2007 BOTA Report
2007 BOTA Report
BOTA Student Assistance Program
BOTA manages a superb program to assist students in the Americas perform supervised field or research work at the university level in native bamboo studies. It is simply called the Student Assistance Program (BOTA-SAP) and is now entering the third year of existence. The program gives students in countries where grant funds are scarce the opportunity to apply with a well-designed proposal for a grant of up to one thousand dollars. BOTA is honored to have three of the four authors of American Bamboos (Clark 1999), the best reference text on Native American species, as advisors and project proposal reviewers. We have three advisors or regional coordinators who help students submit proposals. These are Biol. Gilberto Cortés of Mexico, Dr. Tarciso Filguieras of Brazil, and Dr. Ximena Londoño of Colombia. All three are well known taxonomists. Proposals are submitted to the review board consisting of Dr. Lynn Clark of USA (Chair), Dr. Teresa Mejia of Mexico and Dr. Margaret Stern in Ecuador. The reviewers, in sequential order, consist of a taxonomist, a plant systematics professor and a practicing forest ecologist. Applications are due by January 15 each year.
Three grants have been awarded to students in several countries. In 2006 Eduardo Ruiz Sanchez completed research on the “Species Delimitation and Phylogenetic Position of the American Bamboo Otatea” (Ruiz 2006). He was a graduate student at The Ecology Institute (INECOL) in Veracruz state, Mexico. In 2007 Pedro Viana, a graduate student from the Federal University of Minas Gerais received a full grant for doing field work on a rare genus of bamboo likely to have more endangered species in Brazil. His project titled, “The Genus Aulonemia in Brazil” will review and help in constructing a stronger foundation of knowledge for the “flute grass”. Also in 2007 Natalia Reategui of Peru was given a grant to study “Characterization and Key of Identification of the Bamboos with Economic Potential in the Chanchamayo Region”.
Our program is becoming popular with twice as many students applying the second year. Now with two years experience the staff is reviewing the application process for easier processing.
Bamboo Conservation Network (BCN)
The BCN is a collaborative project between the San Diego Zoo, BOTA and the Southern California Chapter of the ABS. It proposes to form a network between universities, botanical gardens, zoological societies, conservation organizations and bamboo societies to facilitate the exchange of materials for conservation research and education on native bamboo in our hemisphere and to implement a cooperative program among the above institutions to develop and maintain a bamboo conservation network. The vehicle is an interactive website designed for members to include specific information about bamboo activities related to conservation. A key component is to create a system to prioritize the conservation status of American bamboo species following The World Conservation Union (IUCN) guidelines*. The BCN is tailored to meet the targets of the North American Botanic Garden Strategy for Plant Conservation and implementing the Global Strategy for Plant Conservation (GSPC) by 2010. A proposal for funding the one-year project was submitted to the Association of Zoological Horticulture, Inc. (AZH) Conservation Grant with a total budget of $10,480. The proposal was not funded.
*The only bamboos currently listed on the IUCN 2007 Redlist are Aulonemia longiaristata, Chusquea falcate, Chusquea leonardiorum, Chusquea loxensis, Chusquea maclurei, Chusquea perligulata. They are all from Ecuador. A bamboo specialist group was created in 1994 with Dr. Londoño as chair.
Andean bamboo collection in Quito (Ecuador) urban park
Another proposal, born from the III Latin American Congress in Ecuador, is to create an “Andean Bamboo Collection in a Quito (Ecuador) City Park”. The establishment of a living collection of native Andean bamboos in a highly-visited Quito urban park - in cooperation with a city park administration showing keen interest in this project - is a way to inform the Ecuadorian public about the diversity of their native bamboos, the potential economic and environmental roles of bamboo, and the need to manage and conserve native bamboos and their natural habitats. The project is led by Dr. Peggy Stern and, ironically, educates the public that bamboo is not just an Asian plant but their country and others in the Americas contain one-third of the world’s bamboo species that they know by names like Guadua, Caña brava and Chusque. This was also submitted to the AZH Conservation Grant with a total budget of $9436 split between BOTA-$3368, AZH-$5050 and Quito Parks (Ciudad-EcoGestion) -$1018 and was also not funded by AZH this year.
2008 BOTA Eco-tours
The first BOTA Eco-tour to Mexico in 2004 was so successful it begs to be repeated, so a new tour schedule has been designed to personally show participants the reality of bamboos’ conservation status and interesting bamboo activities in the countries of Ecuador, Bolivia, Mexico and Chile. Dr. Peggy Stern will lead the first tour in September 2008 on a two-week trek from the lowlands to the highlands of Ecuador.
Use the following link to view the tour announcement: BOTA Eco-tour to Ecuador with Dr. Peggy Stern
Other news
Dr. Emmet Judziewicz has joined the staff of BOTA in an advisory capacity. This makes all four authors of the definitive book, American Bamboos active participants in our project.
Work on describing new species of American bamboos continues. Each year a summary of the new species will be posted at the BOTA website.
BOTA Treasurer Sue Turtle presented the Power Point “Bambués de las Américas (BOTA): Eight Years and the Road Ahead” at the annual meeting of the AZH in Tulsa Oklahoma and Executive Director Gib Cooper will make the same presentation at the ABS annual meeting.
The BOTA website at http://www.bamboooftheamericas.org is now rebuilt to accept comments in a blog format.
Financial Report
November 1, 2006 – October 31, 2007
First Farmer’s and Merchants National Bank
Mt. Pleasant, TN 38474
Balance 10/31/06 $10,028.83
Moved $5,000. to a 6-month CD in December, 2006 - 5,000.00
Donations: Pacific NW Chapter 1,250.00
Southeast Chapter 1,000.00
Total donations $2,250.00
Interest on Account & 6-mth CD
through 10/07/07 179.96
Total in: $2,429.96
Expenses:
Web site costs 99.90
Student Grants: 1,360.00
(2 were granted: $1,000 & $360.)
Membership in AZH 150.00
Total out: $1,609.90
Total in Account & CD as of 10/31/07 $10,848.89
Respectfully submitted: Susanne Turtle, Treasurer
Susanne Turtle
ABS & BOTA Treasurer
30 Myers Road
Summertown, TN 38483-7323
Phone: 1-931-964-4151
Fax: 1-931-964-4228
e-mail: ABSTreasurer@aol.com, treasurer@americanbamboo.org
The 2007 BOTA Report is respectfully submitted by Gib Cooper, BOTA Executive Director:
Gib Cooper, Executive Director
Bambúes de las Américas
Bamboo of the Americas (BOTA)
28446 Hunter Creek Loop
Gold Beach, OR 97444
Tel. & FAX: 541-247-0835
BAMBOO CONSERVATION ACTION FOR THE NEW WORLD
http://www.bamboooftheamericas.org
Alt. email: bambugib@charter.net
Skype me: BAMBUGIB
BOTA is administered by The American Bamboo Society (ABS), a California non-profit scientific and literary charitable corporation, tax-exempt under section 501(C)-3. Contributions to this project are tax-deductible under federal and California laws. For more information about ABS visit: http://www.americanbamboo.org/
October 27, 2007