heart circles he organizes help make people talk, how rituals and candle light can help – to talk with each other and open up hearts instead of shielding off the most beloved ones around you. Varroa mite: Varroa destructor is an external parasitic mite that attacks and feeds on the honey bees Apis cerana and Apis mellifera. The disease caused by the mites is called varroosis. The Varroa mite can reproduce only in a honey bee colony. It attaches to the body of the bee and weakens the bee by sucking fat bodies. https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2019/07/breeders-toughen-bees-resist-deadly-mites Your opinion on bee dying André? -several factors from the outside, as pesticide, but also beekeeper is responsible. Bee production – prevention from swarming. Treatment, organic acids. Bees can’t adapt to their nature under this condition. Comparison between bees and cows or any other husbandry Animal Aren’t cows and so on not in the same way affected? Yes, we’re doing the same, but with honey bees it’s even a lot more, having also lost biodiversity (resources in the nature) at the same time. And also, cows are not as important for the ecosystem as bees. Exploiting bees has quadrupled, cows only doubled Isn’t the bee only a semi- husbandry Animal? On one way yes -, but it’s kept as a husbandry though they are wild animals Is this the key argument from the organization free the bees? Yes, because they are linked to natural selection. And even though natural selection can be a horrible thing it’s very important for them because they have to adapt, otherwise they won’t survive the climate change etc. So are they able to survive the Varroa mite? Link to COVID-19? Yes, there is indeed. There are processes and behaviors, that the bees are able to protect themselves/immune system. We know, that they can coexist, we know it in a scientific and practical manner. But we also know if we try treating them then they won’t learn to adapt to live with them. The Varroa mite is only one problem today so we have to find another way to deal with it. That is a really fascinating. Our subject is climate adaptation, or climate change. So if I remember correctly, bees have a history of some 45, or scientifically at least 30 million years. This proves they are very adaptive and have survived many extinctions. So it’s interesting, that they are now threatened by human species and civilization. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bee Yes, that’s true, bees can cope with many things and in the last 100 years we have cut the natural evolution through beekeeping who feed and treat and prevent from swarming, so under this condition they don’t adapt to new conditions. So these are the solutions we’re looking for at free the bees You as a participant of our crowdfunding, you and your organization are offering some very interesting rewards. There seem to be even bee dogs or things, that are able to deal with these problems or explain please what a Klotzbeute is? https://wemakeit.com/projects/climate-adaptation https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beehive#Bee_gums https://www.bienenjournal.de/imkerpraxis/fachberichte/imkern-in-klotzbeute-und-zeidelbaeumen/ By the way you can call it log hive in English – just a hollow peace of a tree. So their most important thing is their habitat – and since bees always lived in trees, and we know their natural habitat have some very interesting parameters and factors of humidity etc., so we try to reproduce these with hollow trees and went down to learn how in the middle age the beekeepers kept the bees in a more natural manner. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Middle_age#:~:text=According%20to%20the%20Oxford%20English,age%20from%2055%20to%2065. Now we went a step further to understand the tree cavity and helped us to produce a lot of them to give the bees back their habitat and all the rest is done by nature That’s fascinating, that means I can go to free the bees and they can show me how to do it and I can take it back to the garden? That is right yes, we give courses how to produce honey in a more natural way, so if you really want to know we can show you in two days, needs some muscles and sweating. So if you would like to give a habitat but don’t have time to build it, you just order it and we send it. You hang it and hope they will come Sounds very good, I invite everybody to order one. What is a swiss tree? Yes, that’S right. So instead of doing all this work of carving out a tree we have a swiss tree, which is much easier to produce It’s the monitored, natural environment Yes, we have different Swiss tree lines -some have their focus on the habitat where you can open and have a look. Others where you can even act as a beekeeper and even produce a little honey. Now the most fascinating reward – you offer a beedog which can do the work much faster. https://dogtime.com/dog-health/general/19713-meet-bazz-the-canine-beekeeper Yes, there is the illness, American Foulbrood, you can tell from smelling – but only when it’s too late. So we decided to train dogs, so they can detect it in a very early stage. It’s a very interesting project because in the first time we can. Check beehives without opening them and stress the bees and especially tell if they are ill or not https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v2Aa56jut7Y Well that sounds like a real breakthrough so you apply the sensitive noses of the dogs to detect if they are healthy. Yes, it’s like an innovation in beekeeping sustainability Natural bee swarm. A word about trees? Bees are dependent on old trees. Also on a variety of trees, otherwise you have a lack of food. Next Podcast about trees. Vision to the crowd? Great you’re back on board. The Giraffe we want to introduce you to today is Dimi. Dimi is a filmmaker who has produced several documentaries on shoestring budgets. About his most recent one, which is still in the making Not your bee, he will give some fascinating insights in this talk. He’s asking the right questions, like who do insects belong to and what might be the consequence of this possessive idea men tend to have about bees – about the environment in general. Other than that he’s revealing very moving stories about his other activities, be it as a filmmaker doing guerrilla actions to demonstrate the consequence of the refugee politics, or be it as a social worker trying to reunify families and help depressed young people. He’s explaining us how the open heart circles he organizes help make people talk, how rituals and candle light can help – to talk with each other and open up hearts instead of shielding off the most beloved ones around you. Please join us to listen to todays….. His approach is the one he has experienced on his travel in Asia - cooperating with bees rather than keeping them and trying to “bring the wild bees” back to Europe. Showing the way, men are taking too much space. About bees, trees, and giving them their space. Dimi Dumortier, activist, artist, actor, film maker….. Dimi will be able to document the work of this nascent movement «GECA: Giraffes for Ecology and Climate Adaptation» and promote his documentary «Not Your Bee» This is an animal, that is essential to the survival of the world basically. We are going to make races that don’t resist new preditors etc… Part of the campaign Everything is part of the system. If you take one thing out, it’s not going to work anymore. Social work: my background was very healthy, no problems etc., caring parents, no financial issues. When I came to know all those people in Belgium, the young pple suffering in a rich country like Belgium…. We’Re trying to bring families together, people together. Create an atmosphere to be in the moment, live the moment. Try to talk, open. Ask questions. It’s called the open heart circles. We’re not able to stop every child to have suicidal thoughts – but a lot of these thoughts if you share these dark topics and manage to not shield off the rest of the family, disappear. And we try to take this off, being in family, is the right place to take it off, once you talk about it… For me the first thing that comes in life is music, singing, people, social relationships. Only then comes the climate and so on. https://www.facebook.com/NOT-YOUR-BEE-108212613874933 https://freethebees.ch/en/ https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10841-013-9609-1 http://www.bee-careful.com/bee-life/bee-community/ We’re facing challenges which we can only find solutions in the whole civilisation. We try to look for solutions but everybody really has to think for themselves and hope everybody can try to help and bring themselves in.```

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