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Midway Journey

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The MIDWAY media project is a powerful visual journey into the heart of an astonishingly symbolic environmental tragedy.

The Midway Trash-a-Thon illustrates the importance of cleaning up our waterways.

Watch this video of two members of the Midway Journey project rummaging through a huge pile of garbage. It looks like they could be at a municipal dump, but they’re just sitting among garbage collected on the beaches of the tiny, remote Midway Island, surrounded by thousands of miles of open ocean.

International Coastal Cleanup Day is September 19th.

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We’re pleased to be joining forces with the Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Leon (UNAN-Leon) in Nicaragua. We’ll be working together to do conservation work, conduct research, and provide internship opportunities for students.

To celebrate our new partnership, they’re joining us to help coordinate Nicaragua’s 2nd annual International Coastal Cleanup Day, covering 12 km of beaches along the Pacific coast.

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Our coastal, harbor, and waterways cleanups are even more important than we thought:

WASHINGTON, Aug. 16, 2009 — In the first study to look at what happens over the years to the billions of pounds of plastic waste floating in the world’s oceans, scientists are reporting that plastics — reputed to be virtually indestructible — decompose with surprising speed and release potentially toxic substances into the water.

Reporting here today at the 238th National Meeting of the American Chemical Society (ACS), the researchers termed the discovery “surprising.” Scientists always believed that plastics in the oceans were unsightly, but a hazard mainly to marine animals that eat or become ensnared in plastic objects.

“Plastics in daily use are generally assumed to be quite stable,” said study lead researcher Katsuhiko Saido, Ph.D. “We found that plastic in the ocean actually decomposes as it is exposed to the rain and sun and other environmental conditions, giving rise to yet another source of global contamination that will continue into the future.”

Read the full article here.

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Paso Pacifíco board member, Rick Smith, has written a new piece for National Parks Traveler about the Hawksbills we’re tracking:

The rangers who discovered the two turtles kept them on the beach for two days, keeping their heads covered with wet towels and occasionally pouring water over their backs, so these unwitting reptilian volunteers could help scientists learn more about their dwindling species.

During the second day, a turtle expert from a regional program known as Project Hawksbill came and in cooperation with Paso Pacífico and the employees of MARENA (The Ministry of Natural Resources in Nicaragua) affixed a digital transmitter on the shells of the turtles using a special epoxy. So rigged, these transmitters should allow the turtles’ travels to be tracked when they come to the surface to breath during the next year or two.

This transmitter tagging was no small event. Children were released from school to observe the installation. Officials from the Ministry of Natural Resources were there, as were representatives of the media. It was very emotional when the children applauded when the second turtle returned to the sea after being liberated. I am sure none of them will become turtle egg poachers in the future.

Ranger Meeting

Rick’s piece also describes the turtle ranger program he helped us launch:

Everyone recognized that the real heroes of this event were the rangers who work for Paso Pacífico, a non-profit organization founded in 2005 to focus on restoring and protecting the endangered ecosystems along the Pacific slope of Central America.
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These rangers patrol unprotected beaches to protect turtle nests from poaching….All were very enthusiastic about what they were doing. They report that the number of egg poachers is slowly declining and that the incentive program is having a positive effect.

Read the whole piece here:
Exporting “Rangering”: Working To Help Nicaraguans Safeguard Rare Hawksbill Turtles

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Wetland for sale in southern Nicaragua for sale. We hope to buy it to set aside as a community-managed wildlife reserve area for the local people.

If you are interested in contributing to a capital campaign to allow us to require land for biodiversity conservation, please visit our donation page or send an email: wendy(at)pasopacifico.org.

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Last week, we visited the new La Conga Reserve in southern Nicaragua with landowner and cattle rancher Pedro Agurcia.

Pictured are Agurcia, his daughter, one of his farmworkers, and Paso Pacifico board member Dr. Rodolfo Dirzo. In the background, you can catch a glimpse of the acreage he set aside for biodiversity conservation.

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Kayak Guides in Ostional

As the tourism sector grows in Nicaragua, nature tourism has the potential to provide economic benefit to local communities while also supporting conservation efforts.

Paso Pacífico has joined with diverse partners to provide guide training and support business development. Beneficiary groups have included hostels and restaurants, all owned by members of the rural community. Young adults from rural villages have received extensive nature and kayak guide training, and have harnessed these new skills to create their own eco-tour guiding company.

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Drawing from “Fire in the Earth System,” a literature review published in the April 24 Science, Solmaz Barazesh explains fire ecology in his article in this week’s Science News, “Ecology, climate and human activities conspire to set the world on fire,” July 4th, 2009; Vol.176 #1 (p. 26).
Fire can shape landscapes, shift climate and even change processes such as the carbon cycle–blazes have impacted the planet for eons. But now, people could be shifting the balance in a new direction.
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While fires may burn locally, their consequences spread globally. When forests blaze, carbon stored in vegetation escapes into the atmosphere as carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas. Added up, the fires that burn all over the world could be a significant source of atmospheric carbon, even contributing to climate change.
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“Our calculations show that forest fires could account for one-fifth of the greenhouse gases produced by humans,” [Jennifer] Balch says.
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Besides releasing heat-trapping carbon dioxide, fire contributes to climate change by releasing aerosols, or black soot. Soot can warm the atmosphere by absorbing solar radiation.
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Fire is such a large source of carbon that it should be incorporated into predictions of climate change, researchers note.
“There’s an emerging need to look at fire at the intersection between biology, ecology and society,” David Bowman said. Paso Pacifico founder, Sarah Otterstrom, agrees, which is why she examined that very intersection in her doctoral studies.
As a graduate student, Sarah, already passionate about climate change and the people and biodiversity of Central America, wanted to understand how the fires of traditional agriculture and hunting affected tropical forests. She had spent a couple years leading tourist expeditions through the rainforest canopy in Costa Rica, and had grown interested in climatological cycles and their link to fire and storm events. In the dry forests of Nicaragua, Sarah studied traditional agriculture, fire, climate change, and forest regeneration.
Paso Pacifico benefits from Sarah’s natural curiosity and her dedication to understanding cultural traditions as she explores and addresses environmental problems. This attitude informs our holistic approach to conservation and economic development.
Read more about our Results Through Science.

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Our neighbors, the Ojai-based RageJax Foundation has provided support for the ARBOLES para GAIA – Estrago Ecologico art exhibit opening in Managua next Friday.

Paso Pacifico is providing several thousand trees to be given out at the exhibit, and each of the artists have created designs that will be on the bags in which the seedlings are placed.

To check out the artists and their work, visit the exhibit’s blog (and catalog) here.

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