The Panama Amphibian Rescue and Conservation Project implementation team met in Panama in February. From left: Pete Riger, Alan Pessier, Eric Baitchman, Paul Crump, William, Heidi Ross-Griffth, Angie Estrada, Jorge Guerrel, Della Garelle, Roberto Ibanez (Photo by Brian Gratwicke, Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute)

Amphibian conservationists convened in El Valle, Panama, last month to plan the future of our fight to save amphibians. We didn’t do any collecting this trip, as frogs are much harder to find during the dry season. Parts of the country, including past collection sites in the Darien region, are also currently too dangerous. Instead, members of the project’s implementation team met with the El Valle Amphibian Conservation Center (EVACC). We are joining forces and looking at ways we can work together as one organization with two campuses.

Dr. Alan Pessier of San Diego Zoo Global facilitated the two-and-a-half day strategic planning session where a SWOT analysis was used to identify the organizations’ combined Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats. Participants included Heidi Ross, director of EVACC; Roberto Ibañez project director in country; Brian Gratwicke, project coordinator; Angie Estrada and Jorge Guerrel, project staff; Peter Riger and Paul Crump, Houston Zoo; Eric Baitchman, Zoo New England; Della Garelle, Cheyenne Mountain Zoo.

The outcome was an ambitious and detailed action plan to achieve our mutual goals of creating assurance colonies of Panama’s most vulnerable amphibian species, and ultimately re-establishing their healthy wild populations. We plan to expand our ability to house more priority species and breed them reliably, better communicate progress on our work to interested parties, continue to improve husbandry and increase efficiency, identify staffing and equipment needs, prioritize research projects, and develop re-introduction criteria.

—Dr. Della Garelle, Director of Conservation, Cheyenne Mountain Zoo