Thursday, May 26

Jos Nolle Visits Cerro Blanco


On May 9th, we were visited by Jos Nolle, Chair, International Development of Niagara College, Canada. Jos is a long time friend of the Pro-Forest Foundation and Cerro Blanco. For more than 10 years, Jos has been a enthusiastic link between students from Niagara College and our foundation.
Through their internships, several innovative projects have been carried out at CerroBlanco, including the design and construction of our hummingbird and wildlife garden, the design and construction of artificial nest boxes for endangered Great Green Macaw's and the design and construction of our "Avenue of the Birds" self-guided nature trail.


In his capacity as a Rotary Club member, Jos Nolle led a successful fundraising  campaign among more than 10 Rotary Clubs in Canada and the US, which led to the construction of our Foliage Gleaner Ecolodge. With the support of Jos and Niagara College, two Canadian university students, Daniella Mastracci and Shazia Khan recently completed internships with the Pro-Forest Foundation and supported our work in key areas, especially community outreach through the environmental education programs at our community environmental education center at Puerto Hondo, work the implementation of organic home gardens with our community park guards, among other projects.
We look forward to continuing to work with Jos and Niagara College and say "muchas gracias" for all your support.

Wednesday, May 25

Creating Awareness Abroad


Christine Parrow, Instructor
As the saying goes, the flutter of a butterfly's wings in Ecuador (or in this case, the flap of a macaw's wings) is felt all the way in upstate New York! Our dear friend, Jane Johnson has helped make the connection with Christine Parrow. Christine lives in the beautiful Catskill Mountains of New York State in the middle of a forest reserve (that sounds familiar!). She teaches art at the State University of New York at Sullivan County, and in her own words, "I always encourage my students to learn about the environment and environmental issues through projects and classwork. When I heard about Cerro Blanco in Ecuador and the amazing work you all do there to provide protection for the animals, birds and plants, I wanted to share it with my class".
Classroom 1
Classroom 2
Classroom 3 copy
Cerro Blanco sign
DRAWINGS
By Mike Daigle
By Jeralyn Walters
By Jillian Alexander 
By Nina Stewart
By Kaylan Cemelli
By Martin White
By Latoya George
By Carlee Maree
By Kaylan Cemelli
Christine showed her class our DVD on Cerro Blanco and she said the students "were all amazed". She said they especially related to the Great Green Macaw, "which is so magnificent but endangered". "We did not know about the dry tropical forest. Here we have rain and/or snow throughout the year. The reforestation project is inspiring, and the commitment of the staff and local people to keep the forest undeveloped, got a thumbs up from all of us".
We thank Christine and her students for their much appreciated support and for sharing their beautiful drawings with us. We hope you can someday come and visit us and meet our resident artist of sorts, Eduardo Jaime, who just produced some beautiful new mammal ID guides and who is also featured in a current exhibition of painted horses by well known artists in the city of Guayaquil. Eduardo manages to include natural elements in his rendition of "derzu" named after the famous hunter/tracker Dersu Uzala, of the famous Kurosawa film by the same name.
Mammals in Cerro Blanco (Front)
Mammals in Cerro Blanco (Back)



By Eduardo Jaime Arias







From the website http://arteurbano.com.ec/detalle-artista.php?aid=1001,"The work of Eduardo Jaime is constructed with patience and talent, in a series of thematic units that comprehends his particular vision of our natural surroundings. In the period of vegetation, his painting is transfigured, the same occurs with the animals and birds, reminiscences of those things that from an early age caused him amazement. Many of the themes intermix the visual splendor with a rich chromatics charged with meaning. This fecund dialogue conducts the painter to a organized esthetic exposition in which the deep root of equilibrium and order stands out. Eduardo Jaime not only is dedicated to capturing appearances, but also aspires to embody in them the total presence of image and spirit".



Coral Snake on the horse




Urban Art Guayaquil 2011 "Horses of Color" is an initiative that is inspired in the well known "Cow Parade" that was born in 1998 in Switzerland and which has toured some of the most important cities of the world, Zurich, Chicago, New York, Sydney, Houston, London, Santiago de Chile, Buenos Aires and Quito, Ecuador. 

Urban Art in Guayaquil 2011 "Horses of Color" is a cultural window that is integrated by 31 life sized figures of four emblematic horse races. They have converted in canvasses for famed artists from Guayaquil, "The Pearl of the Pacific" to show their creativity.



Details on the horse