In 1983, the service established the Wildlife Without Borders-Latin America and the Carribean program to implement the Convention on Nature Protection and Wildlife Preservation in the Western Hemisphere, and to provide expertise in wildlife and habitat conservation throughout the region. Recognizing the continuing acute shortage of training opportunities for career professionals in wildlife conservation and protected area management in the region, WWB-LAC continues to support capacity-building initiatives in ways that draw upon the experience, knowledge and expertise of current and past grantees, with a priority focus on protected areas and their buffer zones in ecosystems of global significance.
Click here to read the latest news featuring a grantee of the Latin America and the Caribbean program.
Click here to see a 2 minute video featuring testimonials from some of our grantees.
Or watch the full version of our video, featuring several conservation projects located in the rainforests of Costa Rica:
Wildlife Without Borders: Connecting People and Nature in the Americas
The southern three-banded armadillo (Tolypeutes matacus) is native to the Chaco region. By José Luis Cartes/Guyra Paraguay.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's Wildlife Without Borders Program for Latin America and the Caribbean awarded its first grant to conservation organization Associación Guyra Paraguay in 2004 for the amount of $2,900. The Associación Guyra Paraguay is a non-profit conservation organization focused on protecting the Chaco region of Paraguay, an area that is home to unique ecosystems and very high biological diversity. In fact, the Chaco is also known as the land of the three giants because among its native residents are the endangered giant otter (or Pteronura brasiliensis by it's scientific name) the giant anteater (Myrmecophaga tridactyla) considered to be near threatened by the IUCN, and the giant armadillo (Priodontes maximus), which is listed as Vulnerable and in decline.
Since the Service's first grant to Guyra Paraguay in 2004, the organization has worked diligently to protect the land of the three giants while continuing to partner with the Service through the Wildlife Without Borders Program. Under the leadership of Executive Director Dr. Alberto Yanosky, Guyra Paraguay has continued to grow its conservation program and in 2008, worked with the Service to bring together conservationists from across the Latin America and Caribbean region for the Western Hemisphere Migratory Species Initiative's third conference. For more information about the exceptional work of Alberto Yanosky and Guyra Paraguay in the Chaco region, read the Christian Science Monitor article entitled, "People Making a Difference."
