Honduras 2010

I figured out an easier way to share photos and more importantly Angie came through big and brought me a camera. Just click one the photo and you will be taken to my Picasasite where you can view a few other photos from the area that I will be working in. Most of these pictures were taken on a trip that Angie and I took up to a small village called Las Marias. It was a 6 hour motorized canoe ride up the muddy and flood swollen Rio Platano river. But there was plenty to see. We caught glimpses of parrots and tucans. There is also a photo of hanging bird nests of the montezuma oropendola. Here is someone else's picture of the bird. http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f0/Montezuma_Oropendola_-_male.jpg
We also visit a small farm that grows caoba (mahogany), cedro (tropical cedar), cocoa, coffee, and bananas. In the last 10 years, the owner Don Francisco, has planted more than 5,000 trees. He has a small fortune in mahogany trees that will be ready to be cut within the next 5 years. He is already planting new trees to be cut within the next twenty years. His farm is definitely unique in the area especially considering tha most Caoba trees are illegally logged from these supposedly protected forests. He sets a excellent example for many of the other farms on how to operate an agroforesty system that can sustain a family and create substantial monetary income. The idea to replant the valuable caoba and cedro in their native soil came from my adviser, Erik Nielsen, some 12 years ago when Erik was working in the area as a peace corp volunteer. Don Francisco may have been the only person to take his advice. Now the value of that investment is well know and admired in the region.
Erik also helped lead workshops to discuss how the people of Las Marias should develop a community operated ecotourism system, which also tourists like myself to explore the heart of the Rio Platano Biosphere Reserve. It is inspiring to see the project is still alive and well. It also provides evidence that conservation economical opportunity can be achieved simultaneously when communities are empowered to make decision about local projects, rather than having these projects super imposed over their lands.
We ended our stay in the community with a midnight crocodile search, in which we slipped into the back water canals of the Rio Platano. Experiencing the narrow vine tangled waters in a pipante (a tippy, shallow, river canoe) was an exhilarating adventure. I think we were all a little relieved that we found no crocodilios.

I have in fact been doing some work for my project. The time I have spent in Belen and Nueva Jerusalem was focused on meeting community leaders, organizing a community meeting, and hiring assistants to help administer the survey. Erik's connections in the community are certainly the only way that a project like this would be possible. His work here during Peace Corp and his continued support of the communities through a scholarship program afford him a well deserved "confiansa" among community leaders.

Now that Erik has returned to the states the challenge of getting the research project running is squarely on my shoulders. I admit, I wish my spanish was a lot better! Its very difficult to conduct work in spanish when I have what amounts to survival spanish. For the most part, people here seem to be willing to help me and are have great interest in how to gain community land title and how to prevent land sales which lead to massive clear cuts. Drug trafficking is also becoming a serious problem in the area and may be leading to more land purchasing for cattle ranching, as a means to launder drug money. We don't have any specific questions about such things but by observing and listening this problem has become rather apparent.

Well, its is my last day of vacation on the island of Utila. Angie leaves on Tuesday and I go back out to Nueva Jerusalem. Its been great to have her here, I have need the support. I think I am going to go out for my first ever open water dive. Taking the plunge-- Spence