World Marketplace

http://siteresources.worldbank.org
Pygmies are using modern technology to save sacred trees, thanks to prize money from the World Bank's Development Marketplace. By using handheld global positioning systems (GPS), Mbendjele Pygmies in the Republic of Congo are guiding a logging company away from cutting trees that hold special value for forest communities, thereby reducing age-old tensions between forest-dependent people and the logging industry.

I also learnt about sniffer rats training to be the new weapon in the battle against the quickly rising number of tuberculosis (TB) patients that go undiagnosed each year in Africa. Nineteen Africal pouched rats have been trained to sniff a series of holes, under which human sputum samples are lined up for evaluation and then pinpoint the samples which contain TB bacteria.

What I learned that was special:
• The Chinese giant freshwater mussel, Anodonta woodiana, can filter up to 40 liters of water per day and as the water clears up, native water plants begin growing.