Emergency Relief Grants Emergency relief grants are awarded to organizations in need of immediate general funding to help them overcome unforeseen difficulties. The money is not necessarily earmarked for a specific conservation or microenterprise project. The laws protecting Costa Rica's wildlife and forests are often ignored because there is essentially no enforcement. Even the Costa Rican government admits that half the country's logging is illegal. Each time they go on patrol, they educate those they meet.
Members use their own cars and filed gear and pay their own expenses.
With financial assistance from several groups, the meeting would bring together 200 indigenous people in Amazonas state in Venezuela. The group would meet to discuss and propose an alternative territorial plan to the government that would take into account ethnic boundaries and lands of individual communities. The group has to propose a plan of action to counter a previous government legislation that was not amenable to the indigenous situation. Hurricane Mitch Hurricane Mitch pummeled Central America in late October and early November 1998, leaving behind some 9,000 dead and countless homeless, injured, and starving residents. The powerful storm's impacts were particularly devastating due to deforestation and improper land use in the region.