Alan Hesse

The Blue-Throated Macaw Project, Bolivia

One of a pair of Blue-throated macaws guarding its nest.

One of the 7 Private Guardians of the Blue-throated Macaw.

Children enjoying our pilot environmental education programme.

Town/RegionCountryCategoriesDate
BoliviaBirds, Central and Latin America14 Aug 2000

It is estimated that only 120 Blue-throated Macaws remain in Bolivia, and even these are greatly threatened by trafficking. This project seeks to establish the most secure and self-sustainable means of long term local protection of the species in the shortest time possible. Rather than relying on government enforcement of anti-trafficking regulations, the project is based at the local level, where landowners and local ranch employees will be encouraged to develop monitoring procedures and support a conservation plan.

The project combines research and conservation objectives. As a priority the team will investigate in which sites the macaws choose to breed, what types of trees and other habitat features are associated with nesting sites and what pressures impact successful breeding. Ongoing surveys will monitor the birds' population status. The team will concurrently work on an education programme aimed at schools and youth groups to raise awareness on the macaws and other wildlife, and will launch an initiative to involve local landowners as "private guardians" of the species.

Project Update: September 2000

I have recently returned from a visit to the Beni capital of Trinidad, where I linked up with a specialist educator from the Santa Cruz Museum of Natural History Environmental Education section.

The trip was a great success in that for the first time solid quantitative and qualitative data was obtained on local people's knowledge, opinions, problems, and expectations regarding nature conservation, local health problems, and education. Our workshops focused on the three rural schools which had been selected, and valuable contact has also been made with the educational authorities of Beni itself.

I also had the opportunity to be involved in a 27 minute broadcast on the Blue-throated macaw and its conservation project, transmitted in June throughout the state of Beni. To reinforce all this we have produced a leaflet, and we are soon bringing out a project poster. The next stage is to hire full time project staff.

Final Report

We have now completed counts of Blue-throated macaws at 5 of the 8 known locations, and at one new one. Although we have seen more Blue-throated macaws in 2001 than in 2000, the overall trend from 1993 to date shows a general decline of the Blue-throated Macaw population. We noted that at most sites, the Blue-throated Macaw was dominated by the more abundant Blue and Yellow Macaw, and they were competing to nest in the same palms.

Our continuous awareness work targeting landowners, ranch employees and their families, and relevant authorities in the Beni is a slow but fruitful method of countering the illegal commercial extraction of Blue-throated Macaws. We were also very pleased with the impact of our public awareness work at the annual fair in Trinidad. We would like in the future to be able to develop a school based environmental education programme and are working to find a suitable location where we can build such a project.

We have forged a good connection with Hombre y Naturaleza, a Spanish NGO active in the technical aspects of the creation of a new protected area in the Beni.


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