Why we should all be ecologists | Marija Vugdelić | TEDxPodgorica

Marija Vugdelić is "a kind-tempered” girl who engages in photography, mountaineering, plays the harmonica, dances tango, makes jewelery and hosts travelers.

People often ask me, I was asked
the same this morning,

"How come that you are an ecologist?"

When I think about
how I ended up in this story,

usually I find the explanation
in two experiences that I find crucial.

The first one is related
to the TV series "Survival''.

I am not sure
how many of you in the audience

can remember that series,
the elder probably do.

I can hear the applause
in the back rows.

The series I watched as a child.

At the age of 5 or 6,
I was impressed with it.

Watching the examples
of flora and fauna,

I was curious about why some organisms
are made to look the way they do.

Why they live in certain areas.

Why they behave in the way they do.

How and why different interactions
happen between organisms and species?

Those questions affected me very much

and the series
left a strong impression on me,

so many years after it directly
influenced my college choice.

When I finished high school
and decided to go to Britain to study,

I knew it would be some kind of biology,
but when I listed the brochure,

about a hundreds of universities,
university departments

and when I thought which one to choose,

University of East Anglia
caught my attention,

more precisely this "Anglia"
in the name of the university.

The first association was the introduction
of the TV series "Survival''

where I saw a silver horseman,
which was the logo of Anglia TV channel,

that produced this series.

At that point I said,
"I want to go there!''

My only wish was to be
as close as possible to Anglia television.

Later on, it turned out
that this university

was the best possible choice
I could have made.

So that the passion I had
since I was child

brought me right where I wanted to be.

The second reason was, that,
thanks to my family,

since I was a little girl, I had a chance
to spend all my summers,

weekends, vacations at country side
at the north of Montenegro.

That experience gave me an opportunity
to make a direct contact with nature,

to observe plants, animals,
their relations in their natural habitat.

Also to observe their relations
with people who live there

and who use that nature
on a daily basis.

It gave me an opportunity to think about
where I am in that system of relations.

To compare types of those relations
in the nature, and the ones in the city.

It just made me think
about it, in that direction.

Throughout those two experiences
I got curious, interested in nature,

science and biology,
that is ecology as a life call

which was a way
to satisfy my interests.

However, along the way I figured out
a very important thing.

And that is:

That knowing nature and natural relations
should be responsibility and obligation

of every person no matter
what that person does for living.

Today, I am going to try to convince you

why everyone should be
or must be an ecologist.

In Montenegro, when you say "ecology"
or that someone is an ecologist,

usually the first picture
that people imagine is some garbage.

However, ecology is not
a synonym for garbage.

But if you need to imagine a picture
when you hear the word ecology,

then personally,
I would like you to imagine this one.

I am going to explain it now.

Ecology studies the relations between
organisms and their surroundings.

It is trying to answer the questions:

Why do some organisms,
some species live

in the places they live,
and why they populate certain areas.

Who eats whom and why?
Who helps whom?

We all watched "Finding Nemo",
so we know that it lives in anemones.

Who is a parasite to whom?

And how all interactions influence
the quantity of organisms

and their place in space in time.

Organisms in nature enter
in various types of interaction

and together they create
a very complex net of interactions.

But those relations constantly change.

As the balance between them
changes, number of organisms,

species, in time and space,
and relations between them change

and the net will always
change its shape and adapt.

Of course, if the number
of individual species is going down

or a whole species disappears,
some of those relations are broken

but by time they recover
and new ones occur.

The disappearance of species or reducing
of organisms is a natural process.

It happens for many reasons,
about which I will not talk now.

However, disappearance of organisms,
disappearance of species which happened

in the last hundred years
greatly exceeds the speed

in which it would normally
happen in nature.

It is by some estimates faster
by 1000 up to 10 000 times.

What is the result?

The result is
that the connections are broken

and there is not enough time
for them to recover.

Those strings are broken permanently.

Nowadays, we often wonder if nature
can survive under the influence of man.

Personally, I would not be
worried for it.

It will remain in this or some other form.

The main question
that we should worry about

is how much will all of this cost us?

In two days from now it marks one year
since Lonely George passed away.

Has anybody heard for Lonely George?

It was the last example of a gigantic
turtle species from Galapagos island.

With this death the species
simply became a legend.

Imagine that it was not Lonely George
who died, but the last bee.

What do you think, how much
would this scenario affect you?

Today, a year later, not only that
we would not have honey or bee products,

but we would miss even apples, pears,

cherries, tomatoes, sunflowers,

sunflower oil and God knows what else.

All these agricultural goods which
are the base of our nutrition today.

Those goods are maintained thanks
to the pollination done by the bees.

If you think this scenario is unreal,
that I am exaggerating, unfortunately

in some parts of the world, the population
went down 50% in the last few years.

If that trend continues - you can imagine.

So, whether we want to admit it or not,
the human being is a biological species.

We keep on living and depending on
interaction with others, with nature.

It is those other species,
their function, their interaction

that enable us to have food.

To have structure and fibers.

To have raw materials for certain
industries such as pharmaceutical,

this is St. John's Wort in the picture.

It allows us to have clean water,
fresh air, and the oxygen we breathe in.

Also, throughout those interactions nature
keeps us safe from erosion, floods, fires.

In other words, all of that gives us
plenty of goods and favors

on which we depend,
directly or indirectly,

besides all technology,
science and progress we made.

In the last few years we became
aware of ecological problems because

some of them started to cause problems.

The end of this species
withdraws the end of these goods.

And if we want to continue building
our future, to maintain the life standard

and the quality of life, then we
simply have to change our way

of thinking and our approach to nature.

Industrial revolution.

Everything that came after,

made us go to cities, urban areas,

and thus we have alienated ourselves
from the nature.

It has become far, different,
even abstract.

I always remember a comment
of a friend of mine from Britain.

He was born and raised in London.

He once told me
about the frozen fish sticks

which are called
''fish fingers'' in English.

He told me once, "I was ten years old,

when I realized that
fish don't have fingers."

The food we eat became some
kind of abstraction to us,

because we cannot see where
it is from or how it gets to us.

The problem is that we forgot
that our place is not there,

but here.

That human beings are a part of that net
and that we depend on it.

As I said before, if we want
to keep building a future,

maintain a life standard, then we
have to change our way of thinking.

We have to change the whole
paradigm, our approach to nature.

For all this to happen,
a few things need to be done.

One of them is that humans and their needs
are treated as a part of ecosystem.

Not as something else, above, outside,

but as a part of that ecosystem.

As an illustration, I will tell you about
an example from Mexico.

I volunteered there two years ago
in the national park ''El Triumpho''

in the south. It is the biggest
rain forest in Central America,

a part of true wilderness

which is the natural habitat for many
endangered species, such as tapirs,

jaguars, quetzals.
Those are all Mayan birds, etc.

However, on the outskirts
of the rainforest

are the villages where the main
activity of the inhabitants

is coffee planting.

But life there is very hard.

People are very poor.
They lack basic infrastructure.

No roads, no schools, hygienic
conditions are bad, and so on.

The only source of money for those
people is the coffee which they plant.

However, the income comes only 3 to 4
months in a year, when the coffee is ripe

and ready for sale.

The only way for these people
to increase their annual income

was to plant more coffee,
which would normally harm the rain forest

because they have been cutting trees down.

Of course, that caused problems
with the guards.

But the experts from the park
decided not to forbid

the locals to cut the forest,

but to apply a different approach instead.

In cooperation with experts
and volunteers from the national park,

the locals realized,
if they cut down the forest,

erosion would happen,
so there would not be any place

where they can plant or if they already
planted coffee, rain would wash it away.

The rain season lasts for 6 months there,
and there are huge amounts of rain daily.

During the draught, if there is no forest,
there is no place for water to be held,

so there is no clean drinking water,

nor could they water
their coffee plantation.

They realized that if they plant their
coffee with protection guidance,

their coffee would become a brand,
and as such it would give them advantage,

on the coffee market in comparison
to their competitors.

So they became the biggest fighters
for the salvation of the rain forest.

When you go there, they have
improvised signs all over the place,

with "Do not kill animals",
"Do not cut down the forest" and so on.

They started to protect the nature,
because they saw that they can achieve

personal interest.

They became interested
in innovations in coffee planting,

in some new ways, for example,
such as, to plant coffee in shadows,

with no need to cut down the forest.

There are many examples
like these in the world.

For all of those who are successful,

it does not matter
if the country or the community are rich

or a lot of money comes in
through projects or programs,

but what matters
is that there is will, enthusiasm

and that people are treated
as a part of an ecosystem.

With pleasure, I have to say,
although these methods

and ideas are relatively new,
they are coming slowly to Montenegro.

When I was working on Skadar Lake,
I had a chance to collaborate and work

with locals, mostly fishermen.

Throughout this, I personally saw
that this kind of approach works,

that it can give concrete, positive
results that favor both sides,

to protect nature
and help local development.

For this year we expect to form
first regional parks in Montenegro.

It will be in Piva and Komovi.

Those will be protected areas,
where we expect to achieve better

protection with this approach,
by having people

and their needs treated as the
inherent part of an ecosystem.

Right after TEDx, I am going to Komovi
where we have meetings with people

who live there, to find out the best
way to get these things together.

There is another issue,
which is very important.

When we hear that some ecological problem
happened, usually the first reaction

is to blame someone
who destroys the nature.

The one who cuts down the trees,

or the one who is building
a road, or a hotel etc.

I have to disappoint you, but sadly
all of us here are as equally guilty.

We are guilty for being ignorant, we are
guilty for not being able to understand

how our activities and actions
affect nature

when we do not take
the responsibility for our actions.

If you do not understand the consequences
of what we are doing,

this type of ecological advice
still remains abstract to you.

You cannot see clearly
what they represent.

I ask you to do something else,

and Miloš asked you
to do something similar

and that is, simply to spend more time
in nature.

There is no need to dream

about some far away, exotic destination
although I encourage you all to go,

same as Blažo did.

We are unlikely privileged and lucky
because we have literally everything

I talked about here in Montenegro,
the possibility to experience everything,

to feel the nature
and all those interactions.

Next time when you think about

where to spend
your afternoon, day or weekend,

here are some examples.

You can go everywhere by car

or on foot and I am sure
that you will not regret it.

If you still need some motivation to go,
just imagine your photos

from this lake, and how many likes
they would get on Facebook.

In the end, I have a message for you.

The growth of global population,
the development of technology,

all these are global trends
that we are more or less aware of.

They keep bringing

new challenges, new problems
which directly affect our quality of life.

And in the middle of these problems

is the human relation to nature,
how we treat it and what it gives back.

Thus, those who are aware
of those relations, those who understand

the concept of sustainability
that we are talking about,

will be able to handle these challenges.

Thus, I advise you
to become an ecologist soon

because you will be more prepared
to meet the unknown future.

Thank you!
(Applause)