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2ND MEETING OF MESOAMERICAN REGIONAL ORCHID
SPECIALIST GROUP
Ciudad de Guatemala, GUATEMALA, February 13, 2003
The first Meeting of the Mesoamerican Regional Orchid Specialist
Group (OSG-Mesoamerica), IUCN/SSC, was held at the Universidad
de Costa Rica on May 25th, 2001, as part of the activities of
the 2nd Mesoamerican Seminar on Orchidology and Conservation,
organized by the Jard地 Bot㌻ico Lankester, Universidad de Costa
Rica (UCR). The Chairman of Orchid Specialist Group, Philip Cribb,
and the Regional Director of IUCN for Mesoamerica, Enrique Lahmann,
attended the meeting, as well as 12 OSG members, representatives
of six Central American and Caribean countries. During the meeting
Jorge Warner was appointed as the Regional Chairman for the OSG-Mesoamerica
and Jardin Botanico Lankester, UCR, as the headquarters for the
Group.
The OSG-Mesoamerica defined the following, preliminary schedule
for future work:
1. To divulge the new edition of the Orchid Conservation Action
Plan published in the Orchid Conservation News bulletin, with
the aim to evaluate in the countries of the area the present
conservation status of native orchid species.
2. To promote the updating of threatened species lists by members
of the group, due to the lack of reliable information for many
areas within the concerned region.
3. To establish mechanisms aimed to divulge information among
members of the group.
4. To write a technical proposal intended to exclude dry and
pickled material from CITES regulations.
5. To create a committee to test a selected number of orchid
species against the criteria suggested by IUCN for evaluation
of risk categories. The dissemination among members of the evaluation
criteria adopted in Mexico was also suggested.
The 2nd Meeting of OSG-Mesoamerica intent to gather in Ciudad
de Guatemala, Guatemala, specialists to define common strategies
aimed to promote conservation of the most threatened species
in each of the countries.
The work program for the 2nd Meeting include the following
objectives:
a. To promote that members of the Group will be instrumental
to the updating of country lists of threatened and endemic orchid
species.
b. To identify for each country the laws intended to avoid collecting
and trade of wild orchid specimens.
c. To identify mechanisms designed to quantify orchid trade in
each of the countries in the region as well as their reliability.
d. To identify the existence and reliability of mechanisms intended
to monitor illegal orchid trade between countries that are members
of the Group.
e. To appoint in each country a representative of the Group.
f. To define an agenda for the 3rd Meeting of the Group, scheduled
for next May 23th in San Jos�, Costa Rica, as part of the activities
of the 1st International Conference on Neotropical Orchidology
(Ciudad de la Investigaci溶, Universidad de Costa Rica, May 21-25).
When: Thursday, February 13th, 2003, from 9:00 to 17:00
hours, as part of the activities of the Guatemalan Orchid Society
Show*.
Where: Sal溶 de los Presidentes, Edificio ANACAFE, Avenida
La Americas, Zona 14, Ciudad de Guatemala, Guatemala.
* Participants are welcome to attend the openning of the orchid
show, Wednesday night (Q 25.00 per person)
For further information, please contact the OSG-Mesoamerica
Chairman, Jorge Warner, to the following addresses:
Jardin Botanico Lankester, Universidad de Costa Rica
P.O. Box 1031-7050 Cartago
Costa Rica. C.A.
Phone (506) 552-3247
Fax (506) 552-3151
jwarner@cariari.ucr.ac.cr
jbl@cariari.ucr.ac.cr
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