Deforestation and habitat loss in third world countries is one of the most serious problems we are faced with at present. Indeed, most third world government institutions in charge of environmental management do not have the resources or the incentives to manage their protected areas, or their other diminishing tracks of wilderness not "set aside" in preserves.

There are several regions that have been identified as areas of critical or urgent global conservation priority based on concentration of high-risk taxa (Wildernesses). Within some of these regions there remain large, undeveloped tracks of wilderness with a remarkably high degree of biological diversity. Many of these areas are remote enough to deter urbanization, however cattle ranching, oil, and timber industries as well as human encroachments as the human populations grows, remain serious and powerful threats to their survival of all the pristine areas. An added risk to these habitats is the fact that much of the land is very inexpensive and becoming increasingly accessible with the ongoing construction of new road systems.

I propose to acquire the land in an effort to preserve biodiversity, conduct research, and promote increased environmental. I plan to set tourist lodges and complementary research stations. The revenue from the tourist operation will be used to support enforcement and environmental protection on the land as well as to support the activities of the research station. The activities of the research station involve: first, to study the natural history of the local wildlife. Second, to develop environmentally friendly technologies of usage of the land and improve the local traditional methods, and, third, to raise environmental awareness in the local community through environmental education and active involvement with the activities of the community. As tourism is an extremely lucrative - and mostly unrealized - business, my goal is to use the funds from ecotourism to grow in our research facilities and, eventually, acquire additional tracks of land to preserve a variety of tropical habitats and their biodiversity.

2.-Objective:

2.1.- Statement of project objective

The objective is to acquire undeveloped land to be protected as a wildlife preserve, on which we will build a biological research station supported by ecotourism. Priorities will be to enforce the reserve's protected status, to carry out research with focus in applied conservation management for habitats and threatened species, and to educate the local people about conservation issues and alternatives to environmentally unfriendly practices. The plan is to implement an environmental education program with the intent to achieve a balance between local conservation and development, where conservation of habitat is the foundation upon which local development progresses.

2.2 Explanation of goals

The land acquired will be established as a protected wildlife preserve, and will be chosen based on its high degree of biological diversity, presence of threatened species, and its proximity to large areas of non-fragmented forest. Lands contiguous to national parks or other protected areas will be preferred in order to increase the size extension of land protected and decrease the border effect. External funding along with profits generated by a tourist camp will be used to maintain a tropical biological research station, with emphasis on studies in ecology and conservation.

In addition the station will use funds generated by tourism, in concert with support from outside institutions, to promote environmental awareness by developing public education programs on neighboring towns. I plan to use the knowledge generated by applied research technologies to help the residents develop sustainable methods of agriculture and development, and in doing so I intend to become an integral part of the community by supplying both practical information and employment opportunities at the tourist camp.

2.3.-Short and long term Objectives