Don’t get me wrong, I think this is a great thing to have happen – people joining together to help not only raise awareness, but also funds for a grassroots effort.  What has me perplexed is the question, “Is this the future?”  Will the public sector be called upon to save the world – one slice at a time?  Governments seem to say that there’s better things to spend the citizens’ money on…  We’ve lost the U.S. Space Shuttle Program to some tax cuts.  Now our only hope to reach distance stars is left up to the uber-rich, with Virgin’s suborbital spaceflights, or what I like to call “the backyard club”, but others may know it for the International Space Station (ISS).  Really?  That’s our best hope?  A handful of European countries who can’t scrape up the cash to make their own rocket, join together with the U.S., Canada, Japan (yeah, wonder why they’re there?) and Russia to piddle around with a big, long pipe in the sky.  It’s been nearly 15 YEARS in the making and it’s STILL not finished.  What’s the deal here folks?

For the meantime, we’ll have to suffice with Sci-Fi and hope that our planet doesn’t get much worse before they figure out how to get off this rock.  The good news of this article, courtesy of Newswire, is to read about this man’s project; the preservation of the flora and fauna in one of the last unspoiled countries in the world.  It also helps that this place isn’t in one of those ‘freezing countries’, so you’re more likely to actually visit!

Crucial conservation research is threatened by equipment failure.  Ocho Verde, a rainforest preserve near the border of Costa Rica and Panama, is seeking twelve trail cameras to survey the rare animal populations and provide insight for their survival.

(Newswire.net — June 12, 2013) Golfito, Costa Rica — Vital conservation research at the Ocho Verde reserve are receiving support through the international crowdfunding platform, IndieGoGo.com.  To help save the lives of rare and endangered animals, the installation of twelve new trail cameras is of the utmost importance.

Charleston, South Carolina residents, Kate and Frank Fleming, are the owners of Ocho Verde, over 100 acres of pristine rainforest, which was established 15 years ago as a protected refuge for endangered Red-Backed Squirrel Monkeys.  Replacement trail cameras are needed to prevent poaching, habitat destruction and to monitor the animal populations.

These trail cameras, also known as ‘camera traps’ by researchers, supply day and night film footage of animal activity.  Scientists working on this year-long project can then easily identify the species living in this protected area, which lies near the Costa Rica-Panama border.  These types of cameras have been used successfully in other wildlife conservation projects in countries as far-flung as India, Uganda and Australia, despite being first designed as an aid to hunters in tracking prey.

Jorge Ahumada, an ecologist with the Tropical Ecology Assessment and Monitoring Network (TEAM) said that “camera traps are a useful, efficient, cost-effective, easily replicable tool to study and monitor terrestrial mammals” and  “are reliable observers of the state of our world,” after TEAM’s successful use of the cameras led to them being employed in projects in 17 countries worldwide.

The Let’s Go Trail Camera, named for its donator Vamos Rent-A-Car (vamos is Spanish for “Let’s Go”) is the latest acquisition and it will replace a camera that was knocked out of action by an over-curious Ocelot cub!  To learn more about this project and how to help – even without donating, please visit the Monkeys, Pacas, Tigrillos. On My! Project on IndieGoGo.com.

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