Two exceptionally effective organizations with complementary missions have partnered together in a comprehensive approach to habitat conservation that emphasizes long-term, sustainable solutions for ecosystems, people and wildlife. Nature and Culture International has an extensive record of engaging local communities and conserving habitat using a broad range of innovative, land preservation models. San Diego Zoo Global uses its strengths in multidisciplinary applied science to ensure that species and habitats are carefully managed for their long-term survival.

Together, these organizations create a remarkable synergy, which will ensure that preserved habitats provide ongoing benefits to wildlife and people for generations into the future.

The partnership begins with four outstanding projects:

The Maijuna Conservation Area

Posted on January 18, 2012 by roger

Straddling the watersheds of the Napo and Putumayo — two of the Peruvian Amazon’s largest rivers — a vast wilderness harbors the full array of western Amazonia’s megadiversity. It serves as a vital source of biological resources for the Maijuna people, one of the smallest and most vulnerable ethnic groups in Peru.

The fate of this forest and of the Maijuna are strongly linked. To ensure long-term protection of biological diversity and their own cultural traditions, the Maijuna people proposed the creation of a Regional Conservation Area (RCA). A proven model for successful land conservation in the Peruvian state of Loreto, this method of protection emphasizes participatory management, conservation-compatible economic uses, and adaptive management. Continue reading →

The Sierra de Alamos

Posted on September 20, 2011 by roger

Inconjunction with the San Diego Zoo Global Wildlife Conservancy, Nature and Culture is purchasing and conserving some of the last and best tropical dry forest habitat in North America at Alamos, Mexico.

Long ago, tropical dry forests stretched from Northern Mexico through Central America. Today, less than 15% of this biologically diverse ecosystem remains and only 1% of that total has been put aside for conservation.

The Sierra de Alamos project is working to buy 10,000 – 25,000 acres of spectacular scenery and species-rich tropical dry forest and pine-oak habitat to create a large private nature reserve called Rancho Ecológico Monte Mojino in the Sierra de Alamos in Sonora, Mexico. Continue reading →

The Cazaderos Reserve

Posted on September 20, 2011 by roger

Nature and Culture International, as part of its alliance with the San Diego Zoo Global Wildlife Conservancy, is seeking to consolidate the 19,317-acre Cazaderos Reserve – an area of tropical deciduous forest in along the Peruvian border in southwestern Ecuador.

The reserve protects endangered tropical deciduous forest of major biodiversity importance, including some of the best remaining stands of the Tumbesian forest ecosystem of southwestern Ecuador and northern Peru. Tragically, these forests have been greatly reduced, and what little remains—barely 5% in Ecuador—is a top international conservation priority.

The Cazaderos forest is in excellent condition due to its remoteness, but this area is now threatened by increasing forest clearing for biofuels and other degradation activities. NCI plans to extend the protected area to cover 25,000 acres of this forest. Continue reading →

The Chocó Region and the Golden Poison Frog

Posted on September 15, 2011 by roger

Nature and Culture International and its partners are working to save the rapidly-declining Golden Poison Frog and the biodiversity-rich Chocó rainforests through an innovative community based conservation effort. The goal is to create a 330,000-acre Conservation Corridor extending from coastal mangroves up and over the inland Andean peaks.

The Chocó corridor constitutes perhaps the most biologically diverse region on the planet. Straddling the Equator and rising from the shores of the Pacific Ocean to the high peaks of the Andes, it includes the wettest rainforests anywhere. In the heart of this narrow swath of land lie patches of untouched wilderness —the home of the Golden Poison Frog, the most toxic land animal on Earth. Continue reading →