Saving Trees in Ecuador

By Ed Joyce / Reporter, KPBS Public Broadcasting

Published February 18, 2009 at 3:15 AM PST

This story was published more than 15 years ago.

The city of Solana Beach plans to preserve forest land in Southern Ecuador to offset the city's carbon footprint at the same time. KPBS Environment Reporter Ed Joyce has details.

The city of Solana Beach plans to preserve forest land in Southern Ecuador to offset the city's carbon footprint at the same time. KPBS Environment Reporter Ed Joyce has details.

Del-Mar-based non-profit Nature and Culture International and the city of Solana Beach are working together to preserve a pristine area of tropical forest in Southern Ecuador.

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Nature and Culture International Founder Ivan Gayler says Ecuador now has less than 5 percent of tropical deciduous forest and what remains is threatened by logging and clear-cutting.

He says under the plan, Solana Beach would establish a Living Forests Offset Program.

Gayler: This is one of the best ways to stop global warming while at the same time cutting back on the carbon footprint of the city and offsetting resident's carbon footprint.

Solana Beach is asking residents to donate money to buy 2,000 acres of forest land at a cost of $50 an acre.

City Councilwoman Lisa Heebner says the acreage can be purchased for $100,000 dollars which is a fraction of housing prices in Solana Beach.

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Heebner: We're looking forward to offering the opportunity to our residents and businesses to be able to purchase an area the same size as Solana Beach. In this wonderful, tropical, deciduous forest in Ecuador, which is some of the most sensitive and biologically rich area in the world.

Under the proposed agreement, Nature and Culture International will manage the program and ensure 100 percent of the tax-deductible donations go toward land acquisition and management.

The Solana Beach City Council is scheduled to consider the agreement at its meeting next month.

Ed Joyce, KPBS News.

Ed Joyce

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Ed Joyce was the environment reporter and afternoon news anchor for KPBS-FM. Before joining KPBS, he worked as an editor/columnist with Copley News Service in San Diego. Ed has an extensive background in newspaper, radio, web and TV journalism. After graduating with a B.A. in Communications from the University of Washington in Seattle, Ed began a career in broadcast journalism. His work has included stints in public broadcasting, commercial broadcasting and education -- working as an affiliate professor of communication and reporter at the University of Idaho and Washington State University in Pullman, Wash. During the past 20 years he has worked in radio, TV and print as a news reporter, anchor, writer, editor and producer. Along the way he has won numerous awards for general news reporting, newswriting, feature and issue reporting and breaking news reporting from The Associated Press, The Society of Professional Journalists, San Diego Press Club and other organizations. During the mid-1990s, while working for Oregon Public Broadcasting, he was a frequent contributor to National Public Radio, including a feature report on the memorial service for 14 U.S. Forest Service "hotshots" who died fighting a wildfire in Colorado (the crew was based in a central Oregon town). He’s also filed reports with Marketplace, KQED’s California Report and Climate Watch and with national and regional networks throughout the United States. At KPBS, Ed continues his contributions to National Public Radio and other national and regional news organizations. He has won awards from the Society of Professional Journalists and San Diego Press Club for his environmental reporting at KPBS-FM-TV and for producing and anchoring radio newscasts. In 2007 he was selected a National Press Foundation fellow for Understanding Violent Weather II program. The seminars were held at the National Weather Center in Norman, Okla. In 2008 he spoke at a UC San Diego conference on U.S. National Security as part of the school’s Institute on Global Conflict and Cooperation. Ed led a discussion with the 18 foreign government officials and academics about the political debate over climate change. In 2010, Ed was elected to a three-year term on the board of the San Diego Press Club.

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