<
https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20240614-how-los-cedros-forest-in-ecuador-was-granted-legal-personhood>
'For more than 30 years, José DeCoux woke each morning to a deafening noise. In
his home in Ecuador's Los Cedros forest, monkeys squeal, squirrels scuffle, and
400 species of bird flit and squawk. A mist hangs in the trees, and ferns and
mosses in countless shades of green cover every rock and tree trunk.
DeCoux moved to the Los Cedros reserve in northern Ecuador from the US in the
1980s. He was "sort of heeding the call to save the rainforest, or something",
he told
BBC Future Planet with a smile in April.
With the help of friends and non-profits including Friends of the Earth Sweden
and the Rainforest Information Center of Australia, DeCoux bought land in Los
Cedros forest, and a conservation and eco-tourism project was born. DeCoux
managed the reserve until his death in May, four years after being diagnosed
with cancer.
Despite extensive deforestation in the surrounding region, Los Cedros' 11,681
acres (4,800 ha) buzz and thrum with life. Its biodiversity is astonishing:
more than 130 scientific papers have been published on the vast number of
species that call Los Cedros home – from fungi and orchids to snails, jaguars
and bears. Most of the reserve is a cloud forest where the air is heavy with
moisture from drenching rain and permanent condensation, which fosters blankets
of lichen and strange orchids. Many species can't be found anywhere else, such
as the tiny orange Los Cedros rainfrog.
Life continues to thrive in Los Cedros, but its survival wasn't always certain
– and it is largely thanks to a powerful, and increasingly influential, global
legal movement that the forest is still standing.'
Via
Fix the News:
https://fixthenews.com/dawn-solar-age-same-sex-thailand-nature-europe/
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
