By Roberto Soto Acosta | Project Consultant
As of November 29, 2022, GivingTuesday, the new Friends of the Forest project has become Growing Learning about a rare Tropical Ecosystem.[1] (Forest Growing Learning Project)
Our main focus will be the first inventory in over a decade of the Pterocarpus Forest’s flora, fauna and fungi and on securing financial support with which to carry out the project. The resultant "catalogue" will update and expand upon the Conservation Easement Supplemental Baseline Documentation Report carried out by the Fideicomiso de Conservación de Puerto Rico in December 2010.
The revised document will be colorful, bilingual, more comprehensive and on-line, providing user-friendly detailed descriptions of the natural features of the Forest, including discoveries and observations of new species over the past 13 years, including some that might be attributable to Hurricanes María and Irma in 2017. It is noteworthy that for years we’ve touted that the Forest is home to 96 species of flora and fauna, while recent, preliminary studies have already identified 167 species!
The estimated cost of the inventory and online publication is $12,500, of which we’ve raised nearly $3,000 ($750 on GlobalGiving), enough to begin the inventory component. We'll need additional support to turn the inventory results into the online catalogue.
The publication of the Forest Inventory catalogue will be a major element of our 10th anniversary celebration. It will have been a decade since the March 2013 signing of the Conservation Easement that established the Pterocarpus Forest as a nature reserve in Palmas del Mar open to the public, and on which day it opened.
This upcoming milestone in the Forest’s history provides us with the opportunity to launch a number of other important initiatives to sustain and enhance appreciation for the Pterocarpus ecosystem, for present and future generations. We want to share three of these with you here. And we welcome both your ideas and support.
Other anniversary activities will include:
The Friends of the Bosque (PHA Pterocarpus Forest, Inc.) are looking forward to another 10 years of successful forest conservation, education, passive recreation, and invaluable scientific discoveries. We hope you will visit the Forest soon, physically or virtually, and see for yourself the impact of your support!
[1]As noted in our past twoactivity reports, we have achieved the programmatic goal for this project, the Forest Tour App, so that we will be formally deactivating the Enable an encounter with a rare Pterocarpus Forest project on GlobalGiving.
Links:
By Antonio Maldonado | Secretary, Board of Directors
By Antonio Maldonado-Lopez | Board Secretary, PHA Pterocarpus Forest, Inc.
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