Today, Tayrona proudly displays its true nature as a safe environment for tourists. Since its elevation in status to a national park in 1969, this biodiversity area covering 12,000 hectares of land and 3,000 of sea has been growing in popularity. Within its territory are sandy beaches, dazzling blue/azure ocean waters, tropical dry jungle and a rainforest up to 900 metres in the Sierra Nevada mountain range.

The Mesoamerican Barrier Reef System is impressive, covering 560 miles from Cancun to Honduras. In Belize, where the reef stretches for a remarkable 186 miles, a company called Blue Ventures has taken a creative and effective approach to conservation. Beginning in January of 2010, Blue Ventures began a project to understand the impact the local coastal communities have on the nearby reef.

The picture was taken at Coral Cay (or Crawl Cay as it is locally known), about 20 minutes away by boat ride from Isla Colón/Bocas Island. The Cay is appropriately named after the abundant coral reefs that surround it. It is one the best places to snorkel and a great place to have lunch if you wish to do so in a spectacular environment.

No fewer than 1.6 billion people — nearly a quarter of the world’s population — depend on forests for their livelihoods. Forests are also critical to maintaining biodiversity, mitigating climate change and enabling key ecosystem functions that regulate the biosphere. And yet about 45 per cent of the world’s forests have already been cleared. Here are some hard numbers to ponder that tell us how and why we should stop.

Barra de Potosí is a small coastal village at the mouth of a lagoon, part of a complex and interdependent system of lagoons, which runs along the coast of the Municipio de Petatlan in Mexico. The people of Barra de Potosí are now confronted by and opposing a development project that they believe will destroy the existing ecosystem. The fight is proving to be a difficult one, and the people can use all the help they can get.

Ilha Grande, Brazil, is a true haven for biological and ecological diversity and much of the credit for the maintenance of its conservation areas is attributed to the relentless work of the Defence Committee of Ilha Grande (CODIG). This non-profit organisation has been fighting for the preservation of Ilha Grande’s ecological integrity and fending off the interests of those seeking capital gains. One project is the eradication of an invasive species of sun coral.