DESCARGA AQUÍ EL TEXTO EN ESPAÑOL COMO ARCHIVO PDF

Hi! We are Tapir’s House (La Casa del Tapir)!... an environmental education initiative promoted by AndígenA foundation in partnership with other organizations from Latin America.  

Tapir’s House arose on 2010 as idea of the venezuelan geographer Denis Alexander Torres and the colombian biologist Sergio Sandoval; both professionals with extensive experience in tapir conservation in Latin America.

Through Tapir’s House we have been working like a virtual center for spreading scientific and popular information about all tapir species. Our purpose is fostering the environmental education, the public interest regarding these majestic creatures and to reinforce another conservation intitiatives worldwide with emphasis in Latin America. Although tapirs are not so charismatic animals as, for instance, bears and dolphins, the public interest about them it has been increasing step by step. As sample, our Facebook page is followed by more than 2,600 people from around the world and our educational materials are used by hundreds of teachers and their students all across Latin America. 

Tapir’s House activities has been carried out as a volunteer work due the lack of a financial support to sustain the activities in a regular way. However, we must recognize an important and valuable support offered by a group of friends, honorary members and people identified with our noble cause. Our main aim is to produce a greater educational impact through the virtual scene and beyond. In order to reach this goal, we need your generous attention and support today.

A MONTH TO CELEBRATE THE EXISTENCE OF THE TAPIRS

Since 2007 the “World Tapir Day” is worldwide celebrated on April 27th of each year. It is a special date for raising public awareness about these endangered species and help to protect them for future generations.

Although the Tapir’s House is not for highlight a particular date, on April 2021, we started the celebration of the “Month of the Tapirs” to spread daily information on the tapir importance as culture icons and biodiversity ambassadors.

Month of the Tapirs is a special time of learning, commitment, practical actions and familiarizing with our roles as environment protectors.

During April 2022, Tapir's House produced a wonderful collection of fact sheets about tapirs as part of the Month of the Tapir celebration.

“In the end, we will conserve only what we love; we will love only what we understand and we will understand only what we are taught.” — Baba Dioum, 1968.

WHAT WE ARE LOOKING FOR NOW?

During April 2023 we want to carry out a new educational campaign to share amazing facts about tapirs. In addition, we want to hold a virtual meeting to talk about the work done through La Casa del Tapir in recent years and present a new and wonderful project that we are looking to achieve in the near future. It will be a great gift for tapir fans!

In Venezuela, we will celebrate the “Month of the Tapirs” in alliance with  Guarenas Repano Foundation, our partner in Waraira Repano National Park located in the Coastal Range surrounding Caracas. Also we will support the environmental education work promoted in Venezuela by  Guáquira Foundation and  Esfera Foundation.

Saving the tapirs and their habitat will contribute towards:

• To conserve the tropical ecosystems, especially the rainforests.
• To protect the watersheds vital for the people and to irrigate the lands and to produce electric energy.
• To protect the soil from erosion so that the land will continue to support agriculture and to prevent natural disasters.

Tapirs are flagship species in the tropics; the symbol to foster important conservation efforts in the most biodiverse regions on Earth.

AIMS

Increase people awareness in favor of tapirs’ conservation and their habitats with emphasis in countries like Venezuela, Colombia and Ecuador:

• by developing hands-on, education activities for various grade levels.
• by using in the environmental education, the most updated information about tapir ecology.
• by creating and distributing educational materials for free use in educational centers and other community-base organizations.
• by using the lowland tapir and mountain tapir as “focal species” for the conservation in some wild areas from Venezuela, Colombia and Ecuador, especially national parks.

Evaluate the effectiveness of the environmental education for future implementation in specific areas of the lowland tapir’s range in Venezuela, Colombia and Ecuador:

• by measuring attitude changes in students and parents regarding the tapir conservation within the work areas.

Beyond the virtual scene members from Tapir's House carries out a series of public talks in elementary schools and high schools in order to share information about tapir conservation.

WHAT DIFFERENCE CAN A FEW DOLLARS MAKE?

Maybe one single dollar means nothing to many people in developing countries, but for us in Latin America is a concrete possibility to sustain a wonderful long-term wildlife conservation project based on environmental education as strategy to spread interest and love for tapirs' conservation and their habitats. One single dollar can help us to sustain our active work to spread the word in favor to wildlife conservation.

Every dollar that you give to this campaign it will allows us to provide education to our closer neighbors, especially children from the urban and rural areas and sustain our informative page about tapirs on Facebook and blogspot, both entitled "La Casa del Tapir". Your support is a precious opportunity to recognize the real value of the nature and our responsibility with its future. Please, give us your sincere support today and so we together can make a difference to the environmental awareness raising.

WHAT THE MONEY RAISED WILL BE USED FOR?

The money raised through this campaign it will allow us to sustain the educational initiatives during the Month of the Tapirs and the next quarter (april-june 2023). We will produce new original educational materials in order to reinforce a distance learning program through our page on Facebook “La Casa del Tapir” and our website: 

https://lacasadeltapir.blogspot.com.

We Want:

• Produce stickers and brochures about tapirs to distribute free of charge in educational centers (schools and high schools).
• Pay professional fees linked to the production of educational materials (pamphlets, posters, educational sheets, multimedia slideshows, etc.).
• Pay administrative expenses (communication: mail, phone, internet, etc.). 
• Eventually pay the living expenses (meals, accommodations and fuel) during the visits to educational centers (mainly elementary schools and high schools).

PROJECT OUTPUTS

• Production of 500 stickers with the slogan “Tapirs are part of my World”.
• Production of new brochures focused on the natural history and conservation of tapirs.
• Printing of 1000 Coloring Sheets about tapirs.
• Publication of regular information through our Facebook Page “La Casa el Tapir” and website which can be freely used as educational tool by teachers at schools as well as the general public.
• Development of a series of virtual conferences and talks as part of a Distance Learning Program.

OUTCOMES

• Students and their parents will get qualified information about tapirs and related environmental conservation issues.
• Children and adults will wake up a stronger awareness and commitment toward the tapir conservation and the environment.
• Government’s staff and community leaders will assume a more active role to reinforce local conservation programs.
• Our environmental education initiative will be used as a joint model for other conservation programs in Venezuela and eventually in neighboring countries.

UPDATES        

• We will be providing updates and work progress through our Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/LaCasaDelTapir/and the website: https://lacasadeltapir.blogspot.com/