The word ‘invasive’ has often been used to signify species not in their native environment. They are often introduced to new habitats through human activities, either intentionally or unintentionally.Â
In the 1890s, the House Crow Corvus splendens was introduced in Zanzibar to control garbage. The solution soon became a problem of its own as the population rapidly increased over 15 years, becoming labeled an invasive species and spreading along the East African coast.Â
A Rocha Kenya’s Eric Kinoti notes that the introduction of an invasive species disrupts and destabilizes ecosystems by causing competition between species. The House Crow population grew to over 700,000 birds along the coast of Kenya, which majorly affected tourism as the birds invaded hotels, destroyed crops and placed a strain on the marine ecosystem with their feeding on marine life. It is not the crows’ fault for existing, but human intervention created a problem. Â
A Rocha Kenya, in partnership with Kenya Wildlife Service, has set out to restore balance to the ecosystem by making a first attempt to control the population using a poison called starlicide. Crows are, however, very intelligent creatures with reasoning as good as a seven-year-old human and with the ability to adapt quickly to any traps set to catch them. Starlicide is the preferred poison because it breaks down fast in the crow’s body and does not cause secondary poisoning to other animals that come into contact with it. Not an easy decision, but, ‘The goal is to manage the population in a year before they surpass the one million population mark,’ Eric explained.Â
In July this year, A Rocha Kenya received the first batch of starlicide in hopes that it will significantly reduce the number of crows, without affecting other species. So far, the results are promising and starlicide is said to have an 80% success rate within four months.Â
Breeding birds were in trouble on the Schellerwade, a beautiful arm of the IJssel River just west of Zwolle, Netherlands. The area has traditionally been a popular breeding destination for birds like the Black tern Chlidonias niger and the Mallard Anas platyrhynchos. However, the populations of both species have been declining, with the disappearance of grasses like crabgrass, used by Black terns as natural nesting habitat, and low chick survival rates for Mallards.
The A Rocha local group in Zwolle decided to take action. Each year, they prepare a series of floating nest rafts and lay them out in the Schellerwade, targeting the Black terns. The rafts were visible from the dike and were eagerly monitored to see if they would be used. In 2022 and 2023: no success. Disappointing, but this can happen with an opportunistic species like the Black tern. But in 2024, at least six of the nest rafts were occupied with young Black terns! Â
This year, the team also placed five breeding baskets along the IJssel River, a new project focused on Mallards. The baskets stand on a framework of willow branches, protecting any eggs or chicks laid in the basket from predators. Last Saturday the team collected three of the baskets and determined that none had been used by nesting ducks. The remaining two are deeper in the reed bank, amidst dense vegetation, and will be collected later this year. The team will now consider why the nests weren’t used and what could be done differently – one hypothesis is that perhaps the baskets need to be placed further into the water. Next year, they’ll try again and hope for success! Â
A Rocha was at the heart of the recent Global Creation Care Forum (GCCF) held in South Korea 28 September – 2 October, immediately after the 4th Lausanne Congress. The GCCF was the first in-person global gathering of the Lausanne / World Evangelical Alliance Creation Care Network (LWCCN) since its launch in Jamaica in 2012. And what a gathering: 100+ people from 40+ countries across six continents, with more online.
Over the week, we reviewed the global creation care movement, listened to global voices and discerned next steps. There were striking differences to the 2012 Jamaica gathering: the GCCF was more diverse in terms of gender, age and nationality. It seems the global creation care movement has found its voice, and that voice is largely younger, from the global south, with insights drawn from many sources including indigenous wisdom and academic science but united around a passion for God’s word and God’s world.Â
This global movement is wider than A Rocha, but we’re right at its heart. GCCF leaders included Dave Bookless from ARI and Jasmine Kwong, on the board of A Rocha’s Associated Project in the Philippines. A Rocha folk from Australia, Canada, Costa Rica, Croatia, Ghana, India, Netherlands, Philippines, Portugal, Singapore, South Africa, Uganda, UK and others hoping to join the Friends of A Rocha attended. Together we all drafted and will be launching a practical and biblical ‘Invitation’ to the global church to commit to caring for God’s good earth – watch this space!Â
LWCCN, co-led by Dave Bookless with Lausanne and WEA colleagues, has held 12 regional conferences on ‘Creation Care and the Gospel’ covering every region, and now has a network of 1,700 leaders from 100 countries with a monthly enews, The Pollinator, sharing news and resources from around the world.Â
We’re excited to let you know that A Rocha International will be participating again in the Big Give Christmas Challenge this December … and it’s our biggest ever!
With your support, we will protect threatened species and critical landscapes, from the forests of Africa to the mangroves of South East Asia. At the heart of A Rocha’s efforts are churches rising to the challenge alongside our local experts on the ground, working in and with communities to sustain all forms of life on earth.
The Christmas Challenge kicks off at noon (GMT) on #GivingTuesday, 3 December and continues until noon on 10 December. During that time, every contribution made through our campaign page on the Christmas Challenge website* will be DOUBLED.
Our target is ambitious, but the scale of challenges facing our planet is also immense! We want to raise £100,000 to help initiate five new conservation projects, equip churches and seminaries to care for their local landscape, and build capacity within A Rocha teams for taking care of threatened species and habitats. Already in 2024, we’ve started new projects to tackle microplastic pollution on marine sponges in India, preserve remnant forest in Peru, support forest communities to coexist with wildlife in Uganda and protect an endangered butterfly in France! Please join us this December to support innovative projects in communities and habitats of the highest need.
One donation, twice the impact.
* Please note only donations made through our campaign page on the Big Give website between 3-10 December are eligible to be doubled (while match funds last). 
Once a year the A Rocha International team steps out from behind our screens to enjoy some quality in-person time together. With three of us in the USA and a fourth with a Stateside conference to attend, this year we met in the beautiful Texas Hill Country – home to the Nine-banded Armadillo Dasypus novemcinctus, Whitetailed Deer Odocoileus virginianus and Western Diamondback RattlesnakeCrotalus atrox as well as some slightly random zebras!
We arrived at our scenic location in time to witness several established oaks being brutally ripped from the ground. For the entire week, morning to night, heavy machinery belched out noise and fumes as a new building took shape at impressive speed. It was an apt reminder of the complex context of A Rocha’s work, in a world where often nature is forced to make way for human endeavour but in which God’s design is for us to all to flourish, living equitably together.
Later, we were much more encouraged by a visit to A Rocha USA’s habitat restoration site in the Bull Creek watershed. Texas Conservation Director Verónica Godoy led us on a pleasant hike along the creek and through meadows and forests where we observed invasive privet that had been painstakingly girdled by A Rocha USA partners, staff and volunteers as well as meadows being converted from a monoculture of invasive King Ranch Blue Stem to a myriad of native wildflowers and grasses.
Spread across eight countries, the A Rocha International team has responsibility for supporting and representing A Rocha organizations worldwide, for ensuring everyone maintains high standards and for initiating new work. While we were together, we worked on strategy, thought about how to know whether our conservation efforts are effective, prayed and studied the Bible, and tried to get the hang of the two-step! Now back into the swing of being a virtual community, we are grateful for meaningful work caring for God’s world, and a strong, unified and multi-cultural team.
September signals the beginning of an exciting new season for the small but dedicated team of conservationists at Buck Creek Hatchery and Nature Centre: the arrival of Coho Salmon spawners. The Coho have undertaken a vast journey up rivers, through canyons and past lakes. Some of them may have hatched and grown into fry at the hatchery operated by A Rocha Canada in Northern British Columbia! Having reached their home waters where they were either born or released, the Coho have now reached the end of their life’s journey and will lay their eggs in redds, which are rock nests in the gravel of the riverbed.
Each year, the A Rocha team monitors the return of the Upper Bulkley River Coho spawners and captures a small number of them to collect a target of 10,000 eggs for their hatchery. Last year, however, the salmon faced challenging waters which were exceptionally low due to drought. Added to this, several beaver dams blocked the spawning salmon, leaving them vulnerable to predators as they had no way through the dam.
Beavers are amazing river engineers: without them, the water levels in the river would have been even lower. Beaver ponds slowly release water and create perfect rearing pools for juvenile Coho Salmon; however, when the dam completely spans the river, it becomes an impassable barrier to Coho spawners migrating upstream. With the concerns about the low returns of salmon spawners to the Upper Bulkley River, we want to ensure they have the best chance to reach their spawning grounds in time. Careful management of beaver dams is one tool to help achieve this goal.
A Rocha Northern BC called on their network of amazing volunteers, reached out to landowner contacts to secure access to the river and began journeying with the Coho up the Upper Bulkley River. They found fifteen beaver dams within the first 30 km of the river where Coho Salmon were stuck below and successfully assisted at least 300 Coho spawners past the beaver dams! While some of the Coho stopped to spawn along the way, about 100 made it at least 30 km up the river to an area of valuable spawning habitat.
Although humans can–and often do–create immense damage in an ecosystem, we can also be a source of healing. Droughts exacerbated by climate change are an increasingly common occurrence, and in some cases, species struggle against one another for habitat. Through careful management, we can create a healthy home for all the creatures who live in the Buck Creek Watershed. To protect both the salmon and the beavers, an effective compromise is to create an opening in the dam that the salmon can swim through while leaving the base intact.
Sadly, drought conditions are continuing into a fourth year at Buck Creek. Despite a rainier spring, low snowpack and hot summer months have left the river lower than ever. While hundreds of Chinook Salmon should have been seen in the past couple months, the A Rocha team only spotted five, four of which died before they were able to spawn. Thankfully, rain has come, and we are hopeful that Coho will arrive with higher waters. The beaver dams are looking sturdy as ever. Come what may, A Rocha will be there working for the mutual flourishing of all our creaturely neighbours.
Välkomna A Rocha Sverige! We are thrilled to announce that A Rocha Sweden has officially become the 18th national organization in the A Rocha Worldwide Family. Â
On 20 September, A Rocha Sweden celebrated this milestone at the site of their flagship project in Hyllie Park Church, Malmö. About twenty people gathered in person, including A Rocha’s cofounder Peter Harris, with another ten joining virtually. One member, Vincent, opened the celebration with a trumpet fanfare announcing the birth of A Rocha Sweden! Peter then gave an enthusiastic talk on spirituality and conservation and spoke about the five distinctive commitments that identify A Rocha, followed by a video message from A Rocha International’s Executive Director, Ed Walker. At the end, everyone present celebrated by eating delicious birthday cakes! Â
This momentous day has its origins in 2017, when the organization was founded as Swedish Friends of A Rocha. This developed into KriNa in 2021, as the A Rocha Associated Project in Hyllie Park, Malmö, was launched. Nestled in an urban area, A Rocha cares for this garden and park near Hyllie Park Church where the land is planned and managed to support a rich biodiversity. A Rocha has established a nature trail lined with informational signs for students and other visitors, as education is central to this project. While exploring the meadow, pond and forest on site, you might also see a Swift making its home in one of the bird boxes that A Rocha Sweden maintains. Â
In the southern part of the country, A Rocha Sweden partners with a local mowing association and Lutheran church to cultivate a thriving apple meadow. Using the traditional craft of scything, they manage the meadow in an ecological manner to support biodiversity and create a place that locals can enjoy. Now, A Rocha Sweden is looking forward to a new project further north with a community farm in Borlänge. They signed an agreement of intention with this farm’s landowner to launch a full-scale A Rocha project in 2025.Â
Stay tuned for inspiring conservation updates from Sweden.Â
The Oikos Network brings together Christians from around the world who are passionate about caring for the environment and tackling climate change in their churches and communities. Oikos, Greek for ‘home’, was the brainchild of Ruth Valerio when she worked at Tearfund. She’d noticed that many Christian leaders around the world were passionate about addressing climate and creation care but felt isolated and under-resourced. ‘I was meeting Christians all around the world who were caring for God’s world but often feeling lonely and encountering similar issues despite different contexts,’ says Ruth. ‘There is such power in meeting like-minded people, and so inspiring to learn, share and pray together.’    After chatting with A Rocha’s Dave Bookless, whose work had led him to the same conclusion, the Oikos Network was launched in 2022 in partnership with Micah Global, Renew Our World, the Anglican Alliance and the Lausanne / World Evangelical Alliance Creation Care Network, and initially led and resourced by Tearfund. A Rocha has recently taken on the leadership of the network.   Â
Oikos creates peer-support cohorts of five to eight people who then gather online monthly over six months to discuss, learn, pray and inspire each other about the changes they are seeing. Each has a facilitator who helps create an accepting, listening atmosphere, and leads the group through discussion, sharing, Bible study and prayer. Many groups meet in English but as demand has grown, there have also been groups in French, Spanish and Portuguese. There are also global plenary meetings, with a guest speaker.    The response has been overwhelmingly positive. People have felt inspired, encouraged and connected to a wider movement. If you want to know more about the Oikos Network or would like to explore joining or leading a cohort, please contact us at [email protected].Â
In the Indian River Lagoon, a heron vaults from the shallows, while anhingas dry their wings on the rocks. Shads, minnows, sardines and killifish pierce the water like darts. As mullets leap, rays stir the sand with their ghostly glide, and comb jellies drift about like lozenges of blown glass. Flowing down the east coast of Florida, USA in roughly the shape of a dragonfly’s wing, the Indian River Lagoon harbours about 4,000 plant and animal species, making it the most biodiverse estuary in North America.
If you kayak on a summer evening, you can see the lagoon limned with nebulas of phytoplankton casting a blue light. On certain beaches in the winter – when the wind or tides are right – thousands of ancient-looking horseshoe crabs will swarm. In A Rocha USA’s study area, which only covers a northern portion of the lagoon, at least 3,065 species have been spotted.
Green Heron by Peter Harris
Unfortunately, the lagoon ecosystem has suffered many blows in recent decades. According to a 2022 study in Frontiers in Marine Science, the lagoon lost about 19,000 acres (about 58%) of its remaining seagrass between 2011 and 2019 (Morris et al., ‘Seagrass in a Changing Estuary’). Meanwhile, development projects continue to fragment the lagoon’s habitats, and inputs from wastewater and stormwater wreck the water quality, contributing to the decline of oysters, pipefish, stingrays, and many other creatures.
In a biodiversity report on the Northern Indian River Lagoon (NIRL), A Rocha USA identified 23 marine species with an IUCN Red List status of ‘Near Threatened’ or worse, as well as ‘Data Deficient,’ which means that the creature hasn’t been studied enough to get an official ranking. Some of these species tend to be more popular than others – even among scientists. In a survey of NIRL-related research papers, most of the 23 species of interest appeared in just three studies or less, whereas the charismatic manatee appeared in about sixteen. Four species had no NIRL studies at all. Many of these under-studied creatures could play vital roles in their ecosystems, but we don’t even have enough data to understand them, let alone advocate for their protection.
In total, A Rocha USA identified six species of conservation concern that are under-studied and bereft of legal protection: the Blueback Herring, Bluntnose Ray, Cownose Ray, Smooth Butterfly Ray, Southern Stingray and False Killer Whale. Similarly, two species – the Tropical Flounder and Whitefin Sharksucker – are listed as ‘Data Deficient’ yet lack any regulations on their killing or capture. All these creatures deserve our attention. Without more research, we won’t know the full impact of any potential decline or extinction of these species, and we may inflict even greater damage on the Indian River Lagoon than we already have.
The more biodiversity an ecosystem has, the healthier it is, and the more benefits it offers human beings. Creatures like the Butterfly Ray or the Whitefin Sharksucker could be crucial for maintaining the health of the Northern Indian River Lagoon. Beyond that, we also want to protect them for their own sake, regardless of how useful they may be.
God never asked creation to earn divine love. On the day each animal was made, before they’d done much of anything, God deemed them good, blessing them to ‘be fruitful and multiply’. As a mother loves her child from the day of their birth, so God loves every creature, in all their colour, ferocity and diversity.
Learn more about A Rocha USA’s marine conservation work in Florida at arocha.us/florida
If you have ever attended a beach cleanup, you have likely found all sorts of plastic and other waste littering the shore. Straws, wrappers and bottles abound, washed up by the waves. But it’s the smaller plastic pieces, called nurdles, that are often overlooked in cleanup efforts, although they can cause a great deal of harm.Â
Nurdles are small plastic pellets that are molded to make most of the plastic products we use every day. Billions of nurdles are produced each year and are easily spilled during manufacturing or transport. Difficult to clean up, they often wash into streams and oceans where they wreak havoc on marine life. According to FIDRA, ‘Nurdles are the second largest source of primary microplastic pollution globally. Each year an estimated 445,970 tonnes of nurdles enter the environment worldwide.’Â
Because of their size and colour, nurdles look like fish eggs, making them especially tempting for seabirds, shellfish, whales and other marine wildlife who mistake them for food. These pellets can be toxic and lead to injury, starvation or even death when they accumulate in the gut and stomach. Over time, nurdles break down into smaller and smaller microplastics, which can travel up the food chain along with the toxins they carry. The harmful effects of toxic plastic pollution are felt by larger marine mammals, humans and entire ecosystems. Â
The good news is that plastic pollution is preventable, and everyone can make a difference. Since nurdles are so difficult to clear up, the best solution is to reduce our use of plastics and call on the plastic industry to take responsibility for stopping pellet loss. In countries like Kenya, Portugal and the USA, A Rocha takes part in FIDRA’s Great Global Nurdle Hunt each year, an event which removes nurdles from the environment as well as contributes to research and raising awareness. Over the last 10 years over 20,000 volunteers have taken part, finding nurdles on every continent except Antarctica! Â
Everyone can take part in this global citizen science event: each year, we see children, interns, scientists and dedicated community members on their hands and knees in the sand, searching for nurdles. Inquisitive beach goers sometimes ask what we are looking for, a perfect opportunity to explain the problem of nurdles and microplastics, the actions people can take and our motivation as followers of Jesus to care for all of creation.Â
This year, the International Coastal Cleanup is on 21 September: why not join the Great Global Nurdle Hunt, as well? Running from 1-30 September, this global event is an empowering and impactful way to address microplastic pollution. You can find more information on how to identify nurdles and organize a nurdle hunt in the A Rocha Plastics Toolbox, available now on our new Resource Hub! Visit resources.arocha.org/resource/plastics-toolbox/Â
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