1.
International Union for Conservation of Nature
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The International Union for Conservation of Nature is an international organization working in the field of nature conservation and sustainable use of natural resources. It is involved in gathering and analysis, research, field projects, advocacy, lobbying. IUCNs mission is to influence, encourage and assist societies throughout the world to conserve nature and to ensure that any use of resources is equitable. Over the past decades, IUCN has widened its focus beyond conservation ecology and now incorporates issues related to equality, poverty alleviation. Unlike other international NGOs, IUCN does not itself aim to mobilize the public in support of nature conservation and it tries to influence the actions of governments, business and other stakeholders by providing information and advice, and through lobbying and partnerships. The organization is best known to the public for compiling and publishing the IUCN Red List. IUCN has a membership of over 1200 governmental and non-governmental organizations, some 11,000 scientists and experts participate in the work of IUCN commissions on a voluntary basis. It employs approximately 1000 full-time staff in more than 60 countries and its headquarters are in Gland, Switzerland. IUCN has observer and consultative status at the United Nations, and plays a role in the implementation of several conventions on nature conservation. It was involved in establishing the World Wide Fund for Nature, in the past, IUCN has been criticized for placing the interests of nature over those of indigenous peoples. In recent years, its relations with the business sector have caused controversy. It was previously called the International Union for Protection of Nature, establishment In 1947, the Swiss League for the Protection of Nature organised an international conference on the protection of nature in Brunnen. It is considered to be the first government-organized non-governmental organization, the initiative to set up the new organisation came from UNESCO and especially from its first Director General, the British biologist Julian Huxley. At the time of its founding IUPN was the international organisation focusing on the entire spectrum of nature conservation Early years. Its secretariat was located in Brussels and its first work program focused on saving species and habitats, increasing and applying knowledge, advancing education, promoting international agreements and promoting conservation. Providing a solid base for conservation action was the heart of all activities. IUPN and UNESCO were closely associated and they jointly organized the 1949 Conference on Protection of Nature. In preparation for this conference a list of endangered species was drawn up for the first time
2.
National park
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A national park is a park in use for conservation purposes. Often it is a reserve of natural, semi-natural, or developed land that a sovereign state declares or owns, although individual nations designate their own national parks differently, there is a common idea, the conservation of wild nature for posterity and as a symbol of national pride. An international organization, the International Union for Conservation of Nature, although Yellowstone was not officially termed a national park in its establishing law, it was always termed such in practice and is widely held to be the first and oldest national park in the world. The first area to use national park in its legislation was the USs Mackinac Island. Australias Royal National Park, established in 1879, was the third official national park. In 1895 ownership of Mackinac Island was transferred to the State of Michigan as a state park, as a result, Australias Royal National Park is by some considerations the second oldest national park now in existence. The largest national park in the meeting the IUCN definition is the Northeast Greenland National Park. According to the IUCN,6,555 national parks worldwide met its criteria in 2006, IUCN is still discussing the parameters of defining a national park. National parks are almost always open to visitors, in 1971, these criteria were further expanded upon leading to more clear and defined benchmarks to evaluate a national park. In 1810, the English poet William Wordsworth described the Lake District as a sort of property, in which every man has a right and interest who has an eye to perceive. It was known as Hot Springs Reservation, but no authority was established. Federal control of the area was not clearly established until 1877, John Muir is today referred to as the Father of the National Parks due to his work in Yosemite. He published two articles in The Century Magazine, which formed the base for the subsequent legislation. President Abraham Lincoln signed an Act of Congress on July 1,1864, ceding the Yosemite Valley, according to this bill, private ownership of the land in this area was no longer possible. The state of California was designated to manage the park for use, resort. Leases were permitted for up to ten years and the proceeds were to be used for conservation, a public discussion followed this first legislation of its kind and there was a heated debate over whether the government had the right to create parks. The perceived mismanagement of Yosemite by the Californian state was the reason why Yellowstone at its establishment six years later was put under national control, in 1872, Yellowstone National Park was established as the United States first national park, being also the worlds first national park. In some European countries, however, national protection and nature reserves already existed, such as Drachenfels, Yellowstone was part of a federally governed territory
3.
National Park Service
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It was created on August 25,1916, by Congress through the National Park Service Organic Act and is an agency of the United States Department of the Interior. As of 2014, the NPS employs 21,651 employees who oversee 417 units, the National Park Service celebrated its centennial in 2016. National parks and national monuments in the United States were originally individually managed under the auspices of the Department of the Interior, the movement for an independent agency to oversee these federal lands was spearheaded by business magnate and conservationist Stephen Mather, as well as J. Horace McFarland. With the help of journalist Robert Sterling Yard, Mather ran a publicity campaign for the Department of the Interior and they wrote numerous articles that praised the scenic and historic qualities of the parks and their possibilities for educational, inspirational, and recreational benefits. This campaign resulted in the creation of a National Park Service, Mather became the first director of the newly formed NPS. On March 3,1933, President Herbert Hoover signed the Reorganization Act of 1933, the act would allow the President to reorganize the executive branch of the United States government. It wasnt until later that summer when the new President, Franklin D. Roosevelt, President Roosevelt agreed and issued two Executive orders to make it happen. In 1951, Conrad Wirth became director of the National Park Service, the demand for parks after the end of the World War II had left the parks overburdened with demands that could not be met. In 1952, with the support of President Dwight D. Eisenhower, he began Mission 66, New parks were added to preserve unique resources and existing park facilities were upgraded and expanded. In 1966, as the Park Service turned 50 years old, emphasis began to turn from just saving great and wonderful scenery, Director George Hartzog began the process with the creation of the National Lakeshores and then National Recreation Areas. Since its inception in 1916, the National Park Service has managed each of the United States national parks, Yellowstone National Park was the first national park in the United States. In 1872, there was no government to manage it. Yosemite National Park began as a park, the land for the park was donated by the federal government to the state of California in 1864 for perpetual conservation. Yosemite was later returned to federal ownership, at first, each national park was managed independently, with varying degrees of success. In Yellowstone, the staff was replaced by the U. S. Army in 1886. Due to the irregularities in managing these national treasures, Stephen Mather petitioned the government to improve the situation. In response, Secretary of the Interior Franklin K. Lane challenged him to lobby for creating a new agency, Mather was successful with the ratification of the National Park Service Organic Act in 1916. Later, the agency was given authority over other protected areas, the National Park System includes all properties managed by the National Park Service
4.
Maui
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The island of Maui is the second-largest of the Hawaiian Islands at 727.2 square miles and is the 17th-largest island in the United States. Maui is part of the State of Hawaii and is the largest of Maui Countys four islands, bigger than Molokaʻi, Lānaʻi, in 2010, Maui had a population of 144,444, third-highest of the Hawaiian Islands, behind that of Oʻahu and Hawaiʻi Island. Kahului is the largest census-designated place on the island with a population of 26,337 as of 2010 and is the commercial and financial hub of the island, Wailuku is the seat of Maui County and is the third-largest CDP as of 2010. Other significant places include Kīhei, Lahaina, Makawao, Pukalani, Pāʻia, Kula, Haʻikū, native Hawaiian tradition gives the origin of the islands name in the legend of Hawaiʻiloa, the navigator credited with discovery of the Hawaiian Islands. According to that legend, Hawaiʻiloa named the island of Maui after his son, the earlier name of Maui was ʻIhikapalaumaewa. The Island of Maui is also called the Valley Isle for the isthmus between its northwestern and southeastern volcanoes and the numerous large valleys carved into both mountains. Mauis diverse landscapes are the result of a combination of geology, topography. Each volcanic cone in the chain of the Hawaiian Islands is built of dark, iron-rich/quartz-poor rocks, several of the volcanoes were close enough to each other that lava flows on their flanks overlapped one another, merging into a single island. Maui is such a volcanic doublet, formed from two shield volcanoes that overlapped one another to form an isthmus between them, the older, western volcano has been eroded considerably and is cut by numerous drainages, forming the peaks of the West Maui Mountains. Puʻu Kukui is the highest of the peaks at 5,788 feet. The larger, younger volcano to the east, Haleakalā, rises to more than 10,000 feet above sea level, the eastern flanks of both volcanoes are cut by deeply incised valleys and steep-sided ravines that run downslope to the rocky, windswept shoreline. The valley-like Isthmus of Maui that separates the two volcanic masses was formed by sandy erosional deposits, although considered to be dormant by volcanologists, Haleakalā is certainly capable of further eruptions. Maui is part of a larger unit, Maui Nui, that includes the islands of Lānaʻi, Kahoʻolawe, Molokaʻi. During periods of reduced sea level, including as recently as 20,000 years ago and this, and the extreme insularity of the Hawaiian Islands account for the strong marine influence on Mauis climate. Gross weather patterns are determined by elevation and orientation towards the Trade winds. Mauis rugged, irregular topography produces marked variations in conditions, air swept inland on the Trade winds is shunted one way or another by the mountains, valleys, and vast open slopes. This complex three-dimensional flow of air results in striking variations in speed, cloud formation. Maui displays a unique and diverse set of conditions, each of which is specific to a loosely defined sub-region of the island
5.
Hawaii
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Hawaii is the 50th and most recent state to have joined the United States of America, having received statehood on August 21,1959. Hawaii is the only U. S. state located in Oceania and it is the northernmost island group in Polynesia, occupying most of an archipelago in the central Pacific Ocean. Hawaii is the only U. S. state not located in the Americas, the state encompasses nearly the entire volcanic Hawaiian archipelago, which comprises hundreds of islands spread over 1,500 miles. At the southeastern end of the archipelago, the eight main islands are—in order from northwest to southeast, Niʻihau, Kauaʻi, Oʻahu, Molokaʻi, Lānaʻi, Kahoʻolawe, Maui, and the Island of Hawaiʻi. The last is the largest island in the group, it is called the Big Island or Hawaiʻi Island to avoid confusion with the state or archipelago. The archipelago is physiographically and ethnologically part of the Polynesian subregion of Oceania, Hawaii has over a million permanent residents, along with many visitors and U. S. military personnel. Its capital is Honolulu on the island of Oʻahu, Hawaii is the 8th-smallest and the 11th-least populous, but the 13th-most densely populated of the fifty U. S. states. It is the state with an Asian plurality. The states coastline is about 750 miles long, the fourth longest in the U. S. after the coastlines of Alaska, Florida, the state of Hawaii derives its name from the name of its largest island, Hawaiʻi. A common Hawaiian explanation of the name of Hawaiʻi is that was named for Hawaiʻiloa and he is said to have discovered the islands when they were first settled. The Hawaiian language word Hawaiʻi is very similar to Proto-Polynesian *Sawaiki, cognates of Hawaiʻi are found in other Polynesian languages, including Māori, Rarotongan and Samoan. According to linguists Pukui and Elbert, lsewhere in Polynesia, Hawaiʻi or a cognate is the name of the underworld or of the home, but in Hawaii. A somewhat divisive political issue arose in 1978 when the Constitution of the State of Hawaii added Hawaiian as an official state language. The title of the constitution is The Constitution of the State of Hawaii. Article XV, Section 1 of the Constitution uses The State of Hawaii, diacritics were not used because the document, drafted in 1949, predates the use of the okina and the kahakō in modern Hawaiian orthography. The exact spelling of the name in the Hawaiian language is Hawaiʻi. In the Hawaii Admission Act that granted Hawaiian statehood, the government recognized Hawaii as the official state name. Official government publications, department and office titles, and the Seal of Hawaii use the spelling with no symbols for glottal stops or vowel length
6.
Mauna Loa
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Mauna Loa is one of five volcanoes that form the Island of Hawaii in the U. S. state of Hawaiʻi in the Pacific Ocean. The largest subaerial volcano in both mass and volume, Mauna Loa has historically considered the largest volcano on Earth. Lava eruptions from Mauna Loa are silica-poor and very fluid, Mauna Loa has probably been erupting for at least 700,000 years, and may have emerged above sea level about 400,000 years ago. The oldest-known dated rocks are not older than 200,000 years, the volcanos magma comes from the Hawaii hotspot, which has been responsible for the creation of the Hawaiian island chain over tens of millions of years. The slow drift of the Pacific Plate will eventually carry Mauna Loa away from the hotspot within 500,000 to one years from now. Mauna Loas most recent eruption occurred from March 24 to April 15,1984, no recent eruptions of the volcano have caused fatalities, but eruptions in 1926 and 1950 destroyed villages, and the city of Hilo is partly built on lava flows from the late 19th century. Because of the hazards it poses to population centers, Mauna Loa is part of the Decade Volcanoes program. Mauna Loa has been monitored intensively by the Hawaiian Volcano Observatory since 1912, observations of the atmosphere are undertaken at the Mauna Loa Observatory, and of the Sun at the Mauna Loa Solar Observatory, both located near the mountains summit. Hawaii Volcanoes National Park covers the summit and the flank of the volcano, and also incorporates Kīlauea. Like all Hawaiian volcanoes, Mauna Loa was created as the Pacific tectonic plate moved over the Hawaiian hotspot in the Earths underlying mantle. The Hawaii island volcanoes are the most recent evidence of this process that, the prevailing view states that the hotspot has been largely stationary within the planets mantle for much, if not all of the Cenozoic Era. However, while the Hawaiian mantle plume is well-understood and extensively studied, Mauna Loa is one of five subaerial volcanoes that make up the island of Hawaiʻi, created by the Hawaii hotspot. The oldest volcano on the island, Kohala, is more than a years old, and Kīlauea. Lōʻihi Seamount on the flank is even younger, but has yet to breach the surface. Since then, the volcano has remained active, with a history of effusive and explosive eruptions, although Mauna Loas activity has been overshadowed in recent years by that of its neighbor Kīlauea, it remains active. Mauna Loa is the largest subaerial and second largest overall volcano in the world, covering an area of 5,271 km2. Consisting of approximately 65,000 to 80,000 km3 of solid rock, the shield-stage lavas that built the enormous main mass of the mountain are tholeiitic basalts, like those of Mauna Kea, created through the mixing of primary magma and subducted oceanic crust. Mokuʻāweoweos caldera floor lies between 170 and 50 m beneath its rim and it is only the latest of several calderas that have formed and reformed over the volcanos life, additionally, two smaller pit craters lie southwest of the caldera, named Lua Hou and Lua Hohonu
7.
Hawaii (island)
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Hawaiʻi is the largest island located in the U. S. state of Hawaii. It is the largest and the southeastern-most of the Hawaiian Islands, with an area of 4,028 square miles, it is larger than all of the other islands in the archipelago combined and is the largest island in the United States. However, it only has 13% of Hawaiis people, the island of Hawaii is the third largest island in Polynesia, behind the two main islands of New Zealand. The island is referred to as the Island of Hawaiʻi. Administratively, the island is encompassed by Hawaiʻi County. As of the 2010 Census the population was 185,079, the county seat and largest city is Hilo. There are no incorporated cities in Hawaiʻi County, Hawaiʻi is said to have been named after Hawaiʻiloa, the legendary Polynesian navigator who first discovered it. The name is cognate with Savaii, the name of the largest island of Samoa, cook was killed on the Big Island at Kealakekua Bay on 14 February 1779, in a mêlée which followed the theft of a ships boat. Hawaiʻi was the island of Paiʻea Kamehameha, later known as Kamehameha the Great. Kamehameha united most of the Hawaiian islands under his rule in 1795, after years of war, and gave the kingdom. According to the U. S. Census Bureau, the county has an area of 5,086 square miles. The countys land area comprises 62.7 percent of the land area. It is the highest percentage by any county in the United States, in greatest dimension, the island is 93 miles across and has a land area of 4,028 square miles comprising 62% of the Hawaiian Islands land area. Measured from its sea floor base to its highest peak, Mauna Kea is the worlds tallest mountain, taller than Mount Everest is, the Island of Hawaiʻi is built from five separate shield volcanoes that erupted somewhat sequentially, one overlapping the other. Geologists now consider these outcrops to be part of the building of Mauna Loa. Another volcano which has disappeared below the surface of the ocean is Māhukona. Because Mauna Loa and Kīlauea are active volcanoes, the island of Hawaii is still growing, between January 1983 and September 2002, lava flows added 543 acres to the island. Lava flowing from Kīlauea has destroyed several towns, including Kapoho in 1960, in 1987 lava filled in Queens Bath, a large, L-shaped, freshwater pool in the Kalapana area
8.
Cedrus deodara
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Cedrus deodara is a species of cedar native to the western Himalayas in eastern Afghanistan, northern Pakistan and India, southwesternmost Tibet and western Nepal, occurring at 1, 500–3,200 m altitude. It is an evergreen coniferous tree reaching 40–50 m tall. It has a crown with level branches and drooping branchlets. The female cones are barrel-shaped, 7–13 cm long and 5–9 cm broad, the male cones are 4–6 cm long, and shed their pollen in autumn. The botanical name, which is also the English common name, derives from the Sanskrit term devadāru, which means wood of the gods, among Hindus, as the etymology of deodar suggests, it is worshiped as a divine tree. Deva, the first half of the Sanskrit term, means divine, deity, dāru, the second part, is cognate with the words durum, druid, tree, and true. Several Hindu legends refer to this tree, ” Forests full of Deodar or Devadāru trees were the favorite living place of ancient Indian sages and their families who were devoted to the Hindu god Shiva. To please Lord Shiva, the used to perform very difficult tapasya practices in deodar forests. Also the ancient Hindu epics and Shaivite texts regularly mention Darukavana, meaning a forest of deodars, the deodar is the national tree of Pakistan. It is widely grown as a tree, often planted in parks. General cultivation is limited to areas with mild winters, with trees frequently killed by temperatures below about −25 °C, limiting it to USDA zone 7 and it can succeed in rather cool-summer climates, as in Stateline, Nevada, and Ushuaia, Argentina. The most cold-tolerant trees originate in the northwest of the range in Kashmir and Paktia Province. Selected cultivars from this region are hardy to USDA zone 7 or even zone 6, named cultivars from this region include Eisregen, Eiswinter, Karl Fuchs, Kashmir, Polar Winter, and Shalimar. This plant has gained the Royal Horticultural Societys Award of Garden Merit, Deodar is in great demand as building material because of its durability, rot-resistant character and fine, close grain, which is capable of taking a high polish. Its historical use to construct temples and in landscaping around temples is well recorded. Its rot-resistant character also makes it an ideal wood for constructing the well-known houseboats of Srinagar, in Pakistan and India, during the British colonial period, deodar wood was used extensively for construction of barracks, public buildings, bridges, canals and railway cars. Despite its durability, it is not a strong timber, and its nature makes it unsuitable for delicate work where strength is required. The use of C. deodara in Ayurvedic medicines is well recorded, the inner wood is aromatic and used to make incense
9.
Himalayas
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The Himalayas, or Himalaya, form a mountain range in Asia separating the plains of the Indian subcontinent from the Tibetan Plateau. The Himalayan range has the Earths highest peaks, including the highest, the Himalayas include over a hundred mountains exceeding 7,200 metres in elevation. By contrast, the highest peak outside Asia – Aconcagua, in the Andes – is 6,961 metres tall. The Himalayas are spread across five countries, Bhutan, India, Nepal, China, the Himalayan range is bordered on the northwest by the Karakoram and Hindu Kush ranges, on the north by the Tibetan Plateau, and on the south by the Indo-Gangetic Plain. Some of the major rivers, the Indus, the Ganges, and the Tsangpo-Brahmaputra, rise in the Himalayas. The Himalayas have profoundly shaped the cultures of South Asia, many Himalayan peaks are sacred in Hinduism and Buddhism. Lifted by the subduction of the Indian tectonic plate under the Eurasian Plate and its western anchor, Nanga Parbat, lies just south of the northernmost bend of Indus river. Its eastern anchor, Namcha Barwa, is just west of the bend of the Tsangpo river. The range varies in width from 400 kilometres in the west to 150 kilometres in the east, the name of the range derives from the Sanskrit Himā-laya, from himá and ā-laya. They are now known as the Himalaya Mountains, usually shortened to the Himalayas, formerly, they were described in the singular as the Himalaya. This was also previously transcribed Himmaleh, as in Emily Dickinsons poetry and Henry David Thoreaus essays. The mountains are known as the Himālaya in Nepali and Hindi, the Himalaya or The Land of Snow in Tibetan, the Hamaleh Mountain Range in Urdu, the flora and fauna of the Himalayas vary with climate, rainfall, altitude, and soils. The climate ranges from tropical at the base of the mountains to permanent ice, the amount of yearly rainfall increases from west to east along the southern front of the range. This diversity of altitude, rainfall and soil conditions combined with the high snow line supports a variety of distinct plant. The extremes of high altitude combined with extreme cold favor extremophile organisms, the unique floral and faunal wealth of the Himalayas is undergoing structural and compositional changes due to climate change. The increase in temperature is shifting various species to higher elevations, the oak forest is being invaded by pine forests in the Garhwal Himalayan region. There are reports of early flowering and fruiting in some species, especially rhododendron, apple. The highest known tree species in the Himalayas is Juniperus tibetica located at 4,900 metres in Southeastern Tibet, the Himalayan range is one of the youngest mountain ranges on the planet and consists mostly of uplifted sedimentary and metamorphic rock
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