Justice for Nature in Costa Rica with Alena Bendová

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For over thirty years Costa Rica has preserved and conserved their natural lands, resources, and wildlife resulting in a healthy ecosystem. Nature is valuable but its status is fragile and threatened even in Costa Rica. Species like the jaguar are at risk. Justice for Nature with Alena Bendová

Transcript
Alena Bendová:

One of the main objectives of our projects is to

Alena Bendová:

inspire people, to activate people, to bring them the awareness.

Alena Bendová:

I really wish to inspire people because we are not not arrogant in this

Alena Bendová:

thing that we can change the world and save all and save everything.

Alena Bendová:

But we wanna be like an example for people that even if you're small, even

Alena Bendová:

if you don't have much money you can do good things for nature and for the

Alena Bendová:

future generations and for animals, for the wilderness, this is the main

Alena Bendová:

value we should understand and accept.

Alena Bendová:

And with the Goodwill, I think there might be magical, big things happening

Catherine:

Hello, this is Catherine, your host of the

Catherine:

podcast, your positive imprint.

Catherine:

The variety show, featuring people all over the world whose positive actions

Catherine:

are inspiring positive achievements.

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Exceptional people rise to the challenge.

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Music by the talented Chris Nole.

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Check out his music and learn more about his awesome background, ChrisNole.com.

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Follow me on Facebook and Instagram, your positive imprint.

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yourpositiveimprint.com where of course you can sign up for

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newsletter updates, learn more about the podcast and even go shopping.

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I have designed an eco tote bag regarding today's show justice for nature.

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Free shipping worldwide through October 5th.

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I can certainly use your support.

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Go to yourpositiveimprint.com

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Your positive imprint.

Catherine:

What's your P.I.?.

Catherine:

The declining state of affairs for our environment worldwide means

Catherine:

that we need to come together.

Catherine:

Work together with other people and other governments.

Catherine:

We cannot turn back time but we can move forward with

Catherine:

conservation and preservation.

Catherine:

My guest uses the word rewild to sometimes describe her initiative and that of

Catherine:

justice for nature forest for children.

Catherine:

Alena Bendová is from Czech Republic, which is where

Catherine:

Justice for Nature is rooted.

Catherine:

Their vision seeks a balance between human civilization and

Catherine:

nature through active preservation of the environment and animals.

Catherine:

Alena Bendová shares her positive imprints and the organization's international

Catherine:

vision which opens the door to the wide public to take responsibility

Catherine:

and also an active role in saving nature and animal species on the planet earth.

Catherine:

Hello, Alena back there in Czech Republic..

Catherine:

And we're back here with part two with Alena Bendová of Justice for Nature.

Catherine:

Last week we talked about Indonesia and the blue-green project , and

Catherine:

the work that Justice for Nature, Forest For Children is doing.

Catherine:

Welcome again.

Alena Bendová:

Thank you.

Alena Bendová:

Thank you.

Alena Bendová:

I'm really happy to have this opportunity to talk more and spread the awareness

Alena Bendová:

about our new project in Costa Rica,

Alena Bendová:

it's just exciting and amazing thing.

Alena Bendová:

The idea of Costa Rica started in 2019 when a founder of a Forest

Alena Bendová:

for Children organization and a little group of representative from

Alena Bendová:

Czech Republic and Czech Rangers.

Alena Bendová:

They went to World Congress of International Ranger Federation in Nepal.

Alena Bendová:

It was a huge thing for us because we do the job , and we admire

Alena Bendová:

the job of Rangers and we were accepted in this world community.

Alena Bendová:

And we had a chance, or my colleagues had a chance there to present

Alena Bendová:

our activities and projects.

Alena Bendová:

And this opened us this door to Costa Rica and into much more countries

Alena Bendová:

because all our people arrangers there were really excited about

Alena Bendová:

what we do and what our knowledge and skills and possibilities are.

Alena Bendová:

One of the contacts, there was Leonel Alonso Delgado Pereira

Alena Bendová:

who is a Costa Rican ranger.

Alena Bendová:

And he's actually a director of the Association of Rangers for

Alena Bendová:

middle America, for Latin America.

Alena Bendová:

And they get a couple of beers.

Alena Bendová:

He suggested them to come to Costa Rica and do this monitoring project,

Alena Bendová:

Eye of Jaguar and it's this project we have it's called, the

Alena Bendová:

eye of the earth, which is a big worldwide monitoring program we have.

Alena Bendová:

It started with Sumatra.

Alena Bendová:

Eye of Tiger program.

Alena Bendová:

Now we are running Eye of Bear in Slovakia, our neighbor country,

Alena Bendová:

and in several more countries.

Alena Bendová:

We did filming in Uganda, or Eye of Rhino program in Uganda, and now

Alena Bendová:

we're waiting to start a program

Alena Bendová:

Eye of Gorilla in democratic Republic of Congo.

Alena Bendová:

We provide field cameras, these photo trips to Rangers and national parks

Alena Bendová:

and it's support for them material support so they can do their job better

Alena Bendová:

and they provide us the footage, the data for creating big educational

Alena Bendová:

program for children worldwide.

Alena Bendová:

This program's going to be called Ethics of the Earth and should be

Alena Bendová:

finished and presented on next or other international ranger Federation

Alena Bendová:

Congress in Azure islands in 2026.

Alena Bendová:

So that's why we are collecting all this data and beautiful footage.

Alena Bendová:

And one of these project one program is Eye of Jaguar in Costa Rica.

Alena Bendová:

The question was money, of course for this expedition and for

Alena Bendová:

starting the monitoring program.

Alena Bendová:

And luckily we have this one man, extraordinary man simple,

Alena Bendová:

older guy from Czech Republic

Alena Bendová:

who's in business with with stocks, market stocks and some realties.

Alena Bendová:

And this guy saw us once on TV.

Alena Bendová:

I don't know, a year or more ago, two years maybe.

Alena Bendová:

This mental change happened and he decided he realizedhe has enough and he wants

Alena Bendová:

to do some good change in the world.

Alena Bendová:

He contacted us and donate us 40 hectares of reserve on Sumatra.

Alena Bendová:

And after that huge, amazing act of kindness we went with him for

Alena Bendová:

dinner, just, to thank him and tell him what's going on and everything.

Alena Bendová:

And we mentioned that we are planning to start monitoring in Costa Rica.

Alena Bendová:

And if there's a possibility that he has some friends to, to ask for some

Alena Bendová:

additional money for this project and he asked how much do you need?

Alena Bendová:

Let's say, 500,000 Czech Crowns.

Alena Bendová:

We don't need to tell anyone.

Alena Bendová:

I will.

Alena Bendová:

I will give you those money.

Alena Bendová:

Wow.

Alena Bendová:

We were explaining, we are excited.

Alena Bendová:

So we got this money for the start of this monitoring.

Alena Bendová:

So we bought all the equipment camera, and field cameras, all the cards and

Alena Bendová:

boxes for these cameras and even a new underwater camera for filming

Alena Bendová:

because Milan the founder, he's a diver amazing diver very experienced.

Alena Bendová:

So I was lucky to be one of the team and we went to Costa Rica in January, 2021,

Alena Bendová:

We started this monitoring program with help of this Leonel who opened

Alena Bendová:

us door to national parks, the most beautiful national park Corcovado and

Alena Bendová:

Guanacaste in the north of the country.

Alena Bendová:

So that's why we got to Costa Rica.

Alena Bendová:

We were excited about the beauties of, and the biodiversity of the Costa

Alena Bendová:

Rican forest and Marine life, we saw whales and dolphins and turtles

Alena Bendová:

and all those beautiful creatures.

Alena Bendová:

Unfortunately I'm not a diver

Alena Bendová:

so they saw all of it and I was just picking trash on the beach.

Catherine:

Well, that's good to do.

Alena Bendová:

Yeah.

Alena Bendová:

It's my favorite activity.

Alena Bendová:

My hobby actually.

Alena Bendová:

So I was happy to at anyway, we were just looking on all this and we were super

Alena Bendová:

excited about the situation in Costa Rica with the politics of environmental

Alena Bendová:

protection and environmental politics

Catherine:

Being that it's positive down there, the politics of the environment

Catherine:

they are working towards sustainability.

Alena Bendová:

Yes.

Alena Bendová:

In eighties or early nineties, there have elected some enlightened

Alena Bendová:

politicians who started this way of education and protecting and starting

Alena Bendová:

the, this initiative for creating national parks and private reserves.

Alena Bendová:

And these days it's a quarter of all Costa Rica.

Alena Bendová:

It's a protected area on national park.

Alena Bendová:

So imagine that, of course it's a small country, they say 26% of the country

Alena Bendová:

is just forest and protected areas.

Alena Bendová:

So, which is just amazing and

Catherine:

I know that Costa Rica, one of the things that they're very

Catherine:

proud of and they should be is that their literacy rate is very high.

Catherine:

So education is very important to not just the people, but to the government.

Alena Bendová:

Yeah.

Alena Bendová:

Yeah.

Alena Bendová:

And they, they brought this this value of nature in the environmental

Alena Bendová:

education or in education in general.

Alena Bendová:

So even the economy transformed in sake of the natural protection, there is a

Alena Bendová:

lot of eco touristic like companies and places and all those resorts and bungalows

Alena Bendová:

and people are just having a, this profit from tourists, which is good because they,

Alena Bendová:

they put it back into nature protection, partly but in, in education as well.

Alena Bendová:

So there's this value of nature protection based on from school.

Alena Bendová:

Of course, it's not a, it's not a perfect as, nowhere in the world is perfect.

Alena Bendová:

And the nature protection there is facing so many problems too.

Alena Bendová:

It's a.

Alena Bendová:

Really happy to have us there.

Alena Bendová:

And the fact that we can help somehow.

Alena Bendová:

We brought 60 cameras and we gave them for use for Rangers in those two national

Alena Bendová:

parks I mentioned the Corcovado and Guanacaste and Santa Rosa national park.

Catherine:

What was the outcome you wanted?

Catherine:

What were your goals with Eye of the Jaguar monitoring program?

Alena Bendová:

Well, we only started this program and it's running.

Alena Bendová:

Our goal was to see Jaguar which actually happened.

Alena Bendová:

And we wanted to bring the materials, start the program, and the goal

Alena Bendová:

for Rangers like in Indonesia, it's a prevention of illegal

Alena Bendová:

activities, monitoring of animals.

Catherine:

You're not monitoring the animal just for data.

Catherine:

You're monitoring the animal for preservation.

Alena Bendová:

Yeah.

Alena Bendová:

Too, as well,

Alena Bendová:

This big cats are moving around and, migrating through the big

Alena Bendová:

areas and even across the countries.

Alena Bendová:

So, I don't think that even, not even scientists know the right or

Alena Bendová:

exact amounts number of, Jaguars.

Alena Bendová:

We don't know how many Jaguars or animals we are losing.

Alena Bendová:

No, this is hard.

Alena Bendová:

Even when in Costa Rica, it's a prohibited all hunting or killing animals.

Alena Bendová:

We have legal hunting here in Europe or in Czech Republic.

Alena Bendová:

Costa Rica, through this evolving, they quit with all the killing, with the zoos

Alena Bendová:

circuses and all the things using animals.

Alena Bendová:

There is no such thing, like legal hunting game in this country.

Alena Bendová:

So all killings is illegal.

Alena Bendová:

Poachers are after Jaguars too.

Alena Bendová:

Of course.

Alena Bendová:

And it is because of this traditional Chinese medicine in the case of tigers.

Alena Bendová:

So they are going after jaguars too.,

Catherine:

yeah.

Catherine:

Which is really too bad because we're losing the Jaguars, we're losing

Catherine:

the pangolin, we're losing all sorts of animals to medicinal practices.

Catherine:

And I understand culture, but times are different now.

Catherine:

And so that's a whole different topic, right?

Catherine:

Yeah.

Catherine:

So what feedback are you receiving from the Costa Rican Rangers?

Alena Bendová:

Well, the feedback for cooperation is great and

Alena Bendová:

we're have some first data or of some first footage of animals like

Alena Bendová:

tapirs or jaguars and or Pumas.

Alena Bendová:

And this is great.

Alena Bendová:

Because we provided those cameras to scientists there in Costa Rica, the

Alena Bendová:

university scientists from Costa Rican university who are running scientific

Alena Bendová:

work in in those national parks.

Alena Bendová:

So it's a mulit- cooperation of those institutions.

Alena Bendová:

And I'm really happy.

Alena Bendová:

It's a, again, it's worldwide.

Alena Bendová:

We need cooperate across the professions

Alena Bendová:

, one of the aims or use uses of the cameras.

Alena Bendová:

It's not only to gain pictures of animals in the wild or catching

Alena Bendová:

some illegal activities or people there, but as well, it's for research

Alena Bendová:

For some strategies for conservation, which is great.

Catherine:

And if only Jaguars and other animals would stay put in the

Catherine:

safe areas and not travel out, but of course animals are wanderers.

Catherine:

And so they move about, so they go across government borders, political borders.

Catherine:

And unfortunately we lose a lot of animals, not just that way, because

Catherine:

obviously even Costa Rica is unfortunately seeing poaching within their country.

Alena Bendová:

We saw unexpected openness to have people there

Alena Bendová:

are open to all the kind of cooperations they were super happy.

Alena Bendová:

And we have this comparison with Indonesia and Costa Rica.

Alena Bendová:

It's like total opposite.

Catherine:

That could be changed and that's something that is not beyond

Catherine:

our control, because we can, it just takes more than just one organization.

Alena Bendová:

That's true.

Alena Bendová:

Yeah.

Alena Bendová:

Yeah.

Alena Bendová:

And okay.

Alena Bendová:

And from all of this came up this idea to start the projects there

Catherine:

thanks great.

Catherine:

So now it's called Bosque...

Alena Bendová:

Bosque para Los Niños, Forest for children,

Alena Bendová:

Yes.

Alena Bendová:

This this name justice for nature is a, it's like a umbrella name for all

Alena Bendová:

the projects, because it's a, it's like the main idea and we are, as

Alena Bendová:

we are driving more to the world, we want to transform a little bit more.

Alena Bendová:

So, we are presenting this idea, this justice for nature.

Alena Bendová:

So we started this, and again, we brought the, there is a green life blue life idea,

Alena Bendová:

like a kind of a copy paste and thanks to our great extraordinary person, Karel.

Alena Bendová:

We had this opportunity to start there again and he donate us Nice sum of money

Alena Bendová:

for start for buying the first land.

Alena Bendová:

So he's the savior of so many forests now.

Alena Bendová:

We had these amazing luck for, and thanks to Leonel who's a really the

Alena Bendová:

gate opener and door opener there.

Alena Bendová:

He knew about a guy who worked all his life for conservation

Alena Bendová:

and nature protection.

Alena Bendová:

And he owned this area this land it's a 95 hectares.

Alena Bendová:

And we met with him, and he decided to sell us this property, for

Alena Bendová:

a really non-regular price,

Alena Bendová:

so we have our new Costa Rican green life reserve which is 95

Alena Bendová:

hectares with some basic camp.

Alena Bendová:

They were building some new house with rooms for volunteers

Alena Bendová:

and for scientists as well

Alena Bendová:

because this reserve will be open to science, and children.

Alena Bendová:

We want to take kids and children into the reserve, into the forest and even

Alena Bendová:

on a sea to learn and to have this experience from nature, because this

Alena Bendová:

is what's the most important thing.

Alena Bendová:

I think a direct experience so then people can understand.

Alena Bendová:

this is the story of green life reserve, which was just born.

Catherine:

With your ecotourism and the people that are going

Catherine:

to go visit, there's going to be a larger percentage of exposure

Catherine:

over in Costa Rica, I think because it's a country that's more

Catherine:

easily accessible to tourists.

Catherine:

There are people around the world who really want to get involved

Catherine:

and they want to do it on site.

Catherine:

A lot of people don't want to just take out their wallets and give a donation.

Catherine:

They want to be on site.

Catherine:

So how can they help you in Costa Rica or in Indonesia?

Alena Bendová:

Well, a good thing is that we are open for volunteers from wherever.

Alena Bendová:

Not only Czech volunteers so people can visit us, they can have

Alena Bendová:

this experience by themselves.

Alena Bendová:

The programs fully should be in November this year,

Alena Bendová:

So the process to apply for volunteering it's going to be through

Alena Bendová:

email, and there's going to be some email address on our website.

Catherine:

Okay.

Catherine:

And November is not that far away.

Catherine:

So if people want to volunteer, they need to start looking at their schedules and

Catherine:

what time they can provide, even, for them, they might be able to provide, a

Catherine:

long period of helping justice for nature.

Catherine:

So they can go to justicefornature.org and contact Alena Bendová yes, there

Catherine:

are people that listen to the show that do look for places where they

Catherine:

can activate their positive imprints.

Alena Bendová:

So through our organization, we want to coordinate and

Alena Bendová:

maybe help to get more volunteers for Rangers and national parks too, because

Alena Bendová:

they need, they really need the help.

Alena Bendová:

We got together with a, another NGO it's called for the oceans foundation.

Alena Bendová:

It's Costa Rican NGO director Mr.

Alena Bendová:

Jorge Serendero.

Alena Bendová:

The name of our blue life project

Alena Bendová:

it's going to be ambassadors for the oceans.

Alena Bendová:

And the aim is to have expedition boat.

Alena Bendová:

And for this, and this boat should be like a floating school for children,

Alena Bendová:

place for Marine biologists and divers.

Alena Bendová:

and help for Rangers as well.

Alena Bendová:

For media, we wanna create a floating media office for for broadcasting

Alena Bendová:

life, from the ocean to, to show people what's happening there.

Alena Bendová:

And the main area where we want to operate it's between OSA peninsula,

Alena Bendová:

which is Costa Rican peninsula, where is Corcovado Cocos island, which is a top

Alena Bendová:

locality for Marine biodiversity and for divers, but it's really super expensive

Alena Bendová:

to get there because it's so rare.

Alena Bendová:

It's a huge, and extraordinary, amazing Marine biodiversity there, whales,

Alena Bendová:

humpback whales, all kinds of turtles, whales, dolphins tunas, Everything

Alena Bendová:

you can even imagine it's there, it's in this area, but the trouble is it's

Alena Bendová:

not under protection of any state.

Alena Bendová:

It's not it's not territorial waters, so it's open sea.

Alena Bendová:

And again, there is this problem of massive illegal fishing and overfishing by

Alena Bendová:

all the boats again mostly Chinese ships are getting there and then, over-fish all

Alena Bendová:

the area and it's a sort of true danger.

Alena Bendová:

So one of our goals is to be there, bring through this live broadcast

Alena Bendová:

people, the information and pictures of what's going on there.

Alena Bendová:

It's like a prevention and protection of the area and the Marine life.

Alena Bendová:

And the bigger aim or the bigger goal, biggest goal is to put it under protection

Alena Bendová:

of a United nations or wherever.

Alena Bendová:

I think the United nations they got it on somewhere on a table, but for.

Alena Bendová:

I don't know for some reasons it's just not happening, but

Alena Bendová:

we, and we want to push it

Alena Bendová:

We just signed this agreement on cooperation with the partner

Alena Bendová:

organization, and now newly this for the oceans foundation signed

Alena Bendová:

a memorandum on cooperation with ministry of environment in Costa Rica.

Alena Bendová:

It's moving slowly and we need to start first, which we hope will be

Alena Bendová:

the beginning of next year January.

Alena Bendová:

But we will see depends on the money, on a condition of a boat.

Alena Bendová:

I won't be the person talking to United nations.

Alena Bendová:

So my role is to speak for Czech organization, mostly for our programs,

Alena Bendová:

present our programs, but this lobbying activity, it's not going to be my task.

Catherine:

We'll keep our fingers crossed for the future of the protection of that

Catherine:

area, because it certainly sounds like it obviously will be needed, but Justice for

Catherine:

Nature, Forest For C hildren definitely does so much for our global society.

Alena Bendová:

Yes.

Alena Bendová:

We will be looking for specialized volunteers.

Alena Bendová:

For diverse Marine photographers and people with all those skills

Alena Bendová:

and of course, for maintaining the boat and all these things, so

Alena Bendová:

all the services and activities.

Alena Bendová:

So there's going to be a possibility to join us as a volunteer for this

Alena Bendová:

Marine program to o but there'll be a little bit different conditions

Alena Bendová:

for it because it's way more serious than, just have a walk in the forest

Catherine:

Well, Alena, thank you so much again for sharing your positive

Catherine:

imprint and everything that you are doing for justice for nature,

Catherine:

forest for children, and people can find you at justicefornature.org.

Catherine:

And also I have my eco tote bags at my store, yourpositiveimprint.com,

Catherine:

which actually has justice for nature and your name and the episode.

Catherine:

It's a way for people to journey with you by carrying the bag

Catherine:

around with justice, for nature

Alena Bendová:

we truly wish companies organizations and institutions to

Alena Bendová:

get in touch with us and cooperate.

Alena Bendová:

And as I mentioned in last week episode, We are really creative.

Alena Bendová:

We can use any help of time of services, of materials, of skills,

Alena Bendová:

it's just about the goodwill to do something, to help, to join.

Alena Bendová:

And we, are community justice for nature is a community.

Alena Bendová:

So we are open to any ethical beings and ethically thinking people.

Alena Bendová:

I wanna ask them to join us and go and start this green and blue life

Alena Bendová:

amazing journey with us because it is hard, but it's just magic,

Catherine:

Alena, you've been working over in Indonesia with the Sumatran forests,

Catherine:

and now you're over in Costa Rica and of course you have your Czech forests.

Catherine:

So can you kind of help listeners get a visual of what these forests are like?

Alena Bendová:

Well, people are asking me about the difference if there is

Alena Bendová:

any difference between a Costa Rican rainforest and a Sumatran rainforest.

Alena Bendová:

There is some, but the, it depends on the area, on the place, because

Alena Bendová:

for example, this Corcovado national park, this forest was really hot

Alena Bendová:

and we could see a lot of animals.

Alena Bendová:

We, we, we saw tupirs,, we saw toucans,, sloths,

Alena Bendová:

it's a fully and rich ecosystem, so they're all

Alena Bendová:

representatives of all the life.

Alena Bendová:

So yeah, they're frogs, they're snakes.

Alena Bendová:

They're many more.

Alena Bendová:

And walking for the first time we came to a stream or a little river

Alena Bendová:

and we couldn't tell a difference.

Alena Bendová:

It was just same..

Alena Bendová:

It was just green life, no matter where, if it's Costa Rica or Sumatra,

Alena Bendová:

you wouldn't tell where you are.

Alena Bendová:

So this was a amazing moment.

Alena Bendová:

The Guanacaste area in Costa Rica this national park Santa Rosa and Guanacaste.

Alena Bendová:

And it's a totally different ecosystem.

Alena Bendová:

It's this dry forest, which is half of the year it's totally dry.

Alena Bendová:

And half of the year, it's a super green and full of life.

Alena Bendová:

We were there in March and April, which we'll say somewhere in the middle,

Alena Bendová:

we saw it dry, but slowly thriving.

Alena Bendová:

So there are difference between all those forests and ecosystems,

Alena Bendová:

but what they have in common

Alena Bendová:

It's just the beauty of the wilderness.

Alena Bendová:

It's something I can't describe or visualize.

Alena Bendová:

I pulled here some pictures, so people might see, but it's not the same.

Alena Bendová:

You need to have this experience so you can feel it.

Alena Bendová:

You can gain the energy from the ecosystem.

Alena Bendová:

And I think this is the most valuable

Alena Bendová:

and exclusive thing in this world, because, you can

Alena Bendová:

buy pretty much everything.

Alena Bendová:

You can have expensive cars, expensive here and there, everything, but this is

Alena Bendová:

something so fragile and so beautiful.

Alena Bendová:

It's purity.

Alena Bendová:

It's a pure life.

Alena Bendová:

No, it's a, it's pure life there.

Alena Bendová:

And if we destroy or let this destroy by our ignorance, we are just crude.

Catherine:

And those are such good words of wisdom and inspiring words to live by.

Catherine:

Alena Bendová,

Catherine:

thank you so much for sharing your positive imprints with us regarding

Catherine:

all of your journeys into nature.

Catherine:

And just a reminder, JusticeforNature.org.

Catherine:

Thank you again, Alena.

Alena Bendová:

Thank you so much.

Alena Bendová:

Thank you, Catherine.

Catherine:

Your positive imprint.

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