Regional Water Fund Nearly Finalized
NCI’s Ecuador office has been busy finalizing the documents to create a Regional Water Fund that would manage watershed conservation programs for a three-province region. The fund, called FORAGUA, will likely consist of five municipalities in southern Ecuador, and will be set up as a trust to manage the funds collected by the municipalities through environmental taxes added to citizens’ water bills. Read more...
 
Rare Ivory Palm Forests Protected
As part of our watershed conservation program, we have successfully influenced the Municipality of Puyango in southern Ecuador to declare the rare and highly threatened Tagua, or ivory palm, forests in the area as a municipal reserve. These forests are a small remnant of the forests that at one time covered the western Andean slopes. Populations of howler monkeys can still be found here, as well as the southernmost distribution of some species of birds known as Chocó. Read more...
 
Shade Grown Coffee to Replace Corn
The Flemish Fund for Tropical Forests will finance a two-year project in the Tumbesian dry forests of Ecuador that encourages farmers to plant shade-grown coffee and tara (Caesalpinea spinoza), a plant whose fruit extracts are highly tannic and are used in the tanning process. High corn prices in recent years have led to the destruction of many of the coffee plants in the region to make additional space for sowing corn. However, this caused a great deal of deforestation and contamination of water resources due to erosion and the use of pesticides and synthetic fertilizers. Read more...
 
Managing Species Rich Cloud Forests
We have sent a detailed proposal to the Municipality of Loja to assume management of 30,0000 hectares of the Romerillos tract that is owned by the municipality and borders Podocarpus National Park, but that is not actively managed. This would result in conservation of a wonderful cloud forest that is under threat. Through a thorough survey of the land area we have already recommended that 7,400 hectares of exceptionally preserved cloud forest be established as three municipal reserves adjacent to the Podocarpus Park. Read more...
 
Expanding Conservation Areas in Peru
The NCI team in Loreto, Peru has been working to create the new Maijunas Regional Conservation Area, which would become part of the ambitious Program for Conservation, Management, and Sustainable Use of Biological Diversity in the Region of Loreto (PROCREL) to help conserve the extraordinary biodiversity of Loreto, Peru’s largest department with 92 million acres of Amazon forest, many of which remain untouched. Through this program we have already helped to conserve 5 million acres in the region. Read more...
 

 


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