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Español | Parrots require tall trees for nesting or large, mature trees which form natural cavities, where the parrots like to lay their eggs. Without suitable nesting sites, parrots don’t nest. Look closely and you’ll see one of two nesting Yellow-naped parrots guarding a nest opening. |
 | And the two newly hatched chicks he’s protecting. This is one of twenty nests being protected by members of our incentive program. Yellow-naped parrots only have two eggs per clutch, which makes it harder to ensure a healthy population. |
 | Remember our artificial parrot nests? No parrots have had clutches in them, yet. |
 | But the local squirrels have taken up residence. |
 | This is what a baby Central American squirrel looks like. |
 | This woolly opossum (Caluromys derbianus) made himself at home, as well. |
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| photo of the crater at Masaya (this is NOT smoke from the current fire) |
We’re watching the fire burn through the tropical dry forests near Volcano Masaya, where we work closely with park rangers to help visitors understand and appreciate Masaya’s unique ecology. The fire in Masaya has burned through 1200 acres of woodlands and is still flaming, threatening the very ecosystems we’re working to protect.
Forest regeneration and restoration will take decades. What has taken 10 days to burn, will likely take 70-80 years to recover. As Carlos Mejía, MARENA’s director of Biodiversity, has pointed out (in El Nuevo Diario piece below), before this fire started the forests of Masaya were still recovering from the last volcanic event.
Kamilo Lara, an environmental specialist and director of the National Forum on Recycling, pointed out that the tropical dry forests of Masaya are unique along Central America’s Pacific slope, and the unique ecosystems it contained will be very difficult to restore.
Fire is a part of life in Nicaragua, and has been used for generations as a means of preparing agricultural land. The effects of fire on forest ecosystems varies from year to year, dependent on climatological cycles. This year, fires in Nicaragua have consumed more than 20,000 acres of protected forests. We are looking forward to the rainy season setting in next month to give forests and wildlife a chance to recover from this year’s flames.
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From El Nuevo Diario:
Restauración de bosque en Volcán Masaya tardará décadas
Fuego acabó en tan solo diez días con un bosque tropical seco único en la región del Pacífico, que contenía importantes ecosistemas muy difíciles de restaurar
Se necesitarán al menos siete u ocho décadas para que comience su recuperación y más de un siglo para que se pueda restablecer todo lo que fue destruido por el reciente incendio ocurrido en el Parque Nacional Volcán Masaya, así lo expresaron hoy los especialistas…
Carlos Mejía, director de Biodiversidad del Ministerio del Ambiente y los Recursos Naturales, Marena, destacó que la zonas afectadas, tanto en el Parque Nacional, como en otras áreas del país, nunca se logran reponer en su totalidad y debe pasar por todo un proceso evolutivo muy lento.
“En tan sólo diez días se acabó con un bosque tropical seco único en la región del Pacífico, que contenía importantes ecosistemas muy difíciles de restaurar”, dijo ambientalista Kamilo Lara, director del Foro Nacional del Reciclaje, Fonare.
El fuego es parte de la vida en Nicaragua, y ha sido utilizado por generaciones como un medio de preparar la tierra agrícola. Los efectos del fuego en los ecosistemas del bosques varía de un año a otro, en función de los ciclos climatológicos. Este año, los incendios en Nicaragua han consumido más de 20.000 hectáreas de bosques protegidos. Estamos esperando a la estación de las lluvias en los próximos meses para dar a los bosques y la vida silvestre la oportunidad de recuperarse de las llamas de este año.
Recent findings reported in Science suggest that coral reefs may be more independent and resilient than previously thought.
This is good news for our reef rangers as they begin monitoring and conserving a couple miles of reef islands and the surrounding marine environment off the coast of Nicaragua.
Read more about the reef regeneration study at Our Amazing Planet.
Our March newsletter is online.
We report on our new project supporting Environmental Leadership and Entrepreneurship for Geotourism. This project, supported by the Inter-American Development Bank, is a concerted effort to scale up our efforts to combine community-based sustainable tourism with biodiversity management in the Paso del Istmo.
We also talk about our work with Man and Nature, to rebuild connectivity across watersheds and to gather traditional knowledge of local plants to find sustainable ways to harvest and export native plants.
Lastly, we thank our friends at Three Parameters+ for supporting our Junior Rangers program in Tola and for helping over 60 students gear up for and get to school.
Coffee reclaimed its former position at the top of Nicaragua’s export list in 2012, accounting for $519 million in sales last year. In 2011, coffee ranked second to beef, which last year slipped to third place. Gold came in second place last year, netting $431 million in sales in 2012, according to CETREX.
If you want to sample, Nicaragua’s #1 export, check out our Corridor Coffee, a 100% Arabica coffee grown in the shade of Nicaragua’s rainforest canopy. All proceeds from this coffee will help us protect wildlife and wild places in Central America.
The pioneers of the surfing industry have also been pioneers in ocean mapping, climate tracking, and ocean conservation. Naturally, surfers were the first group of tourists to venture into Nicaragua, putting its beautiful, undeveloped beaches on the map for ocean lovers worldwide. In the past 20 years, tourism in Nicaragua has increased nearly tenfold, bringing much needed economic development. In the same period, Central America’s most impoverished nation – home to mangroves, turtle nesting beaches, coral reefs, and endless waves – has suffered the effects of climate change more than all but two countries in the world (per the Global 2013 Climate Risk Index).
Surfing has driven much of the tourism and economic growth along the Pacific coast, but a low cost of living has also made Nicaragua a popular destination for retirees who do not surf and for developers who threaten to close surf breaks. The surfing community is uniquely positioned to help the people of Nicaragua protect their raw coastline from the twin threats of overdevelopment and climate change. Firmly rooted in Nicaragua, Paso Pacífico’s work to strengthen ecological and economic resiliency is protecting coastal communities and the coastlines themselves from the extreme weather that comes with climate change. As Nicaragua simultaneously experiences the cultural change that comes with rapid development, Paso Pacífico is also uniquely positioned to help empower surfers locally and illustrate the surfing community’s commitment to ocean conservation internationally.
Economic development and the growth of Nicaragua’s surfing culture are not slowing down. This is why we work with the international surfing community as well as Nicaragua’s local surfers to advocate environmental conservation from ridge to reef. We use the principles of geotourism – combining destination stewardship with cultural exchange – to guide our programs, designed to protect Nicaragua’s natural beauty and biodiversity, strengthen coastal communities, and help international visitors get the most out of their experience.
Protecting Nicaragua’s Coastline: Ocean Conservation Education & Action
Paso Pacífico conducts scientific surveys to assess marine health, employs rangers to protect marine wildlife, engages thousands of people in beach clean-ups, educates children about coastal ecology, and supports a grassroots ocean conservation movement growing along Nicaragua’s coastline.
Promoting Surfing’s Commitment to Ocean Conservation: Surf Ambassadors
Our education and leadership programs strengthen the capacity of surfers and environmental advocates locally and help them champion the surfing community’s commitment to ocean conservation internationally. Building the capacity of local leaders, we are increasing the sustainability of our own ocean conservation programs and gaining the momentum required to ensure a sustainable future for watermen and the marine creatures who share the waves with them. Eager to see young Nicaraguans share the global spotlight with their fellow surfers as ISA returns for the World Juniors and continues its Olympic bid, we are strengthening our focus on local leadership development and international networking. We aim to help the next generation of surf champions share the surfing community’s inspiring stories of cooperation and conservation.
Over at TreeHugger:
Underwater robots, otherwise known as autonomous underwater vehicles, or AUVs, have been exploring the ocean floor for years, documenting species and habitats and monitoring changes to the seabed, but there are spots in the ocean that are too hazardous even for robots. Deep ravines, steeply dropping canyons and other major obstacles have so far been too much for AUVs to navigate, but thanks to a new software system, that’s all about to change.
…They expect to be running missions with the new system by next year, including monitoring the sea floor for effects of bottom trawling and climate change. They also plan on adapting the system to monitor movement and change in icebergs, where the AUV would not only take photos but samples of the iceberg for study. In general, Houts and her team hope the technology leads to even smarter vehicles for scientific research.
“This summer, a major coral survey found that some of the islands’ coral communities are showing promising signs of recovery,” the Environment News Service reported last week. The article provides a pretty good overview of how climate change, ocean acidification, and warmer currents affect coral reefs.
Sea snails’ shells are being eaten by increasingly acidic ocean waters, the first evidence that the changing chemistry of the oceans threatens marine habitat.
Read more on CNN:
The amount of carbon dioxide in the earth’s atmosphere is increasing, mainly because of the burning of fossil fuels and deforestation, according to the World Meteorological Organization. That means that the planet’s oceans, natural carbon storage facilities, are absorbing more and more of the gas, which makes them more acidic.
Compounding the potential loss of sea snails is the fact that decreased biodiversity leaves coastal environments less resilient in the face of climate change.
The study is here.
Via the ArtScience Nexus:
An interactive art show at the San Diego Natural History Museum interpreting the work of biodiversity scientists who use DNA barcoding to identify species.