by Monserratte Vásquez
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In September, the Los Cedros Scientific Station was the epicenter of a training course for “Honorific Inspectors,” run by the Ministry of the Environment, Water, and Ecological Transition (MAATE, initials in Spanish) and promoted by the Technical Secretary and Basins Council of the Intag-Toisán Conservation and Sustainable Use Area (ACUS-MIT, initials in Spanish), Toisán Corporation and the Municipality of Cotacachi.
Forty community members from the Intag-Manduriacos Valley participated in the course, voluntarily choosing to join in on the responsibility of protecting the ecosystems of ACUS-MIT in coordination with MAATE. In this important course that taught about control and monitoring tools, environmental regulations, and field implements and equipment provisions, seven of our fellow forest rangers of the Los Cedros Protected Forest took part, fulfilling the dictates of their Management Plan.
This is an initiative that, among many others, seeks to strengthen local capacities for community management of ACUS-MIT, an innovative proposal from the Inteña population that was elevated to a municipal ordinance in 2019. Its main objective is to practice participatory governance around the care and protection of the water and biodiversity of one of the most endemic and biologically diverse areas on the planet, where the last remnants of the western forest produce pure water and guarantee ecological balance on Earth.
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English botanist Tom Wells—a researcher at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (Kew Gardens)—went into the Los Cedros Protected Forest for a few weeks in November to research the Lauraceae family, whose members include plants such as the aguacatillo and cinnamon tree. Lauraceae is of great interest, in part, because this family is widespread throughout Chocó […]
In November, we had a wonderful visit with students from the Biological Sciences program out of the Pontifical Catholic University of Ecuador as part of a field trip by the Natural Resources Management chair, led by PhD advisor and professor Dr. Rafael E. Cárdenas. Dr. Cárdenas is an important ally as a researcher and academic […]
During July and August, in the Magdalena Alto community, located in the area surrounded the Los Cedros Protected Forest, a workshop series was developed to advance Human Rights and Rights of Nature. The course saw significant participation from the community’s youth, adults, and elderly alike.
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