Ivan C. Gayler - "Save the rainforest!"

Ivan C. Gayler is founder and chairman of Nature and Culture International , a nonprofit organization that has been recognized as the largest conservation organization in Ecuador and has saved over five million acres of Amazon rainforest in Peru.
In 2010, Ivan was selected to receive the San Diego Zoological Society's prestigious Conservation Medal. This Medal has, in 44 years, been awarded to conservation luminaries such as Jane Goodall, Edward O. Wilson, Prince Philip, and many others.

Why has Nature and Culture International been so successful in South America where other conservation groups have failed?

"Nature and Culture is a group of people with a local vision," explains Fabián Rodas, biologist and regional coordinator.

"We don't have a fixed model. We don't tell people what to do. Instead, we build our conservation process from the local level. Ideas come from the bottom. We do not impose an outsider's vision of conservation," explains Bruno Paladines, ecologist and community development organizer.

Renzo Paladines, Director of Nature & Culture-Ecuador, sums it up in two words. "We're here." (Note that most of Nature & Culture's 60 person staff grew up in the very same local communities that are involved in it's conservation programs)

Nature and Culture International's mission is focused on a respect for local culture, as explained by Ivan C. Gayler, founder,
"In our view, no policy or action can possibly succeed without the acceptance and support of those who live in the vicinity of endangered places."

Vist http://www.natureandculture.org

This short video segment is an except from the American Public Television film "Following Dreams" by IronZeal Films, produced and directed by Susan Polis Schutz. Used by permission.

Category:

Nonprofits & Activism

Tags:

• conservation
• rainforest
• sustainable conservation

[inchicapidegallina]

Brilliant video on how the sight of massive deforestation in the Amazon persuaded a man to leave his job to protect the Amazon and its cultural and biological diversity. Great work!