Central American Ecology and Environment / América Central — Ecología y Ambiente / 2006-9-17
September 2006: This description is not up to date.
We are young Central American and North American scientists, with diverse specialties and interests. Our goals are multi-faceted. The internet has facilitated the direct distribution of information by scientists, organizations, governments, and individuals, and this is no less true for Central America; a wealth of information already exists. However, this information is often disconnected and difficult to find. We are collecting and thematically organizing links to sites with information about the region as a whole, or specific countries or areas. Another objective is to collect scientific and conservation data that already exists, from international data centers or national institutions, and process it as needed to create a Central American database that can then be freely distributed to anyone and made more accessible to a wider audience. A long-term goal also is to create a network of researchers and organizations that produce or make use of ecological and environmental data, or that conduct research in the region.
We want to serve a diverse audience, ranging from scientists in the region and abroad, to non-governmental organizations, students, ecotourists, and Central Americans interested in learning more about Central America or their own countries. We want to support and foster scientific research with a regional perspective, both by national scientists as well as those from developed nations. We also want to support regional and international NGOs in their work in Central America.
Our group is working on a voluntary basis, and in a distributed manner. This project will be successful to the extent that more people join us and contribute in any way they can, be it by sending comments on the site, writing descriptions about topics, sending links, letting us know about available datasets, or taking charge of entire topics and maintaining the pages in your own server, wherever you reside. This site is a work in progress.
The boundaries that separate our nations are artificial when it comes to the environment and biological communities. We want to increase the awareness of the shared natural heritage and environmental problems across the isthmus, and increase communication among scientists, resource managers, activists, and individuals.
The story as Emilio remembers it.
In August and September of 1998, Alexis and I met and talked via email and the web (we had actually talked briefly 5 years earlier). I mentioned to Alexis the idea of creating a web site dedicated to Central America environmental and ecological information and data, with the goal of using our scientific training and knowledge of resources available out there, to "give back" to the community. I had been playing with this idea for some time, but never thought I would find the time or the energy to try it. It turns out that Alexis had had similar ideas and was enthusiastic about my suggestion. It was set. A couple of months later we started to work on it, and recruited the help of Jerry and Carlos (I learned about Jerry from his web site). Later Alexis brought in Hugo and Derek.
We wallowed and played around with ideas for several months; during that time, I was also obtaining spatial datasets and subsetting or processing them for Central America. We learned about the agreement between NASA and CCAD (Central American Commission for Environment and Development), and got in touch with some of the coordinators. Things looked really promising, the timing seemed to be excellent -- but at the same time, other sites and projects with overlapping goals were coming out. In March Alexis suggested that we set a deadline for ourselves and release a first version of our site. That finally got us started, and here we are.
Septiembre 2006: Esta descripción no se encuentra actualizada.
Anunciamos la creación de un nuevo sitio en el internet dedicado a la recopilación, organización y distribución de información acerca de temas ecológicos, ambientales, de ciencias de la Tierra, y temas similares científicos y sobre la conservación, concernientes a América Central: "América Central -- Ecología y Ambiente".
Somos un grupo de científicos jóvenes de Centroamérica y Norte América, con diversas especialidades e intereses y trabajando en este proyecto de manera voluntaria. Tenemos varios objetivos. El Internet ha facilitado la distribución directa de la información por científicos, organizaciones, gobiernos, y privados, y esto es igual de cierto para América Central; una gran cantidad de información ya existe en el internet. Sin embargo, esta información usualmente no está interconectada y es difícil de encontrar. Estamos colectando y organizando temáticamente enlaces a sitios con información sobre la región toda o sobre países específicos. Otro objetivo es colectar datos científicos y de conservación que ya existen y están en manos de centros internacionales de datos o instituciones nacionales, y procesarlos como sea necesario para crear una base de datos Centroamericana que pueda ser distribuida libremente a quien sea, y así hacer los datos más disponibles. Un objetivo de largo plazo es la creación de una red de investigadores y organizaciones que producen o utilizan datos ecológicos o ambientales sobre la región.
Queremos ser de utilidad a una audiencia diversa, que vaya desde científicos hasta organizaciones no gubernamentales, estudiantes, ecoturistas, y especialmente la gente Centroamericana. Queremos apoyar y promover la investigación científica con una perspectiva regional, tanto por científicos locales como internacionales.
Las fronteras que separan nuestras naciones son artificiales en lo que se refiere al medio ambiente y las comunidades biológicas. Nuestro grupo pretende aumentar el reconocimiento de nuestros legados naturales y problemas ambientales comunes, y aumentar la comunicación entre científicos, activistas, y el publico en general.