Greetings! My name is Eduardo Alvarez and I am the President of Earthmatters.org. I was born in Caracas, Venezuela, but my family was based in Ciudad Bolívar which for a long time was the largest and oldest city situated on the right bank of the Orinoco River. My city’s original name was ‘Angostura’ (Spanish word for a river narrowing) because it’s one the shortest passages on the Orinoco. It was the home of Angostura Bitters, a tincture remedy developed in the 1820s by a German Surgeon General in Simon Bolivars’ army to treat many ailments such as Malaria. To this day I am still very much a fan of it. 

In the early 1970’s I attended Utah State University, training to become a cattle rancher. Later, during graduate school I met a group of biologists conducting wildlife surveys in the desert of southwestern Utah. One of them, Peter Küng, would become a lifelong friend and collaborator in conservation research. Running wildlife transects with Peter, I soon realized I didn’t want to be a rancher, but rather a field biologist. Gustavo A. Martinez Gerstl, a friend since their early college years at Utah State University, also would join as a key player in our work with Harpy eagles. In 1978 upon completion of my Master’s degree, I was hired by EDELCA, Venezuela’s hydroelectric company, which  was building the world’s largest dam in Venezuela. There I started my path as an ecologist and conservationist.

I was charged with environmental evaluations of the lower Caroní River, being flooded by the Guri Dam. I lived on the construction site with my wife Lucie, and spent 10 years conducting wildlife inventories and aquatic ecosystems studies. We were fortunate to enlist herpetologist Dr. Steve Gorzula, and ornithologist Glenda Medina, for the initial training of my field team. Peter Küng also visited with a crew of biologists from Utah, bringing equipment and providing hands-on coaching for the inventory of vertebrates. I enlisted the Forestry School of the Universidad de Los Andes to conduct large-scale and detailed evaluations over the span of almost 3 years in the late 80s.

As I started the vertebrate inventories of the Guri Lake basin, I heard locals stories about encounters with Harpy eagles. For instance, a logger told me that he had seen a huge eagle near the lake where they were clearing the forest. He said he had shot it, and showed me one of the impressive claws. In 1983, during a field survey in that area, I saw my first Harpy near the inactive nest. At that time, there were only two publications about the Harpy, reporting on nearby Guyana’s eagles. One was by Jim Fowler (1964), followed by the article (1978) from American filmmaker and naturalist Neil Rettig. He was the first to film this species in the wild during 1974-75 and would later inspire and encourage me to continue his work.The distribution for this raptor reported in the Field Guide to the Birds of Venezuela (1978) was quite incomplete, based only on a handful of specimens in museums. 

In the 10 years I lived in Guri (1978-88), I gathered many sighting records and assembled a collection of seven dead eagles shot by locals. For instance, a logger donated a whole eagle he had kept frozen for ten years, waiting for someone who could prepare it as an exhibit. I became concerned – this is a large, rare bird and rather difficult to find in the wild. However, when people encounter them they tend to kill them, in part due to ignorance or sometimes due to fear. I realized that we were losing the eagles before the rainforest. At this point, in the mid-80s, I decided to study these animals and figure out how to protect them in their natural habitat. In 1988 I moved with my family to the United States to start my doctoral program on the Harpie at the University of Florida in Gainesville. 

At the beginning, the Harpy Eagle Conservation Program concentrated in Venezuela and later expanded to Panama, but I envisioned a constellation of panamerican projects in each country harboring Harpy eagles. In 1989, when I started field work with my advisor Dr. Collopy, we found the first active Harpy nest reported for Venezuela. In 1991 my doctorate research was sponsored by The Peregrine Fund (Boise, ID) for its duration.

I set out to investigate the historical records of the Harpy eagle, visiting or contacting museum collections worldwide. It was evident that the species also suffered strong collecting pressure. For instance, field teams from two different museums in Caracas (Venezuela) participated a few months apart in the environmental impact studies for a bauxite mining site (Los Pijiguaos). They had both encountered and shot a Harpy eagle (very likely a pair). Traditionally, environmental impact studies consisted mostly of collecting vertebrates, but I could not think of any valid scientific reason for a biologist to be collecting Harpy eagles in the late 80’s. 

In 1989 I enlisted the young Venezuelan who had climbed the first active Harpy nest located during my preliminary field season. Rafael Eladio Alvarez Martinez (no relation) became the field assistant to the program during my doctoral investigation. Rafael demonstrated exemplary dedication to all aspects of the field work, and over a decade helped lay the foundation to our program. He ranks among the world experts on the species, having seen and handled dozens of Harpy eagles in the wild.

I met Kike Arnal in 1993 during the filming of a TV documentary about the Darien region of Panama.  Kike is a world class climber, professional tree rigger and photographer with over 30 years of experience. He confided that when he was younger he dreamed of working with Harpy eagles. He used to sit at a bench observing the caged Harpy at Parque del Este in his native Caracas. He became our instructor, imparting the technical skills required for our study to safely reach eagle nests high in the forest canopy. He also documented our work with a style combining immersive documentary storytelling and environmental portraiture. Our collaboration connected Kike with legendary nature cinematographer Neil Rettig in major projects for National Geographic, the BBC, and Cornell’s Lab of Ornithology Multimedia Unit. Kike Arnal’s online portfolio includes a chapter on Harpy eagle- Queen of the rainforest.

In 1996 I was awarded a PhD. I am very grateful to The Peregrine Fund (Boise, Idaho) for supporting my doctoral research during most of the 1990s. I was well aware of the need to continue this challenging work. In 1997 The Harpy Eagle Conservation Program received the prestigious award in The Computerworld Smithsonian Program for innovative use of technology in dealing with environmental issues. As the team had the chance to regroup, Peter Küng spearheaded the creation of Earthmatters.org. We were joined by Gustavo A. Martinez Gerstl, who has been a pivotal figure supporting the program from its beginning and as Founding Director for over three decades. His unique background in Computer Science, Economics and Corporate Management advanced our conservation mission focused on the Harpy eagle and its habitats. Gustavo helped our team demonstrate that the tools of the digital age—when wielded with a results-oriented mindset—are among the most powerful assets in the fight to preserve our planet’s most vulnerable ecosystems. We set out to expand the program which had at that time located more than 30 nests in Venezuela, and 10 nests in Panama. Our innovative georeferenced approach, our approach to partner with locals to locate nests, and the field techniques we developed to study the eagles, became the blueprint for the Conservation Plan for this species.

In 1996 as I was giving a lecture at the Universidad Simon Bolivar in Caracas, a young Veterinary student Pilar Alexander Blanco asked to join our field team. I sent Alex on his first volunteer mission with a hand-held GPS unit loaded with the tracks to navigate 700 miles from Caracas to the field sites. He aced the assignment, inspecting a handful of Harpy nests under observation, and qualified to become an associate researcher. By 2001 he was running the field work as the National Director of the Harpy Eagle Conservation Program in Venezuela. Alex is an accomplished Veterinary Doctor with a handful of specialties and renowned track record in conservation. He has been the driving force in securing funds to carry on the program, enlisting long-term cooperation with The Dallas World Aquarium (2012), and receiving the “Green Oscar” Conservation Award and funding from The Whitley Fund for Nature (2017). Alex holds unchallenged records for the most Harpy eagle nests located and climbed (>100); and the most Harpy eagles safely captured and banded. Alex is President of the NGO Fundación Esfera in Venezuela, and a Director at Earthmatters.org.

Blas Chacare is a local farmer in El Palmar, the closest town to our study area in Venezuela. In his youth he used to be a hunter, a sworn enemy of the Harpie after a wounded eagle pierced one of his hands. In the late 90s a bird guide introduced Blas to Alex. Although he was skeptical of the conservationist work, Blas agreed to assist him in the capture and banding of a young eagle. When he held  the young eagle in his lap, Blas says he realized these birds are actually defenseless from humans. He was transformed into the most dedicated protector of the Harpy eagle. Blas is a gifted local naturalist, an expert in navigating the region, with a deep understanding of the local forest environment. He excels as a local guide who knows the native species and the terrain intimately, combining traditional knowledge with a practical (ecological) understanding. As a respected member of the local community, with an extensive network of trusting collaborators and a natural, instinctive talent for locating eagle nests, he has documented >120 nests for the program.

After the untimely passing of Founding Director Peter Küng on June 27th 2017, Earthmatters.org continues to uphold his principle of always striving to do the right thing. Our initiatives provide an excellent means to train researchers, conservationists and natural resource managers to face the problems related to biodiversity at different scales. We recognize that human beings are unavoidably a part of the landscape. Our focus is on bottom-up conservation, engaging local communities to embrace the value of the forest and its inhabitants, and uphold the Harpy eagle as a symbol of local and national pride.