CC's spider monkey program began with an email plea for help from El Salvador (ES) and has turned into a country-wide survey of the species, the only primate species left in ES. Karenina Morales, who was finishing her undergraduate degree at the University of El Salvador read about a small population of spider monkeys on the southeastern coast of ES in Usulatan Department (state). Her concern for the monkeys developed into a Senior Thesis study of two populations.

Since there are no primatologists in ES, CC Director, Dr. Rob Horwich began advising Karenina via email and sent her articles and books for her to teach herself to carry out a field study. Being resourceful, Karenina began getting help from other primatologists she met at a professional meeting held in ES. She began working with CC Associate, Robin Brockett helping her with the howlers in her Belize Rehabilitation Center.

With support from the Margot Marsh Biodiversity Foundation and Primate Conservation, Inc., the project began in earnest. Morales began censusing two populations of monkeys at El Tercio and Chaguantique and gathering preliminary ecological data. Horwich travelled to ES in July to assist Morales in a preliminary survey with the help of staff from the Ministry of Environment (MARN). They located spider monkeys in 3 sites and visited a fourth area which locals confirmed the existence of another population. Since then, two other populations of monkeys have been confirmed from interviews with knowledgeable biologists.

Although it was originally thought that there was only one spider monkey population at Nancuchiname, a MARN protected area, we now are sure there are at least 5 populations in Usulatan and another in the Montecristo National Park in the northwest of the country. These include Nancuchiname, Chaguantique, El Tercio, Normandia and Cerro El Mono, which all can connect with a coastal mangrove forest which is part of a corridor area proposed by MARN. Morales will be expanding her search to other areas and expects to find other populations.

These areas all pose interesting community co-management possibilities. Three of the areas have developmental NGOs working with communities and they have been peripherally concerned with conservation issues. At El Tercio and Chaguantique there has been some community reforestation work. An NGO in Chaguantique is attempting to develop ecotourism around their spider monkey forests. At Nancuchiname, MARN has helped to form a community group to help co-manage the park. At Cerro El Mono the lands are privately owned by ranchers and the project will try to develop a plan for working with these landowners.

During his visit. Dr. Horwich gave a talk on community conservation projects to Karenina's university class and at a MARN seminar Additionally, he and Morales talked to a school class at Chaguantique.

While CC has not recently been active in Belize, it has continued to monitor some of the projects it has initiated or worked with in previous years. Dr. Horwich visited Belize for a short stay to follow up on the Community Baboon Sanctuary and the community comanagement project which CC had initiated with the Protected Areas Conservation Trust (PACT) through a United Nations Development Project. Horwich specifically visited St. Margaret's Village and 5 Blues Lake National Park and made inquiries about the Gales Point, Manatee Project. He also visited the Belize Audubon Society Office to re-establish contact with them.

A visit to 5 Blues National Park and a meeting with the Board of the Association of 5 Blues Lake National Park indicated that while the grant had been successful in maintaining the park staff and initiating some training, its cessation had left the park without a plan for continuity. The Board had obtained a small additional grant from PACT which would sustain the running of the park for the next year at a minimum level. They have been continuing to get volunteer help from a group of Princeton students on a year to year basis which has helped.

Horwich volunteered to help them with some of their grant writing and with contacts within Belize while he was there. Horwich met with Valerie Woods, Director of PACT, Miguel Usher of the United Nations Office and Mr. Arzu of the US Peace Corps Office on their behalf. He also talked with Valdemar Andrades, Acting Director and June Neal, Protected Areas Coordinator about the request of the Association Board for help from the Belize Audubon Society to co-manage the National Park with them. He also met with BAS Director Osmany Salas, who is currently studying at the University of Michigan. They talked about a future grant on creating a unifying system for the Belize Parks.

Although a visit to Gales Point was not possible, Horwich was able to contact Lincoln McSweeny who has returned to Belize from an extended stay in the US. McSweeny and the Gales Point Progressive Cooperative have finished the hotel that was started many years ago. Hopefully this hotel will be a source of jobs and will provide some income for resource mangement by the cooperative. In addition he has help to form a local Gales Point NGO which will take over the hawksbill sea turtle conservation program that started in 1992 and has protected about 12,000 hatchlings per year.

In June of 2002, Community Conservation members Don and Mary Stirling, during a trip to visit development projects of Catholic Relief Services, had the opportunity to visit the Boabeng-Fiema Monkey Sanctuary in central Ghana. This 4 square kilometer sanctuary exists between the two villages who hold sacred the two species of monkeys found within, the mona and the western black-and-white colobus, sacred. A taboo against killing the monkeys, has been reinforced by a local government law since 1974. It is thought that about 350 monas live in and around the reserve, and about 165 black-and-white colobus live in thirteen troops within the reserve. There are unsubstantiated reports of several other species of monkeys as well.

Visitors enter through a tourist office with maps and displays of the various flora and fauna of the sanctuary and where they pay a small fee for the services of a guide. Within the sanctuary the guide will call in a troop of monas to feed from your hand the peanuts you have dutifully bought. The black-and-white colobus do not come down out of the trees, but they do come close enough so that you can get a good look at them. This endangered species of leaf-eating monkey is called locally, the western black-and-white Colobus.

This small reserve also boasts over 430 tree species including some 150 year old mahoganies. Many of these are marked along a well maintained trail. The forest taboo is so serious that when a monkey dies it is buried in a special cemetery occupied only by monkeys and the fetish priests.

Due to the serious deforestation in the country, Boabeng-Fiema is one of the few places in Ghana where significant numbers of monkeys survive. Since 1900, the closed forest of Ghana has been reduced from 88,000 sq km to about 15,000 sq km. Not only is timber the third largest commercial crop, but wood and charcoal account for more than 75% of the country's energy needs, particularly for cooking and water heating. In an extremely poor country with twice the population density of Wisconsin, the balancing of economic needs with conservation is a difficult, but vital concern. The experience of Boabeng-Fiema, which presages the work of Community Conservation demonstrates the efficacy of this model for resource conservation.

Valley Stewardship Network (VSN) in SW Wisconsin has created a series of workshops for community visioning in the Kickapoo watershed. The goal is to create a document to summarize the vision of the future for the Valley. Phase I, to be carried out in October, has identified individuals for training in group leadership who will later team up to conduct neighborhood conversations in several watershed locations. In Phase 2, the trainees will form teams of 2-3 to conduct the neighborhood conversations to be held throughout the watershed from January-April 2003. Leaders will work with VSN staff and others to develop a framework for community visioning sessions to develop the written summary which will be distributed to all valley counties and communities for use in comprehensive land use planning.

Horwich's visit to the CBS was a time to renew old friendships and hear about what has been going on in recent years. Typical of many community-based conservation projects, the CBS has shown many ups and down in its development. But not so typical is the fact that the CBS is now entering its 18th year of existence and during most of that time it has been community run.

A renaissance has taken place during the last few years when a women's cooperative, under the leadership of Jesse Young took over the management of the CBS. In 1998, the CBS Women's Conservation Group was established and registered as a community based NGO. Since that new beginning a great deal of development has been occurring.

In 2002 the CBS Women's Conservation Group has produced two editions of the CBS Newsletter reporting on their current progress. They have received a $75,OOOBz United Nations GEF grant for "Strengthening the Management and Conservation of the Community Baboon Sanctuary". This enabled them to conduct tourism and conservation training, to produce the newsletters and brochures and a web site {www.howlermonkey.bz}.

The Women's Conservation Group has recently built a restaurant behind the original museum building that was opened in 1985. Because there was a political rally at Bermudian Landing, Horwich was able to see a full house, with members of the Women's Group having no free time, constantly serving traditional Creole cooking to a few tourists and a lot of visiting Belizeans. The restaurant was built by local builders in a very finished style. In a recent telephone call to the CC office, Ms Young reported that the CBS will be building a new Education Center soon as well.

Another major development is that the Howler Monkey Resort which was built about 8 years ago by Belize City residents has come up for sale. Since past owners of the tourism facility have not always been sensitive to the community, the Women's Group have begun leasing the facility with the intention to buy. This is a large committment since the facilities consist of a restaurant with kitchen, with about 10 other buildings and tourism boats, canoes and vehicles.

The CBS has had some help from volunteer students. Christine Wing, a graduate student in Ecotourism Management from Sandford Fleming University in Ontario, Canada helped the CBS create one newsletter as well as the successful proposal for the Education Center. A Peace Corps Volunteer with business experience, Martina Widmann, will be spending the next two years at the CBS helping them to develop a long awaited management and operational plan.

While staying at the Howler Monkey Resort, Horwich attended a seminar on agricultural development. Due to the proactive work of the Women's Group the CBS has been playing a central role in community development for the participating communities.

As part of CC's awareness campaign, K O'Brien volunteered her theatrical abilities to help CC. She and CC Director Rob Horwich conferred on the possibilities of creating a play about community conservation. The result was a melding of science and art, an improvised play co-sponsored by the Gays Mills Public Library. The play, "Conservation Consternation" was a full blown community event which coalesced around K and the "Too Busy to Play" Players. Following the Applefest Parade on September 22, a crowd of about 200 people gathered to watch.

"Conservation Consternation" had 3 loose acts which blended. Jake Mandel, a local student, was the MC who told relevant jokes supported by a band of "hip" monkeys who did accompanying drumming, music and narration. Monkeys, John Tully and David Bruce, argued the case against humans and their treatment of the environment.

Then K and Jake began a quiz show asking the question "What is conservation consternation?" Various contestants who couldn't answer the question were placed in the loser circle siting on small chairs. A three year old son of one contestant was later heard to ask his mom if she had had a "time out". Some of the contestants were disqualified because they didn't speak English and others just didn't tell enough. A highlight was an argument between two of the area librarians, played by themselves, "prim" Ms Maura Otis and the more boisterous Cele Wolf. Both hilariously taunted each other and had to be shown to the losers circle by the "Vanessa White-act-alike" Kathy Casper.

The second act involved two gigantic puppets, Zakaznik and Zapovednik (which are names for Russian protected area types) who blustered and argued how each was doing a better job saving the forests. Their arguments were punctuated by a small "Grim Reaper" yelling "Clear Cut! "while over a dozen area children, playing trees went into agonizing slow deaths.

The final act began with K as moderator doing a very convincing act of why she should just keep on buying and eating and not doing anything to protect the forests. The watching crowd was exasperated by the negativity until the monkey couldn't take it any longer and shut her up with a whip cream pie. The loser circle then came to life. They and other players then began a musical parade symbolizing a positive solution to the question "What is Conservation Consternation?"

CC is considering working with the Players to create an improved, more polished version of the play to take to other communities in Wisconsin.

CCwill begin work with a team who has been researching tree kangaroos in Papua New Gunea (PNG) since 1996, primarily in the northeast highlands. The project is coordinated by Dr. Lisa Dabeck, Director of Research and Conservation of the Roger Williams Park Zoo in Providence, Rl. The principal field researchers are Will Betz, a graduate student at Southampton University (UK) and Kasbeth Evei the incountry scientist and recent graduate of the University of PNG.

CC Director Horwich met with the team of the Tree Kangaroo Conservation Program (TKCP) at a Committing to Conservation meeting in Florida which also included Debra Williamson, the project's Education Coordinator and Mambawe Manaono, a landowner who has been coordinating landowner efforts.

Since then, CC has joined the team returning to PNG this November, to work on establishing a system of protection which would involve landowner co-management. Over 97% of PNG lands are owned by clans. TKCP has been working with the landowners and has achieved commitments to conserve their lands. Future work will investigate the possibilities of formalizing these committments for both the protection of the clan landowner rights and protection of the forests and wildlife including the endangered tree kangaroos.