What is Missing?

We are so pleased to learn that the What is Missing? (WIM) Foundation will honor Paso Pacifico by purchasing certified carbon offset credits and by donating to our Return to Forest project.

We were thrilled to receive notification of this honor, along with an invitation to attend a REDD+ special event at the IPCC summit in Copenhagen next month. The WIM Foundation exists to "help protect habitat and safeguard biodiversity through diverse public education and awareness efforts."

An example of their awareness efforts is founder Maya Lin's What is Missing? memorial, "a tribute to vanished (and vanishing) parts of our natural world and a call to action to help reverse the trends."

We look forward to connecting with our fellow WIM Foundation honorees:

• Dr. Wangari Maathai and the Sankuru “Fair Trade” Community Carbon Initiative in the Democratic Republic of Congo 
• Dr. Jane Goodall and her new forest offset project in the Gombe Chimpanzee Reserve in Tanzania
• Chief Almir and the indigenous Surui reforestation effort in the Brazilian Amazon
• Iman Sapari and the Yayorin Orangutan habitat protection project in Indonesia
• Tengchong Conservation Carbon Project in the Yunnan Province of China

The WIM Foundation will honor Paso Pacifico founder Dr. Sarah Otterstrom because they consider the Return to Forest project to be "an exemplary model of forest-offset projects that help tackle climate change, protect biodiversity, and advance the well being of local communities."

La Prensa Reports on Plastic Soup

La Prensa covered the presentation of our findings from this year's International Coastal Cleanup, gathering over 300,000 pounds of trash:

Recolectan más de 300 mil libras de basura 

Un total de 332 mil 925 libras de basura inorgánica fue recolectada durante la jornada, en la que participaron 30 municipios que poseen costas incluyendo a Bluefields, Corn Island, San Rafael del Sur, Granada, Diriamba, Jinotepe, Juigalpa, Corinto, Puerto Cabezas, San Juan del Sur, entre otros.

Liza González, directora de Paso Pacífico, dijo que se limpiaron 167.1 millas de costas y se recorrieron 104 localidades de estos 30 municipios.

Pitter Bishop from the Swiss Development Agency COSUDE (event sponsors), talked about the "plastic soup" caused by trash floating in the North Pacific, and Paso Pacifico's Liza Gonzalez reported on the pollution data and emphasized the importance of community involvement in this cleanup.

Creating a Culture of Conservation

¡Felicidades Karina!

Meet Karina Alvarez, from Pueblo Nuevo in the Rivas province of Nicaragua.

Karina won honorable mention in a national children's art contest, after taking a Paso Pacifico-sponsored course in nature painting.

Karina is a shining example of how our environmental education programs help  develop a culture of conservation.

Calm Air; Visibility Unlimited

We're excited to have videographers from CAVUsite.org visiting the Paso del Istmo this week. They're getting footage for a documentary on the future of tourism in Nicaragua.

Dedicated to helping people solve complex problems related to the management and conservation of natural resources, CAVU uses flight, film, and education to bring people and communities together for conservation.

Torneo de Panga

San Juan del Sur's Annual Panga Fishing Tournament took place this weekend. Paso Pacifico's National Director, Liza Gonzalez was on hand to deliver a presentation about marine conservation.

If you watch this video, you'll understand why everyone at Paso Pacifico is happy to be a part of the San Juan del Sur community.

Saving Wild Places Will Save the Planet

We're pleased to be included in this piece at the Environmental News Service:

MÉRIDA, Mexico, November 13, 2009 (ENS) - For the first time in decades, the eggs of endangered sea turtles buried on a small strip of Nicaraguan beach will not be collected and sold in local food markets. A program developed by nonprofit Paso Pacífico pays residents up to $2.50 for each turtle hatchling that reaches the surf — almost 10 times what they would have brought from the market. 

While only one resident participated in the program last year, this year brought in scores. 

“The problem was no one believed we would actually pay for a baby turtle and everyone knew they were going to get cash from the sea-turtle egg trader,” said Paso Pacífico founder and executive director Sarah Otterstrom.

You can read more about our sea turtle conservation programs here.

Photos from the particular hatch (25 years in the making) referenced in the article are here.

Meet the people who do the work!

You're just as likely to find them in the field in Rivas, checking on our biodiversity monitoring stations, traveling from rural school to rural school on horseback, measuring tree growth at one of our reforestation projects, or just picking up garbage on the beach, but this is Paso Pacifico's Managua-based team.

Paso Pacifico team visits the Montibelli Private Nature Reserve