Online reference for wildlife managers

A free online reference is now available to wildlife managers and conservationists working to conserve migratory species in the Western Hemisphere. The Rainforest Alliance’s Migratory Species Pathway offers detailed information in English and Spanish about more than 50 initiatives to conserve migratory species in the Americas and the Caribbean, along with interviews and advice from conservation leaders.

“The Pathway provides wildlife conservationists throughout the Western Hemisphere with a bilingual, easy-to-use resource where they can find and share the valuable information they need to make wise management decisions affecting our shared migratory species,” says Melissa Krenke, coordinator of the Rainforest Alliance’s Neotropics Communications program.

With support from the United States Fish and Wildlife Service’s International Division, the Rainforest Alliance took on the challenge of creating a space on the Internet where the migratory species conservation community could easily come together to share information. The new Pathway features a “Projects and Tools” section, which includes a list of specific needs identified at the first Western Hemisphere Migratory Species Conference, held in Chile in 2003. Conference participants agreed on what tools were available and what was needed to enable them to collaborate in conserving migratory species. Each of these tools is listed on the Pathway, along with a list of relevant projects underway throughout the Hemisphere and links to detailed information about each project.

To make searching for tools on the Pathway fast and easy, projects are organized by subject, including capacity building; coordination and partnerships, habitat and public awareness. Each category features available conservation tools and projects managed by government agencies and NGOs working to conserve migratory species.

The Migratory Species Pathway is part of the Rainforest Alliance’s Eco-Index, a searchable database of more than 800 conservation projects, managed by more than 500 NGOs, government agencies, and research personnel in Latin America and the Caribbean. The easy-to-use project database is searchable by country, organization, funder, category and keyword. Project profiles include information about objectives, funding and budget, accomplishments, lessons learned, and related Web sites or available reports. The Eco-Index also features a bilingual, searchable database of sustainable tourism businesses in Latin America and the Caribbean for responsible travelers.