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Rio Pucuno Foundation: Projects and Ongoing Support
Forest preservation in Sumaco has to be addressed in several ways. First and foremost is the generation of funds to buy and preserve primary forest in the Rio Pucuno/Sumaco area. RPF solicits donations large and small to help us with this. We've recently purchased 40 hectares (about 88 acres) for forest, and hope soon to make deals on another 45 hectares (99 acres). Your financial support can help make these purchases a reality.
Secondly, we know that we cannot operate in a vacuum; global warming and loss of primary forest are of world-wide concern. However, to effect change, one must look and act locally. If we ask people to live differently, and we must, in order to save some of the forest that we can't afford to buy, they must be given economic alternatives to a slash and burn way of life.
At their request we are currently working with people living in Pacto Sumaco, the community nearest us, helping them develop their own sustainable ecotourism projects as an alternative to cutting forest, and are seeking contributions and grants to help out with this.
Finally, RPF is committed to promoting education and scientific inquiry into this relatively understudied area. Some preliminary mammal studies are underway, but if you're associated with an educational institution and seek research opportunities for yourself or your students in the unique Sumaco area, please contact us with ideas or questions. Much additional biological research is needed here, especially in the fields of ornithology, botany, entomology, mammalogy, herpetology and related areas.
Rio Pucuno Foundation urgently seeks grants and donations to further these goals. No contribution is too small; donations add up quickly, and all help us preserve the forest and the animals living in this important part of Ecuador.
Funds
Rio Pucuno Foundation's general fund is arguably our most important fund. It's used for a number of purposes, including but not restricted to buying forest, salaries to forest wardens who help us preserve our trees and animals from poachers, plus miscellaneous costs including some office expenses. This is our vital, working fund, and undesignated donations are put here.
Donations specifically designated for our forest fund are used solely for the purchase and preservation of forest in critical parts of the Sumaco area.
The education fund may be used for any of our educational projects, including training courses and local ecotourism incentives.
Projects
1. Rio Pucuno Foundation and Wildsumaco Wildlife Sanctuary have begun an exciting collaboration with Francis Marion University (FMU) in South Carolina, involving as well faculty and students from University of North Carolina, Wilmington, and Jacksonville University in Florida, and from the Catholic University in Quito, Ecuador.
Partly to train students in field biodiversity techniques, and partly to begin a series of research projects in Sumaco, a group of faculty members and students from FMU visited Wildsumaco in December 2008 and 2009. From those initial brief visits, several scientific papers and presentations have been made, and more visits and studies are being planned. A research station is in the planning stages.
The university left with us some camera traps, which are monitored approximately bi-weekly, and which have given visual proof of some of the exciting wildlife living in the Sumaco area. These include PUMA, JAGURUNDI and the near-threatened and declining MARGAY as top feline predators, as well as RED BROCKET DEER, GREATER GRISON, BLACK AGOUTI, COATI, PACA, COLLARED PECCARY, SOUTHERN TAMANDUA, TAYRA, NINE-BANDED ARMADILLO, COMMON OPOSSUM, plus a host of smaller animals.
Other species that have been seen in our protected forests include WHITE-BELLIED SPIDER MONKEY , SPECTACLED BEAR, TWO-TOED SLOTH, NAPO TAMARIN, WHITE-FRONTED CAPUCHIN MONKEY, RED HOWLER MONKEY, and WHITE-TAILED DEER.
The presence of all of these other animals confirms what we already understood from bird species that we've heard and seen here - the forests owned and protected by Rio Pucuno Foundation and Wildsumaco Wildlife Sanctuary constitute a healthy, mid-Andean elevation ecosystem, providing excellent habitat that supports a wide range of important animals and birds.
2. Cerulean Warbler, the most rapidly declining songbird of North America, winters in the Andes from Venezuela south to Bolivia, with the largest numbers of them staying in the foothills of Colombia and Ecuador. Ceruleans overwinter every year in the Rio Pucuno/Sumaco area, and any forest that we can buy here will directly assist this species by preserving much-needed habitat.
We hope to establish a long-term project to study the ecology of Ceruleans and other migrants wintering here, including Olive-sided Flycatcher, Canada Warbler and Western Wood-Pewee, to better understand their habitat needs. We are currently working with Plymouth State University, trying to establish a long-term study of North American migrant birds, especially Canada Warbler.
3. At present we are training several individuals from the village of Pacto Sumaco and from one of the local Quichua Indian communities to become local bird guides for visitors to the Sumaco area. Employment in ecotourism gives people pride in a career, as well as financial reward, and will help increase community understanding of ecotourism's benefits.
4. Have you ever been up on a canopy tower? Everyone who has, knows how different and exciting the world is, viewed from the top of the forest, versus from the ground. Life abounds at the top, and flowers, birds and other animals seen as specks from the ground, live up here and can be seen at eye level as they go about their life's business. Such a tower would benefit birders, scientists and general ecotravelers alike.
However, since our focus at Wildsumaco Wildlife Sanctuary and Rio Pucuno Foundation is forest purchase and preservation, we cannot see our way clear to divert funds to build such a tower. We're looking for an "Angel" or a group of supporters who will help us raise the estimated $35-$40 thousand dollars needed to build such a tower. If the thought of a canopy tower excites you, can you help us out with this dream?
5. In accord with our belief that every little bit helps, profits from the Wildsumaco bar and gift shop go to Rio Pucuno Foundation. We're currently looking for an artist willing to donate a couple of designs for T-shirts. Profits will go to RPF, and your name will go around the world with our T's!
Ongoing Support
Andean Birding donates 5% of all their profits from birding tours in South America, Central America and Mexico to Rio Pucuno Foundation's Forest Fund.
Inezia Tours in Holland donates 5% of all their profits from worldwide birding and nature tours to Rio Pucuno Foundation's Forest Fund.
Wildsumaco Wildlife Sanctuary S.A. donates all bar and gift shop profits, as well as most of the profit from Wildsumaco Lodge, to Rio Pucuno Foundation's General Fund.
If you can help us buy and preserve forest in Sumaco, or with any of our projects, please contact us at jonas@riopucunofoundation.org . US citizens wishing to make tax-exempt donations, please go through World Land Trust-US (www.worldlandtrust-us.org)and specify that you want your donation to go to Rio Pucuno Foundation, Ecuador.
Ours is a grass-roots conservation effort; we are proud of what we, with the help of like-minded individuals, have already accomplished and look forward to a bright future in the Sumaco area.
To contact us, please write to bonnie@riopucunofoundation.org or jonas@riopucunofoundation.org
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