Pura Vida OTS! June 15, 2009: Tropical Biology student Tiff Shao (Duke '12) is beginning her first day as a member of the Tropical Biology program. You can follow her online blog of her OTS experience in Costa Rica here:
http://puravidaots.blogspot.com/ |
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UPCOMING BIOCURSOS
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Costa Rican Corporations Actively Participate in Conservation
In March 2007 OTS
launched a new program, "Corporate Volunteers for OTS: an experience in the
tropical ecosystems of Costa Rica,"
through the Development Office in Costa Rica.
The program focuses on
Costa Rican corporations that wish to support conservation efforts and mitigation
of theircarbon impact in a public manner through employee volunteering and
financial support of OTS. The added value of this program is OTS' opportunity
to provide environmental education to the employees and generating interest and
awareness of the work being done at OTS stations.
 Volunteer groups visit
OTS stations to assist with the planting of native trees, which helps offset
the carbon impact of their company.
The volunteer groups are also taught about the ecosystems of the humid
tropical forest surrounding the Station. These activities have already generated more than
$40,000 in support and, to date, approximately 4,000 trees have been planted
by more than 1,300 volunteer participants. The companies that have already participated
in this program are: HSBC, BAC Florida Bank, Group Nation, CEMEX, Florida
Drunk, British American Tobacco. The following companies are scheduled to
participate in July: Pfizer, GlaxoSmithkline, IREX and Amanco. |
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Las Cruces Acquires New Land
Las Cruces has just acquired
approximately 34 acres of mostly pasture and riparian corridors that abuts Las
Cruces to
the west (Melissa's meadow) and south (Rio Java trail and forest). This
piece will link the larger LC fragment with two smaller fragments and create a
protected area ~ 350ha in size. There are several
riparian corridors in the property that will be protected and another segment
of the Rio Java watershed will also be protected. In addition
to the ecological and conservation benefits of acquiring this land, the land
also provides additional potential benefits to OTS researchers, students and
visitors:
 Access
to the property is an easy 15 minute hike down the Rio Java trail making it an
ideal site for applied research projects. Prospective researchers frequently request sites for applied research projects, so this land addition will be a great option given easy access from the station. With 30
ha of pasture, this land will provide substantial room for growth and
development of new applied research projects at the station.
 It is
a 'lower' elevation site (1000-1100 m elevation range) so it is an ideal
purchase in terms of complementing the higher elevation corridor properties for
any kind of elevational gradient research, including two or three of the main
research ideas that surfaced during the recent board meeting.
- The
property has several nice creeks and abuts the Rio Java on the western
end. This purchase has broadened the section between the station and the
river. This will allow us to put in a second trail.
- The
property has a beautiful 10 m waterfall that is certain to be a great new attraction.
A trail can be put in that would provide easy access to the location with a 20
minute non-strenuous hike.
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Successful Completion of New Conservation Science and Practice Training Course in Peru
The month long course (April 10- May 7) for graduate-level
students, conservation NGO staff and protected areas technical staff aimed to
bridge the gap between academic research and conservation practice - giving
students exposure to the tools, approaches and sites where frontline
conservation is done. At the same time,
the program sought to strengthen the scientific design, analysis and
communication skills of professionals already engaged in conservation. The course trained 15 participants and
visited several sites in Southern Peru, particularly protected areas. It was co-led by a team from the World
Wildlife Fund, La Molina University and OTS using a syllabus developed by OTS in
collaboration with Conservation International and The Nature Conservancy.
 The course was part of a project made possible by the John
D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation through a grant to OTS. The project included a similar course in 2008
as well as an effort to 'Train Trainers', wherein faculty from Peruvian
institutions participated in an intensive 2-week course designed to share OTS'
experience on how to design and implement field courses for various audiences.
Faculty participating in the Trainer course subsequently developed and
delivered modules for the Conservation Science course - linking their OTS
training to practice in the field.
 A new grant from the MacArthur Foundation to OTS builds on
the success of this project by extending training into Bolivia, assisting a
local Peruvian university to incorporate the course into its conservation
curriculum and by working with the Peruvian parks service to link OTS training
and consortium to opportunities to conduct research on pressing management
issues in Peru's natural protected areas. This project joins others currently
being implemented by the Global Programs
and Partnerships Division of OTS, which concentrates on activities in
tropical countries outside of Costa Rica. For more information on this project or GPP's other
activities, contact Dr. Andrew Chek -
Director GPP ( achek@duke.edu) |
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