Nature and Culture International Donor Impact Report - Fall 2021

Pastaza, Ecuador

HOPE ON THE HORIZON YOUR SUPPORT OF NATURE AND CULTURE INTERNATIONAL IS SAVING WILD PLACES

CLIMATE MITIGATION ROADMAP Ecuador approves REDD+ Implementation Plan to reduce deforestation in Pastaza

With support from Nature and Culture, Pastaza will be the first province in Ecuador with an Implementation Plan for REDD+ Measures and Actions.

REDD+ is a United Nations-backed framework that aims to mitigate climate change by reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation, and creates a financial value for the carbon stored in forests by offering incentives for participating countries.

In concert with our indigenous and government partners, Nature and Culture has worked for the last four years to help develop a co-management structure and strategy for the protected area in Pastaza.

The Plan also marks the first time a provincial government and indigenous communities have worked together to implement actions to reduce deforestation and forest degradation.

As a part of this project, Pastaza became one of only five areas worldwide to receive implementation funding from the Governors’ Climate & Forests Task Force (gcftf.org).​Nature and Culture and the Governor of Pastaza have designed a trust fund mechanism to ensure funds are spent strategically, sustainably, and as dictated by the REDD+ plan.

“We know that we are taking the right steps together and dreaming big. Our joint vision is the conservation and maintenance of the Amazon and its native peoples,” says Felipe Serrano, Executive Director of Nature and Culture in Ecuador.

Made possible by donors like you, the Plan will serve as a roadmap to hope: protecting nature and empowering cultures in Pastaza, and serving as a planning template for other provinces throughout Ecuador.

Ecuadorian viscacha

NEW MAMMAL SPECIES

IN NEED OF HELP “We are witnessing the extinction vortex of the Ecuadorian viscacha,” says Rodrigo Cisneros, a biologist at the Technical University of Loja (UTPL) in Ecuador.

In 2019, fires wiped out more than a third of the population of the viscacha (Lagidium ahuacaense), a small mammal in the same family as chinchillas, found only in the Andes of southern Ecuador. Lagidium ahuacaense was first described in 2016, and there is still much to discover about the species. They live in rock crevices and use their long, fluffy tails for balance while they feed on native plants. Unfortunately, they have few offspring and are vulnerable to extinction.

Nature and Culture has joined forces with UTPL and local governments, and is working to protect the viscacha’s habitat and establish a management plan to aid in the prevention of forest fires.

Yacuambi Ecological Reserve

A NEW CONSERVATION AREA IN PERUVIAN AMAZON Nature and Culture is celebrating the declaration of a new conservation area in the Peruvian Amazon. The newly established Alto Tamayo Communal Regional Conservation Area (CATA) protects 370,684 acres of threatened habitat.

Its forests contain a spectacular array of wildlife.

Charismatic species include the endangered whitebellied spider monkey (Ateles belzebuth), and the vulnerable bald uakari monkey (Cacajao calvus).

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Angel in the field

Nature and Culture had been working for eight years to create CATA. Despite support from local communities and authorities, we faced an immense barrier: 70% of the proposed area was under government control as a Permanent Production Forest (PPF). This meant forest within the area was open to timber concessions for logging.

UPDATE - BIOLOGICAL HOTSPOT

With your support, Nature and Culture prepared the technical filings and coordinated a multi-front in-country influence campaign to establish CATA. This success marks the first-ever reduction of a PPF for the creation of a protected area in the country. Last year, the Peruvian National Forest and Wildlife Service agreed to officially reduce the PPF by 259,460 acres!

Yacuambi Ecological Reserve, totaling 73,917 acres, was recently declared as a Decentralized Autonomous Protected Area.

With your help, Nature and Culture will work with local communities and authorities to replicate this model to ensure lasting and effective conservation impact on a broad scale.

PROTECTED FROM MINING

For nearly thirty years, people from Yacuambi, Ecuador dreamt of protecting their forest home from mining

This national status provides the reserve with the highest level of legal protection in the country and permanently prevents mining in the area.

Yacuambi sits in the Ecuadorian Andes, a region known for its remarkable biodiversity and water resources. However, gold deposits lie beneath its forests and paramo grasslands, making this area a prime target for mining exploitation.

Angel, a member of the Kichwa Saraguro community in Yacuambi, has been defending this special place against mining for years. Growing up, he experienced the devastating effects of mining, including fragmented forests, divided communities, and unsafe water.

Bald uakari monkey

Thanks to caring people like you, part of Yacuambi Ecological Reserve has finally been incorporated into Ecuador’s National System of Protected Areas!

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

VISIONARIES

Tarija, Bolivia

HOPE AFTER HEARTBREAK

Proposal for a new protected area following the deaths of endangered species

The scene was bleak. The remains of 34 condors lay scattered on the banks of a dry river in southern Bolivia.

Their bodies surrounded the remains of a goat, most likely left by a large predator.

Immediately, researchers began to investigate potential causes of this event. They concluded that someone had poisoned the remains, hoping to kill the predator that had killed the goat. The condors gathered to feed on the carrion and consumed the deadly poison. Their deaths are a devastating event for an already declining species.

Scientists estimate that there are only 6,700 Andean condors alive in the world today.

Mourning the death of the condors, members of the Laderas del Norte community sought help in creating a new protected area in the region.

Our Bolivian partner NATIVA Vultur gryphus has joined this communityled initiative, proposing the creation of a protected area totaling more than 140,850 acres of Andean condor habitat. The proposed area will protect condor nesting peaks, fragile ecosystems such as cloud grasslands and montane forests, and important water sources. NATIVA’s proposal for the creation of the area also includes capacity building for local farmers, such as techniques for sustainable livestock raising, sustainable farming, wildlife conflict prevention, and vegetation protection.

Following meetings with state departmental and municipal authorities and the local community, an initial agreement was reached to approve NATIVA’s proposal earlier this year.

Authorities agreed to move forward with technical studies to justify the creation of a new protected area.

With your support, Nature and Culture International and Andes Amazon Fund will join efforts with NATIVA to create this new area.

Mapping the sacred forest

PROTECTING THE SACRED ALIWA RAINFOREST From the devastation of a meteorite explosion to the cradle of new life Around 30 million years ago, the vast savannas of Vichada, Colombia witnessed an unprecedented explosion. A huge meteorite impact event left craters as large as 50 km in diameter - among the largest in South America. Over time, this crater area turned into dense Amazon rainforest. It is also the sacred ancestral home of the Sikuani people, who call it the Aliwa jungle. Today, it is home to more than 90 indigenous families.

This rainforest was only recently discovered by scientists and could be home to at least 1,108 plant species and 1,569 animal species, including 163 reptile, 684 bird, and 183 mammal species. Wildlife in the area includes six fish species found nowhere else on Earth, as well as 33 endangered fish species, according to preliminary studies by Nature and Culture’s partner the Humboldt Institute of Colombia.

The protection of this precious area is in the crucial research and planning phase, made possible by our partnerships and your generous donations.

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

Andwa woman, Pastaza, Ecuador

A NOTE FROM THE PRESIDENT OF NATURE AND CULTURE

My hometown, Portland, Oregon, hit 116°F this summer, smashing the previous heat record by nine degrees. Of US cities, only Las Vegas and Phoenix have recorded higher temperatures.

Climate change has arrived with a vengeance.

When I see the heat-scorched ferns, when I feel my grief for the mild Portland summers I knew as a child, I find great solace in Nature and Culture’s work. In our 25 years, we have saved 22 million acres of biodiverse habitats. The trees and soils in these forests store an estimated 3.4 billion tons of carbon, the annual exhaust from over 700 million cars. We make a difference against climate change. You make a difference against climate change.

I am very encouraged by the work we’re doing in Pastaza, both with the 7 indigenous communities we’re collaborating with and our partnerships with the United Nations and the local government to implement the REDD+ plan. We’re excited to replicate this climate mitigation model in other areas.

We are working now with Morona Santiago Province to Pastaza’s south to create another provincial reserve of several million acres and secure funding for its effective management.

These are just two examples of what we are achieving for our planet, for indigenous peoples who call these forests home, and for all of us.

Please consider making a gift today to continue to support this important work.

Matt Clark, President and CEO