04 September 2009
Paraguay’s Precious National Heritage Gets a Helping Hand
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service program enhances environmental protection
Washington — Three gentle giants of Paraguay have better chances for survival thanks to an innovative program established by the U.S. Department of Interior’s Fish and Wildlife Service.
The service's Wildlife Without Borders Program for Latin America and the Caribbean (WWB-LAC) helps support the work of Associación Guyra Paraguay, a nonprofit conservation organization focused on protecting the Chaco region of Paraguay. The area is home to unique ecosystems that shelter an enormous number of species. The Chaco is known as the land of the three giants because its native life forms include the endangered giant otter (Pteronura brasiliensis), the giant anteater (Myrmecophaga tridactyla) and the giant armadillo (Priodontes maximus).
From 2004 through 2008, the program awarded 156 grants worth more than $3 million and attracted another $12 million in partner contributions, according to the service. To date, 20 Latin American and Caribbean countries have benefited from the program and nearly 4,000 conservationists have been trained.
Since the service’s first grant to Associación Guyra Paraguay in 2004, the organization has worked in partnership with the Fish and Wildlife Service to protect the land of the three giants. Since then, under the leadership of Executive Director Alberto Yanosky, Guyra Paraguay has expanded its conservation program. In 2008, the organization worked with the service to host the Western Hemisphere Migratory Species Initiative's third conference, which brought together conservationists from across the Latin American and Caribbean region.
Yanosky’s organization, supported by a number of public and private partners around the world, co-manages three national parks in Paraguay. If its efforts are successful, Guyra Paraguay could become a model for other nations struggling to preserve forests.
“It is a huge challenge,” Yanosky told the Christian Science Monitor in an August interview. “But with better national parks, we can fight against deforestation.”
PROTECTING A FRAGILE ECOSYSTEM
Latin America and the Caribbean are renowned for their vast biodiversity. Habitats that range from rainforests to deserts and from islands to mountaintops host an exotic array of wildlife including tapirs, jaguars, macaws, manatees and giant anteaters. This part of the Western Hemisphere is one of the most environmentally important regions on the planet.
Unfortunately, it also faces serious threats, including a rapidly growing human population with escalating demands on already limited natural resources like land, food and water, as well as recurring damage from natural disasters like hurricanes.
The Wildlife Without Borders Program for Latin America and the Caribbean strives to counter these threats by supporting the region’s emerging efforts to conserve and manage biodiversity. The program also seeks to expand human and institutional capacity to protect fragile ecosystems. In carrying out its work, the program encourages collaboration among nongovernmental organizations, research centers, communities and other groups to improve conservation and resource management.
WWB-LAC focuses on projects intended to benefit high-priority ecosystems associated with endangered or migratory species of regional concern. It also helps provide conservation training to land managers, park guards and administrators, educators, community leaders and graduate students. Specific projects include:
• Providing long-term support to the graduate programs in wildlife management at universities in Argentina, Costa Rica, and Brazil;
• Funding training symposiums on ecotourism aimed at protecting the Andean tapir — the most endangered large mammal in the Andes region — in Ecuador;
• Establishing a bird biodiversity monitoring program in Costa Rica to improve coordination among national parks and reserves within the Volcan Central Talamanca biological corridor, a major coffee-producing area;
• Providing training and partnership opportunities in wetlands protection and management to individuals and institutions in Chile, Argentina, Bolivia, Nicaragua and Costa Rica;
•Building capacity for conservation management on Ometepe Island, Nicaragua, through training programs for park rangers and tourist guides at Maderas Volcano Natural Reserve and Concepción Volcano Natural Reserve; and
• Offering in-service training for park guards and administrators in Peru, Brazil, Argentina and Mexico.
For more information about the work of Alberto Yanosky and Guyra Paraguay in the Chaco region, read the Christian Science Monitor article "People Making a Difference.”
Additional information on Wildlife Without Borders is available on the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Web site.
