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Neotropics Communications

The Eco-Index makes information sharing quick and easy!

Photo by Chris Wille/Rainforest Alliance
Photo by Chris Wille/
Rainforest Alliance

Conservationists need an easy and equitable way to share information and learn from one another's experiences. The struggle to conserve biodiversity has resulted in winning initiatives that often can be duplicated elsewhere, as well as myriad lessons that can help others avoid pitfalls and more quickly achieve positive results. While reports and conferences are the traditional ways of sharing project results, both require considerable investments of time and money. Too often, information-packed reports molder on library shelves, since no one can spare a moment to read them or even knows they exist.

Meanwhile, dozens of new and promising projects are launched each week throughout the Neotropics. It might be an amazing new project in Guatemala, or in Mexico, or in Panama ... if it shares objectives or methodologies with your own project, you need to know about it.

The Eco-Index quickly and painlessly brings conservation leaders the information they need about projects in the region, in a succinct and consistent format, and in English and in Spanish. You can search for the type of project that interests you, from Agriculture to Wildlife Management, or search by country, NGO, funder, or any combination of these. Or you can search by key word for broader results.

Search the Eco-Index for information on more than 100 projects in Costa Rica, like these:

Eco-Exchange/Ambien-Tema
Eco-Exchange is a bimonthly, bilingual (called Ambien-Tema in Spanish) news bulletin researched, written, and distributed by the staff of the Rainforest Alliance’s Neotropics Communications program (NeoComm). It features stories about promising conservation initiatives and newsworthy environmental issues in the Neotropics, and highlights many of the projects on the Eco-Index. Eco-Exchange is distributed free of charge to nearly 2,000 journalists, researchers, conservation groups, government agencies, foundations, and funding institutions worldwide and is available on numerous sites on the Internet.
Wetlands Reporting Guidebook for Journalists in Central America
Wetlands are an integral part of the tropical ecosystem in Central America, but the public is generally unaware of their value, benefits, and the fact that these biodiversity-rich habitats are under serious threat from development and degradation. In order to encourage reporters in Central America to write more often about wetlands and to give them the information they need to write accurate and insightful stories, the Rainforest Alliance’s Neotropics Communications program published a 176-page, illustrated, fact-filled guidebook in Spanish to the wetlands of Central America. This initiative included a contest for journalists, with prizes awarded to the best published reports about wetlands.

Back to Central America Map