Posts for the ‘Culture’ topic
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A family affair
Last week, CI scientist Robin Moore spent two days traveling in the Sierra Gorda Biosphere Reserve, one of Mexico’s most ecologically diverse regions. This is what he found. Bolitoglossa salamander in the Sierra Gorda. © Robin Moore I am not sure what it is that makes the Sierra Gorda feel so magical; whether it is the golden sunlight that filters through fern-laden trees to a carpet of soft moss on the forest floor; the knowledge that jaguars slink silently and invisibly through the dappled light, or uncovering cryptic salamanders lurking in the bromeliads that drip from the trees. Whatever it is, ... -
Notes from WILD9: The End of the Conference
After one long and busy week, WILD9 is coming to and end. Representatives of indigenous communities, foundations, corporations, big international NGOs and small local NGOs, conservation photographers, writers, scientists and academics are gathered in the plenary hall to announce and listen to the resolutions that are coming out of the 9th World Wilderness Congress in Merida, Mexico. The top three resolutions are: to support the consolidation of the Mesoamerican Biological Corridor; to protect old-growth forests for climate stabilization; and to align federal development policies with conservation management plans in areas of influence of Protected Natural Areas in Mexico. Overall, the emphasis of ... -
Ecosystems Know No Bounds
In a recent news report, the Nicaraguan government announced that it will soon begin a $1 million project to reroute the San Juan River near the Costa Rican border – a river which has long been a source of dispute between Nicaragua and its neighbor to the south. A Nicaraguan development committee claims that 1,700 cubic meters (more than 5,577 cubic feet) per second of water flow – enough to fill an Olympic-sized swimming pool every second – was lost from the San Juan after Costa Rica diverted it sixty years ago toward their own Colorado River. The rerouting project ... -
Fresh Water and Cultural Stability
As CI prepares for World Water Week later this month, the human connection to fresh water is evident everywhere I look. Although we may take it for granted in developed countries, access to fresh water underlies all of our other concerns; without it, we would cease to exist. Yet despite this reliance, climate change and other man-made forces continue to threaten water security around the world. No one is immune to the issues facing freshwater ecosystems. However, it is becoming clear that small indigenous communities in isolated areas are among the first to feel the impacts of these threats. Members ...
