CI’s conservation activities in Peru have really been taking off lately. Last week we announced the verification of our first forest carbon offset project in the Alto Mayo Protected Forest. Today, CI-Peru’s Carmen Noriega reports from a recent World Water Day event in the nearby city of Nueva Cajamarca.

World Water Day parade in Nueva Cajamarca, Peru. The event kicked off CI and Rare’s Pride Campaign, which aims to raise awareness of the value of conserving forest and freshwater ecosystems that supply water for the Yuracyacu River, a tributary of the Amazon. (© Jason Houston)

The night before, thunder and lightning woke everybody up. Nature couldn’t have thought of anything better than rain to remind us just how important water is.

I was in Nueva Cajamarca, in Rioja province in Peru’s San Martin region, to support the launch of CI’s campaign for the conservation of the Yuracyacu subwatershed. Together with a team from the municipality of Nueva Cajamarca, CI-Peru Campaign Coordinator Rina Gamarra had planned a city parade and a small ceremony to kick off a new project to promote a “payment for water services” scheme in the area of the Yuracyacu River.

This process began last year, when Rare awarded CI-Peru with a small fund to implement a social marketing campaign that seeks to raise awareness among local riverside populations about the important role of forests in guaranteeing the quantity and quality of water provided by the Yuracyacu River. Since 2009, Rare has been implementing “Pride campaigns,” which aim to inspire people to take pride in the natural assets that make their communities valuable and take action to protect them.

The Yuracyacu River is the main source of water for the city of Nueva Cajamarca. (© Jason Houston)

The Yuracyacu subwatershed is part of the Alto Mayo basin in northeastern Peru, where CI-Peru implements several projects to ensure the conservation of forests and the services they provide to local populations. Threatened by ongoing deforestation for agriculture, the Alto Mayo watershed is one of CI-Peru’s main conservation priorities because of its crucial role in supplying fresh water to major cities of the region — including Nueva Cajamarca, Moyobamba and Rioja — and for harboring many plant and animal species found nowhere else, such as the yellow-tailed woolly monkey (Oreonax flavicauda).

In September 2012, CI and the municipality of Nueva Cajamarca signed a framework cooperation agreement to implement a campaign to conserve the Yuracyacu subwatershed.

Within the next couple of years, the campaign — which is also supported by CI’s Global Conservation Fund — aims to encourage the population of Nueva Cajamarca to voluntarily contribute to a local fund, which will be managed by the municipality. This fund will help the residents who live in the upper part of the sub-basin improve agricultural practices and implement other conservation activities, which will help maintain the water source for everyone. If this project in Nueva Cajamarca is successful, it will later be replicated in other subwatersheds in the Alto Mayo basin.

Some of the World Water Day event volunteers pose with Chorito, the yellow-tailed woolly monkey mascot. Found only in the Peruvian Andes, this species was chosen by the population of Nueva Cajamarca as the flagship species for conservation in the city. (© Jason Houston)

On the morning of March 22nd, rain was still falling when we arrived at the parade site. Edita Alva, manager of the municipality’s environmental division, was already working with her team, giving a final touch to the schedule for the day. CI’s environmental volunteers were finishing some banners for the parade, while others were rehearsing a dance to “Rio Yuracyacu,” the campaign theme song to be presented after the parade.

Soon the rain stopped, and the parade began. Led by Deputy Mayor José Adam Vargas, 500 people representing eight schools, CI, Rare and other local institutions marched along the town’s main avenue, catching the attention of pedestrians and drivers. Many of the students had made their costumes and banners out of recycled materials, hoping to win prizes that would be given out for the most creative schools.

One student shows off her costume, hoping to help her school win one of the prizes given out for the three schools judged to be the most creative. (© CI/photo by Carmen Noriega)

Some children dressed as monkeys were fighting others dressed as illegal hunters, while kindergarten students dressed like water droplets shared important messages about conserving the river and the forests. (View more photos of the event).

The parade finished in the Children’s Park, where Vargas officially launched the campaign.

“We cannot talk about life and water separately,” he said. “This is the beginning of many activities to raise awareness and promote the protection of our river and forests.”

In the spirit of celebration, a group of volunteers presented the song “Rio Yuracyacu,” the official theme of the campaign. They danced to the music together with Chorito, the yellow-tailed woolly monkey mascot, who represents a native species of the Yuracyacu subwatershed that was elected by the population of Nueva Cajamarca as the flagship species for conservation in the city.(Listen to the song.)

Some of the student participants in the World Water Day event in Nueva Cajamarca, Peru. (© CI/photo by Carmen Noriega)

At the end of the ceremony, the municipality of Nueva Cajamarca handed out the awards for the three schools that had shown the most creativity in their costumes, floats and messages in the parade. The prizes — a video camera, a laptop computer and a printer — were received by I.E. Manuel Fidencio Hidalgo, I.E. 00614 and I.E. San Juan Bautista.

By noon, the event was concluded, but the campaign had just begun. Many activities are yet to come, including workshops and fairs in different schools, a radio soap opera and flash mobs.

CI’s goal is that by June 2014, the municipality will be able to establish the conservation fund, based on the voluntary contribution of the population of Nueva Cajamarca, which will allow conservation activities to begin in the upper part of the Yuracyacu subwatershed. This is a long-term commitment, and we all are very excited about what is yet to come.

Carmen Noriega is the communications coordinator for CI-Peru.

This post was originally published on Conservation International’s blog, Human Nature.

The World Water Day parade and event in Nueva Cajamarca launched Rare Conservation Fellow Rina Gamarra’s Pride campaign —Rare’s signature program that engages the community to build pride around unique natural assets through marketing. A packed day of events introduced the community to the campaign’s slogan, mascot and messages. Photographer Jason Houston documented the campaign activities in Nueva Cajamarca and a visit to the upland ecosystem the campaign is trying to protect.

Gamarra’s Pride campaign highlights water use awareness and community participation in innovative agreements between upland farmers and downstream water users along the Rio Yuracyacu, an Amazon river tributary in the Alto Mayo.

All Photos by Jason Houston. Click image to see full photo and caption.

Click here to watch a video of the World Water Day parade in Nueva Cajamarca, Peru:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C0K_VZGgjTs

Rare Conservation Fellow Wu Xudong

Dreams do come true. In 2008, Rare Conservation Fellow Wu Xudong was chosen to carry the Olympic torch as an environmental emissary to what was billed as a “green” event. He keeps the torch in a glass box in his living room. One of his dreams came true. Since he began his work in conservation, in 1995, he has dreamt of protecting the birds of Poyang Lake, China’s largest body of fresh water.

In 2010, Xudong joined forces with Rare to connect with the community and build local pride to create an ethos for caring for their home and the species that rely on it. He recently spoke to Rare about his experience.

What first attracted you to Rare?

Changing adults’ minds and behaviors is very difficult. They use resources, but they do not do so sustainably. Consumer lifestyles have caused the loss of nesting grounds for cranes, storks and other water birds. Rare embodies a new concept that lets people become more proactive and reap the rewards of conservation. That is what brought me to study with Rare.

Part of Rare’s process includes selecting a flagship species. What is yours?

In 1981, Siberian cranes faced extinction. Several hundred were found at Poyang Lake, so a reserve was created in 1983. People like the cranes. They are known as “spirit birds” because they give three gifts: sons, money and promotions.

Have you received any of these gifts?

In December 2010, I got a call from the reserve saying I was promoted. I was competing with another for the position. I think this work with Rare is the reason I defeated that guy. Then in October 2011, I was promoted to deputy director.

What threats do the cranes face?

Cranes are waders. They don’t swim like swans. If the water is too deep, they won’t find food. They feed in water up to 40 centimeters. If you drain this water, cranes lose nesting areas and fish. Villagers drain the water to maximize their fish-catch profits.

Before the campaign, what did you do to stop people from destroying habitat?

My first love is the birds of Poyang Lake. There once was a fisher who wanted to dig out a pond. I couldn’t convince him to stop. So, I lay in the pond and told him if he wanted to dig up the wetlands, he would have to dig me out. Given another chance, I would do the same.

What results have you seen since implementing Rare’s methods?

There are more birds. With controlled drainage and fish breeding there are more fish and bigger fish. The other success is more personal. I feel the work has improved me. These past two years with Rare have seen me change very subtly. It has improved my whole team’s capabilities. You could say that Rare’s program only has a starting point, not an end point. I would like to transfer the Rare ethos to all areas of the nature reserve’s work.

One of your goals was to better connect with the community. Did you?

Before starting the project with Rare, the reserve staff obviously knew the villagers, but the dogs would bark. Now, two years later, the dogs don’t bark. When I go to a village, the dogs follow me and wag their tails. This shows that we visit the communities so often even the dogs know us. That is what Rare is about. Dogs will never tell lies.

Fishers in Loreto, Mexico, play Go Fish! with different-colored candy representing juvenile and adult fish.

Ulises Mendez, Rare program manager in Mexico, waited for the cackles to subside before asking the fishers what they had learned. The fishers had just completed a candy-grabbing game designed to expose the benefits of good fishery management.

Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) first exposed Mendez to the game during a workshop a couple years ago. Many versions of the game exist involving a variety of props and customizations. The essential elements are:

1 A proxy for the ocean — “In our regional training we did the fishing game in a pool,” says Sarilani Wirawan, Rare senior program manager in Indonesia. “The more water, the more fun.” Typically, a table will do.

2 Fish stand-ins — any material available will suffice, ranging from rocks, peanuts and shells to goldfish cut-outs or action figures, but the most popular option is candy. Mendez used multi-colored candy to represent different types of fish such as juveniles and adults.

3 Some versions also include props for different fishing gear or plates for no-fishing areas. The specifics can be tweaked for relevance to a region’s laws and threats.

“Participants always learn new insights into sustainable fisheries management, fisheries economics or the fishing industry in general.” -Ashley Apel of EDF. 

In Loreto, Mexico, Mendez had fishers use spoons and tongs for nets and hook-and-line fishing because those are their primary fishing methods. Many of Rare’s projects on sustainable fishing, including those managed by Mendez, use the game to highlight how working together and different management tools increase long-term benefits for fishers.

Mendez took the Loreto fishers through three rounds of the game:

Rare Conservation Fellow Yusuf Syaifudin leads fishers in Indonesia in a version of Go Fish! where plates represent no-fishing areas.

Round 1 Anarchy — in a fixed amount of time, say 60 seconds, fishers had open access to candy (fish) on the table (ocean). They emptied the ocean very quickly.

Round 2 One Management tool — for example, the fishers could only take adult fish and were fined, in candy payments, for taking juveniles.

Round 3 Rights and reserves — the rules are adapted for additional management layers such as user rights and no-fishing zones. Essentially, Mendez tweaked the rules so fishers created a candy-land territorial user right for fisheries with a no-fishing zone (TURF-reserve).

The game got a huge laugh out of the salt-stained and sun-weathered men. Even though they are savvy fishers and know the consequences of overfishing, they could not believe they hoarded all the candy. “Participants always learn new insights into sustainable fisheries management, fisheries economics or the fishing industry in general,” says Ashley Apel of EDF.

Mendez discovered that fishers who play the game conclude they should play a role in enforcement. Fishers do not need to depend on authorities, rather they can apply sanctions internally against their fishing cooperative members who do not follow the rules of “Go Fish!”

“I want to get people to recognize and appreciate the nature where they live; value it more and reach harmony between man and nature.” ~Rare Conservation Fellow Germán Montero

B95 has flown to the moon and is well on his metaphorical return to Earth. At nearly 20 years old, the robin-sized red knot every year flies 20,000 miles round-trip from Tierra del Fuego to its breeding grounds in the Canadian Arctic, and back. Since 1985, the year B95 was first banded, the red knot population has declined by 80 percent.

In 2008, Rare partnered with Manomet Center for Conservation Sciences and multiple local partners in Argentinian Patagonia to help protect the wintering habitat of these incredible long-distance aviators. Through Rare’s signature Pride campaign, Rare Conservation Fellow Germán Montero deployed marketing tactics, including stickers, theater productions and a red knot mascot, to give the community a positive message about the shorebirds. Montero outlined a clear plan to reduce garbage and pollution, which, unsurprisingly, threatens shorebird habitat. His plan gave residents meaningful, manageable paths of action. According to Charles Duncan, director of the shorebird recovery project at Manomet, Montero catalyzed an intellectual and emotional connection to shorebirds within the local community. “We’ve been infected by Rare’s mechanism,” says Duncan. “I would love to partner with Rare at other shorebird sites in the way Rare has profoundly focused on fisheries.”

Duncan recalls a conversation he had with Paul Butler, Rare’s senior vice president of global programs: Paul said, “Training a fellow to do just one campaign is like training a brain surgeon to do one operation.”

A Red Knot mascot dances on the beach at San Antonio Bay, Argentina thanks to Fundación Inalafquen who ran a sister campaign to Montero’s.

In August 2012, Montero — with the support of Rare, Manomet, The David and Lucile Packard Foundation and local partners — visited the island of Chiloe off the Chilean coast to mentor a community organizer to run a Pride campaign. (Montero, no stranger to replication, has already run a second campaign in his home of Rio Gallegos, Argentina.) In Chiloe the objectives will be the same: reduce coastal trash to protect migrating shorebirds like the whimbrel and Hudsonian godwit. “My vision for the future is the same as when I started my work with the red knot,” says Montero. “I want to get people to recognize and appreciate the nature where they live; value it more and reach harmony between man and nature.”

photos – red knot: Art Morris; hudsonian godwit: Blair Nikula; whimbrel: Brad Winn, Manomet

Montero is not the only alumnus proliferating the Pride process. Rare Conservation Fellow Luis López completed his Pride campaign in early 2012 in Ecuador to protect critical watershed habitat and species. López now mentors municipal employees to run campaigns in three different areas, all in Ecuador: the Amazon River basin, a coastal community and a dry highland area. “We have tried to choose sites that are really diverse,” says López. “It will give us experience to replicate in even more sites. These three campaigns will be a model upon which we will learn.”

“I have more confidence, since I already ran a campaign. I know the path.” ~ Rare Conservation Fellow Luis López

The abbreviated training will cover marketing components found in traditional Pride campaigns — such as the mascot, song, slogan, etc. — to mobilize community support. The program will also establish innovative reciprocal agreements between upstream and downstream villages to maintain water production and quality. “I have a lot of hope,” says López. “I have more confidence, since I already ran a campaign. I know the path.”

Ten of the 11 Rare Conservation Fellows in Micronesia take a break from their studies.

After two years of planning and an intensive effort to recruit the best and brightest Rare Conservation Fellows in Micronesia, I am thrilled to report that we have launched the program and the 11 chosen fellows are exceeding our highest expectations. They represent all jurisdictions of the Micronesia Challenge — a regional initiative to conserve 30 percent of near-shore areas and 20 percent of the land.

The tiny islands of Micronesia harbor more than 1,300 species of reef fish, 85 species of birds and 1,400 species of plants — 200 of which are found only in Micronesia. Endangered species such as the hawksbill turtle, Napoleon wrasse, and giant clam can still be found in sizable numbers in the crystalline waters of the Western Pacific. The region also boasts about 60 percent of the world’s coral species and sustains some of the best remaining large tuna fisheries.

Rare’s program, in collaboration with the Micronesia Conservation Trust, aims to mobilize community support and leadership to reduce key man-made threats to these island ecosystems while also preserving Micronesia’s unique culture and honor a way of life that has depended on the ocean’s wealth for millennia.

With this daunting challenge ahead of them, the Rare Conservation Fellows stepped off the plane in Palau in early July with heads full of excitement, ideas, concerns and questions as to how they as individuals could ever hope to influence their communities and catalyze necessary change. After an intense seven weeks building concept models and developing a theory of change for each of their islands’ unique threats and cultural nuances, the fellows returned to their communities to conduct in-depth interviews and focus groups with key stakeholders. This qualitative data will inform broader quantitative surveys to get at the heart of what can motivate behavior change needed to conserve both the cultural and natural uniqueness of the region. Volunteers recruited by the fellows will help distribute carefully-crafted surveys to hundreds of local residents that ensure scientifically significant results about knowledge, attitude and behavior shifts over the course of the project.

The fellows’ dedication motivated all of us on the Rare team to make sure they received and continue to receive the best learning experiences possible. They started with a great foundation of knowledge and ambition, which challenged us to raise the bar. The fellows are a diverse group: one fellow, Jane Dia, spent some time growing up in the United States and will run her marketing campaign on Guam, a territory that sometimes can feel more like a far-flung U.S. state than a remote Pacific island. Whereas, on the far-eastern rim of the region, Milner Okney, from the Marshall Islands, works on the atoll of Majuro in a community that still retains many traditional elements and governance structures of a Micronesia of several hundred years ago. Thus, they all have something different to offer and motivate each other as colleagues and peers. It is exciting to observe such a host of experiences come together to improve learning for everyone. I am looking forward to these campaigns generating interesting and impressive results.

The remote islands of Micronesia span nearly the length and breadth of the United States.

Rare Conservation Fellow Wida Sulistyaningrum poses in front of “The Bean” in Chicago.

I arrived early at the embassy. I had rehearsed potential questions friends had told me officials ask in the visa application interview. I spent a week filling out the right forms. I brought a photo of my baby girl and husband to prove that I will come back to Indonesia for my family. I was so nervous during the hour that I waited for my interview. I had never left the country and I was going to the United States, if I could get a visa.

I got it! 

I bought new clothes, a dress, a coat and shoes. It was really fun to prepare for the trip. I was nervous that I would get lost in the United States, but the most nervous moment was when I rehearsed telling my story. What if the guests cannot understand what I’m saying or if I make a wrong word to express my feelings?

My trip took me all across the United States to tell my story: Washington, Philadelphia, New York, Chicago, Palo Alto, San Francisco and El Paso. At the first dinner in Philadelphia, I relaxed. I felt so touched by what people said to me. They showed a huge appreciation for what I have done so far. And I experienced the same kindness from all of the people that I met. I wish I could bring all of my team from Kaimana to meet everyone. They also deserve this appreciation.

My first impression of the United States was that it is well-organized. In Indonesia everything is a mess. I loved all of the new things I ate. My favorite was a hot dog. It was the first time I ate a hot dog. I had never been on a subway before, or a cable car. It was my first time to see a gas fireplace. My first time going above the 6th floor, I was on the 48th with a view of the Empire State Building! I had a piña colada in San Francisco. This drink made me a bit dizzy. Maybe this is the feeling my friend said is tipsy. I never felt it before. I couldn’t believe I stayed at the Hilton Hotel in Manhattan, even though I didn’t see Paris Hilton. I went through a drive-thru pharmacy. They don’t have that in Indonesia.

My world is upside down with my trip to the United States. When I was running my campaign with Rare I had to sleep on the floor with no electricity, eat anything the community served, get sunburned in the rough sea and a lot of uncomfortable things. But when I was in the United States, it was all worth it. Everything is great. I cannot stop thinking about it. I am so grateful for what I was able to do.

Read more about Wida:

Rare Conservation Fellow Gankhuyag “Gaana” Balbar shows off his catch for the camera before releasing it back to the river.

In December 2011, Rare Conservation Fellow Gankhuyag “Gaana” Balbar left the Onon River banks in northern Mongolia for Auckland, New Zealand, to promote his work on a huge but vanishing species. Though the first International Taimen Symposium received little public attention, it catalyzed a reversal of fate for the world’s largest salmon. In Auckland, Balbar presented the Pride campaign he ran in partnership with Rare from 2009 to 2010. The campaign aimed to protect the Hucho taimen (or Mongolian taimen) by engaging local fishers in an innovative marketing campaign and catch-and-release program. “When I showed the results of the campaign it made big attention [sic],” says Balbar. “We also provided biological information to the IUCN [International Union for Conservation of Nature] team.”

In October, an international team of scientists listed the Mongolian taimen as vulnerable on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. Inclusion on a list of endangered species may seem like a fatalistic conservation goal, but in this case it is a success story. Balbar and his colleagues at World Wildlife Fund inspired people all over Mongolia, Asia and the world to fight for the taimen. The IUCN listing validates serious concern for the species and warrants that it needs protection.

Five species of taimen exist in Asia. In fact, modern-day salmon and trout evolved from the taimen. “The species’ natural range is vast, amounting to nearly one-eighth of the land area on Earth,” says Pete Rand, senior conservation biologist with the Wild Salmon Center. Despite the taimen’s expansive range, habitat loss and overfishing have decimated this top predator of Asia’s and Europe’s river systems. Also known as “river wolves” because of their voracious appetites, their length can exceed two meters (six and a half feet). Their impressive growth is fueled by a varied diet with everything from ducks to salmon to bats and other small mammals.

“Because of Rare, I communicate with my audiences with inspiration and encourage the desired behavior.”

“One of the most important conservation measures that we identified in our assessment of the taimen is educating recreational anglers on responsible catch-and-release practices,” says Rand. “He [Balbar] is on the front lines of this work, and his dedication is making the real difference.”

In the Onon River community — fabled birthplace of Genghis Khan — locals now call Balbar “Taimen Gaana.” He successfully changed attitudes and behaviors of fishers through a simple concept: “Take a picture. It lasts longer.” Balbar creatively marketed the increased value of leaving fish in the river. At the end of his campaign, Balbar saw a statistically significant 40-percentage-point increase in fishers’ understanding of fishing laws, and 250 taimen were released with pictures to prove it. Billboards of proud fishers with their soon-to-be-liberated trophies adorn the community and encourage habitat, as well as species, protection. “Because of Rare, I communicate with my audiences with inspiration and encourage the desired behavior,” says Balbar.

To maintain momentum, Balbar and his colleagues plan to expand the marketing campaign throughout Mongolia.

Local women in Mongolia learn about taimen conservation.

For the fourth year in a row, Rare is the recipient of a substantial funding award from Disney Club Penguin through its “Coins For Change” program. This year, Club Penguin, thanks to the passion and support of its online community, is donating $150,000 to be used for conservation projects in China and Latin America.

Club Penguin is an online, virtual world for kids, where, in the form of a colorful penguin avatar, children can join the interactive community, engage in fun activities, chat and play games with friends. Children earn virtual coins for participating in activities and playing games, which they use to buy fun items for their penguins.

Every holiday season, Club Penguin gives its players the opportunity to rally together and make an impact in the real world by playing games in the online world. The players can donate their virtual coins to different real-world causes. These donations in the game serve as a real world vote, so kids help decide how a $1 million cash donation will be split among three causes that provide medical help, build safe places to live and protect the Earth.

• More than 13.7 billion virtual coins were donated this year, 1.2 billion more coins than the 2010 record number!

Watch this video from Club Penguin to see the full results:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rvEfn02R5Iw

Rare is proud to be among the organizations that benefit from the generosity of this program and the members of Club Penguin’s global-player community!