REPORT: Engaging Local Communities to Save the

Critically Endangered Blue-throated Macaw

SUBMISSION DATE: November 30, 18

ORGANIZATION: World Parrot Trust
PRIMARY CONTACT: José A. Díaz Luque | Bolivia Program Director
jdiaz@fclbolivia.org
FUNDING REQUESTED: $12,100 (USD)

REPORT SUMMARY _______________________________________________________________

The Blue-throated Macaw (Ara glaucogularis) is a large parrot native to Bolivia. It was pushed to the brink of
extinction in the 1980s by unsustainable trapping for the caged bird trade and remains critically endangered
today. Conservation efforts have been aimed at protecting habitat, deterring predators, providing
supplemental food for chicks, educating local citizens to promote conservation of birds and habitats, and
captive breeding for release.

In February 2017, the community of Loreto, in the heart of Blue-throated Macaw range, designated 1.4
million acres of habitat as the Gran Mojos Reserve. The newly designated lands are to be sustainably
managed by a local board of trustees with the goal of preserving the area’s rich natural and cultural
resources. The new conservation area includes 35% of the known wild population of Blue-throated Macaws,
and 50% of the known nests.

In November 2017, Indianapolis Zoo agreed to provide a grant to help the World Parrot Trust establish a Blue-
throated Macaw field station within the newly designated reserve. The station will employ locals to support
researchers in conducting research, monitoring and applied conservation work of the Blue-throated Macaws.
Our experience shows that involving local communities in conservation work and investing in alternative
livelihoods and education programs has longer and more sustainable impacts on nature conservation.

We are pleased to report that as of this writing, the Field Station/Interpretation Center has been completed,
opened and has started to operate. The facility is now available to the community for training residents and
Forest Rangers in conservation strategies for the Blue-throated Macaw. Tourism activities are already
underway or are being organized for several private properties that lie within the Protected Area, and
educational programming is planned for local school children within the new facility.

We are grateful to the Indianapolis Zoo for making this work possible and for helping us instill confidence in
and commitment to the conservation of the Blue-throated Macaw among residents of the Gran Mojos
Protected Area.

What follows is a review of the strategic objectives, results and evaluation of our work to date, as well as an
accounting of how the grant was spent, with supporting documents (when possible). We thank the
Indianapolis Zoo for this opportunity and look forward to its feedback.
 STRATEGIC OBJECTIVES __________________________________________________________________
• Construct an identifiable field station within the Gran Mojos Protected Area that empowers the local
community to conserve their natural resources - including the Blue-throated Macaws – and provide
sustainable economic opportunities and educational programming.
• Measure the efficacy of Blue-throated Macaw conservation efforts within the Gran Mojos Protected
Area by monitoring the local wild population for signs of successful breeding activity.

RESULTS __________________________________________________________________________
Gran Mojos Protected Area Interpretation Center (and Field Station)
A grand opening event of the Loreto
Interpretation Center in the Gran Mojos
Protected Area took place on 26 November
2018. The inauguration was attended by
several key figures, including the Mayor of
Loreto and the Director of the Gran Mojos
Protected Area as well as over 60 members
from the community, including local high
school students.

The half-day event included presentations and

Figure 1: José Antonio Díaz (PI) speaking to the public during the
inauguration event about the Protected Area and Interpretation Center.
Inset: Commemorative plate of the Interpretation Center, with all the
logos of the institution that supported the development of this center.
speeches by different stakeholders and
partners of the project and highlighted the
importance of the Interpretation Center within
the protected area. An official visit to the new
building by the Mayor of Loreto also took
place that day.

The Interpretation Center will soon employ a local person for its
administration and receiving of visitors. This is planned for when the wet
season ends and access to the village is once again suitable for having local
tourists and visitors come in from other villages.

Sustainable tourism in the Gran Mojos Protected Area

Tourism opportunities are being developed for two cattle ranches, La
Cantina and Tres Estrellas, both of which lie within the Protected Area. The
plans to develop La Cantina for sustainable nature tourism began in June
with a meeting between the land owner and WPT field staff to discuss and
develop an ecotourism experience there. Ultimately, the owner decided to
offer a one-day tour at his ranch which was then shared with two local tour
companies in Trinidad and Santa Cruz as a new activity for them to consider.
These companies responded favorably to this idea and so, with the support
of the village of Loreto, a road to the property was improved so that the
tour companies would have better access to the ranch. Figure 2: The mayor of Loreto, Mrs.
Gaby Vania Balzacar, during her
official visit.

World Parrot Trust | Report 2

 In September, the first tour to La Cantina was
completed, by a company from Trinidad. Other
companies from Trinidad and Santa Cruz are also
showing interest in this new activity, however no
additional tours have yet been sold. Another tour
company from Santa Cruz had planned to make a visit
to the ranch but had to cancel due to bad weather
conditions. In total, 15 tourists have visited the La
Cantina ranch and have seen the Blue-throated
Macaws living there, generating a direct income of
$750 USD to the owners of the ranch. To put this in
perspective, the average annual household income of
Bolivia is just about US$6,800 and close to 40% of the
population lives below the poverty line. So,
ecotourism is a potentially valuable and significant
contribution of economic investment to the Figure 3: Tractor from Loreto´s village working on the
community. construction of the road to La Cantina for the ecotourism
development.

Thanks to the construction of the Interpretation Center, our field team connected with the owner of the Tres
Estrellas ranch at the inauguration event. He showed a strong interest for being included in these developing
ecotourism opportunities and shared with our team that he also has Blue-throated Macaws on his property.
After the Grand Opening of the Interpretation Center, we accompanied him to his property and were able to
verify the existence of two pairs of Blue-throated Macaws on his property. One pair is already exhibiting
nesting behavior which is very exciting for our field team. This is significant because despite best efforts
among conservationists of the Blue-throated Macaws, the wild population is still believed to only have an
annual recruitment of new individuals that is in the single digits (Berkunsky et al. 2014); this is likely
inadequate for keeping the species viable over the long term (Strem and Bouzat 2012). Intensive nest
management and provisioning of underweight chicks is expected to help support breeding success.

Figure 4: Mr. Chino Melgar, owner of Tres Estrellas cattle ranch, being
interviewed by the local TVs during the Interpretation Center’s
inauguration event.

World Parrot Trust | Report 3

 Annual population monitoring of the wild population
Thus far in 2018, the field team has surveyed the southern population of the species in 6 locations, for a total
of 16 days, inside the Gran Mojos Protected Area. The primary focus of these field surveys was to find wild
nests of the Blue-throated Macaws as well as to collect other useful data to better understand the species for
the development of targeted conservation activities.

Figure 5: Aerial view of La Cantina ranch, a new ecotourism spot to see the Blue-throated Macaw, during the monitoring activities
with the wild populations of Blue-throated Macaws.

So far, 28 different Blue-throated Macaws have been observed during the field surveys, however no nests
have yet been identified. This is likely because the breeding season has only recently gotten underway in the
Gran Mojos Protected Area, since it is one of the last sub-populations of Blue-throated Macaws to start to
breed. We hope to start finding and monitoring nests in December through April next year, during which we
will apply the monitoring and protection protocols.

World Parrot Trust | Report 4

 Beginning this breeding season (currently underway),
members of the local community will assist our field team
with the construction and installation of nest boxes to
support the population of Blue-throated Macaws with
additional potential nest sites. These boxes are designated
for three different properties within the breeding range of
the species. This commitment was also announced to the
public by the Protected Area´s Director during the
inauguration of the Interpretation Center. Lack of suitable
nest sites for the Blue-throated Macaw due to land
clearing and burning impacts the ability of potentially
breeding pairs to be successful. Nest boxes have proven
to help when properly installed and monitored (to prevent
predation or competition).

For 2019, both of the ranches mentioned as participating

in ecotourism opportunities will also be included in our
field team’s circuit of sites to observe and monitor the
Figure 6: Nest boxes constructed by per day
Blue-throated Macaws within the Gran Mojos Protected workers contracted by the Gran Mojos Protected
Area, meaning we anticipate being able to collect more Area. Six nest boxes are ready for installation and
valuable data about the threats and challenges these 20 more are coming in the next month.
critically endangered birds face for the survival of their
species in the wild.

Figure 7: One of the Blue-throated macaw pairs detected on 3 Estrellas cattle ranch. This pair is in the process of building a nest,
excavating the cavity on an live Totaí palm (Acrocomia aculeata).

World Parrot Trust | Report 5

 BUDGET _________________________________________________________________________
ITEM PROPOSED AMENDED INDY ZOO WPT TOTAL
Bunkhouse-Kitchen Building $5,000 $4,500 $4500 $5,681 $10,181
Data analysis, administration $2,000 $500 $500 $650 $1,150
Contract labor to build $1,500 $1,000 $1,300 $0 $1,300
Furniture & Equipment $0 $2,500 $2,200 $0 $2,200
Field technician salary $2,800 $2,800 $2,800 $3,500 $6,300
Per diem (person-day in field) $800 $800 $500 $240 $740
Nest box construction $0 $0 $300 $0 $300
$12,100 12,100 $12,100 $10,071 $22,171

DETAILED EXPENSE REPORT _________________________________________________________

DATE ITEM DESCRIPTION OF EXPENSE VERIFICATION INCOME EXPENSE BALANCE
1 Nov Indy Zoo 2018 grant grant agreement $12,100 $12,100

15 Jun Labor local laborers to help developing the street and no receipt $600 $11,500
cleaning the building
30 Jun construction initial 50% payment to contractor for redevelopment contract agreement $2.500 $9,000
of building
1 Aug Field Staff partial monthly salary for field work and supervising pay stub $700 $8,300
construction
1 Aug Administration administrative and analysis costs pay stub $125 $8,175

3 Sept Data Analysis administrative and analysis costs pay stub $125 $8,050

3-Sept Field Staff partial monthly salary for field work and supervising pay stub $700 $7,350
construction
1 Oct Administration administrative and analysis costs pay stub $125 $7,225

1 Oct Field Staff partial monthly salary for field work and supervising pay stub $700 $6,525
construction
1 Oct Per diem per diem expenses for field work no receipt $250 $6,275

24 Oct Equipment projector and Screen receipt $400 $5,875

24 Oct Equipment shipping of projector and screen no receipt $15 $5,860

30 Oct Labor local laborers to help restoring the building no receipt $700 $5,160

1 Nov Furniture 5 plastic tables and 20 plastic chairs;4 wooden no receipt $1,120 $4,040
tables, 6 wooden chairs, 1 office chair; shipping
1 Nov Construction final payment of construction work contract agreement $2.000 $2,040

1 Nov Field Staff partial monthly salary for field work and supervising pay stub $700 $1,340
construction
1 Nov Per diem per diem expenses for field work no receipt $250 $1,090

1 Nov Administration administrative and analysis costs pay stub $125 $965

1 Nov Construction commemorative plaque for building and shipping no receipt $123 $842
costs to Trinidad
3 Nov Furniture mirrors for bathrooms, curtains and transport no receipt $155 $687

22 Nov Equipment cleaning products for the building no receipt $84 $603

22 Nov Equipment nest boxes construction and shipping costs no receipt $303 $300

30 Nov Furniture banners for the building pending $300 $-

World Parrot Trust | Report 6

 FUTURE PLANS
Next month we will meet with the Director of the Gran Mojos Protected Area to discuss subsequent activities
to promote and use the Interpretation Center and the Protected Area. Planned activities include, but are not
limited to: thematic workshops, training courses for local guides so that they can become more involved in
tourism and conservation activities, and educational programming for school children. This effort was already
in progress prior to the construction of the Interpretation Center, but the facility provides our local field team
with more resources and a common meeting space through which to fully implement this plan. We consider
this a very important outcome of this funding, since it is critically important for the long-term sustainability of
Blue-throated Macaw conservation efforts in Bolivia.

THANK YOU

World Parrot Trust WPT-USA Canadian World Parrot Trust

Glanmor House P.O. Box 935 4377 Gordon Drive
Hayle, Cornwall TR27 4HB Lake Alfred, FL 33850 Kelowna, BC V1W 1S7
+44 (0) 1736 751026 1 863-956-4347 250-764-9636
uk@parrots.org usa@parrots.org canada@parrots.org
Charity No: 800944 Reg. 501(C)3 EIN: 62-1561595 Charity #: 89004 1171 RR0001

World Parrot Trust | Report 7