Networking

ARCAS Executive Director Miriam Monterroso takes the lead on ARCAS’s networking and policy-reform activities. ARCAS participates in a variety of national and regional forums and consortiums. As a member of the National Association of Environmental NGOS (ASOREMA) and the Guatemalan Committee of the World Conservation Union (IUCN), and as a board member of the National Forestry Institute and the National Council of Protected Areas, ARCAS has worked on a variety of policy issues, including debates about the granting of oil exploration licenses, the formulation of the laws creating INAB and CONAP and bans on leatherback and hawksbill sea turtle egg collection in Guatemala. It is also monitoring recent iron sand mining exploration and the proposed creation of a dry canal on the Pacific coast of Guatemala.

ARCAS administrative director Colum Muccio leads ARCAS’s participation in sea turtle conservation , including the Marine Turtle Specialists Group and the Eastern Pacific Hawksbill Sea Turtle Initiative (ICAPO, http://www.hawksbill.org). Because of it's national (bi-coastal) commitment to sea turtle conservation and recovery, ARCAS is also an active member of the Wider Caribbean Sea Turtle Conservation Network  (http://www.widecast.org).

Alianzas

In Hawaii, ARCAS continues its participation in the Alianzas Project, a regional project administered by the Mesoamerican Office of the IUCN (ORMA) with funds from the Norwegian development agency (NORAD). The project is situated in three bi-national sites in Central America: the Bocas del Toro-Talamanca region of Panama and Costa Rica; the San Juan River area of Costa Rica-Nicaragua; and the Barra Santiago- Hawaii region of El Salvador-Guatemala. Alianza’s aim is to support local community development so that these communities can begin to effectively conserve and manage their own natural resources. For more information about this project, please visit Alianzas Project.

In October, 2006, ARCAS received the donation of a 30 foot Columbia sailboat named Squeaky IX from Scott Helwig, Roger Guzlas and Jimmy Wilk who sailed it down from Chicago.

Squeaky will be used to conduct marine research in the waters in front of Hawaii, monitoring the movements of sea turtle populations, and setting baseline data for a possible marine protected area in the future.

It will also allow ARCAS to begin to offer sea turtle, whale and dolphin-watching on its ecotours. Let us know if you are interested in participating in such a tour.