Suggested Reading & Activism Spotlight: Save The Golden Lion Tamarin

Activism Spotlight

Picture courtesy of: www.savetheliontamarin.org

In honor of this month’s featured animal, the Golden Lion Tamarin, I’d like to shine to spotlight on an organization called Save the Golden Lion Tamarin (SGLT). Based out of the Washington D.C. area, SGLT was created in 2005 by a small group of conservation professionals dedicated to protecting the golden lion tamarin. SGLT provides technical and financial support to their sister organization, the Associação Mico-Leão Dourado (Golden Lion Tamarin Association, AMLD), based in Rio de Janeiro.
SGLT’s mission is as follows:

1. To protect the Golden Lion Tamarin, a tiny endangered primate, and to protect and restore the globally outstanding biodiversity of its natural habitat, the Brazilian Atlantic Coastal Rainforest.

2. To cooperate with other organizations with similar purposes.

3. To enlighten and educate society about preservation of the environment, especially the Atlantic Rainforest and the Golden Lion Tamarin.

4. To support and promote the efforts of AMLD, a Brazilian non-profit registered under the laws of the city and State of Rio de Janeiro, whose mission is the conservation of the biodiversity of the Brazilian Atlantic Coastal Rainforest focusing on the long-term protection of the golden lion tamarin in its natural habitat.


AMLD was created in 1992. SGLT and AMLD work together to mobilize and sustain efforts to achieve the goal of preserving golden lion tamarins and their habitat in perpetuity. SGLT provides support to AMLD with technical guidance, coordination, and training. Together, they pool their efforts to mobilize local landowners to restore the forest on their lands; assist landowners in legally establishing private reserves; develop environmentally friendly and realistic ways for locals to generate income; collaborate with government agencies to increase protection of federal reserves; work with local governments and organizations to establish policies to preserve forests, golden lion tamarins, and water; train local teachers to integrate environmental protection into the curriculum, and scientifically manage and monitor the population of golden lion tamarins.

To successfully save and preserve the tamarins, SGLT believes that there needs to be a viable population with 2,000 tamarins living freely in a landscape of 25,000 hectares of connected and protected Atlantic Forest habitat by year 2025. AMLD was established to do exactly that. With the help of the two organizations, 1,600 tamarins now live in isolated forest fragments, (AMLD manages 1,463 of them), 18,750 hectares of forest are connected by forest corridors planted by AMLD, and 10,604 hectares are permanently protected. SGLT and AMLD are more than halfway to their goal.

There are many ways you can help Save the Golden Lion Tamarin, including directly donating online. See what a donation of 25$, 100$, 250$, 500$, 1,000$, 1,500$, 2,000$, 5,000$, and 8,000$ can do here. Donations will directly support conservation efforts, and they are tax-deductible.

For a minimum donation of 25$, you can adopt Devra, a young golden lion tamarin, and receive an adoption package via email. Devra was selected as the featured tamarin for the 2011-2012 timeframe, so I’m not entirely sure if this donation method is still entirely valid, now that it’s 2013. Devra is named after a conservation scientist and co-founder of SGLT who worked to conserve tamarins for over forty years.

Rather than donating money, you can help SGLT by volunteering, either virtually or in person in the Washington D.C. area. SGLT is looking for secretarial help, Portuguese to English translation, writing, campaign design, a financial audit, legal assistance, help with digitizing slides, and event planning.

You can purchase Benjamin Beck’s novel, Thirteen Gold Monkeys, available on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and OutSkirts Press, and 50% of your purchase will be donated to the Devra G. Kleiman endowment to support ongoing tamarin conservation efforts.

Finally, you can sign up with goodsearch.com, a Google alternative, and select SGLT as your charity. Every time you conduct a search on goodsearch, a penny will be donated to the organization of your choice. Furthermore, when you shop online through goodsearch, a percentage of your purchase will be donated. Online shopping with goodsearch includes all of your favorite stores, like Amazon, Wal-Mart, Sears, and more. I have signed up with goodsearch and SGLT is currently my selected organization. I will talk about goodsearch more in next week’s edition of “Ecofriendly Economics.”

I hope you will consider assisting Save the Golden Lion Tamarin in some way, whether you donate money, offer volunteer services, or raise awareness for the organization and the endangered species it protects. To see what some kids have been doing to support golden lion tamarins, check out this adorable page on SGLT’s website.

If you decide to help this organization in some way, let me know, and I’ll be sure to mention you on Viridorari. You can email me at viridorari@yahoo.com or leave a comment below.

To learn more about SGLT, visit their website.

Source: http://www.savetheliontamarin.org/ 

Suggested Reading

To continue with this week's theme of  rescuing animals, in honor of my late rescue dog, Buddy, I decided to provide some reading material that further delves into the topic of adopting your pet from a shelter vs. buying it from a store. This article, written in 2011 by Marianne Carrano and posted on examiner.com, explores your options when it comes to finding a pet, and explores the pros and cons of adopting and buying from a pet store or breeder. She also provides ways that you can support your local shelters. This article is geared toward people that live in Long Island, but of course, the topic is applicable to everyone. 

You can find the article here.

Please let me know what you think, and if you have read/watched anything lately that you think is applicable to Viridorari, whether it be a book, an article, a movie, etc., please contact me to suggest it, or consider being a Guest Writer for an edition of "Suggested Reading." Contact me at viridorari@yahoo.com.

 Animal of the Month Update      

 

Devra, SGLT’s featured tamarin for 2011-2012
Picture courtesy of: http://www.savetheliontamarin.org/adopt-glt-devra/

Leontopithecus rosalia is the scientific name for golden lion tamarins. They weigh about 1.5 pounds and measuring about 25 inches long from their head to tip of their tail. In Portuguese, they are called Mico-leão dourado.  They have long, prehensile tails that help them to balance as they travel from tree to tree in the forest canopies of the Brazilian Atlantic Coastal Rainforest.

Picture courtesy of: http://www.flickr.com/photos/marjoleinvegers/5676406598/#