Introduction - The Fundacion's Story
Of Bats and Ectoparasites
Learning to Preserve

Infrastructure improvements continue at the reserve. In addition to the five park guard houses, FMB has built a guest house and a scientific laboratory with housing for the scientists. Workers are currently putting finishing touches on a small visitor's center. Many of FMB's employees, now numbering some 50, commute back and forth between Asuncion, Paraguay's capital city, and Mbaracayu. Each week brings a hum of activity as board members, local community members, donors, and scientists from all over the world, come to appreciate and study the reserve's unique natural attributes.

"I feel very happy when I see the reserve...each time, there's a new project that's being launched," said Gustafson.

"The property boundary where there is forest and where there is not is so dramatic," says board member Diane Espinoza.

FMB has set out to acquire property adjoining the reserve. With funds donated by members of The Nature Conservancy, FMB purchased 4,500 hectares and another 1,300 in 1994 and 1996 respectively.

THE FOUNDATION'S FUTURE

Although FMB's top priority has been to acquire and protect the Mbaracayu forest, it has also expanded into other areas. "There is still much to be done," says Espinoza. In just a few short years, "La Fundacion Moises Bertoni" has become a household name in Paraguay. Gauto frequently appears on television and radio programs promoting conservation issues -- unheard of just a few years ago. An active environmental education program reaches out to school children and other important audiences throughout Asuncion. Gauto has inspired many young Paraguayans to enter into conservation careers as FMB's offices overflow with college students who work for the organization during the day and go to school at night. Recently, FMB helped establish a foundation that is working to protect biologically important areas in the now- threatened Paraguayan Chaco, located on the country's western side. FMB also encouraged a group of lawyers to establish an environmental law organization.

In 1989, Gauto won The Nature Conservancy's prestigious John Dunning prize for his work in protecting Mbaracayu. Five years later, FMB won the equally impressive Clifford Messinger award -- also given by The Nature Conservancy - for its work in promoting the conservation of biodiversity in Paraguay. Messinger, an enthusiastic defender of nature, had himself visited Mbaracayu in 1987.

As FMB basks in the success of its efforts with Mbaracayu, Gauto hopes that the reserve can eventually be managed independently so that FMB can focus on other pressing projects. He no longer worries that Mbaracayu will be lost to poachers, squatters or greedy generals.

"It's not ours anymore...its the local villagers, its the indians, and the young people who come from 20 different countries to study, to enjoy and create a mass of its own...I believe its unstoppable by greed or any negative values."

"We are happy with the idea that we have helped create something that will last forever. "

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