Audubon Society Fosters Conservation In Latin America and the Caribbean
By Alejandro Grajal, Executive Director, and Ricardo Stanoss, Program Officer

For nearly a century, the National Audubon Society has been committed to inspiring individuals and providing them with scientific information to make knowledgeable environmental choices. With 650 Chapters across the Americas, 650,000 members, 28 field offices, and more than 50 environmental centers and sanctuaries, Audubon is uniquely positioned to promote the creation of a culture of conservation. The Latin America and Caribbean Program takes Audubon's tradition of environmental leadership to a region that harbors some of the biologically richest ecosystems in the world.

The first decades of the new century will be the last chance for humanity to stem massive ecological deterioration. Audubon feels that the best, and perhaps the only sustainable solution is to foster a culture of conservation with active participation of local citizens. Without this transformation, the conservation of much of the hemisphere's natural resources is a dimming hope.

We are encouraged by many signs of environmental consciousness in the traditional and rural cultures as well as in the modern urban centers of Latin America. The National Audubon Society created the Latin America and Caribbean Program to promote a culture of conservation by empowering citizens with our traditional strengths of science, education, and environmental action.

THE SCHOOLYARD ECOLOGY INITIATIVE:
SAVING BIODIVERSITY BY EMPOWERING LOCAL TEACHERS AND SCIENTISTS
The Schoolyard Ecology Initiative develops local leadership and awareness with the objective of turning local communities from spectators into protagonists to the fate of their immediate environment. Through training workshops, we provide teams of schoolteachers and scientists in Latin America with the tools to formulate relevant questions in sciences, mathematics, language, and arts using the schoolyard. Participants learn to devise their own questions by following four simple but powerful guiding principles: Questions have to 1) be answerable; 2) be comparative; 3) be fun, attractive and exciting; 4) avoid scientific jargon and the use of sophisticated scientific equipment. Then teachers and their students can design methods that are appropriate for them, find answers, and originate new questions depending on the outcome. Through this sequence, called the "Cycle of Inquiry", students and teachers learn to operate like scientists: learning science through experience, and stimulating critical thinking.

The Schoolyard Ecology Workshops promote tight collaboration between teachers and local biologists working together in their local ecosystems. Ecologists provide teachers with inspiration, information and professional growth, as well as a much-needed confidence boost. In turn, teachers provide local ecologists with a local 'reality check', a sense of meaning and purpose while applying robust science to local conservation issues. These interactions generate long-lasting collaborations that consolidate and strengthen working teams. Our training also helps teachers to cover their specific curricular needs and avoid an additional burden on the already-heavy teaching requirements.

By combining our training workshops with especially developed technical support and materials (manuals and videos), the Schoolyard Ecology Initiative has exposed hundreds of teachers and naturalists, rapidly reaching tens of thousands of children and their families.

A NEW APPROACH AT COMMUNITY-BASED CONSERVATION: PEOPLE AS SCIENTISTS.
Audubon understands that to develop sustainable solutions, a new approach for conservation has to build connections at various scales: classrooms, schools, communities, local leadership and ecological landscapes. Through direct contact with nature, teachers, students, and scientists learn to appreciate, understand and conserve biologically diverse ecosystems.

Audubon's efforts in Latin America are focused on encouraging citizen participation in scientific programs that engage their curiosity, increase awareness, and provide relevant information. By applying simple methods to gather data, we make science available to non-scientists. We are engaging the public in observing nature, designing local bird guides, and participating in birding festivals and biodiversity surveys. One of our most exciting collaborations with the public is BirdSource [http://birdsource.cornell.edu]: a powerful Web-based alliance of citizens and scientists working together to identify, track, and monitor bird populations and conservation landscapes. We are building a citizen science network of hundreds of thousands of participating citizens across the Americas, from Alaska to Tierra del Fuego.

The mission of the National Audubon Society is to conserve and restore natural ecosystems, focusing on birds, other wildlife, and their habitats for the benefit of humanity and the earth's biological diversity.

For information: Alejandro Grajal, Executive Director. Latin America and Caribbean Program National Audubon Society. 444 Brickell Avenue. Suite 850. Miami FL 33131. USA Tel 305-371-6399 * Fax 305-371-6398 * E-mail Agrajal@audubon.org * http://www.audubon.org/local/latin/