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.

Continue reading →

January 8, 2011 - FORAGUA, the Southern Ecuador Regional Water Trust Fund spearheaded by NCI, received close to $500,000 thanks to an agreement with the Ecuadorian National Secretariat of Water (SENAGUA). The grant is earmarked for reforestation and restoration of native vegetation on 2,500 acres critical to the protection of water resources for several regional cities including Alamor, Celica, Loja, Macara, Pindal, and Zumba. The funds are being invested in the improvement, expansion, and construction of municipal and community tree nurseries, the protection of municipal reserves, the planting of native species, and the enrichment of secondary vegetation. Continue reading →

July 10, 2010 – Nature and Culture International played a crucial role in the creation of the new, 17,000-acre Tilacancha Private Conservation Area (PCA), which protects the water source for the city of Chacapoyas, the capital of Peru’s Amazonas region. The conservation area, located within the rural communities of Maino and Levanto, is the first PCA in Peru with the explicit objective of conserving a watershed. NCI carried out a number of hydrological studies within the watershed, installing a meteorological station in the region and studying the potential for the implementation of a “payments for environmental services” system. Continue reading →

July 2, 2010 – With the support of the Nature and Culture Ecuador Foundation (FUNACE), we recently purchased an additional 4,460 acres in southwestern Ecuador for the Cazaderos Natural Reserve, helping to protect a pristine and endangered area of Tumbesian dry forest. The reserve now totals nearly 13,300 acres and forms a critical corridor between the La Ceiba Reserve, nearby community reserves and the Biosphere Reserve of Northwestern Peru. This connectivity is important for the survival of endemic flora and fauna that live in this isolated and small area, which are currently threatened due to production of biofuels and other degradation activities. Continue reading →

May 17, 2011 – Over the last two years, Nature and Culture International has made significant progress in helping to protect Peru’s paramos – unique alpine grassland ecosystems boasting unusually high numbers of endemic species. Due to the high altitude of paramos, species in this ecosystem have had to adapt to low atmospheric pressure, intense ultraviolet radiation, and the drying effects of Andean winds. NCI has submitted the necessary technical documents for the recognition of the new Samanga 3,700 acre Private/Communal Conservation Area, which will protect 2,200 acres of forest and 1,500 acres of paramo. Continue reading →

May 7, 2010 – This March, Nature and Culture International signed an agreement with Brazilian cosmetics company Natura, to support the southwestern Ecuador communities of Malvas, Chaquiro, Totumos and Limones in the management of approximately 7,500 acres of threatened dry forest in Zapotillo County. The resources provided by Natura will help the local community to define the boundaries of the areas to be declared a reserve, in addition to assisting in the creation of a set of regulations for the use of the space and its resources. Continue reading →