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ADOPT A RANGER |
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Languages without links have not yet been translated and we are looking for volunteers to help us with the translations. Nederlands is voor de helft klaar |
ENDORSEMENT BY KENTON MILLER AND OTHER RENOWNED CONSERVATIONISTS"The future of our ecosystem services and our
heritage depends upon park rangers. With the rapidity at which the challenges to
protected areas are both changing and increasing, there has never been more of a
need for well prepared human capacity to manage. Park rangers are the backbone of
national park management. They are on the ground. They work on the front line with
scientists, visitors, and members of local communities. This initiative provides
a solid mechanism to get support where it is most needed -- to the rangers, in
the parks." "What
a superb idea! While so many of us in the international
conservation community write about the needs, plan great strategies, seek
funding, influence policy, and in the process have endless meetings, the Rangers
are the ones out in the field doing the day-to-day work, often against great
odds and sometimes even putting their lives on the line. They deserve much
better support and we need many more of them. This is the backbone of nature conservation on the ground --- this is where it happens! So the Adopt-a-Ranger
Foundation is the right idea, at the right
time, and for the right reasons. It deserves hearty support from
individuals, from international organizations (both governmental and
non-governmental), from foundations, and from the private sector. This is a
simple, straightforward mechanism for getting the job done, where it counts, in
the field, one protected area at the time!" Vice Chairperson for the World Heritage of the World
Commission on Protected Areas, WCPA "I have worked in Central America
and particularly in Costa Rica for several decades now, and during my many years
as a scientists, I have learned to value the importance of rangers for
protected areas. I have seen them work in many different capacities, both socially and as
research assistants. I am absolutely convinced that without rangers in a
protected area, the areas cannot be durably managed and conserved. Most
countries in my region are desperately understaffed, and less than half have any
field staff at all. I warmly support the Adopt A Ranger initiative and hope
that this effort will get the broad support from the conservation community, as
well from the Climate change front that it deserves so that we can finally staff
each one of the national parks, nature reserves and other protected areas of the region of Meso-America and the Caribbean." TNC scientific director for the Meso-American and Caribbean Region "After having served the Honduran Forestry
Institution for many years, many of which as the head of the Protected Areas
Department, I have continuously struggled with the challenge of staffing our national
parks, nature reserves and other protected areas. While in the mid 1990 we still had about 100 staff for more
than 2,000,000 ha or about 17% of the territory of the country, we were able to
raise our staff to about 250 with a donation of the Global Environment Facility GEF. However, this was not structural, and when the GEF funding ended in 2005,
we had to discontinue the staff. As a result of the structural adjustment policy
negotiated between the Government of Honduras and the IMF, like many other
government institutions, COHDEFOR had to reduce its staffing level dramatically,
and when the GEF project had ended, there was no more staff at all dedicated
exclusively for the management of the protected areas. The current situation in
Honduras is desperate. It is a country with a large number of plant species
listed for Central America, it has the second largest surface of protected areas
in the region, as well as the largest single protected area, but no staff to
manage and protect the crucial biodiversity on the transition of Northern
temperate to Southern tropical ecosystems. Adopt A Ranger may be our last chance
to rescue the biodiversity of our country from being destroyed for ever" Protected areas specialist with TNC and former director of the Protected Areas department of COHDEFOR "Over the last 37 years, I have worked in the
engineering and development of the conservation movement in Costa Rica in a
variety of functions, including and specially, in the building of the national
system of protected areas, where I was its general director for almost two
decades. The former director who initiated the famous conservation areas system of Costa Rica "As
a former director of the Protected Areas Service of Bolivia, I strongly support
the Adopt A Ranger initiative. Bolivia has a very broad coverage of protected
areas, which are all managed in strong collaboration with local communities.
Unfortunately, the financing of field staff for all our protected areas has
never been possible, and many of our nature reserves are abandoned. Adopt A
Ranger is such an important initiative, because it focuses on the most dire
needs for our protected areas: it helps us resolve our field staff
deficiency!" Coordinator
of Redes de Conservación, "As a
former director of the Directorate of
Protected Areas of Peru (Intendencia de Áreas Naturales Protegidas" I
strongly endorse the initiative of Adopt A Ranger. Less than half the
national parks, nature reserves and other protected areas of Peru have any
rangers in the field and thus far, it has been impossible
for the Government of Peru to budget and assign enough field staff for all the
protected areas of the country. Peru is blessed with incredible scenic beauty
and is among the ten most species rich countries in the world. However, its
economical situation is not strong enough yet to pay for the costs to protect
all its protected areas and I am very pleased with the initiative of Adopt A
Ranger to address the ranger deficiency worldwide." Former director of the Directorate for Protected Areas of Peru "We launched the Adopt A Ranger Initiative to help solve what we believe to be the most pressing problem in nature conservation worldwide: the absence of field staff in the national parks, nature reserves and other protected areas, particularly the absence of park rangers. When after many years of trying to raise attention to this desperate situation, I decided to do initiate an organization that would specifically focus on this problem. I thought it was the right thing to do" Dr. Ir. Daan Vreugdenhil Director World Institute for Conservation and Environment President of Adopt A Ranger
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