The Seattle Times reports that the new PBS documentary series, “Life on Fire,” will examine “how humans and animals alike adapt to living near volcanoes,” and include an episode on Nicaragua’s Volcano Masaya, where we work studying bats and educating park rangers, schoolchildren, and members of the general public about the local ecology.
We’ll be watching!
We’re featured in the November/December issue of the Humane Society’s All Animals magazine:
Down the Pacific coast almost to the Costa Rica border, a non- profit called Paso Pacifico, using money from the Loro Parque Foundation and Parrots International, pays landowners to protect parrot nests from poachers, who are usually unemployed trespassers well-known in local communities for breaking the law. Lezama, the ornithologist, has recruited two former poachers to locate nests. Participants get $10 per nest protected and $40 for each fledgling who is hatched—about the same amount a baby yellow- naped parrot would bring in the wildlife trade. It’s important income for rural residents: One woman used it to pay off her tab at the local store and set up an emergency medical fund for a daughter who has epilepsy. Across the six sites where the program is being tried out, poaching rates have dropped to 30 percent from around 90 percent
.
In the newest issue of WildHope Magazine, SEEtheWILD Director Brad Nahill writes about his adventures with sea turtle researchers from the Eastern Pacific Hawksbill Initiative (ICAPO) and Fauna & Flora International.
Our friends, operating in El Salvador and Nicaragua, are working to protect perhaps the world’s most endangered population of sea turtles.
Read the article here: http://bit.ly/ForgottenTurtleshttp://bit.ly/ForgottenTurtles
On page 10, you’ll find an update on our jaguar project.
“Reducing energy poverty among women is a wise investment,” said Princess Haya, of the UAE, at this week’s World Energy Forum 2012.
We agree, which is why we partner with the Portable Light Project to develop solar textile lanterns made by women in rural Nicaragua, and used by women and children without electricity in their homes, extending their reading hours.
The lanterns are also used by our turtle rangers. During the daytime, the flexible photovoltaic harvests energy from sunlight. At night, the LED light can switch from white to red so rangers can walk the beaches without disturbing the sea turtles. Each bag has the ability to charge a cell phone, which allows rangers to communicate with each other, photograph nests and upload information.
“We teach them that the ocean is alive and we’ve got to take care of it.”
Jack O’Neill
“The Sea Odyssey Program has given an experience of a living ocean to 50,000 kids already.”
Eleven rules for maximizing your momentum, from Paso Pacífico board member Gian Marco Palazio:
Jaguars, coastal clean-ups, and sloth action shots!
Check out our October newsletter to learn about jaguars and coastal clean-ups, and to read our biologists’ adventures in camera trapping.
Paso Pacífico has been managing Nicaragua’s participation in the Ocean Conservancy’s annual International Coastal Cleanup for five years. This past weekend, Comunidad Connect, TESÓN, and Barrio Planta helped us round up hundreds of volunteers who picked up over 2000 pounds of trash along the beaches and waterways of several coastal communities. You can read more about it (in Spanish) at El Nuevo Diario. This coming weekend is part two of our International Coastal clean up, when we’ll recruit more volunteers to pick up trash from other beaches.
| Photo courtesy of NICA |
For the third year in a row, we were also joined by NICA, who coordinated the cleanup on the beaches of the fishing village El Transito (pictured above), gathering 48 volunteers to work alongside 13 municipal employees who collected 4500 pounds of garbage and recyclables on Saturday.
NICA’s mission is to empower Nicaragua through community development, helping the country become more self-sufficient and a greater participant in the global economy. They work on sustainability issues in rural communities and we look forward to future collaboration with them, especially after brainstorming with them at the Clinton Global Initiative this week.
 |
| Photo courtesy of Erin Orias |
NICA’s Individual Aid Program organizes a group of women to clean the coast three days a week for a few hours each day. After completing 78 hours of community work over a 13-week period, the women receive benefits of food and/or construction materials. Since the program was founded in 2006, El Transito Beach has been among Nicaragua’s most pristine.
We are pleased to partner with NICA. When we asked how they felt about this weekend’s event, they said this:
Over at the WILDblog, Brad Nahill, recalls “Exploring Nicaragua’s Paso del Istmo“:
Brad Nahill spots a turtle
(photo by Sarah Rudeen)We headed out by boat to explore the spectacular stretch of coast, possibly the most beautiful and dramatic of coastline that I’ve ever seen (and I live in Oregon). Crashing waves batter sloping flat rocks and white sand beaches hide behind rocky-forested outcrops. Moving north along the coast of the wildlife refuge, we stopped in front of La Flor beach, one of a handful of beaches in the world that host the arribada, a mass nesting event of olive ridley sea turtles. My years of experience being quiet around turtles on nesting beaches went right out the window as I let out a yell as a small head popped out of the water not far from our boat. The turtle heard me and dropped right back into the water, but there were plenty more bobbing around.
We were really happy to show Brad the beautiful region where we work, and are grateful for the support of his organization. SEEtheWild, which he co-founded, protects endangered wildlife through conservation travel.
English
