El Salvador EplerWood International will focus on developing financial sustainability strategies for El Salvador's parks and sea turtle conservation programs in 2010, as an extension to their work in the country from 2007-2009, funded by USAID. Megan Epler Wood will help design a Plan for Tourism Concessions, focusing on tourism in Montecristo National Park, home to the biosphere reserve cloud forest ecosystem known as El Trifinio which is shared by El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras. This underutilized park has excellent infrastructure for camping and day visits, and an historic farm house that dates to the earliest colonial settlements in the country. The project's task will be to work with MARN, the Ministry of Natural Resources, to develop a program that will allow socially responsible business to operate authorized tourism businesses in the park, while generating revenue for local well being and environmental conservation. On El Salvador's coastline, a dramatic and total ban on the harvest of all sea turtle eggs in early 2009 has led to an emergency effort by USAID to support the conservation of sea turtle nests and help provide alternative livelihoods to local people. Four of the six species of the world's endangered sea turtles come to the beaches of El Salvador to lay their eggs, and it is estimated that up to 99% of the eggs are stolen from nests and sold for human consumption, regardless of species. El Salvador has the majority of nests of the Eastern Pacific hawksbill turtles, one of the world's most endangered sea turtle populations. In 2010, the EWI team will work with local partners to establish the best sites for visitors to view sea turtles, develop protocols for tourism visitors, and launch an educational tourism program that will benefit conservation, educate local youth, and help egg collectors to generate a new form of income that is not dependent on destroying the endangered turtles. See latest In the News update and view a slide show on most recent news on a successful pilot student tour to the San Blas beach of El Salvador.
Links In the News Slide Show of American School Turtle Tour Map of Western El Salvador EcoExperiencias El Salvador website
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