Paseo Pantera... huh?

This is going to be the first post of many on this topic. As you can clearly see, Greengolingo is currently a pretty new blog, so there is plenty of time for expanding on topics and ideas. This particular post, however, is going to become a big topic over time because, well, i think that it is an extremely important conservation idea, and one that is largely unheard of right now.

A little background: The Central American isthmus (or landmass) links North and South America through a small corridor of land encompassing the countries of Costa Rica, Panama, Nicaragua, El Salvador, Belize, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, and Southern Mexico. This sliver of land has acted as an extremely important biotic corridor (i.e. link between N. and S. America for plants and animals) for the last 3-4 million years.

Proyecto Paseo Pantera, otherwise known as the MesoAmerican Biotic Corridor, is a hugely ambitious project designed to maintain the integrity of this biotic corridor by preserving land in an unbroken chain from Mexico through to Colombia. It's named after the Panther (Felis concolor), or cougar, which freely roams throughout the Americas.

What's amazing about this ambitious project, is that all countries involved have already signed on to participate and support the development of this project. The idea being, that economic growth through ecotourism can support the land preservation (and preservation of indigenous groups and traditions). This project is also supported by the United Nations and The United States.

Although such support exists on paper, since it's inception in 1990, very little progress has been made in the construction and maintenance of the corridor. It's partly because of this that i write on the topic...

With such enormous potential to contribute to the preservation of tropical rainforests, and life on the planet, this project deserves much more attention. It is my hope that through this blog (over time), i can raise awareness, and encourage the development of a little more citizen-based, grassroots effort to push this project from paper into an amazing reality.

Please take the opportunity to educate yourself more on this matter. Ideally, readers of this blog will contact environmental groups such as the Wildlife Conservation Society, the Nature Conservancy, the Rainforest Action Network, and/or your local representatives in order to inquire about this project, encourage its development, and spread the word about Paseo Pantera.