Nature and Culture International Donor Impact Report - Spring 2021

NATURE IS CALLING HOW YOUR SUPPORT OF NATURE AND CULTURE INTERNATIONAL IS SAVING THE PLANET

THE FIRST WATER STAR PROTECTED IN ECUADOR

A ceremony at the Suriwiña lagoon in Fierro Urco.

AN INNOVATIVE TOOL FOR CONSERVATION Nature and Culture is working with the Ecuadorian Ministry of Water and Environment to identify and declare places of hydrological importance as “Water Protection Areas,” a new national-level conservation figure in the country.

These areas are defined by their strategic importance as water sources for human consumption and/or to guarantee food security and the rights of nature.

The status legally safeguards forests and other habitats from all exploitation activities, ensuring clean water supplies for human consumption and other use. By focusing on source water protection, we can also safeguard the incredible biological and cultural diversity found in these areas.

With your help, Nature and Culture is supporting the creation of ten Water Protection Areas this year! These areas are of ecological and hydrological importance for the country, and the world.

Your generosity is protecting a special place with significant hydrological importance: the source of water for several thousand people in Ecuador and Peru.

There are water sources within Ecuador referred to as “Estrellas Hídricas.” This term translates to “water star” – the birthplace of several rivers, with each arm or river emanating from the source. These special places, as well as other single-river sources of the most important watersheds in the country, are in the process of being identified and declared as “Water Protection Areas,” a new conservation figure in Ecuador.

Fierro Urco is one such Water Star. Located in southern Ecuador, this symbolic mountain is the source of four main watersheds in the region.

The area contains 336 lagoons and 36 rivers – critical water sources for several thousand people in Ecuador and Peru. The lagoons are sacred places for the indigenous Saraguro people.

Fierro Urco is also home to extraordinary biodiversity, including the blue-throated hillstar hummingbird (Oreotrochilus cyanolaemus), the first new bird species discovered in Ecuador in thirty years. Despite the area’s significance, it is increasingly threatened by reckless activities like mining. Not only does mining endanger habitat and wildlife, but it can also contaminate water sources with heavy metals like mercury, threatening human lives.

Thanks to your support, Nature and Culture is working to protect over 173,000 acres in Fierro Urco as a Water Protection Area.

It will be the first Water Star to receive this level of conservation protection in the country! Once declared, this status will ensure the protection of water sources and permanently prevent extractive activities like mining.

We are excited to share the official declaration with you soon!

PROTECTING NATURE

Tropical dry forest in Mexico.

A MILESTONE FOR CONSERVATION IN MEXICO Sierra de Tacuichamona is the first State Reserve in Sinaloa.

As a result of five years of collaboration between Nature and Culture, local communities, and the municipalities of Culiacán, Elota, and Cosalá, the Sinaloa State Government established Sierra de Tacuichamona State Reserve, the first of its kind in Sinaloa!

Spanning 110,397 acres, Sierra de Tacuichamona protects oak forest, tropical dry forest, and river ecosystems. These diverse habitats are home to special and threatened species, including the margay (Leopardus wiedii) and the jaguar (Panthera onca). The area also contains the endangered cactus species Stenocereus martinezii.

Nearby communities rely on water sources within the reserve for drinking and small-scale agriculture. Conserving the area will safeguard this important resource from cattle ranching and other threats, and also protect important carbon sinks and archaeological sites.

Although there are three protected areas in Sinaloa, Sierra de Tacuichamona is the first new reserve in 16 years, and the first to reach the category of State Reserve! The area will serve as an example for future state reserves in Sinaloa.

Magdalenasaura adercum by Juan M. Daza.

A STROKE OF GENUS A new genus of lizard (called Magdalenasaura) was recently discovered in Colombia by a group of researchers from the Herpetology Laboratory of the University of Antioquia.

One of the individuals of this new genus was collected in Melcócho-Santo Domingo Protected Forest Reserve, an area in the Colombian Andes previously created with your support! MelcóchoSanto Domingo was established in 2015 to protect a number of rare, endangered species, including the silvery-brown tamarin (Saguinus leucopus), a monkey found nowhere else in the world.

The new genus adds to the 49 known genera in the gymnophthalmid family — scaly reptiles of small size and short limbs, which have the ability to see with their eyes closed. Members of this family typically live in tropical dry forests.

Finding a new genus is particularly exciting, as there may be many unknown species that belong to Magdalenasaura. Biologists have already discovered two new species belonging to the genus: Magdalenasaura adercum and Magdalenasaura leurosquama.

The area safeguards habitat for all six cat species found in Mexico.

These recent discoveries show the power of your generosity! There may be many new species yet to be discovered in the wild places that you protect.

Visit natureandculture.org to read about the wildlife and wild places you protect!

EMPOWERING VISIONARIES

CULTURES

Torres Vasquez, of the Buenos Aires community, holding aguaje fruit.

SUPERFOODS THAT CONSERVE FORESTS Achieving conservation and sustainable development with local communities.

Loreto is an important region for forest protection and climate mitigation efforts due to its large forest areas, huge carbon stock, as well as extraordinary biological and ethnic diversity. However, it has the second-highest deforestation rate in Peru, which is closely linked to the lack of options for sustainable incomegenerating activities. In collaboration with partner organizations, Nature and Culture launched Superfoods that Conserve Forests, a project to achieve sustainable conservation and empower communities in the region.

Harvesting aguaje in the Peruvian Amazon.

Superfoods that Conserve Forests is supporting local indigenous communities in Loreto to develop a sustainable fruit harvesting business. The business will protect the area’s habitat and rich biodiversity by increasing the value of standing forest and secure sustainable livelihoods for communities.

Since the project launch in October, 16 communities have received training to safely harvest Amazonian aguaje and camu camu fruits for commercialization, as well as training to monitor the forest and develop management plans. After selling harvested fruits to AJE, an international beverage producer, communities manage and distribute their revenues for wider social and ecological benefit.

With your help, we are currently supporting the creation of a formal association of communities to better manage the production and commercialization of Amazonian fruits.

This project is financed by Partnerships For Forests, administered by Earth Innovation Institute, and executed by Nature and Culture International – Peru, AMPA Peru, AMARUMAYU Community, and Frutama.

PARTNER HIGHLIGHT: MEET MARCELINA Marcelina Angulo grew up in Seis Hermanos, a community located in the heart of the Peruvian Amazon. She began pursuing a career in politics at a time when women had no vote or say in decisions made in their community. In 2020, nearly 16 years later, Marcelina was elected as Seis Hermanos’ first female president!

Marcelina also leads a committee that manages Alto Nanay-Pintuyacu-Chambira Conservation Area, a 2.4-million-acre reserve in the Amazon rainforest previously established with your support. According to Marcelina, the participation of women in the management of this area is essential. “[Women] want healthy forests and rivers, we want everything we conserve to benefit our growing children,” says Marcelina. “That is why it is very important that women join conservation efforts in the area.”

Nature and Culture has supported Marcelina in the development and implementation of the area’s community-based management plan. Thanks to you, this past year we provided training to community members in patrolling, wildlife monitoring, area management, and sustainable development.

Follow Nature and Culture on Facebook to learn more about our work with local communities: @NatureCulture

A squirrel monkey.

Make a difference today at www.natureandculture.org

YOUR IMPACT IN 2020 Nature and Culture is incredibly grateful for the work that has been accomplished thanks to your generosity. Together we protected more than one million acres of precious wild places in 2020.

Celebrating the declaration of Carpish Regional Conservation Area in January 2020.

2020 Expenses

A NOTE FROM NATURE AND CULTURE PRESIDENT This was not exactly the note I was expecting to write last June during the first wave of the pandemic. I knew I would share the remarkable outpouring of care and compassion from the Nature and Culture Community, your remarkable care and compassion during a time of unprecedented challenges. I knew I would highlight our staff’s resilience and determination to advance our mission.

What I didn’t expect was to celebrate the creation of more than one million acres of new protected areas in 2020.

This number is higher than our annual average over the last 25 years! All I can say is thank you. We could not have achieved this without you with us every step of the way.

As exciting as our recent accomplishments are, they also underscore our urgent race against time. Scientists predict that climate change and habitat loss could drive more than one million species to extinction within the next fifty years.

We risk losing myriad plants and animals before we even learn they exist, which is heartbreaking to contemplate.

You give me hope that we will save many more wild places.

With committed supporters like you, using a combination of the innovative and the tried-and-true, we will continue to do what we best: protect nature and empower cultures for generations to come.

I hope you will continue supporting this great work in 2021.

Matt Clark, President and CEO

Your Impact at a Glance 1,005,217 new acres conserved

43 species studied

88,905,286 tons of carbon stored in newly protected acres

244 local communities & 23 indigenous nations supported

367,583 people with newly protected water supplies

2,091 park guards & local people trained