Local Communities
Since EPI’s first field season in 2000, more than 5,000 students have participated in our field programs, including 2,800 students and teachers from Costa Rican, Ecuadorian, and Mexican schools. Local students comprise approximately two-thirds of our total participants.
EPI was founded on the principle that involving and investing locals is essential to the success of conservation efforts. A majority of our participants consider the biodiversity hotspots at our project sites their home.
All too often, local residents are the most directly impacted by environmental degradation, such as pollution, erosion, loss of habitat… and yet have little economic ability to buffer themselves from its effects. We believe these communities must play a central role in articulating viable solutions to these challenges.
In many cases, EPI provides the first opportunity for local students to see a Leatherback turtle, work with a giant Galapagos tortoise, or come close to the immensity of a blue whale. EPI has made a long-term commitment to meaningfully engage local youth and their communities in these conservation efforts.
As we teach students and teachers about the devastation to wildlife populations due to poaching, overfishing, and pollution, we direct them to the root causes of the issues. The result is the empowerment of individual residents to protect their uniquely productive and diverse environment.
Via the participation of local youth, educators, biologists and conservation organizations, EPI transforms basic scientific understanding into local knowledge. This approach is changing cultural norms and sparking inspired conservation efforts.
“After the course, I had many conversations with my dad and my uncles. I have educated and motivated them to give up the tradition of eating turtle eggs. My father is very interested in coming to Pacuare with EPI and meeting the turtles for himself.”
-Milton Carbajal, Costa Rican Student