Throughout her life, Pamela has fought to protect our rapidly vanishing forests and wildlife around the world while promoting community conservation that includes environmental payment schemes and income-producing small-scale industries such as Eco-tourism to help the rural poor. Over the last couple of decades, the scope and scale of her work has expanded exponentially.
Today the planet faces ecological disaster for many reasons, from many sources. Putting into practice the advice of Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Al Gore—“First arm yourself with knowledge”—Pamela has dedicated her life to doing just that—learning as much as possible about the various threats to our environment and the survival of humanity on the planet, and then making it her mission to spread that knowledge to make people aware of the critical times we live in and the challenges facing us all. Through her dedication, sacrifice of time, energy and money, as well as concern for the planet and all living things on it, not only has she highlighted the problems, but has offered practical workable solutions to these problems as well.
In the course of her ‘mission,’ Pamela has crisscrossed the Kodagu/Coorg District in which she lives, the state, the country, and even foreign countries to spread her message far and wide through her presentations, talks, and public appearances as well as writing articles for various media. The vast array of different audiences she has reached include students of all ages—from preschool to post grads in college—educators, women’s groups and forums, civic groups and charitable organizations, judges and advocates, government officials and bureaucrats, business groups including the IT sector, environmental groups and other NGOs, ashrams and the general public.
Covering a broad spectrum of environmental and social issues, gearing each talk for the audience in attendance, her talks have included:
- Global warming and climate change
- Decentralization of electricity especially in rural areas, and promotion of truly ‘green’ alternate energy systems and solutions, ‘green solutions’ including:
- Solar power for water and electricity,
- Wind power,
- Tidal power,
- Biogas
- Ocean/geo-thermal
- Conservation of natural resources
- Reducing, reusing and recycling of waste including composting of food/agricultural waste, e-waste (electronic waste such as mobile phones, computers, refrigerators, TVs, etc.)
- Protection of forests and the wildlife they contain, as forests are the watersheds of the world from which spring forth vital water sources (like streams and rivers) and are key as mitigators of global warming/climate change, this protection also helping to defuse dangerous animal/human confrontations caused by forest fragmentation due to human encroachment on the depleting forest cover—this fragmentation forcing animals into villages and farmlands in order to migrate and search for food and water.
- Afforestation projects using native trees on a massive scale to expand forest cover and help in the aforementioned areas.
- Balance of Nature and species extinction—its impacts on society such as loss of biodiversity, food security, health issues, dangers of GMOs (Genetically Modified Organisms), the dangers of chemical use and poisonings, and promotion of organic agriculture.
The talks, presentations and articles, which have touched the lives of tens of thousands, are in and of themselves socially responsible actions as awareness is the first step to finding solutions to the problems facing society. But in moving from theory to practice, these issues have been addressed and solutions implemented in the Sanctuary set up by us in order to demonstrate both their practicality and viability, the Sanctuary being an example for others to emulate.
Bordering the Brahmagiri Wildlife Sanctuary, large areas of the 300+ acre Sanctuary are original forest, not only protecting vital water sources, but also affording easy access to both water and food for numerous species of animals, helping to curtail conflicts with man. This also helps to protect the treasure trove of biodiversity of flora and fauna unique to the mountains of the Western Ghats, biodiversity being key for new sources of medicines, foods, building materials, etc.
With the forest intact and wildlife in balance, pests like insects that destroy crops and spread illnesses like malaria, dengue fever, etc., are kept under control. Spreading awareness of the importance of Nature’s balance in all these areas has helped reduce greatly the incidence of both illegal logging and poaching while enhancing water quality (since the use of chemical pesticides/herbicides is eliminated) and conservation, all of this contributing to improvement of the general health of the local people.
The recent inclusion of Eco-tourism cottages within the Sanctuary has opened up job/income opportunities for many in the community and serves as a model for similar small-scale businesses that emphasize conservation over consumption, making both the forests and wildlife far more valuable alive than dead to the local populace. The Sanctuary is chemical-free with all produce being grown organically with recycling and composting practiced in all areas. All electricity is generated through green alternate energy systems—solar, wind, small hydro and biogas.
Thus the Sanctuary has become a living model that is constantly visited not only by members of the local panchayat and community, but also by bureaucrats and officials, conservationists and businessmen. In addition, it has become an education center for students of all ages, with naturalists and scientists carrying out studies in various fields, the results of which help expand society’s understanding of Nature and the natural cycles in which we live our lives.
One example of the far-reaching effects this has had is in the area of rural energy production. Most rural villagers rely on LPG, kerosene or wood to cook their food and heat bathing water. The cost, lack of stock of both kerosene and LPG, and the distance villagers have to travel to obtain either makes it difficult for many to use and afford. Hence, villagers turn to wood. A family of 4 burns up over 10 kgs. of wood every day when it is used as the primary fuel source. This translates into a tremendous demand on the forest, leading to massive deforestation and release of CO2 into the atmosphere, exacerbating global warming.
A viable, inexpensive and convenient solution to this problem has been demonstrated by two biogas plants recently constructed in the Sanctuary, which now provide all cooking fuel for both the main quarters and eco-tourist guests. Cow dung is readily available in the rural communities and hence an ideal source of energy. In addition, the dung becomes nitrogen-enriched fertilizer for use in farmers’ fields after going through the plant, helping to cut the use of dangerous and expensive chemical fertilizers. Upon inspection of our biogas plants, the local panchayat is now taking up the project for the village, with our help and guidance. This project alone affects thousands of poor villagers in the area.