Archive for June, 2010

ecoReserve and the Mamoni Valley

Wednesday, June 23rd, 2010

In advance of the launch of our new model we wanted to introduce The Mamoni Valley (the site of our first reserves), why it is significant, the ecoReserve model and our ecological strategic contribution in the Valley.

The Mamoni Valley

The Mamoni Valley is located in narrowest portion of the North American continent (central Panama), which separates the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. The 28000 acre Valley is part of a world recognized biodiversity hotspot and home to a diverse range of plants and animals. In addition, it is an important migration stop-over region for many North and South American birds.

For the past forty years, large areas of the valley have been deforested due to increased demands for agriculture and ranching production. Currently, the Mamoní Valley is severely fragmented and degraded which threatens the watershed and biodiversity.

What is biodiversity?

Biological diversity means the diversity, or variety, of plants and animals and other living things in a particular area or region. For instance, the species that inhabit Los Angeles are different from those in San Francisco, and desert plants and animals have different characteristics and needs than those in the mountains, even though some of the same species can be found in all of those areas. Biodiversity also means the number, or abundance of different species living within a particular region.

Physical Characteristics of the Mamoni Valley and Why It Is Significant

Part of Mesoamerican Biological Corridor: The Mesoamerican Biological Corridor is a large habitat corridor in Mesoamerica, stretching from Mexico southeastward through most of Central America, connecting several national parks. It was started in 1998 to keep critically endangered species from going extinct.

Part of Mesoamerica Biodiversity Hotspot: A biodiversity hotspot is a biogeographic region that is both a significant reservoir of biodiversity and is threatened with destruction. The Mesoamerican forests are the third largest among the world’s hotspots. Spanning most of Central America, the Mesoamerica Hotspot encompasses all subtropical and tropical ecosystems from central Mexico to the Panama Canal. This includes all of Guatemala, Belize, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, and Costa Rica, as well as a third of Mexico and nearly two-thirds of Panama.

Borders Kuna Yala (land of indigenous Kuna): Kuna Yala is an autonomous territory or comarca in Panama, inhabited by the Kuna indigenous people. The name means “Kuna-land” or “Kuna mountain” in the Kuna language

Borders Chagres National Park: Chagres National Park was established in 1985. The Chagres National Park covers 129,000 hectares and is 40 kilometers from Panama City.

About ecoReserve and The Model

ecoReserve has developed a new model to address the negative social, economic and environmental influences impacting the Mamoní Valley. The model includes three types of reserves, conservation, reforestation and sustainable livelihoods. These reserves will successfully build a multi-faceted, ecological restoration program that increases the health of the rainforest and improves the livelihoods of the people who depend upon the land.

Our ecological strategic contribution by establishing the reserves in the Mamoni Valley:
– Create buffer zone for Kuna Yala and Chagres National Park
– Strengthen biological corridor
– Protect biodiversity and animal habitats

Coming up in upcoming blogs:
Mesoamerican Biological Corridor
Mesoamerican Biodiversity Hotspot
Kuna Yala (land of indigenous Kuna)
Chagres National Park

Pumas – the other large cat of the Panamanian forest

Saturday, June 12th, 2010

If you sense the presence of a large cat while walking in the jungles of Panama, the elusive mountain lion (puma concolor) is probably not the first thing that comes to mind. Its secretive behavior has been a double edged sword, helping it survive the targeted predator hunts of the 19th and 20th centuries but also rendering it far less famous than its distant relative, the jaguar. Despite its relative anonymity, the mountain lion is the only other mammal which has demonstrated the same versatility as humans in conquering the American continents. Evidence of its wide range is reflected in the myriad number of names it has collected over the centuries. The mountain lion that overlooks the Canadian Rockies is the same species as the panther that wanders the jungles of Florida and the puma that scales the Andes of Peru.

Once a member of a guild of large cats which included the American Lion, the American cheetah and the saber-toothed tiger, mountain lions are now the largest wild felid remaining in North America and the second largest in South America. Genetic evidence suggests that North American mountain lions went extinct along with all the other large cats at the end of the Pleistocene 10000 years ago and that North America was reconquered by mountain lions from the south. Thus, the presence of mountain lions in the United States and Canada today speaks to the importance of maintaining linkages such as the Central American Corridor between North and South America.

In North America, male mountain lions weigh around 55-65 kg and females weigh about 40-45 kg. Mountain lions of the tropics tend to be smaller than their temperate counterparts, mostly likely due to environmental influences and possibly because of competition with the sympatric jaguars. Mountain lions are impressive ambush predators that can take down prey as large as a moose and as small as a mouse. Most mountain lions, except females and their kittens, live solitary lives and on vast territories.

In Panama, mountain lions are currently protected from hunting are are not considered endangered by the IUCN. However, the mountain lion’s need for large areas of intact habitat, slow breeding rate, and occasional taste for livestock sometimes brings it into conflict with neighboring human populations. Additionally, large predators, due to their low densities and reliance on prey species, can often be quickly wiped out by people if they are deemed to be a threat. For these reasons, ecoReserve will promote environmental education programs in the Mamoni Valley that will help local residents learn to safely live alongside large cats such as jaguars and mountain lions. By protecting an important habitat corridor, ecoReserve will help maintain the linkage that allows mountain lions to move between the two continents.

Open Volunteer Positions

Tuesday, June 8th, 2010

ecoReserve is currently seeking volunteers for the following positions:

Non-Technical Positions:

  1. Bookkeeper – QuickBooks, donation processing
  2. Attorney – various items
  3. Graphic Designer (Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign) – design print collateral materials
  4. Social Media – help create and implement campaign
  5. Program Planner – conservation, cheap nhl jerseys reforestation, sustainable livelihood programs
  6. Website Baratas Ray Ban Content Editor – pull together text and image content for alpha launch
  7. Writer – Write website content for alpha launch

If you would like to apply for a non-technical volunteer position, please send a short cover note and your resume to Tamara Pulsts, President, at [email protected].

Technical Positions:

  1. Systems Administrator – with broad LAMP stack experience
  2. Front-End PHP developer – with front-end/UI skills (Symfony and Diem CMS experience ideal)
  3. Server-Side PHP developer – familiar with MVC character application frameworks and strong database skills (Symfony experience ideal)
  4. WordPress/CSS whiz – to maintain our Oakleys Outlet current placeholder website

If you would like ray ban sunglasses sale to apply for a technical volunteer position, please send a short cover note and your cheap football jerseys china resume to Jim Lynch, CTO, at [email protected].

Volunteer

Tuesday, June 8th, 2010

ecoReserve is an innovative organization in many ways.  Not only are we launching a new model for wholesale football jerseys grassroots micro-conservation, but the organization itself is being built through grassroots volunteer support.

When we first conceived of ecoReserve and began to share the idea in early 2009, many people said to us, “Count me in!  I want to help in some way!”  People kept saying, “This is the right idea for our time.”

As a result of this enthusiastic response, we have been able to build ecoReserve almost entirely with volunteers.  People have pitched in with every sort of 떨거지,쓰레기, skill:  engineering, marketing, fundraising, party planning, copywriting, finance, and program planning, to name a few.

Our timeline is as follows:  private alpha launch at end of June, beta launch over the summer, and public v.1 launch in September in time for school.

We are always looking for talented, skilled, dedicated volunteers.  There are two ways you can volunteer for ecoReserve:

  1. Volunteer Position cheap football jerseys – ecoReserve has volunteer positions available in almost every functional area including marketing, design, engineering, finance, program planning, and legal.  You may be able to work independently or as part of a volunteer team.  Term:  No minimum. See open positions.
  2. Executive Council – This exciting new entity is designed for highly skilled fake oakleys young professionals who aren’t ready for a board seat Ray Ban Outlet yet but are looking Fake Ray Bans to make a significant philanthropic contribution of their time and talent. Term:  2 years. Learn more.

FOR MORE INFORMATION:

Contact:  Tamara Pulsts, President
[email protected] | (415) 531-7418

Executive Council Committees

Tuesday, June 8th, 2010

ecoReserve Executive Council

Committees

ecoReserve is proud to announce the formation of the ecoReserve Executive Council.  We are now seeking Co-Chairs and Officers Cheap Ray Ban Sunglasses for the following Committees:

1)     Development Committee

  • Identify and approach prospective foundation funders, write grant proposals
  • Identify and approach prospective corporate sponsors, write partnership proposals
  • Identify strategic partnerships across all of the committee functional areas that could help to catapult ecoReserve forward, work with other committees to develop and present proposals
  • Develop benefit programs for ecoReserve’s individual donors

2)     Education Committee

  • Develop ecoReserve’s strategic plan for education (online, in U.S. schools, in schools near reserves, in communities near schools)
  • Develop the curriculum and contents for all educational programs
  • Develop strategic partnerships with educational institutions and corporate sponsors
  • Recruit K-12 schools and higher education institutions to participate
  • Develop research partnerships with institutions of higher learning
  • Help to launch pilot projects in a U.S. school, school near reserve, community near reserve, and research partnership with university
  • Develop “ecoAdvocate” training modules for ecoReserve’s site (how to give a speech, how to get PR, how to organize a fundraising event, etc.)

3)     Events Committee

  • Develop ecoReserve’s strategic plan for events: membership, donor stewardship, fundraising
  • Plan and implement all events

4)     Finance & Legal Committee

  • Refine ecoReserve’s financial model before, during and after pilot project
  • Research and help to establish ecoReserve’s endowment (or land preservation fund)
  • Research and help to establish creative land acquisition and conservation financing mechanisms, including Wholesale Jerseys carbon offsets, inclusion of indigenous tribes, etc.
  • Research and help to establish how ecoReserve can monitor and monetize ecosystem services
  • File ecoReserve trademark application
  • Create various agreements for land acquisitions, NGO partnership agreements, IP licensing, etc.
  • Research and opine on international land title, land acquisition, conservation easement issues
  • Develop standard operating manual for how ecoReserve works in countries and with local field partners

5)     Group Development Committee

  • Develop ecoReserve’s Group strategic plan (alumni groups, industry associations, companies, families)
  • Work with marketing team to develop group marketing materials
  • Recruit alumni, industry, company, family groups to participate in ecoReserve

6)     Marketing Committee

  • Create ecoReserve’s strategic marketing plan with heavy emphasis on social media
  • Create print, online and video marketing collateral
  • Implement social media outreach
  • Recruit major PR company as pro bono corporate sponsor and help implement PR campaign

7)     Reserve Cheap Jerseys From China Programs Committee

  • Develop and continually refine ecoReserve’s program plan for conservation, reforestation, sustainable livelihood #청문회 programs, including budgets and monitoring and evaluation
  • Help to develop baseline study, and quantitative and qualitative surveys regarding need and success of programs
  • Identify potential strategic partners

8)     Technology Committee

  • Help develop and implement new cheap jerseys features for ecoReserve website
  • Help develop and implement applications:  Facebook, mobile, GIS, mapping
  • Help develop and implement games
  • Help apply technology to ecoReserve’s ecological program
  • Identify potential tech strategic partners and help to write cheap nba jerseys proposals and make pitches

9)     Volunteers Committee

  • Help to build sustainable, effective ecoReserve volunteers program in SF and other cities (research successful models like Room to Read and Amnesty International)
  • Help recruit volunteers for other committees and ecoReserve events as needed
  • Help recruit new Executive Council committee members
  • Develop ecoReserve Volunteer Manual.

To inquire about joining the ecoReserve Executive Council, please send your resume and a short note relaying your committee of interest and relevant skills to Tamara Pulsts, President | [email protected].

Click here to return to previous page.

Executive Council

Tuesday, June 8th, 2010

ecoReserve Executive Council

The ecoReserve Executive Council is comprised of nine committees of senior level volunteers who actively and regularly assist ecoReserve on key strategic and operational issues.  The Executive Council contributes in a significant way to expanding ecoReserve’s capacity, developing best practices across our functional areas, and developing strategic partnerships in the areas of technology, marketing, fundraising, conservation science and sustainable development.

Committee Structure & Organization

Co-Chairs: Each Committee on the Executive Council has two Co-Chairs who are responsible for recruiting and managing their committee members.  The Co-Chairs will coordinate with ecoReserve senior management and with their assigned Board member advisor to develop the initiatives for their committee.  Committee Co-Chairs will have full responsibility and authority to implement the agreed-upon initiatives.

Officers: Members of the Executive Council are referred cheap MLB Jerseys to as Officers.  Requirements for Officers are to have at least three years of professional experience relating to their Committee.  They must also be able to commit to attending Committee meetings and contributing in a significant way to their Committee’s initiatives over the course of their two-year term.  Officers should assume a cheap China Jerseys minimum commitment of at least five hours per month.

Size: Each Committee will have approximately five members, including the two Co-Chairs.  The Committees are designed to facilitate high-level, professional collaboration and philanthropic achievement.

Meetings: The Executive Council as a whole will meet on a quarterly basis, just prior to the ecoReserve Board of Directors quarterly meetings.  Individual committees may meet on a monthly or weekly basis as needed depending on their initiatives.  Committee meetings may be held at ecoReserve’s offices or via telephone or Skype.

Financial: We request that Executive Council members make a charitable contribution of at least $250 per year, which can be accomplished through Jumble one contribution or multiple installments.

Term: There is a two-year term for participation in the ecoReserve Executive Council, both for Co-Chairs and Officers.

ecoReserve Executive Council Committees

  1. Development Committee
  2. Education Committee
  3. Events Committee
  4. Finance & Legal Committee
  5. Group Development Committee
  6. Marketing Committee
  7. Reserve Programs Committee
  8. Technology Committee
  9. Volunteers Committee

Click here to read detailed descriptions of the Executive Council committees.

To inquire about joining the ecoReserve Executive Council, please send your resume and a short note relaying your committee of interest and relevant skills to Tamara Pulsts, President | [email protected].


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Finding the Jaguar Path in Panama: Julia Kumari Drapkin reports from Panama.

Monday, June 7th, 2010

ecoReserve’s initial reserve  in Panama in the Mamoni Valley Preserve borders on Chagres National Park (the northwestern corner of the Mamoni Valley Preserve borders on the Chagres National Park).

National parks around the world provide important refuge for people and wildlife. They’re places where humans can reconnect with the natural world and where animals are protected from human encroachment.

But parks rarely provide enough habitat to ensure the survival of an entire species. This is especially true of large predators like jaguars. Jaguars are the biggest cats in the all of the Americas. And in Central America, scientists are trying to protect Jaguars by finding and protecting the corridors that the cats use as they roam from park to park.

Chagres National Park in Panama is one of these places where the big cat roams. This park is located on the eastern side of the Panama Canal, between the provinces of Panama and Colon. With a surface of 129,000 hectares (300,000 acres), this park was created to protect the tropical rainforest around the rivers that run through it and which are the main source of water for the Panama Canal.

Learn about jaguar protection work in Panama in Chagres National Park

This park was created with the objective of preserving the natural forest of which it consists, in order to produce water in sufficient quantities and of adequate quality to guarantee normal operations of the Panama Canal, as well as supplying drinking water to the cities of Panama, Colon and La Chorrera and at the same time generating electricity for Panama and Colon.

This area is home to species such as the:

  • Jaguar
  • Mantled howler monkey
  • Northern tamandua (anteater)
  • More than 560 bird species are found in the Alto Chagres region.

Scientists at Panthera will create a map of so-called jaguar corridors. But even as Olmos discovers these jaguar corridors, they’re already being severed by new human ones. A multilane highway is under construction right between the parks. It’s not just the highway itself that poses a threat to jaguars but the development it’s likely to bring. More access, brings more people, more houses, more stores.

ecoReserve coding momentum!

Friday, June 4th, 2010

On Wednesday, in front of ecoReserve’s CEO, Colin Wiel, our President/COO, Tamara Pulsts, and our new GIS engineer, Will Cadell, I was able to show a demo build of ecoReserve’s web application, with many of the features in place for our private alpha release at the end of this month. As soon as Will has integrated the first version of the Mamoni Valley map, we’ll start extended testing on the alpha among ecoReserve staff and associates. We hope to have our public beta later this summer, and a full launch in the fall.

The screen shot below is from our development server, and shows the left content drawer used for navigating through our editorial content. This blog is currently being mirrored into the live application, so that once we’re ready to show it to the world, all the content we’ve created to date will be available in the new application. Thanks to everyone on my team for their great code, and thanks to everyone else in the ecoReserve community for their support. We’re getting VERY close, and I can’t wait to share our work with you!

screen shot from the ecoReserve dev server

What is the Un-REDD Programme (Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation in Developing Countries)

Wednesday, June 2nd, 2010

Forests, particularly humid tropical forests, provide a number of benefits to society. They are extremely rich in biodiversity and provide important ecosystem services such as food, fibre and water regulation.

Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD) – is an effort to create a financial value for the carbon stored in forests, offering incentives for developing countries to reduce emissions from forested lands and invest in low-carbon paths to sustainable development. “REDD+” goes beyond deforestation and forest degradation, and includes the role of conservation, sustainable management of forests and enhancement of forest carbon stocks.

In addition to its role in reducing greenhouse gas emissions, REDD provides the opportunity to safeguard these other forest values.

The UN-REDD Programme recognises the importance of gaining multiple benefits from REDD, and has developed an approach to support countries in their efforts to integrate multiple benefits into their REDD planning. Building on existing experience, and working with relevant partners and stakeholders, the UN will be stepping up our work with UN-REDD pilot countries to promote understanding of the potential for achieving multiple benefits, and to provide tools and guidance to assist decision-making that will deliver these benefits through the implementation of REDD.

It is predicted that financial flows for greenhouse gas emission reductions from REDD+ could reach up to US$30 billion a year. This flow of funds could reward a significant reduction of carbon emissions and could also support new, pro-poor development, help conserve biodiversity and secure vital ecosystem services.

To learn more about REDD