1 hour
Program
Salvadora Morales, an experienced Nicaraguan bird conservation specialist, has partnered with Manomet’s Western Hemisphere Shorebird Reserve Network (WHSRN) to monitor the Delta del Estero Real in the Gulf of Fonseca. This talk will introduce you to Manomet (a beneficiary of ASK) and the WHSRN. This will be followed by a description of the research area in Nicaragua – the Gulf of Fonseca, the Delta del Estero Real, and their significance at the crossroads of North and South American flyways. The Delta del Estero Real is a major center of shrimp farming on its saline playas. These shrimp farms and surrounding areas also serve as key shorebird and waterbird habitat. Salvadora will show how important it is to connect birdwatching with the local communities, and impacts and practices of the shrimp industry with shrimp consumers in the US and Europe. These connections can then contribute to the conservation of migratory and resident birds, using an ecosystem management approach balancing the needs of the local population, the shrimp farmers, the birdwatching community, and the environment.
Salvadora is a native of Nicaragua. She joined the WHSRN Executive Office team in 2019 as a Shorebird Conservation Specialist. She is responsible for exploring opportunities to implement best management practices in shrimp aquaculture and salt production to benefit shorebirds. She helps coordinate the Migratory Shorebird Project in Central America, in addition to the Central American Waterbird Census, and works to promote the conservation, protection, and management of habitat for shorebirds in Central America.
Salvadora has worked in bird conservation for 20 years. She coordinated the Institute for Bird Population’s MoSI program in Central America (Monitoring Neotropical Migrants in Winter, MoSI by its Spanish acronym). She worked with Fauna and Flora International, where she was the coordinator of the Management, Conservation, and Climate Change Adaptation program on the island of Ometepe. She led the process to establish Ometepe as a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve. Later, she worked with the organization ICCO Cooperation on the Mesoamerican Alliance of People and Forests initiative, facilitating the development and implementation of forest management and indigenous land rights projects. Salvadora is a founding partner of Quetzalli Nicaragua where, through the support of BirdLife International and the US Forest service, and later the WHSRN Executive Office, she coordinated the first shorebird monitoring efforts in the Gulf of Fonseca. These surveys led to the nomination of the Delta del Estero Real as a WHSRN Site. Recently, in coordination with National Audubon Society and the WHSRN Executive Office, she completed an assessment of the shrimp aquaculture industry in Central America and its overlap with key areas for shorebirds.
We hope you'll join us on Monday, January 23, at 7:30 PM via Zoom. There are two reasons for holding this meeting via Zoom only. One, our speaker is coming to us from Nicaragua, so we won't have an in-person presenter, and two, January can be a treacherous driving month if we get snow.
The Zoom link will be emailed a few days prior to the meeting. If ASK does not have a current email address for you, please let us know at ask@kalamazooaudubon.org. We will also be recording the meeting for later viewing.