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Setting the World on Fire

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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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There should be a sign posted along beaches of the world during a certain season: “WARNING: Enter water at your own risk”. I’m not speaking of extreme undertow or heavy shore-break. Not water quality, or red tide concerns. Nor warnings against poisonous jellyfish. These are all important water safety concerns, but I am referring to something else, something almost as dangerous. I am talking about the distinctly unique experience of being in the water with green turtles during mating season.

Read more by Peter Etnoyer and Wallace J. Nichols at Deep Sea News.

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We recently hosted a mobile workshop organized by CATIE (the Tropical Agricultural Research and Higher Education Center) and Conservation International to train people in the planning and management of protected areas.

The group spent two weeks visiting protected areas in Costa Rica and Nicaragua and learning how to best tackle the challenges of planning and managing protected areas in a changing world.


Paso Pacifico Country Director Liza Gonzalez showed our visitors how we apply the principles of ecology to manage protected areas from ridge to reef in the Paso del Istmo biological corridor.

Foresters at the Isla Vista Reserve showcased our reforestation efforts, turtle rangers at the La Flor protected area explained how they monitor and protect turtle nests, and kayak guides in Ostional showed them the mangroves.

We also shared our experience in using conservation finance to pay for personnel to help protect endangered species, like sea turtles and spider monkeys.

Among the highlights? Spider monkeys at the Isla Vista Reserve appear to be getting used to our researchers, as they didn’t disappear the moment the group came into view.

Thanks to project coordinators, Jim Barborak and Miguel Morales from Conservation International, and Elena Florian from CATIE for a great visit!

For more information about the seminar, you can download this PDF.

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In honor of Save the Frogs Day, we’d like to introduce some of the frogs who live in Paso del Istmo, Nicaragua.

The poison dart frog (Dendrobates pumilio) is a resident of the eastern edge of the Paso del Istmo biological corridor where we are restoring habitat from cattle pasture to humid tropical forest. It is listed as near threatened by the IUCN.

The red-eyed tree frog (Agalychnis callidryas), which prefers tropical dry forests, is also found throughout the Paso del Istmo corridor. This picture is courtesy of Wikipedia.

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We are pleased to partner with Flora and Fauna International on a public awareness campaign to discourage the consumption of sea turtle eggs.

We are surveying restaurants and market vendors, and asking them to commit to stop selling turtle eggs. We also visit schools to promote sea turtle protection.

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We’ve officially launched our sea turtle program in the Rivas province, and La Prensa picked it up to share the story with the rest of Nicaragua.

The campaign, designed to protect critically endangered sea turtles who nest on the beaches of Nicaragua, include environmental education, water conservation, eco-tourism, and local development. It also includes a sea turtle incentive payment program described by country director Liza González:

Es un programa de incentivos. Si hay un comunitario que normalmente se llevaba los huevos de ese nido, entonces el programa va a apoyarlo, si él quiere proteger ese nido va a recibir un incentivo por protección, ese incentivo es equivalente a lo que él ganaría si vendiera los huevos.

The sea turtle payment program offers financial incentives for communities, where turtle eggs were often harvested (or poached) before they hatched, to protect the turtle nests. We pay individuals and make community grants for every protected nest and every turtle hatchling who makes it to the sea.

To support this program, buy one of our sea turtle shower timers, designed to remind you of a very good reason to conserve water.

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Please watch our video addressing the issue of poaching parrots in Nicaragua.

Once abundant in tropical forests, the Yellow-naped parrot (Lora Nuca Amarillo in Spanish) is increasingly rare in Nicaragua, where habitat destruction and poaching have reduced its numbers rapidly.

Poachers are often young rural farmers who climb over 15 meters into trees or chop down trees to take parrot chicks out of their nests. Yellow-naped parrots only have one clutch per year (usually just one to three eggs), and are monogamous, so if they lose their mate, they are out of luck for the rest of their lives.

In addition to environmental education which helps children understand the importance of the species they share the forest with, we’re currently caring for orphan parrot fledglings. These parrots were confiscated by the army near the border of Costa Rica, where the poachers were presumably taking them to sell. We are advising the army on the care of the parrot chicks until the Ministry of Environment authorities decide what to do about them.

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At Paso Pacifico, in addition to working with donors, government entities, and other NGOs, we also work with private landowners to foster cooperation and habitat-friendly farming and planting and land-use practices.

Especially when working with home and hotel developers, we strongly encourage the use of native flora. We believe a healthy native plant population is one of the keys to saving many birds and other species from extinction.

We understand the desire to plant a bunch of palm trees and colorful euphorbia, instead of the pretty, drought tolerate natives, but one of the most important things to remember is that though we are in the tropics, we are in a tropical DRY forest zone.

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