Result of years of dedicated work
December 2011: Nearly 300,000 acres of land in Equador has been protected for future generations - one of the most signfcant conservation accomplishments in recent decades. The World Land Trust-US has bought the 264,382 acres, which comprises tropical forests to paramo grasslands across the Antisana Volcano, after years of careful and dedicated work.
‘The contiguous 264,382 acre land purchase around Volcan Antisana represents one of the greatest conservation successes ever in the Andes,' sad Dr Robert Ridgely, executive director of WLT-US and a primary driving force behind this success.
A true mountain wilderness
Antisana is an iconic Ecuadorian volcano standing more than 18,700ft high. It harbours one of the few remaining true mountain wilderness areas in the tropical Andes. Surrounding the volcano, just east of Quito, are high-altitude paramo grasslands at 13,000 ft in elevation. These unique highland steppes give way to tropical forests on the Andean slopes that descend into the Amazon basin floor. This enormous but undeveloped area attracted the attention of conservationists in the 1980s, and the Ecuadorian government declared it an ecological reserve in 1993.
But even though the area was declared a reserve on paper, more than 80 per cent of the reserve was still privately owned and managed for cattle. This resulted in conflicts between the actual management of the area and conservation objectives, threatening a number of important species including the Andean condor, the national bird of Ecuador.
A first for the Ecuadorian government
Robert Ridgely said: ‘I am very pleased to report that no less than 264,382 acres around Antisana have been preserved for ever. Not only has World Land Trust-US and Fundación Jocotoco been involved, but our initiative has garnered the support of the Ecuadorian government and the municipal government of the City of Quito.
‘Because of our interest in the Antisana area, Ecuador's Environmental Ministry was galvanized to purchase the outstanding land titles of the Antisana Ecological Reserve further down on the east slope. In addition, Quito's municipal water authority moved to buy Haciendas Antisana and Contadero Grande, a purchase finalized only recently.
'For Ecuador these two purchases are a very big deal: never before had an Ecuadorian government entity made such a large purchase for conservation purposes.'
Due to a long history of intensive grazing, Antisana's ecosystems are significantly degraded, and this affects an important part of the watershed that supplies water to much of Quito. Nonetheless Antisana has outstanding biodiversity values which make it amply worthy of protection.
Returning ecosystems to their former glory
The goal now is to begin the process of reversing and correcting the damage to these natural ecosystems and to return Antisana to its former glory.
Tropical Andean cloud forests such as are found at Antisana are considered the world's number one biodiversity priority, due to their species richness, endemism and degree of risk; they harbor multitudes of rare and endangered species. On the other hand, the paramo ecosystem, although not as rich in species, harbors many rare and endemic species of fauna and flora which are threatened by grazing and fires.
Condor, Silvery grebe and Black-faced ibis
The paramo areas have particular importance for biodiversity, including the only main populations of Andean Condor, Silvery Grebe, and Black-faced Ibis in Ecuador. The lakes, marshes, and bogs provide important habitat for both resident and migratory shorebirds, as well as many special waterfowl. There are also important populations of big mammals such as spectacled bear, puma and Andean wolf.
Antisana is one of the Alliance for Zero Extinction (AZE) sites of Ecuador, due to the presence of no less than three species of threatened frogs.
http://www.wildlifeextra.com/go/news/andes-reserve.html
Showing posts with label Ecuador. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Ecuador. Show all posts
Saturday, December 10, 2011
Wednesday, August 17, 2011
Ecuador: four months to save the world's last great wilderness from 'oil curse'
Where the foothills of the Andes meet the vast Amazonian rainforest in eastern Ecuador there is a small town called Shell. It's a pockmarked, termite-eaten, one-street place which doubles as a missionary centre and a regional airstrip, but it was here in 1937 that the mighty Shell oil company based its crack Latin American oil-prospecting team. The prize was the vast deposits of crude oil believed then – and now known – to lie beneath some of the densest forests in the world.
Nearly 75 years later, Shell the company has long left Shell the town and half of Ecuador's estimated nine billion barrels of oil reserves have been extracted. Ecuador has earned $130bn from the oil found so far in its forests and it earns 40% of its income from it.
But Ecuador now faces a dilemma. Five years ago the state oil company Petroecuador found a massive new oil field containing nearly a billion barrels of oil in Block 31 of the Yasuní national park close to the Brazilian border. The find was equivalent to 20% of all the nation's reserves, worth a minimum $7-10bn.
The dilemma is that the oil in the Ishpingo Tambococha Tiputini (ITT) field is below one of the most biodiverse areas of the world and to extract it would devastate one of the last great wildernesses.
Because of its location right on the equator at the junction of the forest and the mountains, Yasuní is one of the last places on earth which is truly undisturbed. As well being home to the the Tagaeri and the Taromenane, two of the world's last uncontacted tribes, the park is thought to have more species of plants, animals and insects per hectare than anywhere else on earth.
One six-square-kilometre patch of Yasuní – chosen by scientists almost at random – was found to have 47 amphibian and reptile species, 550 bird and 200 mammal species living there. Another patch of land in the park breaks all the world records for bats and insects. More tree species grow in a single hectare of rainforest in Yasuní than in all of north America. A single hectare of rainforest there may contain as many as 100,000 insect species and most of the 2,000 species of fish known to live in the rivers of the Amazon region are believed to be there.
There have been more species of frogs and toads recorded in the park than are native to the United States and Canada combined; more insect species have been found living on one tree than in all of the United States; more birds seen there than in all Europe.
What to do with Yasuní was left to oil minister Alberto Acosta. A European-trained economist, he had spent years in the state oil company, was a friend of the president, Rafael Correa, and has long been part of Ecuador's political establishment. At the time he was an elected senator (MP), and president of the national assembly, and had helped rewrite Ecuador's constitution.
But Acosta admits now that finding so much oil in Block 31 terrified him. "It is one of the last places on earth which is truly undisturbed. It is simply a paradise," he says.
Acosta is one of the few people ever to have visited Yasuní but his dilemma was how to assess the full costs and benefits of drilling for oil there. On the one hand, the find presented the country with perhaps its last great chance to develop in the traditional 20th-century way, by building roads and industrialising. The money could be used for vitally needed housing, infrastructure, health and education.
On the other hand, the former oilman knew drilling for oil would push the oil frontier far deeper into the Amazon, release 400m tonnes of climate-changing CO2 and make the total destruction of a vast and pristine area inevitable.
"To extract oil on that scale from Yasuní," says Acosta, "would lead to contamination, deforestation, extinction of cultures and destruction of social structures. It would need a vast infrastructure including roads, river ports, tracks, airstrips. Villages would have to be constructed, pipelines laid and millions of tonnes of contaminated waste buried."
In addition, Acosta also knew that the oil industry inevitably attracts corruption, violence and social problems when it works in poor countries such as Ecuador.
"As with everywhere else in the world, the oil company roads will attract settlers in search of land and work, leading to more forest destruction. You only need to see the crime, pollution and poverty in Ecuador's other oilfields to know that to extract the oil [there] would mean the extinction of a paradise," he says. Acosta and his team, backed by scientists and non government groups, considered the options. "Oil is very important in a country like Ecuador. We have extracted 4.5bn barrels so far, which has given us around $130bn. We are at the top of the curve. We have consumed half and we have half our oil left.
"But the reality is that oil has not brought development. It has brought us immense contamination and environmental destruction. Since the 1950s the impact on people has been dramatic. Pollution and deforestation bring problems everywhere the oil is. Oil has not solved the problems of Ecuador.
"I knew the oil industry. I could see the monster from the inside. I began to think perhaps we were poor because of our resources. I called it the curse of abundance. I thought we must have a less extractive economy. We want oil to be used to benefit the country, to transform living conditions."
Acosta and the ministry prepared two plans: plan A was a revolutionary scheme to leave the oil in the ground in perpetuity in return for half of its value from the rich countries of the world; plan B was for business as usual. For the first time in history, a nation would seriously consider accepting a binding agreement not to extract fossil fuels.
"We said that Ecuador should approach the world with a deal. We will leave the oil in the ground and save the forest and the people if you, the world, make a financial contribution. If countries and individuals put up just half the "value" of the 960m barrels of oil – around $3.6bn – in Yasuní then Ecuador would guarantee to leave it there," he says. The money earned from the world would then go to protecting Yasuní and Ecuador's other national parks and towards education and hospitals.
Acosta's thinking was in fact a shrewd response to the economic phenomenon called "oil curse". Experience shows that developing countries who strike oil invariably stay poor. Rather than bringing wealth to many, it enriches a few, fosters corruption, encourages dictatorships and distorts the economies of nearly every poor country it has been found in. The story has been repeated from Nigeria to Sudan, Equatorial Guinea to Gabon and Angola to Venezuela.
Plan A was received with scepticism in government circles, says Acosta. "But I debated it with the president, showed him the benefits, told him he would be seen as a global statesman."
But crucially, it was backed strongly by powerful indigenous groups in the country, as well as the many social movements and the public. President Correa went along with it but at the same time has been enthusiastic about the oil.
Acosta left the government in 2009 and is now a professor at the University of Quito and an open supporter of leaving the oil underground. "One day the president said yes, the next no. I received attacks, people I know lied to defend the interests of the oil companies, and tried to weaken my position."
But polls showed that 90% of the Ecuadorian people backed Plan A and it was endorsed by government.Last year the UN development programme declared Plan A to be a safe environmental investment, and agreed to administer the fund. If a downpayment of $100m is made by December, the forest and the indigenous groups will be left alone. If the money is not found, then a Chinese company is expected to move in within months and the destruction of Yasuní will begin.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2011/aug/14/ecuador-oil-yasuni-national-park
Nearly 75 years later, Shell the company has long left Shell the town and half of Ecuador's estimated nine billion barrels of oil reserves have been extracted. Ecuador has earned $130bn from the oil found so far in its forests and it earns 40% of its income from it.
But Ecuador now faces a dilemma. Five years ago the state oil company Petroecuador found a massive new oil field containing nearly a billion barrels of oil in Block 31 of the Yasuní national park close to the Brazilian border. The find was equivalent to 20% of all the nation's reserves, worth a minimum $7-10bn.
The dilemma is that the oil in the Ishpingo Tambococha Tiputini (ITT) field is below one of the most biodiverse areas of the world and to extract it would devastate one of the last great wildernesses.
Because of its location right on the equator at the junction of the forest and the mountains, Yasuní is one of the last places on earth which is truly undisturbed. As well being home to the the Tagaeri and the Taromenane, two of the world's last uncontacted tribes, the park is thought to have more species of plants, animals and insects per hectare than anywhere else on earth.
One six-square-kilometre patch of Yasuní – chosen by scientists almost at random – was found to have 47 amphibian and reptile species, 550 bird and 200 mammal species living there. Another patch of land in the park breaks all the world records for bats and insects. More tree species grow in a single hectare of rainforest in Yasuní than in all of north America. A single hectare of rainforest there may contain as many as 100,000 insect species and most of the 2,000 species of fish known to live in the rivers of the Amazon region are believed to be there.
There have been more species of frogs and toads recorded in the park than are native to the United States and Canada combined; more insect species have been found living on one tree than in all of the United States; more birds seen there than in all Europe.
What to do with Yasuní was left to oil minister Alberto Acosta. A European-trained economist, he had spent years in the state oil company, was a friend of the president, Rafael Correa, and has long been part of Ecuador's political establishment. At the time he was an elected senator (MP), and president of the national assembly, and had helped rewrite Ecuador's constitution.
But Acosta admits now that finding so much oil in Block 31 terrified him. "It is one of the last places on earth which is truly undisturbed. It is simply a paradise," he says.
Acosta is one of the few people ever to have visited Yasuní but his dilemma was how to assess the full costs and benefits of drilling for oil there. On the one hand, the find presented the country with perhaps its last great chance to develop in the traditional 20th-century way, by building roads and industrialising. The money could be used for vitally needed housing, infrastructure, health and education.
On the other hand, the former oilman knew drilling for oil would push the oil frontier far deeper into the Amazon, release 400m tonnes of climate-changing CO2 and make the total destruction of a vast and pristine area inevitable.
"To extract oil on that scale from Yasuní," says Acosta, "would lead to contamination, deforestation, extinction of cultures and destruction of social structures. It would need a vast infrastructure including roads, river ports, tracks, airstrips. Villages would have to be constructed, pipelines laid and millions of tonnes of contaminated waste buried."
In addition, Acosta also knew that the oil industry inevitably attracts corruption, violence and social problems when it works in poor countries such as Ecuador.
"As with everywhere else in the world, the oil company roads will attract settlers in search of land and work, leading to more forest destruction. You only need to see the crime, pollution and poverty in Ecuador's other oilfields to know that to extract the oil [there] would mean the extinction of a paradise," he says. Acosta and his team, backed by scientists and non government groups, considered the options. "Oil is very important in a country like Ecuador. We have extracted 4.5bn barrels so far, which has given us around $130bn. We are at the top of the curve. We have consumed half and we have half our oil left.
"But the reality is that oil has not brought development. It has brought us immense contamination and environmental destruction. Since the 1950s the impact on people has been dramatic. Pollution and deforestation bring problems everywhere the oil is. Oil has not solved the problems of Ecuador.
"I knew the oil industry. I could see the monster from the inside. I began to think perhaps we were poor because of our resources. I called it the curse of abundance. I thought we must have a less extractive economy. We want oil to be used to benefit the country, to transform living conditions."
Acosta and the ministry prepared two plans: plan A was a revolutionary scheme to leave the oil in the ground in perpetuity in return for half of its value from the rich countries of the world; plan B was for business as usual. For the first time in history, a nation would seriously consider accepting a binding agreement not to extract fossil fuels.
"We said that Ecuador should approach the world with a deal. We will leave the oil in the ground and save the forest and the people if you, the world, make a financial contribution. If countries and individuals put up just half the "value" of the 960m barrels of oil – around $3.6bn – in Yasuní then Ecuador would guarantee to leave it there," he says. The money earned from the world would then go to protecting Yasuní and Ecuador's other national parks and towards education and hospitals.
Acosta's thinking was in fact a shrewd response to the economic phenomenon called "oil curse". Experience shows that developing countries who strike oil invariably stay poor. Rather than bringing wealth to many, it enriches a few, fosters corruption, encourages dictatorships and distorts the economies of nearly every poor country it has been found in. The story has been repeated from Nigeria to Sudan, Equatorial Guinea to Gabon and Angola to Venezuela.
Plan A was received with scepticism in government circles, says Acosta. "But I debated it with the president, showed him the benefits, told him he would be seen as a global statesman."
But crucially, it was backed strongly by powerful indigenous groups in the country, as well as the many social movements and the public. President Correa went along with it but at the same time has been enthusiastic about the oil.
Acosta left the government in 2009 and is now a professor at the University of Quito and an open supporter of leaving the oil underground. "One day the president said yes, the next no. I received attacks, people I know lied to defend the interests of the oil companies, and tried to weaken my position."
But polls showed that 90% of the Ecuadorian people backed Plan A and it was endorsed by government.Last year the UN development programme declared Plan A to be a safe environmental investment, and agreed to administer the fund. If a downpayment of $100m is made by December, the forest and the indigenous groups will be left alone. If the money is not found, then a Chinese company is expected to move in within months and the destruction of Yasuní will begin.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2011/aug/14/ecuador-oil-yasuni-national-park
Tuesday, November 16, 2010
New bat species found in Ecuador
Scientists have discovered a tiny new species of bat in the western slopes of the Andes in northwestern Ecuador.
The first specimen of the species, which has been called Myotis diminutus, was collected more than 30 years ago.
But the researchers have only now confirmed that the little creature, which weighs just a few grams, is a distinct species.
They published a detailed description of the bat in the journal Mammalian Biology.
There are more than 100 species of Myotis bat, six of which can be found in Ecuador.
But "diminutive Myotis", as the researchers have called it, is the smallest of this group of species yet known in South America.
The little brown bat weighs just 3.5g.
The scientists, based in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil and Washington DC in the US, wrote in the journal: "As with many other newly described species, we know nothing about the natural history of this bat.
"Unfortunately, the prospects for learning more about it are bleak."
This is because the moist forests of western Ecuador, where the bat was discovered, are under threat, primarily from deforestation for agricultural purposes.
The researchers say the area faces an "uncertain future".
The bat was found in a protected private reserve within the forest called the Río Palenque Scientific Center (RPSC).
"Myotis diminutus is at least the fifth new species of mammal described from the area in recent decades," the scientists wrote.
The first specimen of the species, which has been called Myotis diminutus, was collected more than 30 years ago.
But the researchers have only now confirmed that the little creature, which weighs just a few grams, is a distinct species.
They published a detailed description of the bat in the journal Mammalian Biology.
There are more than 100 species of Myotis bat, six of which can be found in Ecuador.
But "diminutive Myotis", as the researchers have called it, is the smallest of this group of species yet known in South America.
The little brown bat weighs just 3.5g.
The scientists, based in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil and Washington DC in the US, wrote in the journal: "As with many other newly described species, we know nothing about the natural history of this bat.
"Unfortunately, the prospects for learning more about it are bleak."
This is because the moist forests of western Ecuador, where the bat was discovered, are under threat, primarily from deforestation for agricultural purposes.
The researchers say the area faces an "uncertain future".
The bat was found in a protected private reserve within the forest called the Río Palenque Scientific Center (RPSC).
"Myotis diminutus is at least the fifth new species of mammal described from the area in recent decades," the scientists wrote.
New bat species found in Ecuador
Scientists have discovered a tiny new species of bat in the western slopes of the Andes in northwestern Ecuador.
The first specimen of the species, which has been called Myotis diminutus, was collected more than 30 years ago.
But the researchers have only now confirmed that the little creature, which weighs just a few grams, is a distinct species.
They published a detailed description of the bat in the journal Mammalian Biology.
There are more than 100 species of Myotis bat, six of which can be found in Ecuador.
But "diminutive Myotis", as the researchers have called it, is the smallest of this group of species yet known in South America.
The little brown bat weighs just 3.5g.
The scientists, based in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil and Washington DC in the US, wrote in the journal: "As with many other newly described species, we know nothing about the natural history of this bat.
"Unfortunately, the prospects for learning more about it are bleak."
This is because the moist forests of western Ecuador, where the bat was discovered, are under threat, primarily from deforestation for agricultural purposes.
The researchers say the area faces an "uncertain future".
The bat was found in a protected private reserve within the forest called the Río Palenque Scientific Center (RPSC).
"Myotis diminutus is at least the fifth new species of mammal described from the area in recent decades," the scientists wrote.
The first specimen of the species, which has been called Myotis diminutus, was collected more than 30 years ago.
But the researchers have only now confirmed that the little creature, which weighs just a few grams, is a distinct species.
They published a detailed description of the bat in the journal Mammalian Biology.
There are more than 100 species of Myotis bat, six of which can be found in Ecuador.
But "diminutive Myotis", as the researchers have called it, is the smallest of this group of species yet known in South America.
The little brown bat weighs just 3.5g.
The scientists, based in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil and Washington DC in the US, wrote in the journal: "As with many other newly described species, we know nothing about the natural history of this bat.
"Unfortunately, the prospects for learning more about it are bleak."
This is because the moist forests of western Ecuador, where the bat was discovered, are under threat, primarily from deforestation for agricultural purposes.
The researchers say the area faces an "uncertain future".
The bat was found in a protected private reserve within the forest called the Río Palenque Scientific Center (RPSC).
"Myotis diminutus is at least the fifth new species of mammal described from the area in recent decades," the scientists wrote.
Sunday, May 23, 2010
Tiny but deadly rare frogs bred in UK
A Hampshire aquarium is celebrating after successfully breeding one of the most dangerous amphibians on Earth.
Phantasmal poison frogs, which can kill anybody who merely touches them, have skin 200 times more toxic than morphine.
The frogs, found on the western slopes of the Andes in Ecuador, South America, are so rare they are in danger of becoming extinct.
But 26 have now been born at the Blue Reef Aquarium in Portsmouth, after a successful breeding program.
When they reach adulthood, the frogs measure just 1cm and turn bright red in colour with three green fluorescent stripes on their back.
Aquarium spokeswoman Jenna MacFarlane said: "These beautiful frogs are under increasing threat in the wild due to loss of habitat and pollution and we are delighted to have been able to breed them successfully here.
"It's imperative we are able to mimic exactly their wild environment in order for the species to thrive in captivity and it's a real achievement they are breeding so successfully.
"They've passed the critical stage of development from tadpoles into froglets and they now look like perfect miniature replicas of their parents."
Ms McFarlane added: "Despite their deadly status, it is hoped that the phantasmal poison frog could one day help save lives.
"Scientists have discovered that an extract from the skin of the phantasmal poison frog Epipedrobates tricolor can block pain 200 times more effectively than morphine, and without addiction and other serious side effects."
Phantasmal poison frogs, which can kill anybody who merely touches them, have skin 200 times more toxic than morphine.
The frogs, found on the western slopes of the Andes in Ecuador, South America, are so rare they are in danger of becoming extinct.
But 26 have now been born at the Blue Reef Aquarium in Portsmouth, after a successful breeding program.
When they reach adulthood, the frogs measure just 1cm and turn bright red in colour with three green fluorescent stripes on their back.
Aquarium spokeswoman Jenna MacFarlane said: "These beautiful frogs are under increasing threat in the wild due to loss of habitat and pollution and we are delighted to have been able to breed them successfully here.
"It's imperative we are able to mimic exactly their wild environment in order for the species to thrive in captivity and it's a real achievement they are breeding so successfully.
"They've passed the critical stage of development from tadpoles into froglets and they now look like perfect miniature replicas of their parents."
Ms McFarlane added: "Despite their deadly status, it is hoped that the phantasmal poison frog could one day help save lives.
"Scientists have discovered that an extract from the skin of the phantasmal poison frog Epipedrobates tricolor can block pain 200 times more effectively than morphine, and without addiction and other serious side effects."
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