Nature and Culture 2020 Spring Newsletter

Spring 2020

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

PERU’S FIRST REGIONAL CONSERVATION AREA IN HUÁNUCO Nestled in the central Andes, Carpish Mountain Forest Regional Conservation Area protects plants and animals found nowhere else on Earth.

THE CLIMATE ISSUE Climate change is happening now.

Your support is making a difference.

You are making a difference in the fight against climate change. By supporting Nature and Culture, you are conserving, restoring, and ensuring the management of Latin America’s most endangered ecosystems – keeping carbon and other heat-trapping gases out of the atmosphere.

Forests and other wild habitats offer a critical solution to climate change. The more acres we conserve, the more we can lessen the effects of a changing climate and prevent further damage.

Thanks to you, Nature and Culture has protected 20 million acres of extraordinary ecosystems in Latin America, storing 3.3 billion tons of carbon!

The Climate Issue – Nature and Culture’s latest newsletter – shares a few recent victories for our planet in the fight against climate change.

At the start of 2020, your support created Peru’s first Regional Conservation Area in Huánuco. Carpish protects 125,000 acres of yungas forest and puna grasslands within one of the most biodiverse places on the planet – the central Andes.

The central Andes contains an astounding number of species found nowhere else on Earth. Wildlife in Carpish include the endemic collared inca bird, the spectacled bear, and the yellow-tailed woolly monkey (endangered within Peru). The conservation area is also home to 78 endemic plant species. As a comparison, Yellowstone National Park, although 17X larger, is home to only three.

Despite the area’s biological significance, Carpish’s forests have been under intense pressure from illegal logging and mining. Having witnessed increasing deforestation in the region, local leaders played a critical role in the declaration process.

“We have to care for our Carpish forest, a place known internationally for its natural richness, its beauty and birds,” said Elmer Manzanedo Espinoza, President of the Advocacy Committee for the creation of Carpish. “I will always defend Carpish.”

Did you know? Deforestation is responsible for as much as 10 percent of total global carbon emissions, which means that finding effective means of keeping forests standing is crucial to global efforts to halt climate change.

CONSERVING THE AMAZON EMPOWERING THE KICHWAS OF NAPO The indigenous Kichwas of Napo have lived in and cared for Peru’s Amazon rainforest for centuries.

Thanks to your support, these communities are finally gaining title to their land.

Maijuna-Kichwa Regional Conservation Area

Have you read this study? Research has shown that forests managed by indigenous communities have lower deforestation rates and release less carbon dioxide.

Acknowledging indigenous land rights is critical to nurturing this beneficial relationship.

To ensure lasting and effective conservation impact, Nature and Culture is supporting the Kichwas of Napo in gaining title to their land. Thanks to you, we’ve made exciting progress this year!

The indigenous Kichwas of Napo have cared for Peru’s Amazon rainforest since at least the 16th century.

In Peru’s Amazon, communities from the indigenous Kichwa group play an integral role in protecting the rainforest and its resources. Created in 2015, the Maijuna-Kichwa Regional Conservation Area protects nearly one million acres of rainforest in northeastern Peru, including the Kichwas of Napo and Maijuna’s ancestral homeland.

In January, you supported the community of Nuevo San Pedro in gaining title to over 4,169 acres of their land. Nature and Culture provided technical and legal support, and served as a liaison between local and national government agencies. We are continuing to work with three other Kichwa communities in the region to further assist these communities in securing additional land ownership.

Your support has defended the Kichwa’s way of life for generations to come, and ensured the Amazon’s wildlife and resources are protected in perpetuity.

The region just outside of the reserve faces near-constant threats. Four indigenous Kichwa communities live in and manage this area with support from Nature and Culture.

However, they do not legally own the land. Without ownership, the land is vulnerable to encroaching development and mining activity.

“When you don’t have in your hands the land title, you are not the owner yet; anyone can get inside your land and take out wood, palm, chonta,” said Richard Rubio Condo, Kichwa leader and former president of Kichwa community Nuevo San Pedro.

The Maijuna-Kichwa Regional Conservation Area is home to the pygmy marmoset monkey, one of the smallest primates in the world.

Visit natureandculture.org to read about the indigenous groups you support!

FIGHTING FIRES WITH SUSTAINABLE MANAGEMENT VISIONARIES Endangered Chacoan guanacos Humans are cutting down forests and setting them ablaze to clear land for agriculture and other activities. These fires can easily spread and burn beyond what was intended.

Fires ravaged our planet’s forests in 2019. In Bolivia alone, an area larger than the whole of Costa Rica was affected, killing more than two million animals. The fires torched some of the country’s most diverse and threatened habitats, including Ñembi Guasu, Bolivia’s newest ecological conservation area.

Check it out. Located in the Chaco dry forest, Ñembi Guasu provides water and resilience to climate change, to which Bolivia is one of the most vulnerable countries.

Nature and Culture supported the indigenous Guaraní in establishing Ñembi Guasu in May 2019. Three months later, the fires served as an important reminder of the risks that cutting down forests poses to conservation and indigenous autonomy. Unless local people have the resources to defend and manage territory, conservation areas like Ñembi Guasu remain threatened.

Your generosity during Nature and Culture’s end-of-year campaign is supporting efforts to empower the Guaraní and ensure sustainable management in Ñembi Guasu. Thanks to you, our team is conducting biological studies to assess the fires’ impact The fires devastated Bolivia’s dry forest. and training park rangers in fire prevention and containment. In collaboration with the Guaraní government, we are developing management, protection, and restoration plans to effectively protect Ñembi Guasu against future threats.

PLANTING TREES IN NANGARITZA Thanks to you, Nature and Culture conserves some of the most diverse places on the planet.

When those places are already degraded, our team is committed to restoration.

In Nangaritza, Ecuador, Nature and Culture is working with local communities to identify abandoned pastures that can be restored.

Together we have restored 67 acres and planted 37,000 trees!

Planting more trees is one way to offset global deforestation and combat climate change.

Additionally, restoring degraded areas in Nangaritza ensures habitat connectivity in the region for threatened plants and animals – like the threatened spectacled bear and rare orangethroated tanager.

With your support, Nature and Culture is working with local communities and partners like World Land Trust to restore 24 acres and plant 15,000 trees this year! We will continue to maintain and monitor restored areas, including measuring the amount of carbon that is being stored in soil and plants.

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

Red-eyed tree frog

Make a difference today at www.natureandculture.org

YOUR IMPACT IN 2019 Nature and Culture is incredibly grateful for the work that has been accomplished thanks to your generosity. Together we protected 3,316,421 acres of precious wild places in Latin America in 2019.

2019 Expenses

FIGHTING CLIMATE CHANGE AS A GLOBAL COMMUNITY Right now, we’re thinking about you – our supporters, your loved ones, and people around the world.

This uncertain time has reminded us all that some problems are not restricted to one corner of the planet. And that it is possible to come together as a global community to find solutions. Together we can fight the biggest threats to humanity and our planet.

This is especially true with climate change. The planet is warming to a degree beyond what many species can handle, altering habitat, reducing food sources, and causing severe weather events. Climate change threatens all life on Earth.

Your support protects our planet’s greatest ally in the fight against climate change: forests.

By capturing and storing carbon dioxide and reducing the amount of this heat-trapping gas in our atmosphere, forests are natural climate solutions. Tropical forests alone store millions of tons of carbon — and their conservation could account for as much as 30% of the solution to climate change.

Yet, each year, 15 billion trees are chopped down. The work you make possible through Nature and Culture is more important than ever.

Your gift today saves forests and other precious habitat – for our climate, our planet, and all life on Earth.

Your Impact at a Glance 3,316,421 new acres protected

97 communities supported

11 new reserves declared

689 park guards & local people trained

270 species monitored

3.3 billion tons of carbon stored