LOOKING BACK!

The Second International Youth Symposium in Canada grew out of an earlier Symposium in 2006 developed by New Hampshire high school teacher Dan Bisaccio.  Dan has been teaching biological field research courses to students for over 25 years. He has developed field tropical ecology courses in Costa Rica, Belize, Jamaica, and Mexico and taken over 400 students to the tropics with him. 

In 2005, Dan brought 73 high school students from 9 nations together for the First Youth Symposium for Biodiversity.  This was held in Quintana Roo, Mexico. 

Next year, there are plans to have a Third Youth Symposium for Biodiversity in Auriville, India.  This event is to take place before COP11.  

Mike Leveille

COP10- 5 Minute Presentation with POWER (October 26, 2010)

After doing our Biodiversity Matters Side Event presentation we then had great opportunity to get 5 minute to once again present our Youth Accord on Biodiversity. We only had five minutes so we had to change our presentation to only keep our main goal very obvious which is the Youth Accord. Both Christina and I presented the main part, with some help from Lemuel Vega, who talked about the 1st Youth Symposium on Biodiversity. I would like to thank David for the opportunity to present at P.O.W.E.R.S side event and learn about the other projects happening around the world.

Summer Visit to El Eden Ecological Reserve

I was one of a group of teachers that got to spend a week at the El Eden Ecological Reserve in Mexico this past August. While at the field station we assisted in ongoing research to study the impact of recent hurricanes on the biodiversity of the area. The weather was hot and, since we were there during the rainy season, damp.

We saw a great variety of plants, animals, and other organisms. Among other things, we had army ants march through our palapa one evening. It was an amazing sight to see hundreds of thousands of ants flowing through the building and clearing out just about all the small, living things in it. However, sometimes you only get to see trace evidence of what is there. The picture shows me preparing to make a cast of a margay’s paw print.