Archive for the ‘Uncategorized’ Category

Gira de Campo #2

Sunday, October 10th, 2010

En cuanto llegué a Mamoní Arriba encontré a Arsenio esperándome con dos caballos. No tenía planeado montarme en un caballo, pero me tocaba por primera vez en mi vida montar para poder llegar al filo de la montaña que vamos a restaurar. El nombre de mi caballo era Ardillo, según Arsenio porque se parece a una ardilla blanca que es muy común en el área. Le pedí a Arsenio que me diera un curso rápido de equitación, y él respondió con dos ideas “debes montar con seguridad y un verdadero jinete es el que se ha caído del caballo por lo menos una vez”. Por supuesto yo pensé “hoy no me quiero convertir en un verdadero jinete”.

Empezamos la cabalgata a la montaña por un camino que empieza donde el río Mamoní se une con la quebrada del Espavé. El objetivo de esta gira era llegar a las parcelas de ecoReserve. Antes de que llegara ecoReserve estas tierras habían sido utilizadas en su mayoría para el pastoreo de las vacas. Estas parcelas están en el filo de la montaña, y para llegar era necesario montar caballo por media hora sobre lomas empinadas y luego viajar media hora caminando. Debido a que comenzamos la caminata temprano en la mañana, nos topamos con una manada de vacas lecheras que iban saliendo de la sala de ordeñar. Intenté contar las cabezas de ganado pero cuando llegué a 25 me detuve.

El pastoreo es el uso de suelo más común dentro del área de Mamoní Arriba y tienen un gran valor cultural. Esta práctica es un problema ecológico en el área porque requiere de la tala del bosque. Una vez que se ha talado el bosque se introducen pastos exóticos para alimentar al ganado; el efecto de estos pastos sumado al impacto del ganado deteriora el suelo. El pastoreo no está restringido al ganado ya que gran cantidad de las tierras usadas en Mamoní Arriba son para alimentar a los caballos. El pastoreo es una práctica no sostenible desde el punto de vista ecológico y económico porque las tierras disponibles para potreros no son infinitas.

Arsenio y yo llegamos a las tierras de ecoReserve a la parcela donde queremos comenzar los proyectos de restauración. Esta parcela está sobre un filo que por un lado está rodeada de montañas cubiertas de bosque y por el otro lado se puede ver el valle de Mamoní. Yo hice mi maestría en ecología de restauración y estaba intentando reunir los diferentes conceptos que había estudiado para determinar el potencial que tenía el área para ser restaurada cuando observé la abundancia de la paja canalera (Saccharum spontaneum) sobre las laderas del filo. La paja canalera es un pasto de tres metros de alto que fue introducido por los estadounidenses para evitar la erosión del suelo a lo largo del Canal de Panamá. Hoy en día se ha convertido en una especie invasora que se encuentra a lo largo de todo el país y que es enemiga de cualquiera que desee utilizar las tierras que han invadido incluyendo los restauradores del bosque y los ganaderos.

My first visit to Mamoni Arriba

Thursday, September 30th, 2010

It is easy to quickly recognize the beauty of the Mamoni landscape. Multiple hill tops spread across the landscape were visible from the road to Mamoni Arriba. The surprise I felt laid in the fact that these hills and mountains were fully covered with jungle and not cattle pastures. These days, mountain tops covered with jungle are rare sights in the Panamanian country side, but not in Mamoni. I felt proud and content to be part of this journey into the Mamoni Valley.

I parted from Panamá city early in the morning towards the North East into Mamoni Arriba. My objective was to meet the local people and understand the landscape so that I could plan a longer visit. Luckily for me, I was accompanied by Roland who was born in Mamoni and has been working for Earth Train for many years. I was also accompanied by Carlos Andrés who is a Panamanian lawyer that works for Earth Train and has spent valuable time working in the valley. I had been warned about the access road to Mamoni Arriba because during the rainy season it becomes difficult to ride. However, Rolando’s driving skills did the trick and got us to Mamoni Arriba in no time.

The landscape going down the road and into the Mamoni valley was truly amazing. The valley per say was mostly covered by pasture land. In the background I could see the mountains that surround the valley and that are shared with the Chagres National Park and the Comarca of Kuna Yala. The forest that lies on these mountains is what we in ecoReserve are working to protect. I was imagining myself crossing the mountains to Kuna Yala when Rolando decided to stop at “el filo”. El “filo” is the spot with the highest altitude on the road to Mamoni Arriba. Rolando showed me the Caribbean towards the North. I knew it was the Caribbean because I could clearly see the islands that are part of Kuna Yala. I’ve never visited these islands but now I can say that I’ve seen them from a distance.

Once we made it to Mamoni Arriba we met with Arsenio. Arsenio is a very funny man and with a lot of energy. I wanted him to take me to the forest, to a very “specific spot”! Since I had never been in the valley the only way I could explain to him where I wanted to go was by showing him an aerial photography of Mamoni Arriba. In somewhat of a silly manner he told me that, “he couldn’t understand the image because the highest altitude he had ever seen his house from was 14 meters”. I immediately thought to myself how I had felt the same way the first time I looked for my house on Google earth. I started laughing.

We spend quite sometime figuring out a way to reach the “specific spot” that I wanted to visit. We figured out our starting point for my next visit. The starting point will be where the Espavé stream connects with the Mamoní River. I met with many more people and got a very good feeling for the site.

Field Work Begins in Panama Rainforest!

Wednesday, September 29th, 2010

We are delighted to welcome aboard Mariana Valencia, who will be serving as the Project Launch Coordinator for the ecoReserve-Earth Train project in Panama. Mariana is coming on initially in a 3-month contract position to help set up the logistics for the restoration/conservation project in the Mamoni Valley.

Mariana will be working part-time in Panama City and part-time on the reserve. She will be working on creating access to the reserve, setting up the infrastructure for workers and the nursery, and fleshing out the Program Implementation & Monitoring Plan that was drafted by ecoReserve volunteers this past year (a big thank you to our volunteers: Joan Dudney, Dena Vallano and Yiwei Wang). She will also recruit advisors and identify prospective project staff.

Mariana recently completed a M.S. in Science – Ecology and Evolution Program from the University of Illinois-Chicago (UIC). As a native of the Republic of Panama, she is passionate about forest conservation in Latin America. Her MS thesis led her to work on the restoration of lowland tropical rain forest in Mexico where she worked closely with farmers in restoration projects within rural areas in the Los Tuxtla Biosphere Reserve, Veracruz. She also has interests in working in temperate regions; therefore she developed her MS thesis manuscript on the restoration ecology of prairie systems in Chicago, IL. She is currently preparing her thesis for publication. Mariana received her Bachelor’s degree in Biology, Emphasis in Plant Science at the University of Panama (UP). She worked for three years at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute along with scientists of many nationalities in five different sites throughout Panama. Through research and academic courses, she has spent valuable time working in Panama, Mexico, and the USA. These experiences have prepared her to manage and coordinate multiple tasks as well as collaborate with large international research groups. Concerned with the contradictions between economic development and conservation, Mariana is especially interested in working with small landholders on issues of sustainable land use and connecting the economic and ecological aspects of restoration efforts in protected areas.

We are excited to have such a perfectly qualified person as Mariana in this key project launch position. Please welcome Mariana!

Win a $25 Living-Room Size Nature Reserve Once We Launch

Thursday, September 9th, 2010

Contest to Create ecoReserve’s Tagline

Join in the fun! Toss out a few ideas for an ecoReserve tagline.Just for submitting any idea at all you’ll be automatically entered into a random drawing to win a $25 ecoreserve once we launch. If we choose your tagline you’ll win a $100 ecoreserve.

We’re looking for a memorable tagline that will help inspire a grassroots movement for micro-conservation.The tagline will be used on our website and in our marketing materials. It will look something like this:

INSTRUCTIONS:
Dream up fun, hip, taglines that describe what ecoReserve does and inspire people to take action.Taglines should be short, punchy, memorable and inspiring,something both a kindergartner and CEO would aspire to!

Here are a few samples to get you started:
• Have you created a nature reserve today?
• Save the rainforest one pixel at a time.
• Save the world 50 square yards at a time.
• Micro-conservation: Everyone can do it!
• Nature reserves for everyone
• Name It. Visit It. Share It With Friends.

For Your Inspiration:
• Site Preview: http://www.ecoreserve.org/site-preview
• Executive Summary: http://ecoreserve.org/docs/ExecutiveSummary.pdf

HOW TO SUBMIT YOUR ENTRIES:
Please type your tagline ideas into the blog (no limit).We will be taking entries until we launch.

PRIZES! PRIZES! FAME & GLORY!
1) Random Drawing Just for Entering – Anyone who submits a tagline idea will automatically be entered into a random drawing for a $25 living-room size nature reserve once we launch.
2) Tagline Winner – If we actually decide to use one of the submitted taglines, your prize will be a $100 ecoreserve plus lots of fame and glory!

WINNER NOTIFICATION:
The winner(s) will be announced via this blog, Facebook, and Twitter prior to launch.Please stay tuned!

Advisory Board

Sunday, August 22nd, 2010

Matt Flannery
Matt Flannery is the CEO and Co-Founder of Kiva. Kiva’s online platform allows individuals to connect with and lend as little as $25 to micro-entrepreneurs in the developing world. Matt began developing Kiva in late 2004 as a side-project with while working as a computer programmer at TiVo, Inc. In December 2005 Matt left his job to devote himself to Kiva full-time. As CEO, Flannery has led Kiva.org’s growth from a pilot project to an established online service with partnerships in more than 30 countries and over $3 million loaned. Prior to starting Kiva.org, Flannery spent time in Uganda, Tanzania and Kenya filming stories of microbusinesses started by Village Enterprise Fund. Matt is a Draper Richards Fellow, Skoll Awardee and Ashoka Fellow. He graduated with a BS in Symbolic Systems and a Masters in Philosophy from Stanford University.

<img src="http://005845a.netsolhost.com/ecoReserveWP/wp-content/uploads/2010/08/Jane-Goodall-150×150.png" alt="" title="Jane Goodall" width="150" height="150" Cheap Jerseys class=”alignleft size-thumbnail wp-image-1245″ />Jane Goodall, Ph.D.
Dame nfl jerseys china Jane Morris Goodall, DBE, is a British primatologist, ethologist, anthropologist, and UN Messenger of Peace. Considered to be the world’s foremost expert on chimpanzees, Goodall is best known for her 45-year study of social and family interactions of wild chimpanzees in Gombe Stream National Park, Tanzania. She is the founder of the Jane Goodall Institute and has worked extensively on conservation and animal welfare issues. In 1977, Goodall established Kaiser the Cheap Jerseys Jane Goodall Institute (JGI), which supports the Gombe research, and she is a global leader in the effort to protect chimpanzees and their habitats. With nineteen offices around the world, the JGI is widely recognized for innovative, community-centred conservation and development programs in Africa. Its global youth program, Roots & Shoots began in 1991 and now has over 10,000 groups in over 100 countries. Today, Goodall devotes virtually all of her time to advocacy on behalf of chimpanzees and the environment, travelling nearly 300 days a year. She obtained cheap nhl jerseys a Ph.D. in Ethology in 1965 from Cambridge University.

Healy Hamilton, Ph.D.
Dr. Healy Hamilton is a biodiversity scientist at the California Academy of Sciences, and an adjunct professor in the Department of Geography at San Francisco State University. She is the founding director of the Center for Applied Biodiversity Informatics, a program that integrates biological and geospatial data for biodiversity research, conservation and education. The Center’s focus is on the developing field of Conservation Biogeography, which investigates geographic patterns of biodiversity in the past, present, and future. Dr. Hamilton received her masters degree from Yale University’s School of Forestry & Environmental Studies and her Ph.D. in Integrative Biology from the University of California, Berkeley. For both degrees she conducted extensive field research in Latin America. Dr. Hamilton is a former U.S. Fulbright Fellow and a Switzer Foundation Environmental Leadership Grantee.

Daniel Hunt Janzen, Ph.D.
Dr. Daniel Janzen is the DiMaura Professor of Conservation Biology at the University of Pennsylvania, where he has been since 1976, and he is also Technical Advisor to Area de Conservación Guanacaste in northwestern Costa Rica, a project he conceived and initiated in the early 1970s. Guanacaste is probably the oldest, largest and most successful habitat restoration project in the world (1.430 km²), located just south of the Costa Rica-Nicaragua border. Dr. Janzen also serves as long-time advisor to the Instituto Nacional de Biodiversidad (INBio), a research organisation in Costa Rica that is inventorying, cataloguing and describing the country’s gigantic natural endowment. Since 1965, he has lectured annually at the Organization for Tropical Studies (OTS), a consortium of several North American and Costa Rican universities. He has also taught at University of Kansas, University of Chicago, University of Michigan, and at universities in Venezuela and Puerto Rico. Dr. Janzen obtained his B.Sc. degree from the University of Minnesota, Minneapolis and his Ph.D. from the University of California, Berkeley.

Mark Pincus
Mark Pincus is the Founder, CEO & Chief Product Officer at Zynga. He founded the company in 2007 to enable users to build social connections through games. On his way to Zynga, Mark started three companies. In 2003, he launched Tribe.net, one of the first social networks in the industry. Before that, he founded Support.com and built the company into a leading providing of support automation software and took it public. In 1995, he launched FreeLoader, the first web-based consumer push company, and sold it a few months later. Mark started his career working in traditional media, financial services, and venture cheap oakleys capital before he discovered his calling as a consumer techbology entrepreneur. Mark graduated summa cum laude from University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School of Business and earned an MBA from Harvard Business School. He is an angel investor to multiple Silicon Valley startups and regularly gives lectures to aspiring entrepreneurs.

Board of Directors

Sunday, August 22nd, 2010

Colin Wiel – Chairman, CEO & Founder
Colin Wiel is the Founder & CEO of ecoReserve. He is a successful high-tech entrepreneur, investor and committed environmentalist. Colin’s passion for rainforest protection led him to purchase land in the Mamoni Valley in Panama, where he then conceived of ecoReserve as a vehicle for enabling individuals of any means to create their own nature reserves. He is also Co-Founder and Managing Director of Wiel Brien, LLC, a real estate investment company focused on buying, renovating, and leasing REO single family homes. Colin has a strong background in business management and software engineering. In 1998, he founded and ran Milo, a 35-person software engineering firm in San Francisco that was acquired within three years. He then founded the San Francisco Chapter of the Fake Ray Bans Keiretsu Forum, an angel investor network. Colin has made angel investments in more than a dozen Bay Area companies in the past six years. Earlier in his career, Colin designed an antiskid system for commercial aircraft for Boeing (two US patents issued) and co-architected the Java infrastructure for Charles Schwab’s online trading website, which was the largest dollar volume Karabiner e-commerce website in the world at that time. Colin holds a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering cheap jordans online from U.C. Berkeley.

Steve Brown
Steve Brown is an entrepreneur and active board member in innovative software and Internet businesses. He is currently CEO of Snaptic Inc., a mobile applications company that makes it easier to capture and share information from mobile devices to improve productivity, manage resources, and connect with services online. Prior to co-founding Snaptic in October 2008, Steve was an Entrepreneur-in-Residence at Mohr Davidow Ventures, where he pursued opportunities to apply Internet technologies and services to empower consumers and encourage healthier lifestyles. He also joined the board of Breastfeeding.com, where he helped transform the company into a social network and then managed its acquisition by The Knot (NASDAQ:KNOT), a leading lifestage media company. He currently serves on the board of Agile Sports Technologies, a world-class online video coaching platform used by leading sports teams. Steve is the founder and former CEO of Health Hero Network, a pioneer of telehealth and remote patient monitoring, now a division of Robert Bosch GmbH. Steve Brown earned a bachelor’s degree in physics from Stanford University in 1991. In his honors thesis on modeling climate change, he created educational simulations to teach people about the impact of lifestyle and behavior on global warming. Steve speaks at international conferences about innovation and the potential for the Internet and interactive media to positively change behavior. Steve’s innovations have resulted in 70 US patents and numerous industry awards.

Sean Jacobsohn
Sean Jacobsohn has been an alliances and sales executive in the technology-enabled business services space since 1999. He is currently VP of Channel Management at Cornerstone OnDemand, a human capital management software-as-a-service provider, which has grown from 300,000 to 3.3 million subscribers during his tenure. Previously Sean was VP Sales and Partner Development at WageWorks, a leading provider of consumer-directed spending solutions, which grew from $3 million to $82 million in revenue during his 4 year tenure. He spent 3.5 years at Elance, the world’s largest marketplace of contractors, which sold its software unit to cheap oakleys Click Commerce (CKCM). He also has held finance positions at Major League Baseball and The Prudential Realty Group. Sean has an MBA from Harvard Business School and a BBA in Marketing, Finance, and International Business from University of Wisconsin. He is a co-founder of the Harvard Angels, board member of ecoReserve, and the immediate past President of the Harvard Business School Association of Northern California.

Arch Meredith
Arch Meredith is Managing Partner of Kite Hill Capital, a private venture capital firm. Arch is also a Founder of the Chroma Group, which developed patented software technology for pattern recognition and visualization, and he manages Chroma Group equity interests. One of Chroma’s affiliates is applying the technology to find subtle patterns in seismic data that are diagnostic of oil and gas, another is using it to help radiologists screen for colon cancer in CT data (for virtual colonoscopies), and a third is using it to find new indications for existing drugs. Previously, Arch was Founder & CEO of TeleTix, which developed the first networked, self-serve kiosks in cooperation with Hewlett-Packard. He is a graduate of Stanford University and the Stanford Graduate School of Business.

Lee West
Lee West is a Founding Board Member wholesale football jerseys of ecoReserve and serves on the Finance and Educational Committees of the Executive Council. Lee is the Co-Founder and Chairman of the San Francisco Carbon Collaborative (“SFCC”), an initiative on behalf of the San Francisco Mayor’s Office of Economic and Workforce Development to develop technologies and market-based responses to climate change and make San Francisco the west coast hub for carbon markets. Lee has applied his almost 30-year career in financial markets and private investing into advisory roles and board appointments in various technology, financial services, and non-profit related businesses. He began his career in money management in 1982 working for Wall Street firms and heading advisory services. Today Lee cheap jerseys is President of Defensive Portfolio Management (“DPM”), where he continues to manage capital for institutional clients.

Founding Donors Wall of Fame

Monday, August 16th, 2010

It is with great pleasure that ecoReserve would like to thank and acknowledge the following Founding Donors who provided our early stage support. These visionary, angel contributors helped us take micro-conservation from a dream to a reality. We couldn’t have done it without your encouragement and generous support!

Founding Angels Circle: $25,000+

The Wiel Family<br cheap oakleys />
Organic to (in-kind)
O’Melveny & Myers (in-kind)
People Connect Staffing (in-kind)
QuickStart Global (in-kind)
Lee West Companies (in-kind)

Game-Changers Circle: $10,000-$24,999

Anonymous (2)
36Branding (in-kind)
Steve & Patty Brown
David & Lowe Chang
Edward Conrads
The Mapstead Family
Arch & Shelly Meredith
Natembea Foundation
Lee & Kimberly West Family

Visionaries Circle: $5,000-$9,999

Anonymous<br Cheap Football Jerseys />
Steve & Patty Brown
Marin Community Foundation

Influencers Circle: $2,500-$4,999

Sean Jacobsohn
Salesforce Foundation

Momentum Builders Circle: $1,000-$2,499

Anonymous
Margaret Duskin/Cushman Wakefield (in-kind)
Susan Hailey
Porter Family Foundation
Robin Venturelli

Early Adopters Circle: $100-$999

Anonymous (7)<br cheap oakleys />
Douglas Allan
Sophie Bain
The Beebe Family
BioInnovation
Susan Blew & Denis wholesale nfl jersyes Puglisi
Credo Mobile
Martha & Don Dolben
Edwards-Fleischer Family
Gottsman-Kessler Family
Charlie Graham
Joshua & Kendra Haims
Elizabeth Harshaw
Melissa Hillis
Lee Howard
Jeff Lee Cypress Properties Group
Kyle & Liz Keogh
Benjamin Kersey
Daniel Kraft, M.D.
Lisa Kruger
James Lynch, Jr.
Charlot & Greg Malin Cheap Jordan Shoes (in-kind)
Fran Meredith
Murphy Vineyards (in-kind)
PaperCulture.com
Laura & Woody Rea
Dr. Melvin Reich
Tim Sartoris
The Scott Family
Valerie Steele/Sotheby’s (in-kind)
Viader (in-kind)
The Verner Family
Carl Wescott & Monette Stephens
Rebecca Westerfield
Grace (Hsu) Woo & Family
Rona Yang & Gary Chevksy (in-kind)
Bradley Zlotnick

Friends: $1-$99

Anonymous (4)
Denise Blackwell-Burns
Darby Charvat
Mike Corbera
Raven Davis-King
Peter de Zordo
Erik Eklof
The Giles Family
Puneet Gupta
Julia & Leo Horvath
William C. Lewis
James Lynch, III
Rebecca Morris
OneCleanWorld Foundation
Laura Roden
Sustainability Education Network

ecoReserve Alpha Site is Launched! Beta Up Next!

Thursday, August 12th, 2010

We’re pleased to announce that we now have an alpha version of the ecoReserve website! This is a private site that we’re testing internally but here’s a screenshot of what the *real* Panamanian rainforest looks like!

On the alpha site, you can see all of the available conservation and restoration reserve parcels in the Panamanian rainforest that you’ll help to protect. You can click on the interactive map to adopt your own nature reserve, and your personalized ecoReserve page will display your profile, a portfolio of parcels that you’ve adopted, multimedia content that you’ve uploaded, and messages from your friends. Over the next few weeks, we’ll be refining the alpha site and adding features.

We are now in the final push to launch the public Beta version of the website in the next few weeks.

We will be refining the alpha site and adding several exciting social networking features that will enable micro-conservation to spread rapidly among friends.

We are almost there but we need to raise an additional $20,000 in the next few weeks to launch the site. If just 200 friends like you donate $100 today, we’ll make our goal within 24 hours. Would you please be one of those 200 friends?

If you donate any amount before our Beta launch, you will become one of our Founding Donors honored on the Wall of Fame, and you’ll secure a respected place in ecoReserve’s startup history.

Thank you for your good wishes and support this year. We couldn’t do it without you!

If you’re on Facebook, click here to donate throughCauses.

If you’re not on Facebook, click here to donate through Givezooks.

Chocó-Darien Hotspot

Friday, August 6th, 2010

ecoReserve’s first reserve located in the Mamoni Valley is part of the Tumbes-Chocó-Magdalena Hotspot and includes a small portion of the Chocó/Darién wet region, one of the two major regions in the hotspot.

ecoReserve’s Mamoni Valley reserve falls in two of the 34 internationally recognized biodiversity hotspots: 1) the Mesoamerica Biodiversity Hotspot and 2) the Tumbes-Choco-Magdalena Hotspot. Although both start in Panama, the Mesoamerica Biodiversity Hotspot runs northward, but the Tumbes-Choco-Magdalena Hotspot runs southward. Because we have already discussed the Mesoamerica Biodiversity Hotspot, this post will focus on the Tumbes-Choco-Magdalena Hotspot. The Tumbes-Chocó-Magdalena Hotspot starts in the southeastern portion of Mesoamerica and extends to the northwestern corner of South America with a reach of 1600 kilometers, which is close to 1000 miles. The hotspot is divided into two main regions, the northernmost Chocó/Darién wet and moist forests located in the Darién Province in Panama and the Chocó region in western Colombia to the southernmost Tumbesian dry forests of Ecuador and the northwestern part of Peru.

The Darién Province is one of the most diverse, remote regions in Central America and is protected by dense pristine forests and jungle. At over 3 million acres, it is the largest province in Panama, the most sparsely populated, and the least well known. It is a region of dense tropical rainforest and is among the most complete ecosystems of all tropical America. The Darién is mostly uninhabited mountains, jungle, and swamplands, and it has one of the richest ecosystems of the American tropics. It is also home to many endangered species, such as the jaguar, the giant anteater, the harpy eagle, and the tapir.

Until 20 years ago, there were no roads in the Darién, and travel through the region was very difficult. Before the roads were built, the indigenous people of the area, the Embera, Wounaan, and Kuna, relied mainly on water transportation because they live in settlements scattered along the river valley . Today the Pan-American Highway cuts through the middle of Darien. This gravel highway extends down as far as the town of Yaviza, which is the beginning of the famed Darien Gap. This 100 km gap, which is the only uncompleted piece of the the Pan-American Highway, is impossible for travelers to pass and survive. The highway poses another danger as well. Because the highway connects overland commerce between North and South America, it has opened up the region to cattle ranchers, loggers, and landless peasants. As a result, both the natural forest and the indigenous people of the Darién are being threatened.

The biggest objection to completion of the highway is its effect on the region’s ecological balance and the danger it poses to the survival and habitat of the indigenous people living in the region. It would also extend the already dramatic deforestation of the area.

Wild Eyed Primate Thought To Be Extinct Caught on Camera For The First TIme

Saturday, July 31st, 2010

As you know species are going extinct today 1000 times faster than historical natural cycles.  Our mission is to protect endangered land and those species that live on the land.

So we were very excited when we read this article about the Horton Plains Slender Loris, a small nocturnal animal that can grow up to 6 inches long, thought to be extinct, being caught on camera in the forests of Sri Lanka for the first time.  However, the loris maybe in trouble as a species if deforestation in Sri Lanka is not controlled.

Experts say that deforestation in Sri Lanka, due to cutting down the forests to create tea plantations, was the biggest threat to the loris.  The destruction of their natural forest for both farming and logging has cut off the loris from their partners.  Because they can’t move to one anther, they can’t mate and breed. Therefore there are real implications for the survival of the loris.

The Horton Plains Slender Loris is one of the world’s most threatened primates. Experts estimate there are just 100 left or even fewer. Their numbers may even be below 60 – which would make it the rarest primate species.

Because for many years they were thought to be extinct, very little or almost nothing is known about them. Unless their natural habitat is preserved and we do something to protect them they will be extinct.

Read the complete article about the Horton Plains Slender Loris here