"I feel empowered, and now I look at myself as an entrepreneur. We went from informality to having vision . . . Aspiring is not only believing in dreams, it is changing one’s attitude to see the changes." - Sonia, hostel owner, ELLAS Initiative In 2011, we had a vision: to empower female "enviropreneurs" to harness market forces and employ voluntary solutions to environmental problems in their local communities. Then, with...
We are thrilled to share a major breakthrough here on the blog! Recently we were awarded a significant grant from the IUCN-Netherlands, and that means we will be able to complete the purchase of a beautiful forest area in the heart of the Paso del Istmo. In honor of the critically endangered black-handed spider monkeys that live there, we’ve named this 120-acre property the Mono Bayo Reserve. This forest is...
As you may know, Nicaragua went through a serious drought earlier this year. In fact, it’s the worst dry spell Nicaragua has experienced in over 30 years. The dry tropical forests in the Paso Del Istmo that we work in have been hit hard, and as a result many species are struggling to find the water that they need to survive. One such species is the Mantled howler monkey. The...
On April 22, 2015, USAID issued the Wildlife Crime Tech Challenge in an effort to bring together international communities to create solutions that address critical wildlife crime issues. One of the issues highlighted by the challenge is the network of well-established international transit routes that poachers and traffickers use to move their products to customers. These transit routes are the backbone to the global wildlife trafficking industry which generates billions...
As a conservation biologist, one of the most important parts of my job is making trips to the field so that I can better design and manage the many scientific projects that Paso Pacífico's local employees work on. Others imagine that I spend most of these trips walking up rivers to survey frogs, scrambling through jungle to follow monkeys, or capturing bats on the crater edge of and active volcano...
When 8-year-olds Matson and Jonas decided to do something to save sea turtles, they reached out to their school community for help. They received an extraordinary response from teachers, staff, students, and families at Oak Grove School. Through a village of shared learning and friendship, the boys were able to reach a much larger audience with their campaign. The power of this collective was so great that it helped the...
Cristian Bonilla is a local para-biologist who has supported Paso Pacifico's wildlife research for over six years. Although Cristian has helped us study everything from bats to lizards, in recent years he has become a specialist for Amazon parrot conservation. Cristian is a skilled tree-climber and hiker and is very good at monitoring nests and following parrots using radio telemetry. Cristian is admired and respected across the rural communities for...
This spring we were thrilled to receive Patagonia’s Miracle Grant award. This support has helped us advance our mission to restore and protect endangered forest and coastal ecosystems in Nicaragua. We have applied these generous funds to two specific programs: 1. our work linking the Nicaraguan surfing community to ocean conservation. 2. the protection of the critically endangered Robber frog (Craugastor ranoides) Surfer-led Ocean Conservation Nicaragua’s Pacific coast is home to some...
Sea turtles have been on the planet for over 100 million years! They are one of the Earth's most ancient creatures and have been around since the time of the dinosaurs. Turtle Friend will help tell this story...LIVE! By bringing the global community's attention to these animals we can help protect this important piece of our natural history. Thanks for being our Turtle Friends and happy Earth Day! If you...
www.turtlefriend.org Watch, track, and protect sea turtles...LIVE! In early 2014, two eight-year-olds (Jonas & Matson) came to us with the vision of creating an app to broadcast the life cycle of sea turtles in the Pacific. They called it "Turtle Friend" and their goal was to create an education and fundraising tool for sea turtle conservation. What is it? An app & website that: broadcasts live nesting events, sea turtle egg...
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