Green Antilles

Video from a WIDECAST (Wider Caribbean Sea Turtle Conservation Network) Field Training Workshop, “Monitoring Sea Turtle Populations on Caribbean Foraging Grounds”, Isla Culebra, Puerto Rico. 24-29 October 2011

Isla Culebra is a U.S. National Wildlife Refuge and the site of an important community-based turtle conservation project.

There’s a big renewable energy drive on in Puerto Rico. The latest project is the construction of a major solar power facility:

A French company says it will invest $115 million to build a 44-megawatt solar farm in Puerto Rico.

Fonroche said this week that the farm will be built on 160 acres (65 hectares) and will provide power to the state-owned electric company as part of a 20-year, $240 million contract.

Fonroche is the latest foreign renewable-energy company to invest in the U.S. Caribbean territory.

Virginia-based company AES Solar announced in October that it would build a solar energy project in southern Puerto Rico.

The island’s southern coast also will be home to the Caribbean’s largest wind farm in a project featuring 44 turbines built by San Francisco-based Pattern Energy.

Source.

The United States Department of Agriculture has an opening for a Soil Conservationist in Juana Diaz, Puerto Rico:

Key Requirements
U.S. Citizenship Required
Positive Education Required
Must be a Certified Conservation Planner
Fluent in both written and spoken Spanish and English

Duties
This position is on the Assistant State Conservationist (FO)’s staff. The incumbent will be responsible to assist the Soil and Water Conservation Districts(s) (SWCD) within the managerial unit in the development of a comprehensive natural resources conservation program. The incumbent will perform duties to achieve an integrated system of sound land use conservation treatment in harmony with the capability and needs of the land and landowner. In charge of developing natural resources conservation programs activities in cooperation with the SWCDs, partner agencies and other organizations. Serve as technical liaison to partners to answer questions and provide guidance concerning NRCS conservation programs and other natural resources conservation activities.

Get more information in the full vacancy notice. The deadline for applications is December 5, 2011.

Through a captive breeding programme, the Buffalo Zoo is helping in the conservation of the Puerto Rican Crested Toad (also known as el sapo concho puertorriqueño or Peltophryne lemur):

The teeny tadpoles are going on a big trip.

The Buffalo Zoo packed up the 46 threatened Puerto Rican crested tadpoles Tuesday for a flight that will take them first to Atlanta and then on to San Juan today for immediate release into the wild.

The Buffalo Zoo is one of seven in North America sending tadpoles during the fall breeding season to help restore the species, which is under assault due to habitat destruction. Thousands have been bred in Buffalo and returned since it began participating in the Association of Zoos and Aquariums’ Species Survival Plan more than 20 years ago.

“It’s great to be part of a conservation story as a keeper,” said Penny Felski, herpetology collections manager. “We care about animals, so when we can help the wild ones with their captive counterparts, it’s very rewarding.”

The last several years had been a bust, breedingwise, she said, probably because the adult toads were getting up there in years. “We’re really excited that we actually get to ship some tadpoles this year,” Felski said.

Before leaving the zoo, the tadpoles darted around clay pot pieces, plants, cork bark and coconut huts in their holding tanks. The objects offer additional surface area for the growth of algae, which the tadpoles eat.

The successful breeding took a lot of planning, beginning with simulating a rainy season. Hormone therapy also was used to get the females to lay their eggs and the males to release their sperm.

The mother was seven years old, the father four. Females are bigger, weighing an average of 90 to 100 grams, with males typically tipping the scales at around 30 to 40 grams.

Zookeepers put the toads through a hibernation period by cooling their body temperatures and reducing food intake so they will stay dormant for a week or so. Then, they started warming them, got them eating and bathed them to remove possible fungi that could be introduced into the wild.

A rainy season was simulated with recorded toad calls and a rain bar that sprinkled water.

The little tadpoles zipping around were proof of a mission accomplished.

Read more in the full article from the Buffalo News and at the Zoo’s website. The Zoo’s work is part of the Association of Zoos and Aquariums’ Species Survival Plan® programme.

The Puerto Rican Crested Toad has been classified as critically endangered (see also).

Some previous similar stories on Green Antilles: A conservation success story: the Grand Cayman Blue Iguana, Mountain chickens coming home to Montserrat, and Philadelphia Zoo helping to conserve Haitian frogs.

[Photo: U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Southeast Region]

I’ve posted before on Green Antilles about the decline of the Puerto Rican coffee industry (see also). One initiative to try to rescue the industry involves inviting the public to help bring in the coffee harvest:

About 400 people turned up on Saturday to partake in gathering coffee at Hacienda San Pedro in Jayuya, during the “Pick it up before it drops” campaign from Starbucks to raise awareness among Puerto Ricans about the industry and those who come to the farms to collect coffee beans between September and December each year.

Roberto Atienza, 56, owner of the 360 acre farm, has lived in Jayuya for 36 years and is the third generation of a family who, since 1921, has succeeded in harvesting a coffee product that has already become a national and internationally renowned product, with exports to places such as Japan.

Atienza recognizes that the popularity of the U.S. coffee shop chain Starbucks has led to this event — now in its sixth year — which has attracted nonprofit organizations, government agencies, students and people interested in living, at least for one day, the work experience of gathering coffee, something that has not changed in years, because everything is still done, as always, by hand.

“You see, there is work on the farm,” said Domingo Luis Rivera, who has spent 25 years working on the farm. Rivera said that the work has not changed, because there is no other way to accomplish coffee picking, if not by hand.

“Puerto Rico’s coffee is being lost. And that is partly our responsibility. So we are helping with activities like this one, to resolve this situation to some extent. People think that work input is at ‘normal’ production, but this is a call to take action to reveal that in less than a decade we will not have coffee,” said Rivera.

Read more in the full article from the Puerto Rico Daily Sun.

Previously on Green Antilles: Puerto Rico’s coffee production in drastic decline and Stakeholders strategise to save Puerto Rico’s coffee industry.

[Photo: Jose Oquendo]

The Conservation Trust of Puerto Rico (Fideicomiso de Conservación de Puerto Rico) has combined resources to implement a comprehensive citizen science program for individuals ages 12 and older. This project targets local residents, visitors to Hacienda La Esperanza Reserve, and members of the community. This video documents six citizen science environmental projects: archeology and human impacts on local ecosystems; conservation and restoration of wetlands; seed dispersal by bats and birds; ecology of coastal land crabs; flowering and fruiting patterns of local flora; and shoreline and coastal processes.

Three Puerto Ricans recently completed training that equips them to help monitor their condition of their island’s coral reefs and marine ecosystems:

In September, Nikole Ordway, Reef Check Florida Course Director, trained 3 volunteers from Puerto Rico as EcoDivers. These new Reef Check divers will launch Reef Check surveys in Puerto Rico.

The training started with a classroom session at Force-E Dive Centers in Pompano Beach, Florida. As part of the class they practiced a dry land survey where pictures of reef fish, invertebrates and impacts are placed along a transect line. This is a great way to practice before jumping in the water where communication is a bit more challenging.

The students geared up the next day for their dives on the reef to practice their surveying skills. The two sites they looked at had lots of reef fish, making it easy to practice which fish were indicators and non-indicators. Also on this reef there were a few bleached corals, which were useful to show the difference between bleached corals and other impacts like predation on corals.

To wrap up they took their EcoDiver ID exams and all three of them passed with flying colors!

…

Congratulations to Veronica, Sylmarie, and Alejandro…Reef Check Puerto Rico’s newest team!

Source: the Reef Check International website.

Previous related posts on Green Antilles: Happy 5th birthday to Reef Check Dominican Republic!, Youth in Haiti start training to become EcoDivers, and Reef Check training for marine park wardens in the Grenadines.

[Photo: Matthew Kraus]

Treehugger is running a series about environmentally-friendly rum production, and the producer they’re highlighting is Distillery Serallés, the makers of Puerto Rican DonQ rum:

To make a long story short: The manufacture of one of the world’s favorite spirits has been everything but clean and responsible.

Fortunately, some producers have begun to address these issues and the innovative systems they have implemented demonstrate that rum can make people feel good while doing some good, too.

Recently, TreeHugger had the opportunity to take a look at the art and science—as well as the clean and dirty—of making rum first-hand, thanks to a trip sponsored by Distillery Serrallés for members of the press.

Though the basic practice of making rum—or producing alcohol from sugar—is thousands of years old, several distillers—including Distillery Serrallés—are finding that major improvements can be made simply by addressing the impacts of each step of the production chain.

At the DonQ website, they declare:

DonQ is a pioneer among spirits producers when it comes to clean business practices. The process we use to clean up our waste did not exist until we invested millions of dollars and significant time and brainpower. It was a steep learning curve to connect a series of self-contained processes into an innovative cycle of waste treatment and energy harvest. In fact, our work is now being emulated by a number of other spirits producers, and may prove applicable even to other industries. Sadly however, most other rum producers in the Caribbean dump raw or partially treated waste directly into the ocean or into surface water, endangering these fragile ecosystems.

Find out more in the Treehugger article, as well as from donq.com. See also the Distillery Serallés website.

Previous rum-related posts on Green Antilles: Wind power for Bacardi’s Puerto Rico distillery, Cleaner production of Cruzan rum, and Distillery in Guyana goes green.