Four Indigenous Wounaan and Emberá-Wounaan villages in Panama’s Darién forest are testing a new way to fund conservation of the land they live on, Mongabay reports.
Working with the FSC Indigenous Foundation, Health In Harmony and the biodiversity credit company Savimbo, the communities have used sound recorders and camera traps across 18,000 hectares of forest. They have documented more than 200 species, including jaguars, Baird’s tapirs and crested eagles, at least 15 of them threatened.
The records give the villages a baseline they can use to sell biodiversity credits, creating income for protecting the forest in a region with few economic options. Community member Samuel Cheucarama says the project is already changing habits, with neighbours now talking about putting up no-hunting signs.
Source: Mongabay