Past Projects Update

Update to the Earth Foundation
Submitted by The Nature Conservancy - August 2003

Since 1990, the Earth Foundation and The Nature Conservancy have worked in partnership to protect hundreds of thousands of critically endangered, biologically significant tropical forests and marine sites in Latin America, the Caribbean and the South Pacific. The Nature Conservancy salutes the Earth Foundation for its commitment to raising awareness among school children, teachers and the general public of the importance of forest and coral reef conservation, and we greatly appreciate the Foundation's contribution to land acquisition and protection at Conservancy sites throughout the world. It is only with the help of committed organizations and individuals, such as the Earth Foundation and its staff, that the Conservancy and our local partners can safeguard the critical habitats upon which Earth's creatures depend.

The Nature Conservancy takes great pride in ensuring that gifts from the Earth Foundation are translated into tactical land acquisitions and sound conservation practices. Land acquisition is one of the Conservancy's approaches to biodiversity conservation, and coupled with proper land management, it serves as a key conservation strategy. In the past ten years, the Foundation has helped the Conservancy purchase lands in Costa Rica, Colombia, Guatemala, Bolivia, Brazil, Belize and Panama, and support from the Foundation has helped protect marine habitat in the South Pacific, Micronesia and the Dominican Republic. Funding has also allowed local conservationists to hire, equip and train park staff, build conservation facilities and infrastructure and support environmental outreach efforts.

While land acquisitions at several of the projects that the Earth Foundation has supported date back nearly ten years, the Foundation's support has made a lasting impact, and these sites continue to serve as models of conservation success. Updates on each the Earth Foundation- supported projects are included below.

PROJECT HIGHLIGHTS

• Calakmul, Mexico
• Bocas del Toro, Panama
• Osa Peninsula, Costa Rica
• Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta, Colombia
• Arnavon Islands, South Pacific
• Cerro San Gil/Vega Larga, Guatemala
• Noel Kempff, Bolivia
• Pantanal, Brazil
• Rio Bravo, Belize
• Darien Biosphere Reserve, Panama
• Republic of Palau, Micronesia
• Parque del Este, Dominican Republic

CALAKMUL, MEXICO

The Mexico Program
In March 2003, Rosario Alvarez, formerly the Director of Nature Conservancy partner Pronatura Noreste, was hired to run TNC's Mexico Program. Rosario has now opened a Conservancy office in Mexico City, at which the Mexico program will be headquartered. The Program has also employed a Director of Resources, Steve Walker, to guide and coordinate TNC's increasing efforts to seek support both in the US and Mexico for conservation in Mexico.

Land Conservation in Calakmul
Southern tracts - The Reforma Agaria, the federal agency in Mexico that must approve land deals with ejidos, has now reviewed and approved all paperwork. After an official apprasial is completed by Cabin, the Reforma Agaria will confirm and approve the appraisal price. Next, the final decree will be prepared and go for signature by a Committee of Secretaries and then on to the President for signature. Once the President signs the decree, it is published. After publication, the funds are transferred to the ejidos, SEMARNAT (the Environmental Ministry) takes possession of the property, and CONANP (the Mexican National Park Service) starts to use the property as set forth in the decree. Community members have expressed their great interest in closing the deals as quickly as possible and TNC's public partner CONANP has been working closely with the Reforma Agraria to ensure a timely process.

Northern tract - The process of expropriating the land is now unofficially underway. A public land trust has now been established as a vehicle for the government to transfer the purchase funds into private hands , which was a major breakthroug; at the same time, we have begun to negotiate the terms of the private trust which will receive the property from the government entity. PPY and partners have held unofficial meetings with the ejidos, which are informally in agreement with the sale and purchase price. Once a director is officially named to the public trust, formal meetings with the ejidos will be held. No problems are anticipated with these meetings. After the formal meetings, the government will begin the expropriation process (as with the Calakmul South property, submit the request to the Reforma Agraria, which will conduct its due diligence, etc.) Recent elections have slowed the process as government officials have been engaged in the campaigns. Later this month we will be able to better judge how quickly we will be able to forge ahead.

In related news, PPY was successful in obtaining a $400,000 grant from the North American Wetland Council for the Calakmul project!

Building Team Capacity
This spring Joann Andrews stepped down as the Board President of PPY. In her place, Arq. Luis Selem from Campeche has taken over leadership of the organization, which only strengthens the ability of PPY to influence conservation in the State of Campeche where the Calakmul tracts are located. Arquitecto Selem has been extremely active in government relations throughout the course of the project, and will guide efforts in the interim as the new Campeche government is established. The technical team for the Calakmul area is growing- PPY has a coordinator now working in Campeche and TNC will be hiring a Program Manager to work directly with the PPY team. After the closing of the purchases, this team will drive stewardship planning and community integration programs.

BOCAS DEL TORO, PANAMA

Stretching from the 12,000 foot peaks of the La Amistad International Park to the sandy shores of Bastimentos Island National Marine Park, the conservation area of Bocas del Toro supports a wide array of natural systems. The connection between the montane forests of the higher elevations to the Atlantic moist forests of the lowlands provides a crucial biological link for many birds and animals. The wetlands also perform the critical function of capturing sediment from the rivers, thereby protecting the coral reefs of the archipelago. The islands in turn buffer the mainland from the tempests of the Caribbean.

The Nature Conservancy continues to support the efforts of ADEPESCO, an organization comprised of 12 indigenous fishing communities, to improve their capacity to manage their resources. ADEPESCO recently developed fishing regulations for the buffer zone surrounding Bastimentos Island National Marine Park, which they have submitted to the National Maritime Authority for approval. In collaboration with PROMAR, a local non-profit organization, we are also providing financial and technical support in the form of improving ADEPESCO's computer knowledge and accounting capacity.

The Conservancy is working with The Alliance for the Sustainable Development of Bocas del Toro (ADESBO). This is a coalition of 56 different community, non-profit, and governmental organizations. The objective of ADESBO is to create a forum where different environmental issues can be discussed as well as a place where solutions can be developed. Some of the environmental issues include unregulated tourism, land tenure issues, unplanned development, and overfishing. The group is also exploring possible partnerships with mainland organizations. The Nature Conservancy is providing technical, financial and logistical support and has provided a facilitator to aid in the preparation of a strategic plan for the coalition. The plan will outline ADESBO's main vision and objectives for the next five years.

To foster bi-national cooperation, in June, The Nature Conservancy held a workshop to strengthen the technical knowledge of local organizations and coalitions in terms of environmental policies in both Panama and Costa Rica. The workshop focused on the regulations, norms, and methodologies of environmental impact assessments and studies. The workshop was held in response to a lack of understanding of the process and laws with regard to environmental assessments. During the workshop, local people were able to access technical and legal information about environmental impact assessments and studies in Costa Rica and Panama and were able to apply what they had learned to a real case in Bocas del Toro.

The Nature Conservancy's Panama Program has contracted a biologist to do an assessment of the crab and lobster fisheries in the archipelago. She is working with fishermen from ADEPESCO to learn about the resource use and trade cycle for both species (how many days they fish, for what species, where they fish, whom they sell to). She will also teach the fishermen about these species' life cycles and their ecological importance in the Caribbean. In addition, she will propose alternate management actions for these two key species. This information should be completed by the end of the year and will be shared with the Maritime Authority and PROARCA.

Complementing the activities of the biologist, The Nature Conservancy is working with the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute to carry out a scientific evaluation of the populations of crab and lobster in the archipelago. This study will be completed by the end of this year. Both the socio-economic as well as the ecological results will provide information for future management decisions and policies for both species. By working with the National Maritime Authority, we hope to influence lobster regulations in other parts of the country, such as the San Blas Islands on the eastern Caribbean coast of Panama.

As part of site conservation efforts being carried out in the bi-national Amistad Park, through the Parks in Peril program, we will conduct an ecological viability study of a proposed biological corridor connecting the highlands of Amistad with the wetlands of San San Pond Sak. With the completion of this study early next year, we will be able analyze the benefits and feasibility of creating a corridor along that specific watershed. This will also allow us to map out and prioritize private land acquisition within the corridor.

The Nature Conservancy's Panama program continues to make conservation advancements in Bocas del Toro. The Conservancy is working with and supporting our local partners as they manage local resources. We are also furthering our knowledge of the connection between the highlands, lowlands, and islands in order to apply conservation at a large scale - with the goal of protecting the whole system.

OSA PENINSULA, COSTA RICA

The Nature Conservancy helped Costa Rica create the more than 100,000-acre Corcovado National Park on the Osa Peninsula with a land purchase in 1977. In 1999, it renewed its efforts in Osa, helping partner organization Fundacion Neotropica acquire an inholding of 75 acres, and with support from the Earth Foundation, the Conservancy plans to purchase and protect inholdings that are currently threatened by logging in the neighboring Piedras Blancas National Park, also part of the Conservation Area of Osa (ACOSA). Ultimately, the Conservancy and our local partner, Fundacion de Parques Nacionales (FPN), will purchase half of the park's 34,000 acres and establish a 10,000-acre corridor stretching from Corcovado to the adjacent Piedras Blancas.

In addition to land acquisition, the Conservancy and FPN are working to ensure proper management and continued protection of the Osa Peninsula. Conservation activities include:

• As part of the Osa Corridor Committee (a coalition comprised of the Conservancy and six local organizations representing communities and conservation needs of the Osa Peninsula), the Conservancy conducted a site conservation plan. Results from this exercise will help establish and more clearly define conservation priorities and key actions for Osa.
• A consultant to the Conservancy in Costa Rica worked closely with the Osa Committee in developing mapping exercises that provided assistance in evaluating land tenure for Osa.
• Although Corcovado is one of the oldest national parks in Costa Rica, the area lacks resources to adequately protect the park. In the next year, the Conservancy will work with the Osa Committee to provide funding for infrastructure, park guard equipment and other fundamental protection needs.

SIERRA NEVADA DE SANTA MARTA, COLOMBIA

In the past year, the Earth Foundation has raised $600,000 to support the Conservancy's indigenous land acquisition initiative in the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta, Colombia. As part of this initiative the Conservancy and our local partners, Fundacion Pro Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta and the Organizacion Gonawindua-Tayrona (OGT) are working to acquire threatened lands and return them to indigenous ownership. In addition to the remarkable wealth of plant, animal and bird species found in the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta, four indigenous groups--the Kogi, Arhuaco, Kankoama and Arsario--also call the Sierra Nevada home. The Nature Conservancy and our partners are working to protect biodiversity in the Sierra Nevada, while at the same time helping to ensure the integrity of traditional lands considered spiritually valuable to local indigenous people.

Support from the Earth Foundation has proven both timely and critical to the Conservancy's efforts in the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta. In the past six months, the Conservancy has made advancements in the following areas:

• Identification of the next two properties for purchase--Rio Molino and El Horizonte, two parcels totaling over 1,000 acres (430 hectares), located within the boundaries of the Kogi Indigenous Reserve.
• Advanced the development and implementation of an institutional strengthening plan for the Organizacion Gonawindua-Tayrona.
• Proposed the construction of a Center for the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta Studies. The center is envisioned as a space for the development of reflective processes, information exchange, theoretical and practical training. Communities that live in the Sierra Nevada mountain system, the institutions that work there and local, national and international audiences will have access to the Center. It is intended to serve all groups and individuals interested in learning about the Sierra, its biological and cultural significance, its history and sustainable development in the Sierra.

ARNAVON ISLANDS, SOUTH PACIFIC

The Earth Foundation's generous gift has helped the Conservancy protect the most important breeding ground in the Pacific for the endangered hawksbill turtle and the threatened green turtle. The Conservancy and the communities of the Amavons are proactively promoting the recovery of sea turtles and other key species, and ensuring that their subsistence and economic needs are met. In order to achieve these goals, the Conservancy is:

• conducting resource inventories and monitoring to quantitatively assess the biological diversity of the Conservation Area and track the recovery of key species.
• building the capacity of a local Management Committee of representatives from the communities, the provincial and national governments, and the Conservancy to manage the Conservation Area.
• implementing a management plan for the conservation area, including closing the area to harvesting for three years.
• training and supporting six Community Conservation Officers to undertake enforcement, monitoring, and community outreach.
• establishing two community fishery enterprises that target the area's plentiful deep-water fin fish as an alternative source of cash income.

Turtle monitoring data collected over nine years indicates that the closure of the Conservation Area and on-going awareness efforts have yielded promising results. Nesting activity has increased overall, the number of eggs laid has increased, and turtles are returning to the area in subsequent nesting seasons.

CERRO SAN GIL/VEGA LARGA, GUATEMALA

Cerro San Gil
With funding from the Earth Foundation, The Nature Conservancy helped local partner, FUNDAECO, purchase an important tract of land within the Cerro San Gil National Protected Area. Located in the eastern reaches of Guatemala, Cerro San Gil represents the last remaining tracts of humid tropical forest in Guatemala. To help safeguard this refuge, the Conservancy and FUNDAECO - with support from the Earth Foundation and other individuals - purchased 4,050 acres in a watershed area of Cerro San Gil. Since the purchase of these five private reserves, the Conservancy has provided assistance to FUNDAECO in the following conservation initiatives:

• As encroachment remains an issue and threat for the Cerro San Gil Biological Reserve, FUNDAECO continues to provide technical assistance and support to the local government and surrounding communities in sustainable development activities. Innovative programs in organic coffee and spice farming continue to be developed working with local communities. FUNDAECO is also exploring new opportunities for ecotourism in Cerro San Gil. Activities include a new trail system that is under development, running from the upward slopes of Cerro San Gil down to the Bay of Santo Tomas. The trail will pass through several communities and will include campsites, as well as visitor information centers, which will be managed by local community members.
  
• With Conservancy assistance, FUNDAECO has developed and submitted a land management plan to the Guatemala government, where all properties recently purchased within Cerro San Gil Protected Area will received subsidies under the forest protection program. The government's recent approval of that plan now releases much needed funds to hire park guards to be supervised and managed by FUNDAECO. FUNDAECO was the first organization in Guatemala to receive this type of funding from the government for environmental protection. The government's commitment of salary support will allow for the hiring of six additional guards, which will bring the total team to 14 guards.

Sierra de las Minas
In 1998, after years of negotiating, the Conservancy's Guatemala Country Program helped local partner Defensores de la Naturaieza to complete the purchase of the Vega Larga property - an important holding within the 500,000-acre Sierra de las Minas Biosphere Reserve. Funding from the Earth Foundation allowed the Conservancy to purchase this 3,300-acre property, completing the largest cloud forest in Central America.

Local partner Defensores is regularly monitoring and protecting the recently purchased tract. The fraction of the property that had been devastated by agricultural use is now in recovery. Within the next year, Defensores will begin preparations to develop a biological research station on the property.

The Vega Larga purchase also involved a voluntary relocation process, which represented an important achievement in providing social and economic alternatives to a local community. The indigenous community of Vega Larga made their home in the heart of the reserve in the early 1980s, and has since deforested over 560 acres. Defensores and the Conservancy offered a unique land-swap option to the community - the purchase of the Vega Larga property in exchange for a 1,350-acre farm, including legal rights to the new land as well assistance in building community infrastructure. The people of Vega Larga have quickly adapted to their new community, property, and environment. Due to the improved climatic and soil conditions, as well as the location of their new land, harvests are now more fruitful and easier to market.

NOEL KEMPFF, BOLIVIA

Support from the Earth Foundation helped the Conservancy purchase lands in the Noel Kempff Mercado National Park in Bolivia, bringing the total acreage of the park to 3.8-million acres. The park encompasses significant Amazonian forests, as well as hot, dry Chaco and Cerrado environments. As a result of Noel Kempff's remote and unique biogeographic location, the park is believed to contain some of the highest levels of biological diversity in the world.

Since purchasing lands in Noel Kempff, the Conservancy and local partner, Fundacion Amigos de la Naturaieza (FAN) have worked together and with local communities on protection, monitoring and creative conservation and income-generating activities, including ecotourism. Recent developments and activities include the following:

• FAN and the Conservancy recently reached an agreement with the United States Forest Service and will be working together to frirther develop and implement forest management plans with the local communities.
• Recognizing the importance of Noel Kempffas an area of global ecological importance, this past year, UNESCO named Noel Kempffa new World Heritage Site.
• Accommodations within the park have been expanded and updated to better facilitate and ' encourage a strong ecotourism program.

PANTANAL, BRAZIL

Funding from the Earth Foundation for the Pantanal allowed the Conservancy to purchase two private properties adjacent to Pantanal National Park--the premier conservation unit of the Brazilian Pantanal. Acquisition of the two ranches, Acurizal and Doroche, was key to the park's conservation mission as it provided vital protected upland habitat for the park. The two properties total 148,000 acres and their acquisition effectively increased the area of the park by approximately 40 percent. Since the purchases, both properties have been officially designated by the Brazilian government as private natural heritage reserves ("RPPN''s).

In December 2000, a momentous event for the Acurizal and Doroche reserves occurred when the United Nations designated Pantanal National Park, together with these two adjacent reserves, as a World Heritage Site - one of twenty new World Heritage Sites declared worldwide. This is a huge step in focussing greater attention on the global significance of this biological jewel.

The Conservancy has signed an agreement with IBAMA to assist in development of a formal, officially sanctioned management plan for Pantanal National Park. The Conservancy and IBAMA are currently conducting the first phase of a Rapid Ecological Assessment for the park, including surveys of Acurizal. The Conservancy also recently conducted an ecotourism feasibility study for Acurizal, and plans to assist Ecotropica in development of a business plan for an ecotourism project featuring an itinerary that links Acurizal with Noel Kempf National Park in Bolivia.

RIO BRAVO, BELIZE

New River Acquisition
With the assistance from the Earth Foundation, The Nature Conservancy's conservation partner. Programme for Belize, purchased a 19,000 acre parcel of land adjacent to the Rio Bravo Conservation and Management Area (RBCMA) from New River Enterprise. This purchase increased Programme for Belize's land holding to 260,000 acres of land, representing about four percent of Belize's total land area. The purchase of this parcel of land was very important given that it would have otherwise been converted to agricultural land. The large-scale farming practices in Northern Belize utilize chemicals and high-scale irrigation practices that are proven to be environmentally harmful. To date, activities on the newly acquired parcel of land include the establishment of sixty permanent carbon monitoring plots that will be re-measured every two years, an intensive bird census, the establishment of hiking trails, and ranger patrolling to protect from poachers.

Fire Management
The Pine Savanna Forest comprises approximately 15 percent of the Rio Bravo Conservation and Management Area (RBCMA). This ecosystem is home to deer and other ungulates as well as several birds of special concern such as the yellow-headed parrot and azure- crowned hummingbird. It is common practice during the dry season that this ecosystem is set to bum by hunters in order to facilitate their catch. This damaging practice has hampered regeneration levels of the Pine Savanna Forest because all the new growth is burnt annually. With the assistance from the Earth Foundation, Programme for Belize has addressed this problem through the development of a fire management plan that has the objective of managing fires in the Pine Savanna Forest through controlled fire suppression techniques and resource protection efforts. During this past year, staff at the Hill Bank Field Station were trained in fire suppression techniques and equipped with fire fighting equipment.

DARIEN BIOSPHERE RESERVE, PANAMA

In southern Panama, where the Central American isthmus joins with South America, stands one of Central America's largest remaining tracts of uninterrupted rain forest. The 1.5 million-acre Darien Biosphere Reserve, located along Panama's border with Colombia, harbors five separate ecological life zones, which contain coastal and marine habitats, mangrove estuaries, riverine cativo forests, freshwater wetlands, tropical rainforest, and elfin cloud forest. With support from the Earth Foundation in 1993 and 1994, the Conservancy helped the National Association for the Conservation of Nature (ANCON) to protect these natural resources and to purchase property in the Darien region, creating a buffer zone around the biosphere reserve. Additional advancements include the following:

• Punta Patino was established as the first private reserve in Panama, and now serves as the buffer zone to the Darien Reserve. The parameter of the reserve has been completely demarcated to 150 kilometers in the terrestrial portion and 33 kilometers of marine area. ANCON and other organizations have conducted various studies in the reserve, including biological inventories, rapid rural appraisals in eight communities in the reserve's buffer zone, and a study to evaluate capacity for growth in ecqtourism. The results of these studies provided information to prepare a management plan that was approved by the National Environmental Authority in 1998.
• The only gap in the Pan-American Highway, the Darien received positive political attention after the president of Panama vowed to stall the continuation of the highway through the reserve, and also banned mining concession within the Darien region.
• In the Darien the Conservancy is advising a sustainable development program, which is funded by the Inter-American Development Bank. The program will also help to build capacity of local groups working in the region, and will establish additional conservation activities for the Darien.

REPUBLIC OF PALAU, MICRONESIA

Named one of the Seven Underwater Wonders of the World, Palau is home to 1,400 species of reef fish, over 600 species of coral, and such endangered and vulnerable species as dugong (or manatees), saltwater crocodiles, hawksbill and green sea turtles. The Conservancy is currently working on the following activities to protect the magnificent marine resources of Palau:

• Implementation of the Ngeruangel Reserve Management Plan - the first such plan to be implemented in the Micronesia. The community decided to close the area to all harvesting for three years. We will continue to monitor the site at 6 and 12 month intervals, and design and implement a long-term monitoring program of the area.
• Planning and development of a multiple-use Rock Islands Conservation and Management Area to mitigate the impact of tourism on this fragile ecosystem.
• Design of a survey and monitoring program for the Rock Islands area to feed into the development of the management plan, which will include short-term investigations and long-term monitoring.
• Institutional strengthening of the Koror State Ranger Program to enhance their enforcement capabilities in the Rock Islands and training of rangers from other states.
• Mentoring the marine staff of our partner organization, the Palau Conservation Society.
• Review of the Live Reef Fish Trade plan for Palau and provide recommendations for its management.

PARQUE DEL ESTE, DOMINICAN REPUBLIC

Parque del Este receives annually hundreds of thousands of visitors, 95 percent of who come to enjoy the beautiflil white sand beaches ofisia Saona which comprises nearly one-fourth of the park's land areas. One of the Conservancy's conservation objectives has been to work in collaboration with local conservation organizations and communities to develop a management plan for the park. A major focus of this effort has been to reduce impact on Isia Saona, initiate environmental consciousness in park visitors, and to develop long-term funding sources to sustain conservation activities.

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