When conservation is born from love

Story by: Jorge Rodriguez Photography by: Jorge Rodríguez Translated by: Alejandra Palencia vie 23, Oct 2020
  • Three women, two biologists and one with a degree in tourism, in their space and with their own vision, dedicate their hours to help other people to connect emotionally with nature.
  • Thanks to the feeling of protection to life, regardless the distance, there is an invisible bond between them, even though two of them live in Guatemala and one in Honduras.

Inventions with love

“The role of caring for nature belongs to everyone, but (as a woman) in your imagination you have that vision to protect life,” Maria Fernanda Bracamonte reflected, a Guatemalan biologist with a surprising inventiveness, that was pretty useful to help in the declaration of the first private natural reserve linked to a school throughout Latin America.

When she started her career in Monte María, a Guatemala city-based school with catholic roots, she did it as the responsible of the science laboratory, headline that within the years, no longer defined her work. “(Teachers) used to tell me, ‘Mafer, your evaluations make no sense because the girls don’t know what to answer.” And that was, according to her, she was more dedicated “inventing” spaces where the girls could canalize their emotions, through an intimate relationship with natural life, rather than focusing in small pedagogical tasks.

Her personality was key in this whole process, where she created spaces to promote emotional relationships with other living beings, instead of limiting herself, and the kids, to spread technical knowledge about the butterfly’s metamorphosis, or the role of the trees and the different kingdoms of nature. “The care we give (to plants and animals) it is made from the love to life,” she tells with a satisfaction smile.

As in many stories, Mafer’s is one in which fate seemed to have played an important role. After completing her studies in biology, she thought that her life would be linked to health and well-being, “So much that I got into a HIV train program,” she said. After that, she became a nurse and then she worked in the Center for Conservation Studies (CECON) of the University of San Carlos of Guatemala (USAC), where she was involved in the construction of a turtle nursery, training sessions for park rangers and environmental education programs to local people in the Guatemalan Pacific.

Though she enjoyed all of these experiences, Mafer felt that all of this wasn’t  the place where she belonged. At one point, she was decided to quit her job at CECON, and then, an unusual proposal came to her hands: “an opportunity to apply for management of a science laboratory in a catholic school, and although I have never worked with kids, and I’m not a teacher, my dad told me to give it a try. And I was decided to apply and finally, the job was mine,” she said.

Birds, turtles and butterflies 

In the reserve managed by Colegio Monte María, a variety of wild species are protected. Photo: Jorge Rodriguez/Viatori

“The first thing I thought when I got there (to school) was, what birds live here?” Mafer mentioned. The first years, her job was to create science activities for the students. “I wanted to make it clear that science is not for weirdos, but is something cute, is part of our lives, so I learned to talk as a kid.”

After she wrote everything that she wanted to do, the experimentation phase began. From the care of butterflies, the butterfly farm was created. From the planting of potatoes and garlic, the garden was builted. “I requested four boards. and there I was building my orchard. When it worked, I call the principal of the school and show her how pretty it was, and how happy the girls were. So, they offered me to create more spaces,” she tells.

In this process, the girls complicity was the key, because they started to see in her an advocate of wild animals. Eventually, injured animals, were taken to the laboratory so they could recover. Homeless turtles, were Mafer’s first assistants in her desire to instill love for natural life. “After a student had a meaningful loss in her family, we were advised by the principal’s office to include her in extracurricular activities. So, I came up with the idea for her to start taking care of the turtles. I gave her a notebook, where she wrote how she felted during the process. This happened, at the begining, three times per week.”

This activity helped her to open to Mafer, to tell how she felted for losing her mother and how she saw the world after that. “Looking her process, I saw how something positive happened to her by taking care of another life form,” she remembers. Over time, other girls appeared, which led to another Mafer invention, the ‘Nursery of Life’. In it, each girl chose what they wanted to take care of. Bees, turtles, butterflies, the vegetable garden, vermicompost. “I made up another card, where I asked them how they felt like, taking care of a turtle or a butterfly and what they had learned.” To her surprise, girls from 6 to 17 years, expressed feelings of responsibility, balance and respect for conservation.

Maryknoll Sisters Natural Reserve

Mafer helps girls integrate their education with a love of nature. Photo: Jorge Rodriguez/Viatori

All this also had an impact on the vision of the institution regarding the conservation of the natural reserve that they were in charge of. They joined the Association of Natural Reserves of Guatemala (ARNG), which allowed them to break paradigms in terms of existing conservation models, both in the Central American country and throughout Latin America.

“At first, they said no, because we are a school, and they were looking for forests or protected areas. But little by little we showed everything we do, and they selected us for a project.”

Water for the planet, a program promoted by The Nature Conservancy Guatemala, with the financial support of a multinational company, allowed the school, and Mafer’s program, to have professional monitoring, to know what types of life they were protecting. With camera traps and expert biologists, it was determined that 27 species of trees, three species of non-poisonous snakes, 25 species of birds, and 7 species of medium-sized mammals inhabit the 7 hectares of forest. “The girls are proud, because they say ‘in my school life is protected'”. Even the institution’s gardeners received training, and are now reserve rangers.

Although it seems complicated, according to Mafer, any institution can achieve it, as long as “it has as its philosophy the care of nature, not from the natural sciences, but as a mission of life,” she concludes.

Salty birds

Julia Salazar, Bachelor of Tourism and member of the family salt extraction business. Photo: Julia Salazar

After the travel restrictions and confinement measures, a result of the current pandemic, are lifted, imagine your next vacation in a Honduras Pacific beach, flanked by a lush virgin mangrove forest, marine wildlife that navigates between the fresh and salty water canals of the Pacific Ocean and a shorebird tour, through different sites of the production of organic salt…

…Yes, you read correctly. Because in San Lorenzo Bay, at southwest of Honduras, Julia Salazar, a Bachelor in tourism and a member of a family of salt producers, saw in the birds that visited the salt farm, a hook to bring people and share about the work that her family does. “I was surprised when I realized that many people didn’t knew about salt production, so I created a Facebook page and little by little we started to have new visitors, groups of students of all ages, biologist and bird watcher,” she said.

This innovative idea, caused her dad to object merging tourism with the current production model. “He didn’t find it interesting for his salt farm.” To change his opinion, she insisted in taking him to see the birds, the eggs, the nests and the chicks that were in the place. “The producer has no knowledge whatsoever about this. For them, conservation, tourism and salt production are concepts that have nothing to do with each other”, she said.

Thanks to the participation of Hemisphere Shorebird Reserve Network (WHSRN), and studies made in the Fonseca Gulf, is known that in Central America, up to 14 different species of migratory shorebirds make use of salt and shrimp farms as resting, feeding and reproduction sites. It is also estimated that there are 67,384 hectares in the region under concession for production. Julia, knowing that the priority of a producer will be financial gain, implemented low investment practices, that it will generate a revenue attractive enough for her father to join the idea. “When we saw the amount of students that visited us and the economic impact that generates, (my dad) agreed with the idea.” At short term, touristic activities represented 5% of the budget of their salt farm.

Active participation is key to strengthen the bond between humans and natural life

The interest in diversifying the activities of the family business, and protecting the birds, led Julia to involve her father to incorporate better practices. Photo: Julia Salazar

After enthusing her father, Julia has now set out to share these good practices with other Honduran and Central American producers. To achieve this, she has met with the salt producers of the Honduran Pacific, to share their anecdotes, observations and knowledge, and show that it is an initiative that generates benefits for them as producers..

“The idea is to be very transparent, to explain the process to them. (This) is essential for them to feel empowered and feel part of it,” Julia told. “In Central America, and I think in all of Latin America, there is this fear that someone from abroad will come and take what is ours. That is why it is important to talk to people and make them part of the initiatives,” she said.

In this way, not only is greater participation achieved, but also links are created between the producers and the natural life that makes use of their salt farms. “Producers cannot feel empathy with conservation projects, if there are no such links. By making them part of these processes, in what they spend 5 or 10 minutes, the love for nature, and what lives inside the salt farms, starts to grow, something that perhaps they had never seen from their own perspective.”

According to the model that she proposes, the benefits obtained through these ecotourism activities can be invested in the protection of the mangroves, in the improvement of the tourist infrastructure within the salt mines, and in educational material for students. Even the creation of a touristic route related to salt has already been considered. “We have the coffee route, the shrimp route, so (we could) create a salt route with several producers and thus distribute the amount of tourists, visitors and students that we receive, and create a benefit for the entire region of the (Honduran) southern zone,” she commented.

Another benefit they are already working on, with the support of WHSRN, is looking for green certifications, which would allow them to access to international markets interested in consuming environmentally friendly products.

From tourism, science and investigation

Tourism has allowed Salinera Santa Alejandra to become an area of ​​interest for Honduran bird watchers. Photo: Julia Salazar

In 2016, the Honduran Tourism Institute launched the 2016-2021 Honduran Birdwatching Strategy, which prioritizes the promotion of different areas of the Central American country, to attract tourists who love bird watching. This strategy, however, has not been well used, according to Julia, since the vast majority of protected areas survive with very little investment from the Honduran government.

Birdwatching is a nitche that grows really fast in the country. The Salazar’s salinera, has become a hotspot for the Honduran researchers and biologist. The work that Julia carries out caught the attention of WHSRN, and now she is part of the staff of that international NGO. “Personally it is an achievement, because I have no scientific knowledge. I started as a producer, with the idea of ​​doing something different in the salt farm, and now, working with these international institutions, we will have the opportunity to learn about new conservation practices to apply in our production areas,” she said.

WHSRN is an international entity, whose mission is to promote conservation through the declaration of areas of importance for migratory shorebirds in the American continent. In Central America there are two declared sites, the Delta del Estero Real, in Nicaragua, and the Bay of Panama, in Panama. “We are working on declaring a site in Honduras, which is the El Jicarito reserve, as an area within this hemispheric network. For the country it would be extremely important to have an area declared (because) it would allow us to have financing for studies and conservation analysis,”.

To support these processes, she is working on a study of the use that shorebirds give to the salt farms, the positive and negative impacts that these places have on natural life, and the practices that producers from other countries in the Central American region carry out.

“In the end, what I want is that salt producers have the resources to invest in conservation,” she concludes.

Science and research with and for communities

Bianca Bosarreyes, biologist and researcher. Photo: Jorge Rodriguez/Viatori

With more than 14 years working with birds, Bianca Bosarreyes, a biologist and bird watcher, knew from her student days that birds were her passion. “Having a bird in my hands made me understand the importance of conserving habitats, because if those areas are not there, many birds are going to die,” she recalls.

It was in Cerro San Gil, a protected area in northeastern Guatemala, where she specialized in bird banding, a technique used to obtain information related to migration, longevity, mortality, population data, feeding and reproduction behaviors of the birds.

In her early days, however, Bianca only thought about the conservation of natural life, without considering human populations as part of the solution. It was not until his research work in the Biotopo del Quetzal, a national natural reserve located in the north of the country, and a sanctuary for the life of the quetzal (Pharomachrus mocinno), that she understood the importance that local communities have in conservation.

“We are (as biologists) always on top, thinking that we have the absolute truth,” Bianca reflected. But her experience studying the national bird of Guatemala, helped her, not only to reinforce her passion for birds and conservation, but also to understand that the planet and life can be preserved with the vision and participation of everyone.

At the beginning, she remembers, the community members thought they were “killing quetzals.” Later, she understood that dialogue was necessary to create comprehensive regulations, with the vision of many social sectors. “That was a big change. They gave us the guidelines to know what we had to change to protect the quetzal. That marked me,” she said.

Identity vs. profit

Bianca Bosarreyes assures that working with local people allowed her to broaden her vision of conservation. Photo: Jorge Rodríguez/Viatori

The well-being that comes with being part of movements of change, whose aim is the preservation of life, is a quality that Bianca values ​​highly as a researcher. Her approach with the local people, gives her the opportunity to have access to privileged information, such as native names of wild species, ancestral use of plants and trees, and techniques of integration with the environment. As a person, the opportunity to expand her social circle and her vision of the world. “At the beginning it is difficult, because they always see a stranger who comes (from outside), but afterwards the locals are kinder, they already appreciate you a lot. They become your friends.”

In return, the idea is to share with them the objective of research and conservation efforts, to give them precise knowledge and comprehensive strategies, to protect their heritage and legacy. Because, according to Bianca, it is not the same impact of a researcher who “only goes to work for a little while”, than the efforts made by local people, who become multipliers of the message to motivate “their families , their neighbors and their friends, so that they value and protect what is theirs.”

Although the colonialist vision is abandoning scientists and researchers for a more integral and harmonious one with the locals, the same is not happening with the industry, where bussiness people, often without any emotional connection with the natural areas, only see economic benefit and profits.

“For them, everything has a value for money. You have to give them solutions that do not affect their pocket. (Even) if they see that it is a positive change, it will always be money that matters the most,” she said. But, from the same integral vision of conservation, the idea is also to implement solutions that also benefit their businesses.

In any case, as Julia does in Honduras, efforts are now aimed at making producers also create emotional ties with the life that exists within their production areas, as well as appeal to their pride to show to the general public how the production is carried out,  taking into consideration practices that do not harm the natural environment.

Guatemalan Ornithological Association

Shorebird researchers train local people so that they are the ones who participate in the counting and monitoring processes of the different migratory species. Photo: Jorge Rodríguez/Viatori

On June 9th., about three months after the start of the confinement, as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, Bianca shared on her personal Facebook page, a publication of the Honduran Ornithology Association, in which they invited a telematic chat to learn about the achievements of said association, during its 10 years of existence.

A month later, she published her joy at being in an active process for the creation of a Guatemalan Ornithological Association. Bianca has the opportunity to create a space in which efforts and initiatives to care for birds and educate the population will be unified. “This association opens many doors for us, because we would have legal support that we did not have before. There are many self-employed birding clubs, but they lack that legal part. We could receive donations and do reforestation campaigns, festivals and much more,” she said.

In this sense, the Ecopedagogical Projects program, led by Mafer Bracamonte, and in which Bianca collaborated with the identification of the birds in the Monte María school reserve, serves as inspiration to it in other areas of Guatemala. “When I saw what Mafer is doing, it seemed like the coolest thing we can do, because it shows that we can change the chip in children and lead them to have a relationship with nature,” she said.

The idea is to take this practice to schools in rural areas, with environmental education programs, love for wildlife and achieve a vision of conservation and development from a young age, as well as having an entity that serves as support and push for these actions, with a vision of unity and a mission to protect the natural heritage.

“Before, there was a very strange secrecy (in the investigation), because people did not tell what they were doing, where they were birding. That is not conducive to conservation. Now, there is more openness, there are more people who want to get into environmental education, who want to know what to do so that there is no more loss of forest. Now, there is a real feeling of conservation,” she concludes.

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