Environment and Climate
The hill near her school with nearly 300 bird species
Dharma Alejandra Balladares Bermúdez is working to protect the Amazonian and humid forests of Ecuador, starting with Cerro Azul, a tropical dry forest near her school that shelters nearly 300 species of birds.
Cerro Azul is a hill near her school. Right now, Dharma Alejandra Balladares Bermúdez says, it is being exploited for resources such as wood and minerals. It "shelters nearly 300 species of birds, as well as a wide diversity of mammals and native flora." It is, she says, a key tropical dry forest ecosystem.
COPOL, her school, is working to stop it.
“Everyone wants to succeed, but to do so, you have to fail, fall, and stand up to try again. Achievers never back down, and neither should you.”
Dharma Alejandra Balladares Bermúdez
The hill sits inside a larger concern. She is working on the protection of Amazonian and humid forests in Ecuador, and she says urbanization "has destroyed thousands of habitats where our native species live," which in turn has raised the temperature and worsened the air quality of populated areas.
"I care because it not only affects the lovely places filled with nature that Ecuador has, but it also directly affects us by worsening our livelihood," she says.
Alongside the effort over Cerro Azul, she and others at her school go around picking up and categorising waste for recycling. She is also planning to donate to, or volunteer with, organisations that protect and care for the forests.