|
Holiday Gifts from OTS Give a gift that shows your love of the tropics!
Gift Memberships Consider giving a gift that will
really make a difference this year - a 1-year gift membership to OTS. We will
send a special card* to the person honored to let them know that you have made a
very important gift in their honor, to help us teach, research and conserve the
biodiversity of the tropics.
To make a gift
in honor of someone or renew your own membership, CLICK HERE. Please submit gift membership requests no later than December 18, 2009.
Plant-A-Tree
With
a gift of $100, you can plant a tree in Costa Rica in someones name.
Your planted tree will include a name plate printed with the name your
provide.
CLICK HERE to Plant-A-Tree in honor or memory of someone special. Please include the following information in the comments section:
Plant-A-Tree Program In Honor of: (name) -- exactly as you would like it to appear on the name plate.
OTS Merchandise Do your holiday shopping at the new OTS online store! You can purchase items with the classic OTS logo as well as
some unique OTS graphics on them. All proceeds from this store will be directed to the OTS Core Fund,
supporting students and researchers in the tropics.
CLICK HERE to shop online now. . Additional shipping charges for international orders may apply for
merchandise. Shipping charges are determined by CafePress.com.
|
. |
Attention Birders! Upcoming BioCursos Trip:
Panam�-Chiriqu� Highlands and Barro Colorado Island in the Panam� Canal
March 1 - 5,
2010
OTS is offering an exclusive tour for birding enthusiasts into Western Panama
and the Smithsonian's Barrio Colorado Island research station on the Panama
Canal. Organized through the OTS BioCursos program, which provide adult
education packages in Costa Costa, this one-week trip starts shortly after the
OTS annual meetings to be held this year in southern Costa Rica at Las Cruces
and the Wilson Botanical Garden.
Birding will be the theme of the day as the
group travels across the border and down into Panama. Bird enthusiasts, plant
lovers, hummingbird and butterfly
aficionados -- whether you are a part of the OTS
boards or part of the friends, alumni or research community -- are welcome to
join us. Everyone will be thrilled to discover the spectacular biodiversity of the
region! Please see our link for additional information. Do know, we will be
happy to work with you in making your travel arrangements to Costa Rica and
Panama.
Full Description Cost
per person:
$1499
Contact Jonathan Giles at 919-684-6188 or [email protected].
|
. |
U.S. Decision Makers Participants Provide Input on REDD Policies
Of the issues currently being discussed in the Copenhagen Climate
Change Conference of the Parties, the greatest progress is being made in the
development of a global agreement to slow down deforestation in order to curb climate change. It is generally agreed that up to 20% of
man-made annual emissions in carbon dioxide result from destroying forests,
primarily those in the tropics. Hence, to achieve the target of no more than a
2�C increase in global temperature, halting or dramatically slowing
deforestation is critical. REDD (Reducing
Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation) represents an effort to place
a value on carbon stored in forests and offer monetary compensation to developing
countries to reduce deforestation and invest in low-carbon development
strategies. The U.S. House of Representatives already included a REDD provision
in their climate/energy bill passed in May 2009, which provides for a U.S.
federal cap-and-trade program that could create a significant role for forest
carbon as a source of international offsets for domestic compliance.
As a part of its U.S. Environmental Decision Maker Series,
OTS has partnered with the Nicholas Institute for Environmental Policy
Solutions (NI) of Duke University to offer a series of courses and roundtables
on the scientific, technical, economic, and political concepts behind REDD, and
the ramification of international forest carbon policies to the United States
and to the tropics. In August and October, two 4-day courses were held at La
Selva Biological Station for a couple dozen Senate and House staff and
officials from the Congressional Research Service, Department of Agriculture,
Department of State, U.S. Agency for International Development, Forest Service,
and Congressional Budget Office. The courses included lectures from
international experts, in-the-field visits to ongoing rainforest research and
conservation projects, hands-on practical exercises, and discussion sessions. Because
researchers have been investing the forest-carbon cycle at La Selva in Costa
Rica for decades, the station was the perfect venue to provide exposure to many
of the scientific issues of forest-carbon cycling and forest monitoring through
remote sensing. Moreover, as Costa Rica has pioneered many of the innovative
environmental service payment programs in the tropics, participants had the
opportunity to meet land owners and investigate first-hand the successes and
shortfalls of such programs.
A more targeted roundtable event on selected REDD issues was
held in Washington, DC, in November. A
third course in Costa Rica is tentatively planned for March 2010 as well as
further roundtables in Washington, DC.
These activities were made possible through generous support
from the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation and the David and Lucile Packard
Foundation. For more information on course presentations and relevant readings,
please contact Salley Gardner ([email protected]). |
|
|
OTS Auction Rescheduled
The second OTS online auction has been postponed until February 2010.
We will continue accepting items until the auction opens in February. The auction will coincide with our Annual Meeting in Costa Rica. We continue to look for items that would be of interest to the OTS community at large:
-
travel and adventure opportunities
-
scientific publications of interest
-
one-of-a-kind experiences (i.e. a dinner with a special guest)
-
artwork
-
collectibles DONATE AN AUCTION ITEM ONLINE TODAY
As a non-profit organization, all auction donations are considered tax-deductible according to applicable US tax laws. If you have an item you are considering donating to the auction, please contact Cathleen Lemoine at OTS, 919-684-6969, or e-mail [email protected].
|
|