Hola from Nicaragua,

As most of you know, UniversitÁrea Protegida Nicaragua (UÁP) began in 2003 as a grass roots program aimed at supporting Nicaraguan university students and rural community youth. Throughout the last 4 years, thanks to your support, we have funded interesting and important environmental and socio-economic research in rural areas, motivated rural youth by giving them access to the university community, changing people’s lives in positive ways and helping provide opportunities for some of the most passionate people I have ever met.

As of January 1rst, 2008, UÁP operations are on hold, possibly indefinitely, for a number of reasons. As I saw the direction the program (and my life) was going throughout the last year, I made a conscious decision to focus on the sustainability of our work in the field, and less on the sustainability of UÁP as an organization. My fund raising time was minimized, and I spent more time trying to prepare our local staff and main contacts in the rural communities for our departure.

As I sit here in Leon, Nicaragua, and reflect on the work we have done, the people we have met and become close with, and the positive changes I have been witness to, I grapple with the definition of sustainability. I hope that our work is continued by the people we have become so close with in the rural areas. I believe it will be.

One of our last activities was helping Noami, a young student from Padre Ramos, in the university application process, which includes an entrance exam. After taking the study course, and many hours of preparing, she sat down to take the test in early January. Shortly thereafter, Noami got word that she passed the test, and has since been awarded a full scholarship to study at the university here in Leon. I see Noami on a regular basis and we often talk about the impact the UÁP supported university students from Leon who lived in her community had on her. She used to spend almost every afternoon with them, getting help with her homework, and dreaming about studying at the university herself. She was inspired to continue her studies, and now Noami can return the favor and service by inspiring those from her community who will follow her. That to me is sustainability, and it has more to do with the actions of the people where we have worked, than any project or organization. Our role is to plant seeds. Sustainable development takes time, and it takes dedication, and I am confident that those who we have helped, like Noami and many others, recognize that they have the responsibility to give something back to their community, and they will do so.

There are many young people like Noami who have been impacted by our work, and I thank Earth Island Institute, and our wide support base, for making this possible. I want you to know that the seeds we have planed in rural communities around the country are growing into healthy trees that are creating forests in Nicaragua that will continue to grow strong in generations to come.

Muchas Gracias,
Olin Cohan
Director, UÁP Nicaragua

UÁP Highlights

2003

• UÁP accepted as a project of Earth Island Institute, August 2003.
• UÁP establishes cooperation agreement with UNAN Leon, a well-established and respected university in Leon Nicaragua, November 2003.

2004

• UÁP staff selects 15 biology and tourism students to participate in the UÁP program, January, 2004.
• 6 weeks of environmental education training program organized and conducted by UÁP staff, February and March of 2004.
• Mid-service UÁP student conference unites students to talk about their experiences living and working in natural reserves, re-iterating the importance of the UÁP program and the impact students have on rural youth, August, 2004.
• Nicaraguan lunch/fund-raising events in Sonoma County greatly expand UÁP’s membership base and inform interested groups of people about the social/environmental movement in Nicaragua, January, 2004/July, 2004.
• UÁP organizes Expansion through Exposure trip that includes a group of 29 youth, 13 university students and 3 staff on an excursion to Tisey Estanzuela, October 2004.
• UÁP student coordinator Ofelia Arteaga selected to present thesis work in an international biology/ecology conference in Managua, November, 2004. 

2005

• UÁP hosts a group of 20 university students from Saint Mary’s College and USF.  As part of a course in sustainable development offered by The Foundation for Sustainable Development, UÁP students presented research and environmental education program in two protected areas, as well as organize a conference with UÁP’s counterpart university, UNAN-Leon, January 2005.   
• UÁP trains second year’s student groups.  The training course consists of 2 weeks in the city of Leon covering the environmental education curriculum and social themes, and two weeks in the field preparing research topics, April, 2005.
• UÁP works with two new departments of UNAN-Leon, supporting Social Work, and agro-ecology students in their field work. The addition of these departments adds to UÁP’s ability to positively impact rural communities throughout the country, April 2005.
• UÁP receives $21,000 grant from the Conservation, Food, and Health Foundation to support conservation and environmental education activities in rural communities, June 2005.
• UÁP students and technical team organize second annual Expansion Through Exposure trip.  The excursion involved youth groups from around the country in environmental and social activities in the natural reserve Tisey Estanzuela, October 2005.

2006

• UÁP environmental workshops: In an effort to make sure that rural communities are able to use important information regarding their natural resources, UÁP starts giving environmental workshops in protected areas where scholarship students conducted a variety of ecological and social research.
• UÁP sponsored youth group initiates sea turtle conservation project: The Padre Ramos youth group, begun by UÁP social work students in 2005, take the future of the leather back sea turtles into their own hands by initiating a sea turtle egg nursery in their community. With the experience of a few of their members who had been involved in sea turtle conservation training courses, the youth group walks the beach every night collecting eggs and re-buries  them in a guarded nursery.
• UÁP student coordinators Gerald Camacho and Ofelia Arteaga spend the last week of October in Antigua, Guatemala presenting their bird research in the Mesoamerican Biology and Conservation Society Conference. The annual conference is the most recognized gathering of biologists and ecologists in the Mesoamerican region, which includes Panama, Costa Rica, Nicaragua, El Salvador, Honduras, Guatemala, Belize, and Southern Mexico. The two presentations were highly attended and roused much interest in the growing Nicaraguan environmental movement which aims to involve local communities in conservation efforts.

2007

• Former UÁP sponsored Biology and Ecology students continue to organize and conducted conservation workshop to community members and teachers in Padre Ramos on birds and mangroves. The workshop combined the two themes and showed their connection.
• Former UÁP student publishes a 70 page colored bird manual of local bird species of Padre Ramos. The manual is given to all of the workshops’ participants and teachers, and is being used in schools and by community members to monitor species, and in eco-tourism activities with visitors.
• A 4 page laminated mangrove guide is designed by UÁP students and distributed to community members and teachers in Padre Ramos and a 6 page laminated guide to the scarlet macaw is distributed in the Volcán Cosiguina area.
• UÁP works closely with rural farmers in the communities around the Tisey Estanzuela reserve on a socio-economic study of 40 members involved in the creation of a cooperative. UÁP sends two Social Work students from UNAN Leon to the area to conduct surveys, which was developed in coordination with the cooperative and UÁP staff, to gather information about the community members’ living conditions, farming techniques, income, expectations for the cooperative, and more. In July of 2007, the UÁP students and staff present the results of the study to all 40 members of the cooperative, and help them take their first steps in the development of a long term strategic plan.
• Youth group members in Padre Ramos re-structure local governing committee and UÁP sends former UÁP students to conduct leadership workshop to the new committee, training them in project development, proposal writing, and leadership skills. This was an important step in the sustainability of UÁP’s work in Padre Ramos, and we were able to see that many of the activities UÁP has supported in the area will be continued by the local youth group members, and the leadership committee.
• UÁP supports Noami Alvarado in the university application process, and she passes her entrance exam and is due to start classes in February.