In addition to the coastal cleanup, participants celebrated the Caribbean Endemic Bird Festival, in which they held an educational talk about Puerto Rico's endemic birds and the importance of insects in their ecosystem.
On May 18, 2024, the non-profit organization, Conservation Opportunity (CO), in conjunction with other entities such as Birds Caribbean, Troop 39 of the University of Puerto Rico, Mayagüez campus, Roots and Shoots PR, the Municipality of Cabo Rojo, among others, participated in the trash pickup at Buyé Beach in Cabo Rojo and the installation of a Giving Tuesday 2021 campaign sign: “Enjoy with Conscience”.”. In this activity they collected a total of 347 pounds of garbage with the participation of 79 volunteers. All students present received green contact hours for the Puerto Rico Department of Education program.
CO, in its networks, thanked all the participants and the community for this initiative: “Your participation, energy and interest fills us with great joy. It is fundamental for us, as an organization, to continue carrying the message of conservation and cleanliness of the natural resources on our Island”.
The non-profit organization indicated its appreciation to the owner of the private land where the sign was installed.
This activity was also dedicated to the Scouts Trash the Trash Day, The event, an event within the scouting movement that encourages family members and fellow scouts to take a day to pick up trash together.
In addition to the coastal cleanup, the participants celebrated the Caribbean Endemic Bird Festival in which they gave an educational talk about the endemic birds of Puerto Rico and the importance of insects in their ecosystem, and conducted a census of these birds in the areas surrounding Buyé Beach.
“There in Buyé was the first time we dedicated ourselves to do that count, (compared to the other counts done in Cabo Rojo), really (the results) were more or less what was expected,” commented Biologist and Coordinator of the non-profit organization, Roots and Shoots PR, Carla Montalvo Martínez.
Montalvo estimated that they were only able to identify twelve species of birds in the area due to the time at which they took the census, which was a little after noon. This is because, he explained, the birds usually “hide in their nests because of the presence of people and the heat”.
The census tour lasted about 40 minutes. Twelve native birds were identified, indicating that they can be found in many parts of the world. It should be noted that this term is not interchangeable with “endemic species”, which is reserved for organisms that are exclusively found in a particular place or region, such as the Caribbean, a country, such as Puerto Rico, a municipality, such as Cabo Rojo, or a more specific area such as Sierra Bermeja, located within Cabo Rojo.
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If you are interested in participating in one of these events, you can send an email to info@conservationopportunity.org or contact CO's media platforms directly on Instagram, Facebook and LinkedIn. You can also join our email list by filling out this form. (form), so that you can receive notifications about our activities directly to your email.
