Biologists, anthropologists, environmentalists, palm gatherers and volunteers last week adopted the “Caracas Manifesto for the Warairarepano”, the indigenous name for the Ávila National Park. This group of mountains that separate the Venezuelan capital from the Caribbean Sea celebrates a half-century as a national park covering 85,000 hectares.

The manifesto “is an open document that proposes the Ávila as an open classroom for research, environmental education, carbon absorption, climate regulation and preservation of fauna and flora,” environmentalist Argelia Silva, of the Botanical Institute Foundation, told Tierramérica.

The new “club of friends” of the Ávila-Warairarepano will promote the application of the environmental criminal law against those responsible for fires and will help clear out areas that have been invaded by informal housing developments on the slopes near Caracas and the port of La Guaira.