Omora Student Implements Flagship Species for Cape Horn

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woodpecker.jpgSince 2004, UMAG masters student Ximena Arango has worked in Puerto Williams to define and implement a “charismatic flagship” species that would promote conservation of old-growth forests in the Cape Horn Biosphere Reserve. Arango, a native of Columbia, early on identified the Magellanic woodpecker (Campephilus magellanicus) as a keystone species that was also very beloved and recognized by diverse social sectors of the local community.

Arango used her scholarship from the Institute of Ecology and Biodiversity (2004-2007) to position this species as a symbol that motivates the local community to participate in conservation in the subantarctic archipelago. To date, her work has inspired a host of woodpecker-oriented activities, including: a municipal-sponsored drawing contest for school children, various art expositions, postcards, calendars, cloth bags, and presentations, among others. To consolidate this initiative and project it “from the South”, in June 2008 the Omora Park will offer a training course, led by Ximena, to teach this methodology to other conservation initiatives in the region and throughout Chile.

To learn more about how the Omora Park is working to implement charismatic flagship species for conservation see the recently published article in Magallania entitled: “Discovery and implementation of the Magellanic woodpecker (Campephilus magellanicus) as a charismatic flagship species for the Cape Horn Biosphere Reserve.” Download the pdf by clicking here (in Spanish with English abstract).

Bellunesi National Park (Italy) Donates to Omora’s “Miniature Forest Garden”

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logo bellunesi.gifIn 2006, the Omora Ethnobotanical Park and Bellunesi National Park (Italy) became “sister” parks. The collaboration initially included receiving a group of 15 students and authorities from Italy, including the director and president of Bellunesi N.P. Now, our Italian partners have made a donation of 3,000 Euros to the Institute of Ecology and Biodiversity to support the implementation of the Miniature Forests of Cape Horn Garden, a new trail being implemented in the Omora Park to demonstrate to visitors the diversity, beauty and importance of these tiny plants. In June, the Omora Park will present this initiative in Italy as well in the context of the anniversary of Bellunesi National Park.

NT Daily News – Conservation Students Study Abroad

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By Melissa Crowe

Eighteen students ventured to what they called the “end of the world” during the winter semester, joining theories of biology and philosophy to study conservation in Punta Arenas and Puerto Williams, Chile. “It’s kind of an odd trip to pick for just one credit,” Denton senior Kasi Petr said. “It’s a lot of being outside.” When people think of studying abroad, Patagonia does not usually come to mind, she said.

Kelli Moses, a Denton junior and Omora Sub-Antarctic Research Alliance and UNT Chile Program Assistant agrees… (continue reading the entire article).

OSARA Obtains Donation from BeX

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photo birders.jpgThe American Birding Association program Birder’s Exchange (BeX) approved an application submitted by OSARA for UMAG master’s student Cristóbal Pizarro to obtain birding equipment to conduct his thesis on the sea birds of the Cape Horn Biosphere Reserve and their possible role as vectors that link marine and terrestrial ecosystems. The donation also proved useful in January as part of this year’s Tracing Darwin’s Path course for students involved in the elaboration of a new ethno-ecology book for which they had to obtain new photos and sound recordings of island birds.

New Lichen Expedition a Success

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Lichen Expedition 2008.JPGA multi-national group of scientists, lead by Spanish lichenologist Dr. Leopoldo Sancho from the Universidad Complutense in Madrid, Spain, returned to the Cape Horn Biosphere Reserve (CHBR) for a second major expedition in January. The trip continued work begun in 2005. This year the multidisciplinary team included taxonomists, geomorphologists, botanists, philosphers, UMAG masters students and UNT undergrads. The scientists and students navigated through the Northwest Arm of the Beagle Channel, studying principally the lichen flora found along recently receeded glacial valleys.

The taxanomic and ecological study will be linked to work done by Dr. Sancho and his colleagues in Antarctica and included the installation of a climate station in the Omora Park. Future work will continue to explore the effect of climate change and Antarctic-Subantarctic connections by using lichens. In addition, the team is helping Dr. Ricardo Rozzi, UMAG master’s student Yanet Medina and UNT undergrad Kelli Moses develop content for the narrative of the new “Garden of the Cape Horn Miniature Forest,” a trail being implemented in the Omora Park to bring this hidden aspect of biodiversity to tourists’ attention.

U. of Washington Graduate Students in the CHBR

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During February, University of Washington Ph.D. Student Gus Jespersen will be implementing a novel study in the Omora Park, one that is being replicated as well in the Cascade Mountains of the Pacific Northwest (USA). Gus’ work is of particular interest to the researchers of the CHBR as he is looking at the role of lichens in influencing the development of vascular plants in high-Andean sites, above treeline.

This is not the first U.W. research being conducted in the CHBR. For the past 3 years, the Omora Park has also received students Aaron Clark and Liz Addis, working with Dr. Rodrigo Vasquez on the ecophysiology of the rufous-collared sparrow (Zonotrichia capensis).

OSARA President to Give Keynote Address at UNT

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Anderson NYYC.jpgOSARA President Dr. Christopher Anderson will give the keynote address at the University of North Texas Biology Graduate Student Association’s Annual Symposium. The invitation to participate in the “Annual Research Day in Life Sciences” continues the existing work between OSARA and UNT and offers a new possibility to strengthen collaborations with science graduate students.

Anderson’s talk, entitled “Biocultural Conservation: A ‘Southern’s’ Perspective from the South” will focus on the history and existing programs in the Cape Horn Biosphere Reserve. Dr. Anderson will also use this case study and his personal experience to show how students interested in science and conservation can create and implement meaningful programs and initiatives, not just at the ends of the earth, but anywhere they find themselves.

Peace Boat Coming to the CHBR

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peace boat.jpgDuring March 2008, the Peace Boat will be passing through the Cape Horn Biosphere Reserve (CHBR). Organizers have asked to learn about the research, education and conservation activities carried out at the Omora Park and in the CHBR. So, while in port at Punta Arenas on the 15th, passengers will meet the researchers and students working at the University of Magallanes, hear a talk from OSARA President Dr. Christopher Anderson, and visit the urban wetland “Humedal 3 Puentes,” whose conservation is being promoted by local authorities and citizens alike.

The Peace Boat‘s mission to “build a culture of peace around the world” takes it to ports-of-call from Vietnam to Oman and Antarctica to Alaska. At each location, organizers link visitors with non-profit organizations working on key issues of poverty, the environment and human rights.

Patagonia Expedition Race Returns to CHBR

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logo expedition race.jpgIn representation of the Cape Horn Biosphere Reserve (CHBR), Dr. Christopher Anderson was asked to speak at the opening ceremonies of the 8th Edition of the Patagonia Expedition Race, the world’s #1 ranked adventure competition of its kind.

Dr. Anderson pointed out to the participants from 11 countries, regional authorities and national and international press that the scientists of the CHBR actively seek out collaborators with initaitives that help demonstrate the uniqueness and value of subantarctic ecosystems.

As such, this elite annual race, held in the Magallanes Region, helps to communicate the singularity of the austral archipelago and shows how a local sustainable “tourism” activity can take advantage not only of the region’s amazing geography, but do so with respect for its natural and cultural heritage. The race will end again this year in Puerto Williams with participants and reporters visiting the Omora Park.

Letter from “Cape Horn” on NPR

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Listen to NPR All Things Considered‘s hosts Michele Norris and Robert Siegel read from listeners’ e-mails, including responses to coverage of Super Tuesday, and a series that parsed the candidates’ positions on four major issues.

Also hear one native North Carolinian, living in Cape Horn, reflect on an interview with Franklin McCain, a Greensboro student who protested a whites-only Woolworth lunch counter in 1960.

OSARA and UNT Strengthen Collaboration

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kelli.jpgOSARA and the University of North Texas’s Chile Program Office have formalized their collaborative efforts in the Cape Horn Biosphere Reserve this semester by jointly hiring Kelli Moses as a Project Assistant who will help coordinate the courses, events and programs being carried out in southern Chile.

Kelli is currently finishing her B.S. in Biology at the UNT, and she first came to Puerto Williams as a student in the first ever Tracing Darwin’s Path course in 2006. Since then, she has been an active participant in the implementation of the Chile Program Office at UNT. She is also conducting her thesis on the relationship of aquatic mosses and macroinvertebres in the CHBR, just coming back recently from a boat-based expedition to the Northwest Arm of the Beagle Channel.

We welcome Kelli, who brings to this initiative her own personal enthusiasm and dedication, as well as formally helping to consolidate the collaboration that UNT and OSARA have been developing since 2006.

Upcoming Tracing Darwin’s Path Course in the CHBR

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From 30 May to 15 June, 2008, OSARA will lead a new Tracing Darwin’s Path course to the Cape Horn Biosphere Reserve. The course, entitled “Field Course in Sub-Antarctic Conservation: Integrating the Human Dimension to Biocultural Conservation at the Southern End of the Americas,” will provide students with an interdisciplinary research, conservation and education experience at one of the most pristine wilderness areas remaining in the world and will focus on the UNESCO Man and the Biosphere (MaB) Program’s approach to conservation – linking people and development with biodiversity and ecosystems. In addition, the 10 students from the U.S. will also interact with a parallel master’s course from the University of Magallanes (UMAG). Finally, the program will conclude with a 4 day international workshop inaugurating the Omora Park as a long-term socio-ecological reserach site (LTSER) with national and international academics and authorities.

Lead professors Dr. Christopher Anderson and Dr. Ricardo Rozzi will place emphasis on the following specific topics:

Global change – a holistic approach to social-biological change
– Exotic and invasive species
– Climate change and the ozone hole
– Endangered cultural diversity

LTERs – moving beyond just monitoring and achieving social integration
– Terrestrial-marine linkages
– “Hidden” biodiversity – bryophytes and aquatic macroinvertebrates
– Opportunities for ecosystem restoration and decision making

For more information, email the OSARA-UNT Chile Program Assistant Kelli Moses (kelli.moses@gmail.com).

New book on the Robalo River watershed – culture and biodiversity

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Libro tomas low res.jpgIn January, José Tomás Ibarra (Omora Project Coordinator) and Ximena Arango (UMAG Local Coordinator and IEB Outreach Assistant) launched the new book entitled Habitats and Inhabitants of the Robalo Watershed with a public presentation in the town library. The book was published in association with Omora, UMAG, the Institute of Ecology and Biodiversity and Fauna Australis and financed by the project “Views from today and yesterday of the Robalo Watershed” with the support of the Chilean National Environment Commission.

The project explores the different “tracks” left behind by the different cultures that have inhabited the watershed that houses the Omora Park and provides drinking water to Puerto Williams. Going from the Yaghans and the first English missionary colonists up to the present day, the book links both cultural and biological diversity and is the final product of a parallel course that was taught in the local elementary school by Ximena and Omora volunteer Melisa Gañan.

For more information visit: www.umag.cl/williams

President Michelle Bachelet visits Cape Horn Biosphere Reserve

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Presidenta-Anderson-Rozzi low res.jpgDuring her first visit to Puerto Williams this week, President Michelle Bachelet spent the day reviewing public work projects in the town before embarking with the navy to visit Cape Horn.

After inaugurating the new public nursery school, masters students from the University of Magallanes presented the Minister of Education Yasna Provoste and the National Director of the JUNJI (the state-supported nursery school system) Estela Ortíz with gifts that included the books and educational materials that researchers of the Omora Park (Institute of Ecology and Biodiversity and University of Magallanes) have prepared in conjunction with the local teachers for pre-school children.

In the afternoon, before embarking for Cape Horn, Drs. Ricardo Rozzi, Francisca Massardo and Christopher Anderson were asked by Congresswoman Carolina Goic to present the President, the head of the Chilean Navy Admiral Rodolfo Codina, and Rear Admiral Felipe Ojeda with these educational materials, plus ecotourism guide books and other publications produced by the scientists of the Cape Horn Biosphere Reserve.

At the meeting with the president, the researchers explained the importance of the Omora Park as a long-term ecological study site, as well as the urgent need to continue implementing the Cape Horn Biosphere Reserve as a model of sustainable development being created “from the South”.

President Bachelet received the ad hoc class with enthusiasm, showing her own knowledge of important issues in the archipelago, such as invasive species, and was very pleased to find out that this was one of the research groups to recently receive the “Fondos Basales” award through the Institute of Ecology and Biodiversity, which will help consolidate the infrastructure, investigation and outreach activities that are being conducted in the region, thus reenforcing this long-term, world class initiative.

As Dr. Rozzi explained to President Bachelet, “We are working so that the Omora Park will be to the Cape Horn Biosphere Reserve what the Darwin Station has been to the Galapagos Islands Biosphere Reserve, providing a critical link between science and sustainable development to improve social well being and biocultural conservation.”