Going on walkabout
Spent a few minutes today planning visits around the country. This looks to be a chock-a-block kind of month. No complaints here. I'm looking very forward to having something (data) to look at.
The schedule is really quite intimidating. Before getting into it let me respond to Mark's comment: what exactly I'm doing here.
Several months ago, spring 2007 I think, I found an article about Domitila Private Nature Reserve. The article described this private land owner's goal of conserving her land and running tourism on it, specifically sustainable tourism. The idea that land necessary for biodiversity conservation can be preserved while also providing economic income is a basic tenet of sustainable tourism. Instead of extractive uses the land is visited, appreciated, conserved. That is the basic idea anyway.
Add to this the increasing importance of private lands for conservation purposes and the difficulty of government to protect important ecosystems and manage protected area systems and you get my study. How are private protected areas, in this case in Nicaragua, using sustainable tourism to conserve land?
I'll visit 5 private nature reserves over the next few weeks. Domitila is Thursday for a few days. A large group from North Carolina will be there. Together we'll walk the entire reserve. Very Exciting! Domitila has an agreement with Paso Pacifico, a local NGO to replant trees in their dry tropical forest.
Sunday we leave for Honduras for a week. There is a sustainable tourism training there. Upon return I'll spend a week north of Managua visiting El Jaguar and Finca Esperanza Verde. I'm told El Jaguar has an exclusive contract with Whole Foods for their organic cloud forest coffee.
From there it is back to Managua for an Earth Day celebration. Details yet to come. The next day, back to the field, this time flying to San Carlos near Costa Rica to catch a boat to Sabalos Lodge. This area is the vacation spot of choice for Nicaraguans and prime birding. Montibelli is the last place. I hung out with the owner's son today and in Guatemala in December. Pomares has a reputation for his bird guiding expertise. Meeting him you can see why, very charismatic, very knowledgeable.
Lots of work. Here's hoping it pays off.
The schedule is really quite intimidating. Before getting into it let me respond to Mark's comment: what exactly I'm doing here.
Several months ago, spring 2007 I think, I found an article about Domitila Private Nature Reserve. The article described this private land owner's goal of conserving her land and running tourism on it, specifically sustainable tourism. The idea that land necessary for biodiversity conservation can be preserved while also providing economic income is a basic tenet of sustainable tourism. Instead of extractive uses the land is visited, appreciated, conserved. That is the basic idea anyway.
Add to this the increasing importance of private lands for conservation purposes and the difficulty of government to protect important ecosystems and manage protected area systems and you get my study. How are private protected areas, in this case in Nicaragua, using sustainable tourism to conserve land?
I'll visit 5 private nature reserves over the next few weeks. Domitila is Thursday for a few days. A large group from North Carolina will be there. Together we'll walk the entire reserve. Very Exciting! Domitila has an agreement with Paso Pacifico, a local NGO to replant trees in their dry tropical forest.
Sunday we leave for Honduras for a week. There is a sustainable tourism training there. Upon return I'll spend a week north of Managua visiting El Jaguar and Finca Esperanza Verde. I'm told El Jaguar has an exclusive contract with Whole Foods for their organic cloud forest coffee.
From there it is back to Managua for an Earth Day celebration. Details yet to come. The next day, back to the field, this time flying to San Carlos near Costa Rica to catch a boat to Sabalos Lodge. This area is the vacation spot of choice for Nicaraguans and prime birding. Montibelli is the last place. I hung out with the owner's son today and in Guatemala in December. Pomares has a reputation for his bird guiding expertise. Meeting him you can see why, very charismatic, very knowledgeable.
Lots of work. Here's hoping it pays off.
posted by Michael at 7:43 PM
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