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Wings Across America: 2010 Conservation Awards

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International Cooperation Award: Bird Conservation Partnerships for Biodiversity and Ecosystem Sustainability in Mesoamerica

Starting in 1996, the US Forest Service International Institute of Tropical Forestry started training Nicaraguan university students and aspiring biologists, local NGO staff, and local community members in bird conservation methods and sustainable community-based tourism. The emphasis has been on migratory birds and tropical resident species, and the surrounding forest ecosystem. Programs have been designed to conserve cultural and biodiversity resources, to enhance local community and economic development, and to provide a high quality visitor experience.

The major work has taken place in across many part of Nicaragua, but smaller projects have taken place across the Caribbean and Mesoamerica. Many habitat types have been addressed including: marine, coastal and interior wetlands; dry, moist, wet, and cloud forest; elfin woodland; and coffee plantations in Nicaragua’s North and Central highlands, the endangered dry forests, costal estuaries, and marine habitats in the southern Paso del Istmo Green Corridor.

Paso Pacifico is pleased to be a part of this award-winning team led by the US Forest Service International Institute of Tropical Forestry.

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At Paso Pacifico, we’ve always been committed to education. Teaching about the environment from a young age is the best way to ensure that children grow up to value their natural resources and promote conservation.

Since 2007, Paso Pacifico’s environmental education teacher, Julie Martinez, has been traveling around the Paso del Istmo, taking hands-on environmental curriculum to schools.

Last month, Julie took a group of schoolchildren from Sapoa (a small town on the shores of Lake Nicaragua), on our first ever Biodiversity Field Trip.

At the Museum of Tropical Dry Ecology in Diriamba, Julie and the kids learned about the regional climate, and about the ecology of dry forests, lakes, and volcano chains.

In Masaya National Park, they visited the volcano, and learned about its forests and birds, as well as endangered species who inhabit the area.

For many of these children, this was the first time they’d ever left their communities. We hope to give many more kids the opportunity to travel and get a better understanding of Nicaragua’s forests and wildlife.

If you are interested in helping Nicaraguan schoolchildren explore the direct and indirect benefits of healthy ecosystems, we invite you to donate to our environmental education programs today.

Your donation will help us teach children to respect wildlife and cultivate a culture of conservation.

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In advance of the 2009 UN Climate Change Conference, the Ventura County Star gives us more love:

There is debate over whether any kind of meaningful international agreement will come out of the summit. But the local people attending think it will help push the climate issue further along and lay groundwork for a future agreement.

“The value is that we continue to work toward a climate solution,” said Sarah Otterstrom, executive director of Paso Pacifico, a Ventura-based nonprofit that works to stop deforestation in Nicaragua. Along with Jane Goodall and a few others, Otterstrom will receive an award for her work.

She wants to promote the concept of REDD — reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation. If countries stopped cutting down forests — which suck up greenhouse gases — it would go a long way toward curbing climate change, she said.

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La Prensa covered the presentation of our findings from this year’s International Coastal Cleanup, gathering over 300,000 pounds of trash:

Recolectan más de 300 mil libras de basura

Un total de 332 mil 925 libras de basura inorgánica fue recolectada durante la jornada, en la que participaron 30 municipios que poseen costas incluyendo a Bluefields, Corn Island, San Rafael del Sur, Granada, Diriamba, Jinotepe, Juigalpa, Corinto, Puerto Cabezas, San Juan del Sur, entre otros.

Liza González, directora de Paso Pacífico, dijo que se limpiaron 167.1 millas de costas y se recorrieron 104 localidades de estos 30 municipios.

Pitter Bishop from the Swiss Development Agency COSUDE (event sponsors), talked about the “plastic soup” caused by trash floating in the North Pacific, and Paso Pacifico’s Liza Gonzalez reported on the pollution data and emphasized the importance of community involvement in this cleanup.

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San Juan del Sur’s Annual Panga Fishing Tournament took place this weekend. Paso Pacifico’s National Director, Liza Gonzalez was on hand to deliver a presentation about marine conservation.

If you watch this video, you’ll understand why everyone at Paso Pacifico is happy to be a part of the San Juan del Sur community.

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You’re just as likely to find them in the field in Rivas, checking on our biodiversity monitoring stations, traveling from rural school to rural school on horseback, measuring tree growth at one of our reforestation projects, or just picking up garbage on the beach, but this is Paso Pacifico’s Managua-based team.

Paso Pacifico team visits the Montibelli Private Nature Reserve

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Unique solar technology aids Paso Pacifico in protecting endangered sea turtles

Media Contacts:

Wendy Purnell, Paso Pacifico
1-805-643-7044
wendy@pasopacifico.org

Sheila Kennedy, Portable Light Project
1-617-442-0800
skennedy@kvarch.net

It was a chance meeting at PopTech’s annual innovation conference two years ago that sparked collaboration between California-based NGO Paso Pacífico and the Portable Light Project. At the event, Paso Pacífico Executive Director, Dr. Sarah Otterstrom, and Portable Light Project founder, Sheila Kennedy, met for the first time and considered the implications that the project’s simple, solar-powered textiles could have on Paso Pacifico’s conservation efforts in Nicaragua.

Now, just as PopTech convenes again this week, Paso Pacífico announces its launch of Portable Light technology to support the protection of endangered sea turtles and to advance young women as environmental leaders in Nicaragua.

While Portable Light Project systems have been used to benefit social and human health causes in rural areas of Mexico and Africa, Paso Pacifico takes the technology in a new direction. Utilizing locally made bags that incorporate the pliable, light-producing solar panels, the lights enable communities to protect wildlife, and also empower women in sustainable tourism and education. Sheila Kennedy notes, “This is a brilliant three-in-one design that demonstrates how mobile, clean energy can enable education, local economic development, and mitigate climate change.”

Paso Pacifico’s community rangers patrol sea turtle nesting beaches using a Portable Light equipped with a red light adapter designed by Kennedy and her team. In addition to illuminating the darkness, the bags solve a number of challenges that the rangers face. Each bag has the ability to charge cell phones, which allow those on patrol to communicate with each other and local authorities. Their use of renewable energy also eliminates wasted batteries, while providing a durable and sustainable safety measure to rangers working at night. With Portable Lights, local rangers can patrol deserted beaches, deterring poachers who would otherwise devastate imperiled species such as the Hawksbill turtle.

Paso Pacífico also aims to empower young women and girls who have historically been excluded from opportunities for environmental leadership. Paso Pacifico is providing training to young women to work as eco-tourism guides. Portable light will motivate and empower these guides as they lead sea turtle and other evening tours.

Women and girls participating in Paso Pacifico environmental education programs are also burdened with many household chores and are only able to study in the evenings. Portable Lights will be given to young girls who are eager to progress in their learning, but who live in areas without electricity. This initiative to empower women while mitigating climate change is part of the Paso Pacifico Commitment announced at the 2009 Clinton Global Initiative by Nobel Laureate Mohammed Yunus.

Kennedy summed it up when she said, “Individually owned, each bag is a portable clean power platform which expands the impacts of local conservation, that charges cell phones, provides renewable light at night for community based education and builds approaches to conservation that empower women in resource protection and sustainable enterprise development.”

Paso Pacífico is a 501(c)3 non-profit organization based in Ventura, California that works to protect Central America’s Pacific slope ecosystems. The non-profit implements projects in environmental education, sustainable agriculture, forest restoration and wildlife conservation. For more information, visit www.pasopacifico.org
The Portable Light Projectenables the world’s poorest people to create and own solar textiles, providing clean energy and light to improve education, health care and economic development, while strengthening the local craft traditions of diverse cultures and global regions. For more information, visit www.portablelight.organd to view a video of Portable Lights visit http://blip.tv/play/AfmVbI7+Bg

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Volunteers hard at work in Ostional

Starting early in the morning, thousands of volunteers joined us in our efforts to protectNicaragua’s waterways for the International Coastal Cleanup Day, an annual event organized by the Ocean Conservancy. Our volunteers worked along the coast from San Juan del Sur to Ostional, and up the riverbanks to Escameca.

Coastal cleanup includes our river banks.
These kids are lending a hand in Escameca.

This event serves several purposes. First of all, of course, we picked up garbage off the beaches and riverbanks. Secondly, we conducted a careful survey to allow greater understanding of current pollution patterns. This data will help us combat marine pollution in the future. Additionally, this event helped raise awareness as members of the community came together to tackle the problem of pollution.

As the event drew to a close, Paso Pacifico’s National Director, Liza Gonzalez, thanked everyone involved:

“Paso Pacífico agradece a todos y todas las pesonas que de una u otra manera han puesto, un poco de su esfuerzo para hacer realidad este sueño, de ver una Nicaragua más limpia y más responsable con el medio ambiente.”

Thank you, everyone, for helping us realize our dream of a cleaner, more environmentally responsible Nicaragua.

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