Species of the Day: Wrinkle-faced Bat

The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species of the Day is the Wrinkle-faced bat.

The Wrinkle-faced Bat, Centurio senex, is listed as ‘Least Concern’ on the IUCN Red List of Threatened SpeciesTM. This striking-looking bat inhabits moist and dry tropical forests of Latin America, from Mexico to Colombia and Venezuela. It is considered to be an uncommon species throughout its range, although occasionally it can be locally abundant under certain conditions.

Wrinkle-faced bats are among the dozens of species found near Volcano Masaya in Nicaragua, where bat biologists working with Paso Pacífico are surveying bat guano to establish bat populations.



For more on this species, check out the IUCN fact sheet.

Happy New Year!

From the tropical forests of Nicaragua,

Happy New Year!

This ocelot cat (Leopardus pardalis) was photographed just this month in a forest we are working to protect.  Paso Pacifico scientific intern Robert Euwe caught this image in a motion-detecting "camera trap".   

Paso Pacifico thanks you for your support in 2010 

and welcomes your continued interest in the year to come.

 

Sincerely,

Sarah Otterstrom

Executive Director

Donate on-line by Dec. 31st to receive a 2010 tax-deduction.

From the Wildlife Conservation Society, Nicaragua:

From the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) Nicaragua Sea Turtle
Conservation Program we are pleased to announce the new WCS-Nicaragua
Youth Group blog. This blog has been created by a group of young
adults from Pearl Lagoon, located on the Caribbean coast of Nicaragua,
as a tool that allows them to broadcast their activities in support of
sea turtle conservation while learning computer skills and engaging
them in collective writing. We invite you to visit the blog!

Any comment or experience that you might want to share with them will
be greatly appreciated, as it will spark their interest and provide
them with first-hand information about other conservation initiatives
around the world.

You can visit the blog by clicking on: http://wcsyouthgroup.wordpress.com

...

Desde el Programa de Conservación de Tortugas Marinas de la Wildlife
Conservation Society (WCS) en Nicaragua nos complace anunciar el nuevo
blog del Grupo Juvenil de la WCS en Nicaragua. Este blog ha sido
creado por un grupo de muchachos de Pearl Lagoon, en la costa Caribe
de Nicaragua, como una herramienta que les permita difundir sus
actividades en favor de la conservación de las tortugas marinas
mientras aprenden a manejar la computadora y a redactar pequeños
escritos en grupo. A pesar de que el blog está en creole (inglés),
ellos también entienden español. Queremos invitarles a que lo visiten!

Cualquier comentario o experiencia que quieran compartir con ellos
será bienvenido ya que aumentará su interés y les proporcionará
información de primera mano sobre otras iniciativas de conservación en
distintos puntos del globo.

Pueden visitar el blog haciendo click en: http://wcsyouthgroup.wordpress.com

CAVU, helping people save critical ecosystems in Latin America

From this month's CAVU newsletter:

The first of CAVU’s three films released this year was created in collaboration with NGO Paso Pacífico. “Paso del Istmo” is a narrow ribbon of land between the vast Lake Nicaragua and the Pacific Ocean which harbors remnant dry tropical forest, and species such as spider monkeys, yellow-naped parrots, freshwater bullsharks and mass arrivals of olive ridley sea turtles. It is a crucial land bridge for species that migrate between North and South America.  

The film portrays the region’s hardworking people, their culture and wildlife, and Paso Pacifico’s efforts to ensure a sustainable future for all. It is to be used as an educational tool in schools and community groups locally, and with international donors and investors to help convey the importance of sustainable alternatives and conservation in this unique area of Nicaragua. Selects from the film were recently featured at the Clinton Global Initiative 2010 to highlight the work of women in small communities in Nicaragua. 

In November it was screened in its entirety at the XIV Congreso de la Socie- dad para la Biología y Conservación in Costa Rica before an international audience of scientists, conservationists and NGOs.

Species of the Day: Green Turtle

The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species of the Day is the Green Turtle.

The Green Turtle, Chelonia mydas, is listed as ‘Endangered’ on the IUCN Red List of Threatened SpeciesTM. This long-lived and highly migratory species is found in tropical and, to a lesser extent, sub-tropical waters throughout the globe. The Green Turtle has the most numerous and widely dispersed nesting sites of the seven turtle species.

Green Turtles are among the species who regularly nest along the Pacific coast of Nicaragua on the nesting beaches where our Turtle Rangers protect the turtles and their eggs until the hatchlings can make their way to the sea.

For more on this species, check out the IUCN Fact Sheet.

Central American Surf Championship

(Liza Gonzalez Director of Paso Pacifico in Nicaragua meeting with the Nicaraguan National Surf Team)


This year's Central American Surf Championship took place on November 19, 20, and 21 at Madera San Juan del Sur Beach in Nicaragua. Paso Pacifico partnered with Nicaragua's National Surf Team to promote the preservation of a healthy marine habit in Nicaragua's Paso Del Ismo. The event featured 80 of the best surfers in Central American fostering friendship between the nations and a collective awareness of the environmental challenges affecting their common coastline. President of the Nicaraguan Association of Surfing said of the championship event, "This year we want to send a message, along with Paso Pacifico, that the oceans are the life blood of the planet. We want to make a difference by appealing to the whole society to become conscience about the damage we do to nature when we throw trash into our streams and waterways".



(Nicaragua's Luis Chamorro)
Nicaragua's team placed second overall with Rex Calderon finishing first by a landslid in the open event and Jose Espinoza winning first in the longboard division.

Cooperative Forest Management

From this month's Science Roundup:

Sustainably managing common natural resources, such as fisheries, water, and forests, is essential for our long-term survival. Conventional analysis assumes that groups struggle to manage common natural resources because of free-riders and people who will maximize short-term self-benefits at the expense of long-term sustainability (the so-called "tragedy of the commons").  However, behavioral laboratory experiments have shown evidence that "conditional cooperation" -- individual cooperation contingent upon the cooperation of others -- can produce shared, long-term benefits.

Building on the work of Nobel Laureate Elinor Ostrom, the authors of a study published in this month's Science combined results from experimental economics labs and surveys of different groups of forest users in Ethiopia with biological assessments of forest health to conclude that "voluntary cooperation in commons management is not a pipe dream but an empirical fact."

Working on the ground in Nicaragua for over five years, we aren't surprised. Thanks to the combined efforts of hotel owners, large landowners, fishermen, partner NGOs, and more, we have seen watched endangered species returning to the dry tropical forests, mangroves, and waters of southwestern Nicaragua. While we work with local governments and MARENA (the Nicaraguan environmental ministry), our coalitions for conservation are voluntary, meaning these individual people and entities are making a choice to cooperate for the long-term benefits of local communities and ecosystems.

The authors warn that such cooperation is fragile, as people are likely to sacrifice short-term self-benefits for long-term sustainability only when they see others making the same sacrifice. Working for over five years to combine cutting edge research in both the natural and social sciences, we provide individual incentives for conservation with community empowerment to create a culture of conservation in Nicaragua.

Among the other factors Ostrom and Vollan suggest contribute to success in managing commons? "Evidence from field experiments shows that resource users responded prosocially to environmental appeals made by park rangers." Another reason to support Paso Pacifico by making a donation to our ranger program.