San Francisco Botanical Garden Society Hosts Lunar New Year Celebration and Flower Market

San Francisco, CA (PRWEB) January 07, 2012

San Francisco Botanical Garden Society (SFBGS) invites the community to the 13th Annual Lunar New Year Celebration and Flower Market. The event will be a celebration of the Year of the Dragon with an exciting day filled with food, festivities, and flowers. The celebration takes place from 10 am ? 4 pm on Saturday, January 21st, 2012 at the San Francisco County Fair Building (9th and Lincoln Way in Golden Gate Park). Admission is free. SFBG will hold a preview and photo op for print, broadcast, and online media on Thursday, January 19th at 10:00 AM.

Eleanor Lew, SFBGS volunteer and community organizer, says, ?This celebration is so important for our families every year. It?s a time to unite together and share the good fortune of the coming year.?

This year?s program includes classical stringed instruments and cultural dance performances by Alice Fong Yu School and West Coast Lion dancers; magician Jaden Huang; a puppet show from Chinese Historical Society of America; a talk by Chinatown historian Lyle Jan; a Tea Room and Tea Tastings by Vital Tea Leaf; story time; educational activities; and an Asian Art Museum Children?s Art Center for the kids; plus, 826 Valencia will be on hand with learning activities.

A wonderful array of Asian foods will be provided by: Pacific Coast Farmer?s Market, Tru Gourmet Organic Dim Sum, Sugar Bliss cake pops, Little Vietnam Caf?, and Simply Mochi.

Attractions include chop carving, scroll painting, International School of Ikebana, docent-led tours of San Francisco Botanical Garden, traditional Lunar New Year plants and flowers, and much more.

San Francisco Botanical Garden preserves many rare and endangered plants from all over Asia, providing a tangible connection to Asian culture. Associate Curator David Kruse-Pickler says, ?We provide an immersive experience in four of our garden sections for those that might want to take a botanical journey from Burma to China and Thailand to Indonesia, Japan and even New Guinea.?

Ernie Ng, long-time Garden volunteer and a key organizer of the Lunar New Year celebration, adds, ?Bilingual signs for some of the trees and plants in the Garden are put out during the LNY Event.?

The gardens at SFBG featuring Asian plants include Temperate Asia (Burma to China, south to Thailand), Moon Viewing Garden (Japan), Southeast Asian Cloud Forest (Thailand, Vietnam, Cambodia, New Guinea, Malaysia, Indonesia), and Rhododendron Garden (China, Japan, New Guinea, Indonesia).

Lunar New Year is a great cultural activity for the whole family at beautiful San Francisco Botanical Garden, which features more than 8,000 varieties of the world?s most spectacular plants in twenty-six exquisitely designed gardens.

For more information and a complete vendors list, visit http://www.sfbg.org. To RSVP for the media preview, please contact Heidi Wohlwend at (415) 666-2211 x.304 or Heidi(at)sfbg.(dot)org.

About San Francisco Botanical Garden Society

San Francisco Botanical Garden Society works in partnership with the City of San Francisco/Recreation and Park Department to support San Francisco Botanical Garden, whose 55 acres in Golden Gate Park includes more than 8,000 different kinds of plants native to California and from throughout the world. This tremendous plant diversity, with almost 30 percent of the species wild-collected and many rare and endangered, is displayed in 26 geographic and thematic gardens. The Botanical Garden Society?s mission is to build communities of support for the Botanical Garden and to cultivate the bond between people and plants. With the help of its members, donors and volunteers, the Botanical Garden Society funds Garden improvements, provides curatorial and plant collections management services, propagates plants for the Botanical Garden and for sale to the public, maintains the Helen Crocker Russell Library of Horticulture, offers year-round educational and community programming, operates the Garden Bookstore and welcomes visitors from San Francisco, the Bay Area and around the world.

San Francisco Botanical Garden is situated in the heart of San Francisco?s Golden Gate Park, near famous attractions and museums for kids including the California Academy of Sciences and the de Young Museum. With SFBG?s 26 distinct gardens and collections, which include rarities from Asia, Australia, New Zealand, Central and South America, and South Africa, plus SFBG?s award-winning California Native Plant Garden, complete with a century-old redwood forest, a trip to SFBG is one of the best things to do in San Francisco.

SFBG has daily docent-led San Francisco day tours, and can arrange private tours. Their daily and monthly plants sales are a unique opportunity to acquire plants seldom found in commercial nurseries or garden centers. SFBG?s Youth Education Program serves 10,000 children each year with guided walks, children?s garden programs, treasure hunts and other kids? activities for San Francisco children.

For information about how to become a Society member, or any of San Francisco Botanical Garden Society?s products and services, please call (415) 666-2211 or visit http://www.sfbotanicalgarden.org.

###

Related Call Ops Press Releases

verstandards.co.uk: Carbon Standards Need to Adapt to Expanding Voluntary Market

London, UK (PRWEB) January 25, 2012

verstandards.co.uk today released an article that claims carbon credit quality standards need to adapt to meet the needs of expanding voluntary carbon markets worldwide. The article comes in response to post- Durban climate talks, which stress the importance of government efforts that encourage voluntary domestic offset projects in the absence of overarching international compliance agreement.

?A combination of government policies that foster local offset development and solid, practical evaluation frameworks to ensure the quality and effectiveness of these offsets, is key to moving forward in the direction of sustainable capitalism,? says Tonka Dobreva of Dezz, the green investments media agency operating verstandards.co.uk. ?This way, polluters can keep working on reducing the effects of climate change while they wait for a comprehensive compliance agreement to replace Kyoto.?

The article explains that during the Durban Climate Summit earlier this month, several national representatives presented their government policies that encourage voluntary action ?ahead of, or beyond, climate regulation.? The article cites Jonathan Shopley, Managing Director of UK?s Carbon Neutral Company, who suggests that governments and companies operating on the Voluntary Carbon Market need to seek various ways for collaboration.

Some national governments, the article explains, have already taken practical steps in that direction. According to verstandards.co.uk, Australia?s National Carbon Offset Scheme encourages local forest and land-use projects; Japan?s J-VER scheme favours domestic offsets by establishing higher prices for their carbon credits; Chile has launched the Santiago Climate Exchange; and in the U.S., voluntary offset standards and methodologies are being included in emerging state and regional cap-and-trade schemes, such as the one launching in California in 2012; in France, government attention has also turned to expanding the domestic offset market; and in South Africa, a provision in its proposed carbon tax reduces carbon tax liabilities when local offset projects are favoured by companies obliged to offset.

The carbon investment website further claims that it is essential for third-party quality carbon standards to adapt their evaluation processes to meet the needs of the expanding voluntary markets. The article affirms recently implemented updates in the certification scheme of Gold Standard carbon credits, claiming they point in the right direction of where all standards need to go. As of November, the article says, Gold Standard carbon credits are evaluated under a new set of methodologies for micro-scale carbon offset activities. For example, transaction costs for validation and verification of Gold Standard carbon credits were reduced, allowing small-scale, high impact offsets to take advantage of the system.

According to verstandards.co.uk, other updates in the evaluation process of Gold Standard carbon credits include an easy-to-use tool for project developers, which simplifies the process for checking the eligibility of their projects. In addition, an improved mechanism ensures that there is mutual trust between project owners and local stakeholders. The Gold Standard organisation also extended the timeframe for the submission of project documentation.

The article further acknowledges that it is sometimes almost impossible for voluntary carbon standards to send auditors and monitor offset projects in conflict areas. Therefore, as the Gold Standard has been doing, evaluating the effectiveness of these initiatives by a combination of desk-based auditors and on-site visits by designated international officers is key.

To read the full article and to get more information about carbon standards, visit http://verstandards.co.uk/voluntary-carbon-market-expands-standards

About Dezz

Dezz is a UK-based boutique digital media company providing original and reliable up-to-date information in the area of carbon credit trading and sustainable investments to large investment company decision makers, NGOs and to eco-minded individuals.

Dezz Limited, 843 Finchley Road, London, NW11 8NA

Registered in England and Wales as a Limited Company. Company Number: 07376661

###

More Monitors Press Releases