“And this big one?” Ancelmo Dugarte asks his 3-year-old son, Marco Antonio, pointing to a towering pine in front of them. “Pino laso,” the little voice replies. “And this one? What’s this called?” Dugarte asks again, now touching the leaf of a plant. “Laurel baboso,” Marco Antonio answers. His father repeats it once more, as part of his mission to teach his son all the dozens of native plant species close to his home. This conversation between Dugarte and his son took place in 2019 amid the cloud forest of El Tambor, located in the Sierra de La Culata National Park, in Mérida, Venezuela. They live in San Eusebio, a town close to the cloud forest, where Dugarte volunteers with the El Tambor Project, created in 2018 in order to help restore the forest with native plants with community participation. Over the past four years, El Tambor Project has successfully produced more than 15,000 plants belonging to nearly 50 native tree species, primarily from families such as Myrtaceae, Lauraceae, Podocarpaceae and Melastomataceae. This project seeks to restore approximately 22,000 hectares (54,300 acres) of cloud forest. A biodiversity hotspot, this area hosts more than 200 species of birds, 50 species of mammals, 153 species of orchids and 150 species of bromeliads. El Tambor Project is made up of seven people but they also count on the volunteer work of dozens of people who live in the communities near the cloud forest. Image courtesy of El Tambor Project. Since 2012, Ana Quevedo…This article was originally published on Mongabay
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South Africa Today – Environment
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