December 2006

Awá Culture, Awá Nature

Awá indigenous communities in the Tumbes-Chocó-Magdalena Hotspot have developed an innovative management plan for the protection of their lands. With help from a local conservation organization, they are successfully conserving their unique natural heritage by preserving their culture and customs.

November 2006

Massive Effort Underway to Save Costa Rica's National Park System

Partners in Costa Rica are developing solutions to consolidate and provide long-term financing for the country’s protected areas system. The country’s national parks are an increasingly popular tourist attraction in this part of the southern region of the Mesoamerica Hotspot.

October 2006

Time for Tea!

Rooibos tea grows only in a small area of the Cape Floristic Region biodiversity hotspot. Increased demand is threatening the area’s unique flora and fauna as tea cultivation expands. Three projects are helping local communities work with the rooibos industry to create a sustainable future for the region.

September 2006

Aceh’s Grassroots Resurgence

With the help of a local organization, communities are returning to traditional land management practices to conserve lowland forest in the Sumatran province of Banda Aceh in the Sundaland Hotspot. Even after years of political conflict and the devastation of the 2004 tsunami, villagers are seeing the benefits of living sustainably.

August 2006

Calling Nature’s Caretakers…

Working through partner organizations in Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, and Turkey, BirdLife International has recruited 31 local conservation heroes to extend its caretaker network in targeted sites critical for the conservation of globally threatened species in the Caucasus Hotspot.

July 2006

Pemba’s Deepening Shade of Green

Lying 50 kilometers off the coast of Tanzania, Pemba Island has lost 95 percent of its original forest. International partners are now building on past campaigns that protected threatened species such as the Endangered Pemba flying fox in order to engage local communities in preserving what remains of the island’s fragile ecosystem.

June 2006

Partners in Peñablanca

For years, unsustainable slash and burn farming has destroyed the fauna and flora that thrive in the northeastern Sierra Madre Mountains of the Philippines Hotspot. Three civil society groups working on complementary projects are now helping local partners secure a long-term sustainable future for themselves and their rich natural heritage.

May 2006

Unity in Action in Sierra Leone

A coalition of nongovernmental organizations, academic institutions, and community-based groups is helping to protect the resources of Sierra Leone’s forests by engaging local civil society in conservation efforts. Collaboration has proven key in raising awareness of environmental issues in the Guinean Forests of West Africa Hotspot.

April 2006

Getting Connected Out on the Osa

Costa Rica’s Osa Peninsula is home not only to unique wildlife and important rain forests, but also to farmers who are making sustainable farming a way of life. The project is raising incomes and improving vital connectivity between some of the most important protected areas in the southern region of the Mesoamerica Hotspot.

March 2006

Restoring the Balance of Life in the South Pacific

The islands of the Polynesia-Micronesia Hotspot feature distinctive biodiversity but face extreme threats, particularly from alien invasive species introduced by humans over hundreds of years. A new partnership between CEPF and the Australian government is funding demonstration projects that help to prevent, control, and eradicate these invasive species.

February 2006

Independent Review Praises CEPF's First Five Years

A recently completed external evaluation concluded that the program has made strong overall progress toward achieving its main strategic objectives. Citing capacity building in civil society as well as gains in biodiversity conservation, the evaluation found “overall performance from a global perspective has been excellent.”

January 2006

Tackling Conservation with the Chachi

A groundbreaking conservation incentive agreement with the Chachi people of Esmeraldas in the Tumbes-Chocó-Magdalena Hotspot is bringing them socioeconomic benefits as they take steps to conserve their unique natural heritage. Strategic funding in two grants has helped bring together the partners to make it happen.