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A Place at the Table wins prestigious international award

A Place at the Table by Miranda Harris and Jo Swinney has been honoured with a gold Nautilus award in the category of Religious/Spiritual Memoir.   

The Nautilus Book Awards were founded over 20 years ago and celebrate literary contributions in spiritual growth, social change, green values and sustainability. Previous winners include the Dalai Lama, Barbara Kingsolver, Desmond Tutu and David Suzuki, among others. T A Barron of Philomel/Penguin Young Readers Group says,  

‘The Nautilus Book Awards represent the highest achievement of the writer’s craft. Nothing less. It’s all about envisioning a better, more peaceful, more caring world – both for us and for our fellow creatures and the Earth.’ 

As many of you already know, A Place at the Table is an exploration of hospitality and biblical insights, drawing on Jo and Miranda’s experience of community in the A Rocha family. This book is a warm invitation to be embraced by the loving kindness of others. We are thrilled that the folk at Nautilus acknowledge the importance of the message – and that the book has also just been shortlisted as CRT23’s Best biography/memoir (winners to be announced on 7 September)! To find out the story of how and why the book was written, you can watch this short film.

You may not know that A Place at the Table is now available in Europe in paperback, and in North America and elsewhere in the world from 5 December. All proceeds made through purchases on the A Rocha website go to support our work caring for God’s creation around the world.  

Pavel holding kingfishers

A celebration of bird ringing!

A celebration of bird ringing!

While celebrating 40 years of conservation work, we have another major milestone to share this year: around the world, A Rocha has ringed over 250,000 birds! 

When A Rocha was founded, bird studies were the first way that we began to understand the Algarve in Portugal. In their vulnerable position at the top of an ecosystem, birds are good indicators of an environment’s health, and are captivating to experts and novices alike. The bird ringing programme at Cruzinha began in 1987, and we now have programmes in the Czech Republic, Kenya and France, as well as ringing in Canada, the UK, Lebanon and South Africa over the years.

Ringing allows scientists to track bird migration, and after 40 years we have collected a wealth of information. Ringing involves putting a small ring (or band) on an individual bird’s leg. The ring will be numbered and will typically have the address of the ringing scheme, so that if that bird is found, its whereabouts can be reported. In Kenya and France the A Rocha science teams have also begun equipping Grey Plovers Pluvialis squatarola and European Rollers Coracias garrulus (respectively) with tiny satellite transmitters, which allows them to track the birds’ migration in real time. A Rocha France tracked a European Roller that traveled the 2,500 km between France and Libya in just 36 hours: a record for the longest non-stop flight for the species! 

Most of what we know about bird migration is thanks to ringing, which not only tells us where birds go but also when they depart and arrive, where they stop on their migration, how long they live and their fidelity to stop-over sites. Colin Jackson remembers catching the same Chiffchaff in the same net in an orange grove in Portugal two to three years in a row! 

With a bird in the hand, you gain much more information than you could learn by observing them from afar. To catch the birds, teams usually set up nearly invisible mist nets in the early hours of the morning. Flying birds get caught in the net, then are carefully extracted and taken to the ringing station. After identifying the bird and fastening the ring, the ringer determines the bird’s age and records the moult. This can show the impacts of climate change, which causes birds to moult at unusual times. Finally, they will measure and weigh the bird, which gives them a sense of the health of a population: if the average mass is reducing, for instance, they may conclude that conditions are poor for feeding. If a bird due for migration has a good amount of fat set aside, we can conclude it is almost ready to leave. Gaining the certification to become a bird ringer is a rigorous process that can take years, ensuring that the welfare of the birds always comes first.

By uniquely marking birds, we can tell how many of them there actually are in an area, and with the mist nets, we can catch birds that we didn’t even know were present. Ultimately, we gain a stronger understanding of the welfare of the species, of how humans have impacted birds and how we can better protect them. As well as its scientific importance, bird ringing can also be valuable in environmental education. With careful supervision so that the birds do not become stressed, it enables people to experience the beauty, fragility and importance of birds and, through that, to be inspired themselves to care for birds and the ecosystems they depend on. 


To watch bird ringing in action and learn about its history and impact, check out this video from A Rocha Kenya. 

Coline at the start of her walk

Coline’s walk for A Rocha

Coline Raillon is nearing the end of an epic walk traversing three European countries (Germany, Switzerland, and France) and some 1,300 km (about 807 mi) as an ambassador raising funds for A Rocha’s 40th Anniversary Campaign. Coline set out with no cash or credit card, 100% reliant on the ask for hospitality in the form of food and accommodation, aiming to donate the money saved to A Rocha. Along the way she has met over a dozen pastors and shared A Rocha’s message of caring for creation (often hosting butterfly walks!) with newfound friends at churches, schools, camps and kitchen tables. Coline started her journey in Heidelberg, Germany at the end of July and has traveled by foot following parts of the Huguenot Way – a hiking trail highlighting the historical exile of the Huguenots (a religious group of French Protestants from the 17th century), along with adventurous detours both planned and unplanned. 

Coline has had to reconcile her hopes and expectations for the journey with challenges and realities, from blisters and exhaustion to difficulties connecting with people amidst their busy everyday lives. ‘It’s made me think about the number of opportunities I missed while I was myself very occupied,’ Coline realized.  

On the first leg of the walk, Coline took a two week break to help at a Scout camp. Relating to the kids gave time for reflection: ‘As I journey in my understanding of the world and of who God is, I have the intuition that it is essential to create connections and that we need to recreate a culture of hospitality and community. It’s why I support A Rocha, because community is at the heart of the organization.’ 

Coline describes her walk as ‘a journey of trust’, with lessons and learnings each day. She has been amazed by the hospitality people have shown her – like asking for a toilet at a school leading to an invitation to introduce kids to butterflies in a garden and an offer of two nights’ accommodation. ‘Since the beginning, I have always found someone to open their home to me. Not just as a shelter, but a real invitation, sharing dinner, spending time in discussion and having breakfast together,’ Coline recalls. So far, Coline has slept in 42 different places, 80% of which were people she didn’t know before the walk.  

As Coline approaches the final leg of her walk for A Rocha, she is tired but encouraged. She continues to meet churches and communities, and says, ‘It feels like the Spirit is blowing the same way in different places, putting community and hospitality in the heart of lots of people, preparing the Church for the difficult times we are going towards.’ Coline is expecting to reach Saint-Jean-du-Gard, the starting point of the Huguenot Way, at the end of September to conclude her journey. 

You can read more about Coline’s reflections and follow her #WalkforARocha on social media. To support Coline’s fundraising efforts, you can donate here. Please click ‘dedicate this donation’ and type in ‘Coline‘ to direct your gift. Thank you for your prayers and support for Coline! Learn more about starting your own fundraising effort for A Rocha here, or get in touch to explore how we can help with your creative idea. 

Bounce-Back

Bounce Back

Bounce Back, the fourth installment in A Rocha’s ‘Elements of Hope’ video series, asks us to examine where we find our hope amidst environmental disaster, such as extreme wildfires or terrible floods. The film explores the idea of ‘refugium’, defined as an area in which a population of organisms can survive through a period of unfavourable conditions, especially glaciation and fire. In the example of Mount Saint Helens in the USA, after the forests were destroyed by a volcanic blast, ecologists were surprised to see regeneration happen much faster than expected. They attributed this to small pockets of refugia that were able to persist and help the rest of the ecosystem recover.  

Forests do not regenerate without fire, and, like our own personal walk with Christ, we too must face challenges and be pruned and refined to grow in our faith. Loving God’s creation comes with lament and heartbreak for the things that are lost. But there is hope. Reflecting on the devastating wildfires of 2019, A Rocha Australia National Director Stuart Blanch states, ‘The word of God points us to the importance of creation care. I want to be optimistic, not naive, and hopeful, determined. That’s the mindset we have to have. If we give up, we’ll just lose more…. Christians needs to be the forefront of caring for creation and nature. It’s not a distraction from the gospel; it’s where we demonstrate that we are committed to loving our neighbours and loving God who gave us this good world.’ 

Learn more about finding hope amidst disaster in Bounce Back and please share with your church, school, bible study or youth group. You can find the accompanying discussion guide here and download the video from our Vimeo channel here

Natural Dye Canada

A Rocha Artists Around the World

Everyone has a part to play in conserving God’s creation, including artists! Art is a powerful tool to inspire action for nature. Read on to learn about more of the creative activities happening around the A Rocha Worldwide Family this year: 

A Rocha Ghana – Solutions to Plastic Pollution Art Sessions

A Rocha Ghana has recently introduced their ‘Solutions to Plastic Pollution Art Sessions,’ in which they visit local schools and empower students with the knowledge and skills to transform everyday plastic into recycled artworks. A Rocha Uganda also encourages young people in schools to think of alternative ways they can use plastics by transforming items like water bottles into dustbins, gates, watering cans and more. 

Ugandan students make a waste bin from recycled plastic bottles

Inspired by these young artists and architects? You can be a recycling artist too! Cindy Verbeek runs A Rocha Canada’s Buck Creek Hatchery and Nature Centre in Northern British Columbia, but she is also an ‘upcycler’ extraordinaire: ‘I love taking what would normally go into the landfill and turning it into fun, beautiful, practical things that help me reduce my impact. I also love sharing and challenging others to do the same.’ Here you can see a selection of Cindy’s practical and decorative treasures, including a notebook used for nature-journaling. Cindy teaches children to make these notebooks during A Rocha NBC’s nature camps: they use magazine or calendar pages to decorate a piece of cereal box for the covers, then bind the inside paper themselves. This one-of-a-kind journal will help them continue to connect with creation.  

Cindy Verbeek – Crafts

While ‘upcycling’ crafts turn trash into treasure, crafting with natural objects deepens our knowledge of the things growing around us. A Rocha Canada has hosted two natural dye workshops this summer using plants they’re growing on the farm (pictured above). 

Photo by Nick Davis

Have you ever tried your hand at nature photography? Capturing the dynamic beauty of nature in front of us can be tricky, so it’s easy to appreciate the artistry of our co-founder Peter Harris’ bird photography and the underwater animal portraits of A Rocha USA’s marine intern, Nick Davis. 

Photo by Peter Harris – Downy Woodpecker

Creative actions like these grow a love for the Creator and all that he has made. If you, too, care for creation through art, share what you’re doing for nature on social media using #IAmAConservationist.

Photo credit: Andrew Simpson

Spiders matter too!

Katipō, NZ’s only venomous spider

Katipō Latrodectus katipo is New Zealand’s only venomous native spider, classified as ‘in serious decline’ by the Department of Conservation, and only one of two native spiders fully protected by New Zealand law. It is a coastal sand dune specialist and has suffered a dramatic decline in numbers. Jim O’Malley has been surveying Katipō populations in the Wellington and Wairarapa coastal areas and shared his findings at A Rocha’s Wellington Local Group Winter Kōrero in July.

Spiders can be sensitive to habitat loss and degradation. For the Katipō, destabilised coastal sand dunes have led to a massive reduction in appropriate habitat. This was a result of stock grazing, competition from an accidentally introduced spider Steatoda capensis, climate change and sea-level rise, and the disturbance and vegetation burning that accompanied European settlement, followed by ongoing commercial forestry, recreational use of dune systems and other activities. The introduction of Marram grass Ammophila arenaria, a plant which stabilises sand, exacerbated the problem over time: Marram grass initially stabilises dunes and provides good habitat for Katipō and its invertebrate prey, but over time can become so dense that web construction is difficult and the quantity of prey decreases.

In a nation-wide survey of Katipō in 2002, Katipō were found at five coastal Wairarapa locations. This has now declined to two. However, another population was discovered in Wellington Harbour. Through systematic surveying, we are finding increasing numbers at these sites – an encouraging outcome, despite there being fewer populations over time.

Of particular concern is the increasing effect of climate change and sea-level rise upon these Katipō populations. Where the foredunes are low in height, storm surges penetrate the rear dune areas, washing away everything in their path, potentially adversely affecting Katipō populations. While these events have of course occurred historically, storm surges have increased in frequency and intensity. The survey methodology has been modified to measure these factors and better understand these effects. 

Two locations with currently sufficiently high foredunes to withstand storm surges have been identified – these will be managed as Katipō conservation areas where applicable planting, predator control and habitat enhancement will maximise Katipō numbers at each site. Participation in the monitoring expeditions is welcomed! 

Photo credit: Andrew Simpson

Ed-Walker - still

A new Executive Director for A Rocha International

A Rocha International looks forward to welcoming Ed Walker MBE as our new Executive Director on 1 September! Following an extensive global search, our trustees were unanimous in their decision to appoint Ed, confident he is God’s person to lead us into the next season. Chair of Trustees Soohwan Park says, 

‘Ed is a man of integrity, compassion and vision. He is someone who courageously obeys God’s call to respond to crisis and is stepping into the calling to lead A Rocha as we play our part to address the environmental crises facing us. We are grateful God has brought us a leader of his character and calibre.’ 

Having founded and, for 13 years, led the multi-award-winning homeless charity, Hope into Action, Ed has a strong track record of developing organizations and teams. In his previous work of disaster relief with Tearfund he spent ten years in war zones, including three and a half in Darfur, where he witnessed first-hand the horror of an ‘environmental-degradation war’. As an amateur ornithologist, trained mountain leader, PADI scuba diver and sea-kayaker, he loves God’s creation and believes wholeheartedly in A Rocha’s mission and vision. 

Ed says, ‘It is a huge honour to have been appointed in this role for A Rocha International.  

A Rocha is at once both an amazing story and also thousands of individual and very personal stories. I recognize the courage, hard work and inspiration from many who have gone before.  

A Rocha’s work is so close to God’s heart: the environment, poverty, simple living, speaking out, justice, community, theology, education and science are all intrinsically interwoven with the command of Jesus to “preach Good News to all creation”.’

Please keep Ed and the whole A Rocha family in your prayers, and join us in giving Ed a warm welcome in September. 

Beaver_top story

Following the beaver tracks

In 15 years of working in the Vallée des Baux, A Rocha France had seen signs of the European Beaver Castor fiber, but was never able to observe it. When the team recently came across fresh beaver tracks, they were determined to find this elusive creature.  

In France, the beaver is a nationally protected semi-aquatic mammal. It has long been hunted for its fur and flesh, to the point of becoming extremely rare. The destruction or modification of beaver habitat by building dams and urbanizing banks has caused further population regression. Today, thanks to actions to reintroduce, observe and protect the species and its environment, the beaver population in France is gradually increasing. 

Beavers are nocturnal, so it can be difficult to catch sight of them. Traces left behind alert us to their presence, like gnawed trees and pruned stumps after feeding on soft wood. After noticing beaver tracks, the Vallée des Baux team set up two photo traps. At first they only caught footage of birds and empty marshes. Finally after two weeks: success! 

Night-time footage revealed a beaver feasting on wood for nearly an hour. In only five minutes, it felled a tree and then got to work on smaller branches, using its dexterous paws and large incisors. 

Beaver activity – felling trees and building dams – creates favourable habitat for a variety of other species: insects that live in the wood become food for other species. Some birds nest on top of beaver lodges, and inside there is habitat for other creatures like voles and amphibians. Beaver ponds also improve water quality and support riparian zones that help mitigate the effects of climate change. We can learn a lot from this ‘engineering species’ which transforms its environment in a way that benefits the whole ecosystem, and we are thrilled to have them as co-labourers in preserving the Vallée des Baux.  

You can see the remote footage of the Vallée des Baux beaver in A Rocha France’s video: 

Swiss dry meadows - ARCH

A decade’s work makes an impact on Swiss dry meadows

Looking at images of Switzerland on tourism websites and chocolate boxes, you’d be forgiven in assuming wildlife was flourishing in this idyllically beautiful part of the world. Sadly, it’s not the case. Dry meadows – which are habitat for more than 30% of the country’s living species, including flowers, grasshoppers, butterflies, reptiles and birds – have reduced by 90% since 1950 due to intensive agriculture, urbanization and scrub encroachment. 

For the past ten years, A Rocha Switzerland has supported farmers and other landowners and operators to manage the meadows in a way that protects biodiversity. Last year alone, A Rocha ran 12 ‘nature action days’ during which 107 volunteers removed invasive plants, cleared bushes and helped the farmers make their land more suitable for sensitive species. In addition, they carried out inventories of Lepidoptera (butterflies), Orthoptera (grasshoppers and crickets) and flora on 11 parcels of dry meadow habitat. They logged a total of 71 species of Lepidoptera – including 16 on the Swiss Red List of threatened species – and 29 species of Orthoptera, including 12 on the Swiss Red List. The scientific reports and inventory data have been shared with the cantons and the Swiss fauna mapping centre.   

Ursula Peutot, A Rocha Switzerland’s Executive Director says, ‘We believe that the work we do in the dry meadows is very important. Not many nature conservation organizations focus on this area, and it is important to biodiversity in Switzerland. The work we do with the farmers and the contact with them is also key, that they may get practical help for preserving nature and not just feel like they are the ones made responsible for biodiversity loss when it is our global society that has taken them there.’ 

Kruparna kids club option 1

An invitation into the light

The garden at Krupárna, A Rocha Czech Republic’s centre in north Bohemia, is an oasis of green: Blue Tits Cyanistes caeruleus flit through the planted native bushes, while Grey Wagtails Motacilla cinerea hunt near the seven ponds, where they feed on aquatic-type insects and invertebrates. You may catch a flash of a Kingfisher Alcedo atthis or a Broad-bodied Chaser Libellula depressa along the brook which borders the garden. Badgers have set up house alongside wood and brush piles for reptiles, while solitary bees reside in the five-star insect hotel. Two-legged visitors are welcome too: children learn about plants and animals on their weekly club visit, including what plants are edible and which ones really aren’t! All who walk past on the forest trail are invited to stop and enjoy the garden – a wordless testimony of God’s love.  

Recently the garden rang with the excitement of students and their teachers as seven schools took part in an ‘Ecology Olympics’, a two-day environmental contest organized by A Rocha Czech Republic at the request of the local government. Jana and Filip, two of A Rocha’s environmental educators, put the teams through their paces on identification skills in botany, birds, mammals, insects, biodiversity and species protection.  

When evening came, the ‘Olympians’ were invited to join a candlelight vigil of hope for the healing of our broken world. Starting in darkness, people read Bible passages and environmental texts, accompanied by the music of Taizé. Gradually, candles were lit, shining brightly as Jesus’ words were read: ‘The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it’ (John 1:5).  

On the second day, the students created habitats specifically designed as nesting or refuge areas for birds, reptiles and insects, having researched the appropriate style and materials to choose. These amazing structures are now part of the garden, a reminder of God calling us into the light and to work together towards a healed world.