week of 1/8/03
 
 
 


Preserving Talamanca
Award-winning project fosters environmental stewardship while boosting economic opportunities
By Don Hendershot

What: League of Women Voters presents Dr. William McLarney and a presentation detailing the accomplishments of Equator Prize winner Associacion ANAI, a non-governmental organization based in the Talamanca region of Costa Rica dedicated to community-directed sustainability and protection of natural resources.
Where: Tartan Hall of the First Presbyterian Church of Franklin.
When: Noon Thursday, Jan. 9.
Contact: 828.524.5192 for details and lunch reservations.


Think globally, act locally was the environmental mantra of the 60s and 70s. Bill McLarney, long-time Franklin resident, biologist and conservationist, has his own twist to the mantra. For more than 30 years McLarney has worked simultaneously on projects in the U.S. and Costa Rica.

McLarney is founder and executive director of Associacion ANAI, a non-governmental organization based in the Talamanca region of Costa Rica. ANAI is dedicated to creating community-based development opportunities that enhance the living conditions of communities while contributing to natural resource conservation. One of ANAI’s projects, the Talamanca Initiative, was recently awarded one of seven Equator Prizes presented in Johannesburg, South Africa, at the World Summit on Sustainable Development.

“It became clear to me, a long time ago, that there would be no future for biologists of any kind unless conservation was integrated with the aspirations of the local population,” McLarney said.

But McLarney didn’t have to go to Costa Rica to see that vision. He credits his years growing up in upstate New York for planting that perspective.

“I was fortunate to have grown up in an area that somehow escaped the intense development all around it, an area with a lot of family farms and a strong connection to the land,” said McLarney.

That vision was reaffirmed at a basic level in Costa Rica.

“For biologists, it’s a common scenario that those areas richest in biodiversity are economically the poorest,” McLarney said. That axiom held true for Talamanca, Costa Rica, where McLarney focused his efforts.

Talamanca is located in southeastern Costa Rica bordered by Panama and the Caribbean. It stretches from Mt. Chirripo at 12,533 feet (the highest peak in Costa Rica) to sea level. This 300-square-kilometer region is home to 35,000 people and an astounding 2 percent of the planet’s biodiversity, 30 to 40 percent of which is endemic.

The Talamanca Initiative has worked since 1983 to integrate conservation and socio-economic development in the region. ANAI has assisted in creating the Gandoca-Manzzanillo National Wildlife Refuge, establishing a permanent raptor migration monitoring program, promoting crop diversification, creating the largest exporter of organic products in Central America and establishing a Regional Training Center that has helped create 13 local ecotourism businesses.

McLarney said ANAI took off in 1978 when co-director Diego Lynch came aboard. He said Talamanca offered an opportunity to begin at ground level “where people were still living in intimate contact with their environment. There you could simultaneously make the argument that residents could move toward sustainability while improving their socio-economic status and protecting the environment,” McLarney said.

According to ANAI’s website, the Talamanca Initiative was based on four core beliefs:

° No inherent contradiction exists between economic development and environmental conservation. If communities and nations are to thrive, development and conservation must take place together.

° The best stewards of the tropical lowlands are the campesinos and Indian farmers who have dedicated their lives to these lands.

° All natural tropical areas that are not protected will be radically altered during our lifetime. We must work to protect these areas and preserve their biodiversity for future generations to enjoy.

° The natural forest and other unique primary ecosystems are Talamanca’s most economically valuable asset in the long term.

McLarney said it would be folly to tell poor indigenous people around the world that the way of Wal-Mart and Burger King is evil.

“It is our mission to set in motion a process that will allow people the freedom to choose alternatives. For some people the future may not lie along the same path the U.S. took.

“There is a very serious and intelligent discussion going on in the Talamanca region now regarding what aspects of traditional culture should be preserved and to what extent other information and technology should be assimilated. They are tough questions. If you eschew modern medicine then you accept high infant mortality.

“It has always been our goal to help foster a process that continues to permit people to adapt and make good decisions based on sound information. We are about process, not product,” McLarney said. He said this philosophy has empowered more than 2,000 families to remain on family farms while increasing their income over six fold in the more than 20 years of ANAI’s existence.

With the exception of the three founders, the staff and Board of Directors of ANAI are Costa Ricans. Projects are manned through staff and volunteers. To learn how to be a part of the Talamanca Initiative and work on organic farming, raptor migration, sea turtle conservation or one of the other projects, visit the website www.anaicr.org.