On February 16, the San Diego Union-Tribune ran a front page profile of Nature and Culture International and its founder, Ivan Gayler. The article tells the story of what inspired Gayler to start the organization, and how it has become one of the most relevant and effective conservation nonprofits operating in Latin America – directly catalyzing the protection of more than 8 million acres.
Read the Union-Tribune’s profile of Nature and Culture now.
Feb. 4, 2012 – Nature and Culture International, in conjunction with government leaders and an endangered indigenous group in the Peruvian Amazon Basin announced today the formal declaration of a 970,000-acre rainforest reserve in the Loreto Region of northeastern Peru. The Maijuna Reserve is 22% larger than California’s Yosemite National Park, and consists of a vast forest wilderness, part of which is home to the indigenous Maijuna people, who number fewer than 200 adults and their children.
The act declaring the area was ratified by the Loreto Regional Council and announced by Ivan Vasquez, Regional President of Loreto, at a ceremony in the remote native community of Sucusari. Continue reading
January 25, 2012 – Two renowned organizations with exceptional track-records have partnered together to conserve millions of acres of tropical forest and wildlife habitat.
Nature and Culture International is joining forces with San Diego Zoo Global to make a lasting difference for species, communities and the planet. The two organizations are collaborating on four initial projects in Central and South America that will improve the future for animal species and local people by protecting the healthy ecosystems on which both depend. Continue reading
Salitral-Huarmaca RCA
November 1, 2011 – Nature and Culture International and its local partners were instrumental in coordinating the designation of the Salitral-Huarmaca Regional Conservation Area, which protects more than 69,000 acres of endangered dry forest in northwestern Peru. On July 21, 2011, the Peruvian Natural Protected Area Service (SERNANP) formally announced the new designation after two years of on the ground work by the Piura Regional Government and NCI, which helped prepare the initial formal requests that led to the area’s creation.
This vast new conservation area shelters critical habitat for the White-winged Guan, whose population has dwindled to less than 350 as a result of habitat fragmentation and hunting. Continue reading
August 12, 2011 – Together with a host of local governments and nongovernmental organizations, NCI is supporting efforts to create a number of regional protected areas in northern Peru that will help protect millions of acres of ecosystems – from rich Amazon rainforests and Andean páramos, to coastal deciduous forests and offshore islands.
In the Loreto Region of Amazonian Peru, the national government has just made official the huge Nanay-Pintuyacu-Chambira regional conservation area of nearly 2.4 million acres. This area was created by the regional government two years ago under the PROCREL program that we support, but this latest step makes this vast Amazon rainforest an official part of the national system of protected areas. The conservation area is very important for the protection of the water supply for the city of Iquitos, and will also help protect native flora and fauna used by local populations in a number of sustainable development projects. Continue reading
May 22, 2011 – Our new office in Ecuador’s Azuay province is helping to guide the process for the declaration of the fifth UNESCO biosphere reserve in that country, and the first located in the extremely threatened western foothills of the Andes. National support for this initiative became official last month after the signing of an agreement driven by Nature and Culture International. Signatories include the Ministry of Environment, the Secretary of National Planning, the Provincial Government of Azuay, the Municipality of Cuenca, the Water Supply of Cuenca, GIZ, and NCI, which is committed to providing institutional, technical and political support culminating in the official declaration by UNESCO. Continue reading
May 3, 2011 - Over the last five years, 32 new plant species have been discovered at NCI’s San Francisco Scientific Station – an impressive number according to David Neill, former curator at the Missouri Botanical Garden and coauthor of a new book cataloging Ecuador’s plant diversity. Many of these 32 new species are not known to occur anywhere else in the world. These discoveries demonstrate the great conservation value of the San Francisco Scientific Station as well as its cutting-edge research. Continue reading
March, 2011 - Nature and Culture International has purchased a well-preserved 700 acre property in the Rio Nea area of Zamora County, enlarging a key municipal reserve that protects a highly biodiverse buffer zone of the Podocarpus National Park. The property’s unique cloud forest ecosystems in the Upper Amazon basin include the headwaters of the Nea River, which is the source of water for 10,000 people in the city of Zamora and surrounding towns. The acquistion was made possible thanks to funding support from the World Land Trust and the Municipality of Zamora.
