Categories: Los Cedros

by Monserratte Vásquez

Share

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.

Related post

  • 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.

    Continue reading
  • Earlier this month in August, we had an important and fun visit by a class from the Isla Santa Isabel Educational Unit from the local community of San Miguel de Chontal, who planned an excursion to the Los Cedros Protected Forest.

    Continue reading
  • From June 10 to 14, students from Pachamama School (Quito) spent the week pursuing educational projects at the Los Cedros Scientific Station. Applying this effective educational strategy with experimental and observation methods inside the forest, they built on the knowledge previously acquired in the classrooms.

    Continue reading
  • On International Children’s Day, the Scientific Station visited some single-teacher schools in the Los Manduriacos Valley to deliver teaching materials, as an educational contribution to the area. We shared a lovely day with the children, their teachers and their mothers and fathers, accompanied by a puppet show by the Performing Arts Company “El Revuelque Títeres”.

    Continue reading