University helps Ecuador protect environment

ATHENS, Ga. - During the school year, University of Georgia plant ecologist Dr. Carol Hoffman provides advice for state environmental learning programs, such as a tour that teaches Georgia middle-school teachers about protecting the Altamaha River watershed.

But in summer, the university's expanding international presence means she might be helping organize a rainforest trip for schoolchildren in the capital city of Quito, Ecuador, or planning a birding expedition at a preserve in Ecuador.

It's a job she jumped at in recent years.

"I was just interested in the culture of Ecuador," Dr. Hoffman said. "They love the country. They really feel a passion about protecting the country. It's kind of infectious."

University ecologists such as Dr. Hoffman have been playing an increasingly important advising role with the Maquipucuna Foundation in northwest Ecuador, a locally run, nonprofit foundation dedicated to preserving wildlife and promoting sustainable economic development within and around the 15,000-acre preserve, one of the most biologically diverse regions in the world.

"It's very unusual for an institution to get involved on such a large scale," said Ron Carroll, the director of University of Georgia's Institute of Ecology.

Most recently, researchers in Athens have helped the foundation expand the cultivation of organic coffee. The sale of shade-grown coffee in Georgia and beyond will soon profit the foundation and residents living on or near the rainforest, giving them an alternative livelihood to hunting or timber cutting.

"We're integrating native trees in with the coffee," Dr. Carroll said. "It really does better in shade conditions. They don't have to spend the money on pesticides and fertilizer. They get pretty good yields, and they get a better profit margin."

There's also ongoing collaboration on organic chocolate production; development of bamboo farming as an alternative to timber cutting; and a project to preserve rare orchids, unfolding with help from the Atlanta Botanical Garden. University anthropologist Ted Gragson has been developing ways to measure the impact of human activity on wildlife.

Arabica beans are among the highest-quality beans in the world and are the beans of choice of organic coffee farmers in Ecuador.

In between fund raising and promoting ecotourism at Maquipucuna, foundation President Rodrigo Onta-neda has been traveling back and forth from Ecuador to Georgia, building a U.S. market for the coffee, grown on the slopes of the Andes, where arabica beans thrive in volcanic soil. He hopes high-end consumers in America will embrace a coffee that preserves trees, insects and bird life.

All the projects are led and staffed by citizens of Ecuador, including several who are graduates of the Uni-versity of Georgia ecology institute. The manager of the preserve is a former timber cutter, and once-avid hunters are now some of the best tourist guides at the preserve.

"We run the projects. We write the grants. The World Bank channels those funds," said Mr. Ontaneda, a south Ecuador native whose wife, Rebecca Justicia, studied at the institute. "They have been the main advisers to the projects. No other university is so involved on an ongoing basis."

"Our graduates have really had a profound effect on the country they returned to," said Mark Lusk, the associate provost of international education. "The stereotype is that foreign students come here and never leave."

The foundation's work in Ecuador helps explain why the wholesale price of coffee in Ecuador hovers at a dollar a pound, while the price of coffee from neighboring nations of Columbia and Peru fluctuates between 30 and 40 cents a pound, says Dr. Carroll.

The Japanese are already interested in the new brand.

Also, more young citizens of Ecuador are finding reasons to stay in the countryside these days.

"All the young people migrated into Quito, but now a lot of them are staying," Mr. Ontaneda said. "That's encouraging."