Raul Ernesto Llanos

Valuing the Southern Bolivian Yungas's Environmental Services: Saving an Important Place for the Endangered Alder Amazon's Conservation

Alder amazon endemic and endangered species of the Yungas Australes.

The Yungas Forest in the Municipality of Quirusillas.

New coat of arms in the Municipality of Quirusillas, with the image of Alder Amazon as a Symbol of the region.

Workshop development content of the manuals of Enviromental Education for schools.

Town/RegionCountryCategoriesDate
Departamental Reserve Laguna Esmeralda County FloridaBoliviaCentral and Latin America, Community, People6 Aug 2010

The nine communities of Quirusillas’ municipality and the reserve "Laguna Esmeralda" at the Department of Santa Cruz, Bolivia, represent the north end of the absolute distribution of southern Yungas’ eco-region. This area is a key site for Alder Amazon’s conservation, presenting well-preserved forest patches, being a confirmed nesting site and a place of annual extraction of parrot chicks for illicit trade.

Alder Amazon is an endemic and threatened species of southern Yungas. Its current population in Bolivia does not exceed 2700 individuals, this would be only 11% of exports recorded in the eighties, when the capture for the international pet trade registered 25 500 individuals. It has now been proven that there is a growing trade of this species intended for illegal pet market. Furthermore Alder Amazon’s habitat (Southern Yungas) is recognized as an endemic bird area for the world (EBA 057) with global priority of urgent conservation, besides being considered as the most threatened eco-region in Bolivia due to the forest fragmentation and its converting to agricultural land. This eco-region is disappearing at an annual rate of 1.1% and 60% of the original surface is already degraded. This is a worrisome situation since there are many rural communities that depend on environmental services of this forest for their subsistence.

The aim of this project is to conduct an effective environmental education and sensitization of the local actors in Quirusillas’ municipality. For this we aim to include Alder Amazon as historical symbol in the Coat of Arms of these communities, to insert environmental issues in the training program of rural schools, to create mothers' clubs producers of craft to provide local women options of alternative incomes to parrots’ trade and finally to use a variety of media that allow us to socialize our activities and objectives with most of the local population. We believe that our action will generate feelings of citizenship, membership and permanent pride to Alder Amazon; this will fix replicable conservation values set in homes of many children and will give many rural mothers the opportunity to contribute to family support, besides turning them into diffusion sources of conservation messages. This strategy is feasible due to rural mothers are the family element closest to the children.

For further information contact raulernesto77@hotmail.com

Project Update: January 2011

Thanks to the work of environmental awareness, the City Council of Quirusillas has ordered to insert in its coat of arms, symbols that embody Alder Amazon, the misty mountains, rivers and lakes that make up the landscape of the area. This demonstrates the recognition to the importance of natural resources like water and Alder Amazon as a species that represents the municipality.

Additionally, 38 founding members of the women’s club “Asociación de Mujeres Emprendedoras de Quirusillas” have been trained in traditional screen printing. With the earnings from produced handicrafts, the women's club has acquired materials that will allow them to diversify their products. It is expected that the strong environmental education campaign and the income that women receive from their craftsmanship, and reduce the sale of Alder Amazon pigeons, an activity that is conducted annually by rural women and children, seriously affecting wild populations of this endangered species

Project Update: April 2011

The work team in conjunction with educational authorities and teachers from rural communities has elaborated the content of manuals of environmental education for schools. These manuals are based on the environmental issues identified by the people from communities, beside the proposed teaching methodologies are based on "learning by doing", using group dynamics to the participatory building of solutions. The proposed dynamics have been adapted to the language and cultural characteristics of the communities where they will be applied.

Thanks to the efforts taken with political and educational authorities, it has signed an agreement with the Educational District Directorate of the Quirusillas’ Municipality. This ensures the implementation of the manuals, to the programme of formal education in schools; it also establishes annual mechanisms of evaluation of the implementation’s level of the manuals by the teacher’s part.

Final Report

Read more about the activities undertaken and findings of this project in the final report below.

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Final Report733 KB

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