investigadoresACG.org

Check out the Species Home Pages on the new ACG website, many of which were prepared by ACG parataxonomists.

Guest post by Catherine Hulshof 23 January 2013 Sector Santa Elena Area de Conservación Guanacaste I had the opportunity to participate in a 2-day workshop: “Construccion de la Estrategia Nacional de Investigacion del SINAC” which brought together various program directors, … Continue reading →

Please take some time to look at the letter from the president of the consejo regional of the ACG regarding the current position of the consejo and the comite técnico on the most recent proposal from ICE.

As you can see in the figure below, ICE’s proposal (red outline) overlaps substantially with the heavily-visited high-quality forest around sector Pailas and between sectors Pailas and Santa Maria.

Please read the whole document, but to summarize, the position of the comite tecnico and consejo regional is that the current proposal does not sufficiently account for the likely impacts on biodiversity and integrity of the conservation area, and a counter proposal is currently being prepared.

Please take a moment to look at the director’s message regarding the great challenges and opportunities facing the ACG in 2013.

Este año también es de particular importancia para ACG en particular, pero para todo el SINAC en general, dado que en este mes, se iniciará la discusión de un proyecto de ley que permitiría el aprovechamiento de la energía geotérmica dentro de Rincón de la Vieja. Sin duda alguna un momento histórico y trascendental para el país y la conservación. En los primeros días de este mes, nos dedicaremos al análisis de un texto sustitutivo al proyecto de ley 17680. . .

Read the whole thing here.

Final rainfall data from the manual weather station, 2012:

The new ACG website has a news feed to keep you up on goings on. A roundup of recent posts includes some positive news that may be of interest to ACG researchers:

Sector Santa Maria has reopened, thanks to the collaboration of the Fuerza Publica

Isla San Jose now has a phone and internet connection

A description of the activities and successes of Maria Marta Chavarria’s marine bio-sensitivity program in Cuajiniquil

And last but not least, for those on facebook, a Christmas card from PEB

Julio Diaz has made available a google earth dataset that contains the outlines of ACG fires since 1987.

For those who haven’t been there yet, the updated version of the ACG webpage is now available.

Congratulations to Federico and the rest of the ACG team, it’s a great step forward.

Unfortunately Sector Santa María will be closed to tourists indefinitely due to several incidents of tourists being robbed on the trails.

From ACG director Alejandro Masis (translated):

“The presence of tourists in sector Santa Maria has increased significantly in recent years; on the other hand the number of staff has gone down . . . the reoccurrence of armed robberies, mostly of tourists, but also of ACG facilities and employees, has been facilitated by the limited presence of ACG staff at this site.”

Read the full press release here (Spanish): Comunicado de Prensa Sector Santa María.

A brief report from Geologist Waldo Taylor Castillo of the Observatorio Sismológico y Volcanológico de Arenal y Miravalles (OSIVAM) on the increase in seismic activity since the earthquake of 5 September:

Sismicidad de la Cordillera Volcánica de Guanacaste y Tilarán

**Update 24 November**

From Waldo, spectra from the month of November with interpretation:

Espectros-nov-2012