Pilot Project Goals

Put control of food production and direct delivery into the hands of subsistence and commercial fishers.

Fishing fleet in Cordova, Alaska. Photo © Eyak Preservation Council

The Community Cold Storage (CCS) Proof of Concept pilot project is building a replicable community food processing and preservation model that perpetuates public benefit outcomes. The CCS system will offer space, services, time and market support in a Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) certified seafood processing facility. The CCS will serve subsistence fishers and gatherers to process, freeze, and value-add to their seafood harvests alongside commercial fishers, increasing the quality of their traditional foods and access to direct-market their commercially harvested seafoods.

For the Proof of Concept, we will foster the development of an organization that ensures measures for a successful social-profit model that encourages community outreach to meet the concerns and food needs of rural communities.  The work of the CCS is to create a scalable proof-of-concept for an affordable and portable cold storage model that will support the conservation of wild salmon and preservation of indigenous culture through education and empowerment to support truly sustainable and regenerative lifeways for all people.

The Mission

The Community Cold Storage Pilot Project’s mission is to serve rural communities by providing affordable and easily portable modular systems and facilities that will improve and value-add methods of handling subsistence and commercial foods in order to retain, enhance and preserve unique subsistence-based culture and heritage while maintaining and preserving the quality of traditional and local food resources, necessary for providing critical food security and food sovereignty futures.

The Need

A community cold storage facility will serve subsistence and commercial fishers and their communities as a replicable business model catalyzing renewable economies that incorporate state-of-the-art technologies.

Hand-cut salmon filet. Photo © Eyak Preservation Council

People have always relied upon seafoods as a basic resource to sustain life for its nutritional, cultural and economic value.  Yet in the current world marketplace, local, national and international seafood processing facilities dominate the entire industry by controlling the price of seafoods from the fishermen’s catch to the wholesaler to the consumer.  When the price of sockeye salmon drops to less than $2 per pound, fishers and locals still have to pay $3.75+ per pound for basic processing, vacuum sealing and freezing their catch, which keeps them at the lowest base of a living wage.

Fish-based food provides a unique combination of high-quality proteins, rich in omega-3’s and vital nutrients that make it an invaluable food source.  However, quality and nutrient values can be lost within the first hour of harvest, through improper onboard and onshore handling, cooling and processing.

Communities, fisheries and industries worldwide have a responsibility to push for less fish waste, less mystery fish and more traceability and the maintenance of low-impact, socially equitable, best handled fishing practices that are sustainable, regenerative and that build renewable economic programs for communities.  The CCS will serve subsistence-based communities and commercial fisheries as well as farmers, as a replicable food industry model for rural communities.

The Location

Proof of Concept – Cordova, Alaska

Prince William Sound Watershed – Alaska. Photo © Eyak Preservation Council

The first CCS Proof of Concept will be developed and installed in Cordova, Alaska. This fishery, due to its combination of traditional subsistence fishing, hunting and gathering and commercial fishers alongside a world-renowned fishery provides a perfect testing region for the CCS Connex facility concept. Since it is an off the road system, it also presents a unique contrast of rural community-based subsistence food and economic needs with international demand for world famous wild salmon and seafood products. That this year’s fishing season unexpectedly collapsed for a myriad of reasons, clearly demonstrates the need to present tangible solutions for affordable and predictable processing and freezing, kitchen space for value-added products, and locking in traceability measures to ensure quality.

In Cordova, this unique Gulf of Alaska community depends on the world-renown Copper River Delta – which is still 98% roadless and wild – and Prince William Sound seafoods for sustaining their health, nutrition and their wild salmon way of life.  The CCS project fulfills years of research by the Eyak Preservation Council, a local non-profit which is led by the local Indigenous Eyak people who are adamant about building resilient community models for the future and regenerative wild salmon-based economies that honor wild foods, provide for food sovereignty and food security while empowering fishers to thrive in a regionally driven cottage and direct marketing industry.

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Where do the wild things live? On Isla Coíba, some 23 Kilometers off the Pacific Coast of Panama.  Alicia Ibañez, a scientist with the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute (STRI) who began working in Coíba in 1997, estimates that 80 percent of the forests on Isla Coíba have remained untouched by humans for more than 500 years.  Beyond its distance from the mainland, Isla Coíba has remained isolated from human development due to its local reputation for housing dangerous criminals and political dissidents.  From 1919 to 2004, Isla Coíba was used as a high security penal colony, a fate that provided the unintentional preservation of the largest untouched rainforests in the Americas.

Isla Coiba is located off the Pacific Coast of Panama. Photo: Panama Magazine

Today, the island supports an amazing amount of biodiversity with numerous endemic species as well as stable populations of species that have essentially disappeared from Panama’s mainland.  Isla Coíba is a National Park of Panama and was designated as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2004.  Unfortunately, Isla Coíba now faces numerous threats: grazing from nonnative species such as buffalo and cattle – a product of the penal colony era; terrestrial and marine poaching due to a lack of funds for supervisory staff; and pressure from private investment groups that are eager to develop a tourist industry off the park’s natural beauty.  With these growing threats, there is a need to help nurture a love for this Panamanian and world ecological treasure.

Can you see the Roughjaw Frogfish hiding in plain sight among these sponges. 84% of fish species in the Eastern Tropical Pacific are unique to that region, and this frogfish is one example. Photo expedition to Coiba Island, Panama by the International League of Conservation Photographers . Photo:Tim Laman©

Continuing their tireless work in conservation and education, the International League of Conservation Photographers (iLCP) has organized scientists and conservation organizations to launch a Coíba Bioblitz, a rapid biodiversity survey, of the area.  The Baum Foundation is part of this coalition of organizations supporting the Coíba Bioblitz and participated in the first part of this Bioblitz expeditions.

Equipped with cameras, curiosity and experience, a team of more than two dozen experts – including scientists, conservation photographers and journalists – set out to capture the breadth of Isla Coíba’s biodiversity.  Most of the island is rugged and unexplored, leaving much of its biological treasures undocumented and offering huge potential for the discovery of new species.  Not only has this Bioblitz surfaced new and previously undocumented species on Isla Coíba and its surrounding marine environments, it also establishes a foundation for the imminent conservation campaign necessary to protect the rich biodiversity and natural beauty that is Isla Coíba.

An unusually colored Brown vine snake, found near Playa Maria. Photoexpedition to Coiba Island/ Panama coordinated by the International League of Conservation Photographers: Photo: Christian Ziegler©

Accompanying the Coíba Bioblitz, iLCP plans a multi-stage strategy to foster local Panamanian and international appreciation for the protection of Isla Coíba and similar ecological Hope Spots. Seasoned conservation photographers and iLCP Founding Fellows Christian Ziegler and Tim Laman hope that their photo-documentation will reach a wide audience and result in the lasting ecological protection for Isla Coíba.  Images from the expedition were exhibited at the opening of Panama’s BioMuseo in the fall of 2015, featured in GEO Magazine, Europe’s most important natural history publication,  made available to partnering organizations for their work to support the conservation of Isla Coíba and compiled into a coffee table book as a lasting reminder of the biological gems of Isla Coíba.

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A Cocodrilo student cleans up trash from their waters

Under the umbrella of Ocean Doctor´s environmental economic effort, its Cuba Conservancy Program has launched the Project Red Alerta in Cocodrilo, a small community on the southern shore of Cuba’s Isle of Youth. Ocean Doctor has been working with community leaders in Cocodrilo to explore new ideas that could simultaneously better connect the community with the adjacent Marine Protected Area and leverage new economic benefits to community members. From these discussions, and largely from Cocodrilo’s residents themselves, emerged Project Red Alerta, a project that integrates education, science and sustainable alternative for income, including ecotourism, while raising environmental awareness and helping ensure the ongoing protection of the MPA. Through this project, a coral reef ecosystem monitoring network and education community. The community is engaging in environmental issues and protection, coral reef ecosystems, their importance and threats, and trained in monitoring methodologies. Cocodrilo students and Red Alerta team have also led grassroot activities such as beach clean-ups, education activities in ocean conservation, local engagement speeches and outreach.

American students visit a school in Cuba with local scientists

Ocean Doctor´s Cuba Education Experiences Program offers a once-in-a-life-time opportunity for your school/group to work with Cuba scientists while learning from Cuba’s local environmental issues, successes and threats, including socioeconomic and cultural issues brought by normalizing relations with the U.S. The program give travelers a unique opportunity to experience hands-on research and field work, while engage in current Ocean Doctor projects, including collaborative research with the University of Havana’s Center for Marine Research (CIM). The educational program helps support Ocean Doctor’s research and conservation efforts in Cuba including bilateral scientific collaboration for the protection of a shared Ocean.

You can support Ocean Doctor by clicking the button blow.

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Sinyone Coast, by Hawk Rosales ©2013

Stewards of the Wild Sea (2013)is the third film in a series made by Coyote Films and The Baum Foundation that illuminates the pioneering conservation efforts of the Marine Life Protection Act (MLPA) Initiative in California that created the first statewide network of marine protected areas in the United States. Directed by Bill Bayne, Produced by Hawk Rosales, April Bucksbaum and The Baum Foundation, this film was featured at the 10^th World Wilderness Congress in Salamanca, Spain (2013), and nominated as a finalist for the best film in the Conservation Innovation and Solutions category by the 2014 Blue Ocean Film Festival.

Stewards of the Wild Sea shares lessons learned and what went right for indigenous people, specifically for north coast tribes and ocean wilderness.  Stewards of the Wild Sea highlights the pivotal role that north coast tribes played in protecting their ancestral fishing and gathering rights while participating in a unique Tribal-State partnership that brought about a dual victory for both the marine environment and tribal nations.

The success of the Marine Life Protection Act (MLPA) Initiative was featured at the 10^th World Wilderness Congress (Wild10) in Salamanca, Spain, October 2013 where a California Ocean Wilderness Delegation was recognized at the global forum.  Key legislators, tribal leaders and other stakeholders were invited to discuss their experience in the planning and implementation of California’s Marine Life Protection Act (MLPA) Initiative, the role of Native American leadership in the outcome of this process and reflections on important lessons learned in Northern California through the involvement of tribal governments and the public in planning and conservation.

California’s historic designation of a state marine regulation protecting the subsistence rights of north coast tribes while implementing a statewide network of marine protected areas shows how “conservation goals can be achieved” with strong leadership, vision, collaboration, and perseverance after more than a decade-long effort that included the State’s substantial investment in an inclusive public-private partnership process based on science and stakeholder input.

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PCAP – offering climate change solutions.

The Presidential Climate Action Project (PCAP) aims to leverage the existing traction it has achieved over 6 years to further work toward the goal of expediting America’s transition to a clean energy economy creating a safer, more prosperous and healthy future for all.

With the help of over 200 leading Americans and hundreds of NGOs, PCAP created an updated concise peer‐reviewed action plan for the President of the United States, focused on global climate change and closely related national security and energy issues.

The plan recommended policy and programmatic initiatives the 45^th President and his Administration could implement under current executive authorities, without further action by Congress. PCAP made the plan public on October 1, 2012, to focus election attention on climate change issues and the leadership team presented the plan to the President elect’s transition team in December 2012. PCAP continues to work with groups across the nation to share how they can transform their communities locally.

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Vision of a Sustainable Future.

In 2011, The Baum Foundation joined The Future We Want project team to focus on creating a vision of a sustainable future, a multi-year initiative to fill the “vision vacuum” and to build a social contract between business, consumers, and governments, to envision life in sustainable societies 20 years from now.

The Future We Want (FWW) aims to unleash the “power of positive vision” as an antidote for “apocalypse fatigue” – the tendency for people to disengage from problems like climate change when the problems seem overwhelming. The Future We Want translates the concept of sustainable development from intellectual abstractions into realistic and emotionally engaging visualizations and then builds public support for the international, national and local implementation of those ideas and policies.

Support your vision for a sustainable future by making a donation using the button below.

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Bella Gaia at the Denver Museum of Science and Nature.

Bella Gaia’s unique performance reveals the intricate interconnectedness of our actions and Earth’s natural processes in an engaging and easily understood visual format. Bella Gaia translates complex scientific data and informs the public, policymakers and youth about diverse issues such as 1) why climate change occurs, 2) what the impacts to ecosystems look like over time, and 3) showcases what solutions can be implemented now. This enlightening presentation helps viewers become better informed citizens of the world leading to improved stewardship of our planet.

You can support BELLA GAIA by clicking on the button below.

BELLA GAIA’s project Hotspots to Hopespots, directed by award-winning filmmaker, music producer and classically trained violinist, Kenji Williams showcases visualizations that illuminate Hotspots and Hopespots around the globe. Selected images for the film came from a myriad of resources, including the UNEP Live portal which is based on research led by UNEP’s Division of Early Warning and Assessment (DEWA) and NASA.

BELLA GAIA is one of the most positive visual and synergistic “Earth View” performances and education programs in the world today.

BELLA GAIA was awarded a NASA grant in 2010 to integrate NASA’s emerging scientific data into BELLA GAIA for the Beautiful Earth Project that has been seen and shared in museums, universities and live public performances worldwide. Learn more about BELLA GAIA. View Press Downloads.

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Reef Threats.

In 2012, The Nature Conservancy (TNC) expanded a plan to spread an innovative new strategy developed by Dr. Rod Salm of The Nature Conservancy called a Resilience Model to help define and frame resilience in an easily understandable way. This model has evolved over time and continues to be refined.

To reach and influence a critical audience of Marine Park Area managers, the TNC developed a Reef Resilience Toolkit that resides on the Internet and is filled with cutting-edge science and lessons learned at similar projects worldwide. Over the next decade they provided the Resilience Toolkit to 75 percent of marine protected areas in Asia’s “Coral Triangle” and 60 percent of other reef areas globally in order to disseminate tools for use in the field as broadly as possible.

The program continues share the latest innovations and discoveries in the science of coral reef conservation with those who are in charge of Marine Protected Areas globally.

Highlights and Successes:

• The Baum Foundation provided critical support for this project in 2001 called Reef Resilience (r²) led by Dr. Rod Salm of the Nature Conservancy.
• After 10 years of hard work and dedication, the project was awarded a grant from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation to offer workshops for Trainers to learn about building Resilience into Reef management and expanding the tools available for addressing the impacts of climate change.
• The Baum Foundation continues to support this program through the funding of reef assessments by Dr. Salm and distribution of their results of the data analysis. In 2012, the Baum provided further support for an assessment of the Palau region.

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Reducing Trash In Our Ocean.

In 2011, The Baum Foundation worked to advance Global Alert: Floating Trash (Global Alert), a project in reaction to mass accumulation of floating trash and plastic debris in the worlds 5 Gyres. The Baum Foundation supported the project from its early inception to delivery of a beta web-tool designed to connect citizens, scientists and waste managers to reduce trash flowing to the ocean from our global waterways.

Global Alert provides a visual snapshot of aggregated trash, or “hotspots,” and connects people to local community stewards in their areas that will help them to take action to address these problem areas. Using mobile devices and web-based software, people can upload their debris data from rivers onto the website, making Global Alert an awareness and management tool to improve river groups and citizen scientists understanding about the critical link between rivers and ocean health. The projects focus is to drive sustainable change incrementally with the goal of reducing plastic waste.

http://youtu.be/yr6N9DExyo8

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Students Plant Seedlings.

Green Forests Work for Appalachia was a project created by the Appalachian Regional Reforestation Initiative (ARRI) aimed at putting American citizens “back to work,” to revitalize the economy in Appalachia and to provide multi-use forests that are a vital and sustainable resource.

The Baum Foundation provided support to the organization to organize its reforestation initiative in 2009 and 2010, to name the program Green Forests Work and to prepare their plans for future funding support for planting 125,000,000 trees on 175,000 acres of barren mined land.

In 2010, Green Forests Work organized 17 tree planting events throughout the Appalachian coal region, planted 150,000 tree seedlings on approximately 210 acres of previously coal-mined lands, and engaged over 2,000 volunteers. There are up to one million acres of mined land in economically depressed Appalachia that we can plant trees on. Much of the soil has been reduced to an ecological desert of compacted soils and mostly non-native, aggressive grasses and shrubs. By 2014, planting trees on coal-mined land can create over 2,000 jobs.

Planting a Tree.

The Baum Foundation also brought in Bill Becker, Executive Director of the Presidential Climate Action Project, to Appalachia to see first hand what the endeavor was about. This led to the inclusion of Green Forests Work in a seminal report titled Economic Diversification in Central Appalachia that outlines a strategy for recovery and sustainable prosperity for Appalachia that will be delivered to the Department of the Interior and President Obama.
In 2010 Green Forests Work successfully won support from various funding sources for their future tree-planting efforts. Forest scientist at Indiana University of Pennsylvania was awarded enough stimulus money to plant 300 acres in Pennsylvania. Green Forests Work spurred on the American Municipal Power to finance (for the carbon credits) tree planting for about 200 acres in Ohio and possibly another 100 in Western Kentucky. In 2010, The Divisions of Forestry in Kentucky, Virginia, and Alabama each had about $100,000 from the United States Forestry Service to plant about 100 acres in each of those states.

After years of effort, the Appalachian Regional Commission (ARC) informed Dr. Chris Barton, science team leader for the Appalachian Regional Reforestation Initiative (ARRI) that ARC intended to fund Green Forests Work.  Funding for the project served to develop a staff, and facilitate ARRI ripping/tree planting projects on old, abandoned, legacy mines.

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