In July 2006, Colombian scientists discovered two new species of endemic poison dart frog in a tiny area of rainforest in Colombia’s Central Mountain Range. The frogs, subsequently named Swainson’s poison frog (Ranitomeya doriswainsonae) and the little golden dart frog (Ranitomeya tolimense) were imminently threatened by the advance of coffee and avocado plantations, which had erased all but 20% of the area’s original forest cover. The scientists from the Bogotá-based conservation group ProAves persuaded area farmers to stop cutting the forest and sell their land to the group. Then they appealed urgently to the World Conservation Union (IUCN) and the organization Conservation International for scientific and financial help. On Dec. 23, 2008, as a result of those efforts, the world’s first reserve dedicated exclusively...
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Olive ridley (Lepidochelys olivacea) turtles were crawling onto Nicaragua’s Pacific beaches in ample numbers to lay eggs during the recently concluded nesting season of June 2008 to January 2009, turtle experts say. But the populations of three other, more endangered sea-turtle species that nest on Nicaragua’s 480-kilometer (299-mile) Pacific coast appear to be dwindling shockingly fast, the experts report. A precise figure for the 2008-09 season is not yet available. But the U.K.-based environmental group Flora and Fauna International, which conducts turtle-conservation efforts here, says olive ridley sightings in Nicaragua in the latest nesting season will likely surpass the 187,000 sightings recorded during the 2007-08 season. The group’s estimate jibes with evidence of growing olive ridley populations throughout the Pacific...
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Brazilian authorities have given preliminary approval to a measure that would boost farming, ranching and other economic activity along part of a major Amazon roadway by scaling back a requirement that illegally cut woodlands be reforested. The National Coordinating Commission of Economic-Ecological Zoning this month endorsed a change in the definition of a “legal reserve”—the share of forested land that must not be cut—in the vicinity of a 1,174-kilometer (729-mile) stretch of BR-163, a major road in the eastern Amazon. Brazil’s 1965 Forest Code prohibits Amazon landowners from cutting more than 20% of their forested land. The 80% that they’re required to leave standing constitutes their “legal reserve.” The code stipulates that those who cut more than 20% must...
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The Mexican tourist town of Zihuatanejo is preparing to host a regional two-day conference aimed at boosting mangrove protection throughout the Americas. Convened by the Mexican section of the International Mangrove Network, an association of non-governmental green groups, the Feb. 28-March 1 meeting is scheduled to include discussions, academic presentations and strategy sessions aimed at producing action plans. A prime goal of the meeting, says organizer Hercilia Castro of the Zihuatanejo Network of Environmental Organizations (Rogaz), will be “to promote communal ecotourism” as a viable economic-development alternative for communities in mangrove zones. The conference comes at a dire time for Latin America’s mangrove stands. Mexico has lost 65% of its mangrove habitat, according to a recent estimate that the Greenpeace Mexico...
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