I appreciate the efforts and dedication of those involved in funding and carrying out the mission of their conservation group. As a life long environmental activist, any personal contributions to preserving our biosphere is awesome to see and participate in.

Unfortunately the entire planet needs protection from abusive for profit or personal use resource extraction and destruction. Funding the level of protection and oversight needed for adequate preservation and future biosphere health takes more then a few people pitching in voluntarily or having fundraisers....

Protecting the health of our planet is worth a community effort whether locally or globally. Yes bureaucracies are an imperfect structure and subject to many pressures and human breakdowns, but they belong to the community whether that is local, state, national or international, subject to oversight and directives from a representative structure. Another words, they work for US, the land is held in trust for US and future generations, however imperfect.

Leaving land preservation to non-profit philanthropic agencies on a global scale is unworkable solution considering the size of the job and the fact that at any time that non-profit is subject to outside challenges and pressures, same as bureaucracies but with no oversight or legal obligations except to their own board and donors. Planet preservation funded by bake sales and no community oversight????? I don't think that is workable on such a grand scale. But I love to hear that this project in Ecuador is beneficial to the ecosystem and human community and applaud all positive human/ecosystem partnerships...... oc