ARBOLES para GAIA - Estrago Ecologico

Our neighbors, the Ojai-based RageJax Foundation has provided support for the ARBOLES para GAIA - Estrago Ecologico art exhibit opening in Managua next Friday.

Paso Pacifico is providing several thousand trees to be given out at the exhibit, and each of the artists have created designs that will be on the bags in which the seedlings are placed.

To check out the artists and their work, visit the exhibit's blog (and catalog) here.

Photos from the Field: Biological Monitoring

Sea turtles get it on, and on, and on... at Deep Sea News

There should be a sign posted along beaches of the world during a certain season: “WARNING: Enter water at your own risk”. I’m not speaking of extreme undertow or heavy shore-break. Not water quality, or red tide concerns. Nor warnings against poisonous jellyfish. These are all important water safety concerns, but I am referring to something else, something almost as dangerous. I am talking about the distinctly unique experience of being in the water with green turtles during mating season.

Read more by Peter Etnoyer and Wallace J. Nichols at Deep Sea News.

Effective Management of Protected Areas

We recently hosted a mobile workshop organized by CATIE (the Tropical Agricultural Research and Higher Education Center) and Conservation International to train people in the planning and management of protected areas.

The group spent two weeks visiting protected areas in Costa Rica and Nicaragua and learning how to best tackle the challenges of planning and managing protected areas in a changing world.


Paso Pacifico Country Director Liza Gonzalez showed our visitors how we apply the principles of ecology to manage protected areas from ridge to reef in the Paso del Istmo biological corridor.

Foresters at the Isla Vista Reserve showcased our reforestation efforts, turtle rangers at the La Flor protected area explained how they monitor and protect turtle nests, and kayak guides in Ostional showed them the mangroves.

We also shared our experience in using conservation finance to pay for personnel to help protect endangered species, like sea turtles and spider monkeys.

Among the highlights? Spider monkeys at the Isla Vista Reserve appear to be getting used to our researchers, as they didn't disappear the moment the group came into view.

Thanks to project coordinators, Jim Barborak and Miguel Morales from Conservation International, and Elena Florian from CATIE for a great visit!

For more information about the seminar, you can download this PDF.

Save the Frogs Day

In honor of Save the Frogs Day, we'd like to introduce some of the frogs who live in Paso del Istmo, Nicaragua.

The poison dart frog (Dendrobates pumilio) is a resident of the eastern edge of the Paso del Istmo biological corridor where we are restoring habitat from cattle pasture to humid tropical forest. It is listed as near threatened by the IUCN.

The red-eyed tree frog (Agalychnis callidryas), which prefers tropical dry forests, is also found throughout the Paso del Istmo corridor. This picture is courtesy of Wikipedia.

Earth Day in San Juan del Sur

Local artists, businesses, municipal government, and students celebrated Earth Day with us this week. During the ceremony the mayor of San Juan del Sur committed the municipality to planting 50,000 trees as a contribution to the Meso-American Biological Corridor.

Impulsan proyectos de reforestación en Rivas

La Prensa reports on our reforestation program in Paso del Istmo (in Spanish).

Paso Pacifico's national director is quoted:

Esto se ha hecho en sólo tres años, son 450 hectáreas las que ya están reforestadas y la meta es reforestar cinco mil hectáreas en toda la zona y lo más importante es que se están plantando árboles que son nativos de estas tierras.

In just three years, Liza explains, we've reforested 450 acres, and our goal is to reforest 5000 hectares total. She points out the significance of the fact that native trees are being planted. Native trees means habitat restoration for yellow-naped parrots and spider monkeys.