The GVI Amazon museo is now open!

GVI Museo sign -- thanks to all the volunteers who contributed their artistic talent!

On Sunday we opened the museo (museum) for it’s first round of visitors – the students from Yachana Colegio.

We’ve been working on the museo for the past few months, collecting specimens and preparing signs, ready to turn the classroom into a major focal point for the camp (although the kitchen will always be the most important!)

We often get students, tourists or local community members and schools coming to visit us, so the museo will play a huge role in telling them what GVI Amazon does here and about the biodiversity of the Yachana Reserve.

We’ve got many specimens on show, including:

•          A 2-toed sloth skull and partial skeleton
•          Wax moulds of puma paw prints
•          A carcass of a Lined forest falcon
•          A juvenile coral snake
•          A grasshopper mimicking a wasp

We also have a live specimen – Ronny the Rhino beetle!

We’re planning to use the posters and specimens as a mobile museum, taking them to our local schools for their science lessons. It’s really important for the communities to see the range of animals that live within the reserve, how vulnerable they are to change, and how they all interconnect with each other.  

The rainforest is changing very quickly at the moment as outside pressures make their way to the area. The museo will help us give local people, students and visitors all the facts about the delicate habitats and animals on the reserve, and will hopefully encourage them to help protect it.

Liz Smith, GVI Amazon Short-Term Leadership Intern, January – March 2012

*Country Director note:  A huge thank you to all the GVI Amazon friends, family & fans, and volunteers past and present who have donated to our various Charitable Trust campaigns and challenges.  Donations to the GVI Amazon Charitable Trust through JustGiving (tax-deductible in the UK!) and Global Giving (tax-deductible in the US) are used for rural education in the Ecuadorian Amazon.  Charitable Trust donations allow us to purchase materials for environmental education in the local schools where GVI volunteers teach, and also allow us to support larger initiatives through our Amazon partner communities, such as the youth reforestation project at Sumak Allpa (Hector’s Island for those of you who have been with us before) and the camera trap research project between the Nongi Todogo high school and Huaorani Lodge in Huaorani (Waodani) community of Kewediono.

The GVI Amazon museo is now open!