MASOALA NP
In late September, the PICC team had prepared resources for over 200 Malagasy children and was ready to travel to Madagascar for October sessions in the Masoala forest. Just days before we were to fly out of the US, political disruptions began in cities across Madagascar and the airlines canceled their flights into Antananarivo.
Thanks to many people supporting our programs, we are currently able to remotely support our Malagasy team leader, Pascal Elison, as he conducts educational hikes, art experiences, and conservation activities in Masoala NP and Nosy Mangabe. With Pascal’s extraordinary knowledge and teaching skills, the children continue learning and protecting their local lemur populations.
PRO ECO AZUERO CONSERVATION PHOTOGRAPHY WORKSHOP
Joining a talented group of young women in Pedasi, Panamá at Pro Eco Azuero’s headquarters, the PICC team helped to orient them to the DSLR cameras, ethical conservation photography, field sketching, and discussions on how to be an informed green guide. We spent an incredible morning in the beach dunes and mangrove forests near Pedasi at the newly designated Rufugio de Vida Silvestre, Pablo Arturo Barrios photographing the plants, animals and landscape of this interesting ecosystem.
See a selection of their images here.
PICC PANAMÁ GALLERY CELEBRATION!
To celebrate the incredible success of the July 2025 PICC–Panamá students, and share their images and conservation messages with the community, we held a Gallery Show in Playa Venao. Parents, grandparents, siblings, friends, visitors, and community members stopped by and were awed by the creative insights into the biodiversity discovered with the cameras.
AZUERO PANAMÁ YOUTH CONSERVATION PHOTOGRAPHY WORKSHOP
Local PICC alumni from 2022 and 2023 and visiting youth from North and South America participated in 2 wonderful morning hikes with the DSLR cameras and long lenses through Canopy Venao‘s dense and biodiverse forest (with special access permission). We spent the mornings photographing the plants and animals in the forest and then the afternoons reviewing their images in the comfort of Wao Jungle Venao‘s patio.
You can see the students incredible images here!
UGANDAN YOUTH EXPERIENCE GORILLA TREKKING AND CONSERVATION PHOTOGRAPHY
PICC conducted a photography and ecoguiding workshop with 5 Rafiki youth in Buhoma-Bwindi in July 2024. The program and resources were designed to expand opportunities for youth that are working towards developing skills in guiding – bird watching, gorilla trekking, and nature walks — as a sustainable and conservation-compatible career in their communities.
Some of the Rafiki youths’ gorilla trekking photographs can be seen here.
BACHO-K SCHOOL & YOUTH PHOTOGRAPHY WORKSHOP
Returning to the village of Rwenshama, Uganda, the PICC team renewed their friendship with the Banyabutumbi Cultural heritage Organization (BACHO-K), where Akiikih Apollo feeds, houses, educates, nurtures and loves over 300 orphan children. We engaged over 120 children with the PICC coloring books, watercolor pencils and story telling sessions where the kids shared personal wildlife stories. Older youth participated in a photography workshop and had an adventurous day to Queen Elizabeth NP.
You can see the students incredible images and read about their ongoing PICC workshops with the children here!
RETURNING TO BUHOMA-BWINDI
Over 270 children in a public school, 40 students and teachers at a private high school, and 5 Rafiki conservation youth all experienced the PICC program in July 2024, in Buhoma-Bwindi, Uganda.
WORKSHOPS WITH CH-TURAMBE, RWANDA
In June 2024, the PICC Team collaborated with our partner at Conservation-Heritage Turambe (CHT), Director Valerie Akuredusenge. CHT is located in NW Rwanda in Musanze, near Volcanoes National Park. We held a photography and art workshop with CHT staff, and GS Kagano students and teachers. The students were able to practice their photography around their beautiful school grounds and also with a field trip to the Dian Fossey Fund Gorilla Center.
A NEW PARTNERSHIP WITH SAVE WILDLIFE UGANDA
A new conservation partner for the PICC program is with the Save Wildlife Uganda conservation group in Kihihi, between Bwindi Impenetrable National Park and Queen Elizabeth NP. SWU is doing amazing work in developing conservation compatible livelihoods in the local population, and providing deterrent systems that have already saved countless lives in the lion population. They also run community education programs and helped to connect us with a group of 15 students from the local school.
PICC in PANAMA'S ENDANGERED MONKEY HABITATS
Two public schools, a conservation club and a private school all experienced the PICC program in May 2023. Their artwork and photographs are incredible and the PICC staff and volunteers all had an amazing time learning from these children.
Read about:
Los Asientos here
ProEco Azuero Conservation Club here
Manglares Discovery here
See Oria Arriba images here
UGANDAN STUDENTS EXCELLING AT CONSERVATION PHOTOGRAPHY
The PICC-Rafiki students have been capturing beautiful images and videos of the mountain gorillas that visit the Sahaya Rafiki Guesthouse in Buhoma-Bwindi. Using the skills they learned at the PICC session in August 2022, they have been mastering the DSLR camera that was provided to them for their sustainable conservation work.
Read more here.
Donate to the ongoing and future PICC programs in Uganda here.
UGANDAN WILDLIFE
In August 2022, the PICC program visited the rural community of Rwenshama, Rukungiri District, in Southwestern Uganda. We worked with the students of BACHO (Banyabutumbi Cultural Heritage Organization) where we learned so much from the children and the community about their wildlife and their own lives living within the borders of Queen Elizabeth National Park. The Banyabatumbi are a proud and joyful people and welcomed us with open arms, wonderful music, and jubilant dancing!
Read more here.
MOUNTAIN GORILLAS
Partnering with the Rafiki Memorial Wildlife Conservation Initiative and the Bwindi Plus Primary School in Buhoma, Uganda, our PICC team spent an exciting week with local children, educators, parents and elders. Together, we explored information about mountain gorillas, the children learned how to take photos with a DSLR camera and use photography for conservation awareness, and gained skills in making sketches of wildlife and storytelling.
Read more here.
IN PANAMA
The Azuero is home to deep network of conservationists working to reforest great corridors of traditional ranch lands to restore the connection between these forested areas and protect the vulnerable biodiversity within. Three species of primates live here, 2 are endangered and one is threatened. Local PICC team members Stuart Hooper and Tammy Rowe arranged for a PICC session to be held at a small rural school in Cañas where endangered monkeys hung out in the school yard.
Read more here
Donate to PICC sessions in Panama here.
MADAGASCAR
Due to the ongoing pandemic and lack of vaccine availability in Madagascar, the PICC Project has again had to postpone its full, onsite session in Masoala National Park, Madagascar. We continue to conduct PICC programs in numerous villages on the Masoala peninsula.
We are currently fundraising for these ongoing mini-PICC sessions being taught by Pascal Elison. Help support us with a donation here.
MADAGASCAR
Due to COVID-19 pandemic, a hybrid online and onsite session of PICC Madagascar, developed by Director Kathy West and led by Project Lead Pascal Elison, took place in the forests near Masoala National Park in June 2020. See here for photos and story of the PICC session.
Many students from the FARAKA Conservation Club had officially given up hope of seeing one of Madagascar’s most reclusive lemurs– the red-ruffed lemur– when a distinctly auburn-colored movement drew their eyes to the trees above. At long last, they had spotted one of Madagascar’s most critically endangered animals, whose habitat is restricted to the forests of the Masoala Peninsula in the northeastern region of Madagascar. Read More
See the FARAKA students’ images here!
The mountain gorillas of Bwindi Impenetrable National Park were the focus of our latest coloring and activity book for conservation education. The activity book was authored and illustrated by PICC Director Kathy West and co-authored and translated by Ugandan conservationist Mushamba Moses. A free PDF is available here.
Need a book in Spanish and English? Our Conservation Coloring Book for Panama can be downloaded here.
Two versions are in Malagasy (and English) dialects, download free pdfs here and here.
SURINAME 2018
PICC Madagascar teamed up with Dr. Marilyn Norconk’s Suriname Forest Fragment Project (SFFP) conservation outreach program. Using the PICC curriculum as a pilot prior to our Madagascar launch to implement community education programs, we worked to cement community bonds to forest fragments and help residents develop a sustainable forest protection program.
Learn more about the project launch here.