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Paso del Istmo Yellow-Naped Amazons

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Yellow-Naped Amazon Numbers Are Declining in Most Habitats

The yellow-naped amazon parrot, native to coastal regions from southern Mexico to northern Costa Rica, is currently hovering on the brink of extinction. This is due in part to habitat loss caused by agricultural development, as well as heavy poaching into the illegal pet trade throughout Central America. In the 1990s, almost 100% of known nests in southern Guatemala were poached. A 2016 survey of the species’ population yielded a count of only 1,682 birds in Costa Rica and Nicaragua combined, a sharp decline since the previous survey in 2005.

Efforts to Increase the Parrot Population in Paso del Istmo

One of the few remaining areas where the yellow-naped amazon (called lora de nuca amarilla in Spanish) can still be found is the Paso del Istmo (Passage of the Isthmus). It is a narrow bridge of land in Central America between Lake Nicaragua and the Pacific coast, and it’s currently the only habitat in which the parrot population isn’t declining. 

Instead, conservation programs led by organizations like Paso Pacífico, One Earth Conservation, and Loro Parque Fundación near Lake Nicaragua have helped to stabilize the local yellow-naped amazon population—and as of 2020, the numbers were even showing signs of increasing. In the same year, these efforts helped a record number of 39 fledglings graduate from the nest to independence in Nicaraguan forest lands.

Here are some of the strategies that have helped to accomplish this:

  • Placing artificial nests near previous nesting sites in trees damaged by poachers
  • Educating young people and adults about the plight of these amazon parrots
  • Paying local families more money to help protect nests than they would earn as poachers

Continuing efforts to save even more yellow-naped amazon parrots include forming a national conservation plan in collaboration with El Salvador’s Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources.

Help Increase Yellow-Naped Amazon Parrot Populations with Paso Pacífico

An excellent way to help save endangered species like yellow-naped amazon parrots is to support conservation organizations. Paso Pacífico is accomplishing important steps in protecting these beautiful and intelligent birds. In fact, Paso Pacífico is heavily credited with conservation successes in the Paso del Istmo. 

At Paso Pacífico, our mission is to create wildlife corridors that safeguard biodiversity while connecting people to their land and ocean. Our goal is to restore and conserve Mesoamerica’s Pacific Slope ecosystems. The threatened mangrove wetlands, dry tropical forests, and eastern Pacific coral reefs are among these ecosystems.

All conservation programs at Paso Pacífico benefit directly from your donations. These include education programs that teach children the principles of biology, ecology, and environmental citizenship. Contact us today!   

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Why These Parrots Are Popular Pets

The yellow-naped amazon parrot is a highly popular pet in Central American households and elsewhere. In addition to being colorful, it is at least as intelligent as the average toddler and is naturally social, curious, and playful as well. These birds have long lifespans and are skilled at mimicking human speech. Outside of their adolescent period, they’re also less likely to bite, which adds to their popularity as human companions.

Why They Should Stay in the Wild

Although it’s illegal to take a yellow-naped amazon out of the wild, the unlikely chance of being prosecuted allows poachers to do so on such a large scale that parrot numbers have decreased by at least half in the past decade. Considered a species of least concern for conservation purposes as of 2004, these wild parrots were declared threatened in 2012. Between 2017 and 2021 alone, the species plummeted from a status of endangered to critically endangered.

Poachers raid the nests of yellow-naped amazons to sell chicks and eggs into the illegal parrot pet trade, but as many as 75% of them die in transit. Damage caused to the trees during capture can additionally make nesting sites unusable for future clutches.

A yellow-naped amazon parrot in its nest with 3 eggs.

The yellow-naped amazons who do manage to survive capture, transit, and the pet trade face an uncertain quality of life and are unable to carry out important roles in their native ecosystems. They spend the rest of their lives in household cages, without the ability to bond with a mate for life or socialize in large groups, as they would normally do in the wild. Pet parrots cannot contribute to increasing their numbers as a species, nor can they function as the seed distributors that help many Mexican and Central American plant species survive. 

Help Save Yellow-Naped Amazon Parrots with Paso Pacífico

An excellent way to help save endangered species like yellow-naped amazon parrots is to support conservation organizations. Paso Pacífico is accomplishing important steps in protecting these beautiful and intelligent birds. 

At Paso Pacífico, our mission is to create wildlife corridors that safeguard biodiversity while connecting people to their land and ocean. Our goal is to restore and conserve Mesoamerica’s Pacific Slope ecosystems. The threatened mangrove wetlands, dry tropical forests, and eastern Pacific coral reefs are among these ecosystems.

All conservation programs at Paso Pacífico benefit directly from your donations. These include education programs that teach children the principles of biology, ecology, and environmental citizenship. Contact us today!

Yellow-naped amazon parrot in the wild. Photo by Bismarck Picado.

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Osmar Sandino es el coordinador de ciencias marinas para Paso Pacífico.

¿Que es el plástico? La palabra se refiere a un grupo de materiales sintéticos fabricados a partir de hidrocarburos. A nivel mundial se producen más de 400 millones de toneladas cada año.

El principal problema que representa el plástico, deriva de los procesos de empacado y envasado; dichas actividades representan más de un tercio de todos los plásticos fabricados. La mayor porción consiste en productos y empaques de un solo uso. Cifras del Atlas del Plástico reflejan que menos del 10% del total del plástico producido está reciclado1.

Life Is Short: Average useful life of various plastic items, by industrial sector, in years. Packaging: 0.5 years. Consumer products: 3 years. Textiles and others: 5 years. Electrical/electronics: 8 years. Transportation: 13 years. Industrial machinery: 20 years. Building and construction: 35 years.

Gráfico: PLASTIC ATLAS | Appenzeller/Hecher/Sack, CC BY 4.0

A large mount of plastic waste in the middle of a forest clearing in Nicaragua.

Los desechos plásticos son un gran problema en todas partes, incluso en las comunidades rurales de Centroamérica.

La fabricación y uso del plástico acelera el cambio climático. Si se mantienen las tendencias, para el 2050 los plásticos habrán causado alrededor de 56 gigatoneladas de emisiones de CO2. Esto significa que la fabricación de plástico y sus derivados podría usar del 10 al 13% del presupuesto restante de carbono para mantener el calentamiento global bajo los 1.5°C1.

El problema del uso innecesario del plástico impacta los ecosistemas a todos los niveles. El 80% del turismo mundial se hace en las zonas costeras, aumentando en sobre medida la capacidad de carga de estos ecosistemas. Este hecho, además del uso abrumador de plástico por parte de los humanos, significa que botellas, pajillas y bolsas son fáciles de divisar navegando en la marea.

Paso Pacifico coordinator Julie Martinez stands at the seashore raking plastic waste into a pile, 2017. Photo by SetNet Communications.

Los desechos plásticos se desplazan fácilmente hacia las vías fluviales y el océano. Aquí, una guardaparque de Paso Pacífico rastrilla desechos plásticos en una pila durante una limpieza costera. Foto de SetNet Communications.

Otros desechos que están cobrando mayor relevancia en los años más recientes son palillos de hisopos de oídos y microplásticos. Si bien estas formas de plástico son más pequeñas, es poco probable que se descompongan en el océano. Un estudio reciente sobre ensambles microbianos marinos en microplásticos descubrió que las bacterias no pueden descomponer el plástico y que es poco probable que adquieran esta capacidad a través de la evolución. Se estima que, entre 15 y 51 billones de partículas de plástico, con un peso entre 93,000 y 236,000 toneladas, flotan actualmente en la superficie del océano1.

On the Way Down: Potential interference of microplastics with the biological carbon pump. Microplastic pollution may reduce phytoplankton’s ability to fix carbon through photosynthesis, reduce zooplankton’s ability to transport carbon by impairing feeding, survival, or reproductive success. Shallow ocean: 1) CO2 (carbon dioxide) is dissolved at the ocean’s surface. 2) Phytoplankton absorb CO2 and fix the carbon through photosynthesis. 3) Zooplankton eat phytoplankton. 4) Fecal pellets and dead plankton sink. Deep ocean: 5) Carbon sequestered in deep ocean for decades to millennia. Sediment.

Infografía: PLASTIC ATLAS | Appenzeller/Hecher/Sack, CC BY 4.0

De acuerdo a datos publicados por The Nature Conservancy2

  • entre 8-10 millones de toneladas tienen como destino los océanos cada año.
  • se ha medido que el impacto de los desechos plásticos afecta a 530 especies marinas y otros 2,249 organismos marinos interactúan con la basura plástica de alguna manera.
  • 50% del total de este plástico utilizado es desechado luego de un solo uso.

Algunos organismos son más sensibles a la contaminación que otros, ya que su papel en las redes tróficas oceánicas suele reflejar el estado de salud de sitios de alimentación, reproducción.

El resultado de diversos estudios realizados sobre contenidos estomacales en tortugas marinas, refleja que al menos el 52% de su ingesta está constituida de plásticos, lo que debe significar una cifra preocupante acerca del destino de nuestros desperdicios3. El plástico más común encontrado en el tracto de dichas tortugas marinas analizadas corresponde a polietileno (utilizado para el envasado de alimentos)4.De esos estudios se ha concluido que muchos de los tortuguillos nacidos dentro de programas de conservación no alcanzan su etapa reproductiva, debido al alto porcentaje de microplásticos que causan en éstos asfixias u obstrucciones intestinales, teniendo implicaciones devastadoras para las siete especies de tortugas marinas que luchan por sobrevivir3,5. A pesar de los esfuerzos de organizaciones como Paso Pacífico de fomentar proyectos de conservación y reproducción de tortugas marinas, si estas tendencias se siguen agudizando en el tiempo, no habrá a futuro un número suficiente de crías de tortugas marinas que alcancen la madurez sexual para compensar las pérdidas naturales y otras pérdidas asociadas al ser humano.

Stop Ocean Plastic Pollution: Reduce, Reuse, Recycle. Millions of marine animals are killed each year due to plastic debris in the ocean. Currently, it is estimated that there are 100 million tons of plastic in oceans around the world. Sea turtles and other marine creatures mistake plastic waste as food (such as jellyfish) and ingest it. The plastic get trapped in their stomach, which prevents them from properly swallowing food. This mistake causes blockages within their digestive system and eventual death. All species of sea turtles are affected by marine debris. Juvenile green turtles are heavily affected by marine debris. Sea turtles eating plastic bag. Love Earth.

Infografía: Shutterstock

En general el reciclaje de plásticos juega un papel menor en la mitigación de los impactos dañinos del plástico en el medio ambiente y la biodiversidad. Actualmente solo existe una forma de reciclaje a través de un circuito abierto. Cada vez que se recicla una pieza de plástico, su calidad se degrada y solo se puede reciclar un cierto número de veces antes de terminar en el relleno sanitario o el incinerador. En este proceso se emiten dioxinas y metales como el mercurio, el plomo y el cadmio que afectan particularmente a las personas y comunidades cercanas, pero también pueden depositarse en el suelo y agua a grandes distancias1.

Una nueva generación de plásticos, a partir de biopolímeros tales como la fécula de maíz, es factible. Por ejemplo, un proceso de producción novedoso ha hecho modificar la quitina en los cascarones de camarón y otros crustáceos para fabricar un polímero biodegradable llamado quitosano o chitosán1. El problema de estos llamados “bioplásticos” es que las materias primas de las cuales se producen-como la caña de azúcar-conlleva el uso considerable de pesticidas, los cuales tienen fuertes impactos en los ecosistemas y la salud humana1.

A Paso Pacífico ranger carries a filled black garbage bag across a pristine tropical beach in Nicaragua. Photo by Matt Dolkas.

Los guardaparques de Paso Pacífico lideran con el ejemplo a través de la limpieza del plástico. Foto de Matt Dolkas.

Los cambios nunca llegan tarde. Reflejo de ello es la iniciativa conjunta entre Paso Pacífico y The Ocean Conservancy, las cuales a través del programa Ocean Cleanup ha involucrado a casi 300 personas (185 de ellos niños del programa Guardaparques Junior) en la limpieza de 20 km de línea costera en el Pacífico de Nicaragua. Desde agosto hasta noviembre 2019, 11 playas de nuestros alrededores han sido limpiadas (Playas Brasilón, Hollman, El Roble, Guacalito, El Coco, Escamequita, Ostional, Pochote, Las Playitas, Arrancabarba y Manzanillo), recolectando 1,208 libras de desperdicios (incluyendo plástico, vidrio, cartón y colillas de cigarrillos). Dichas actividades han tenido una participación activa de los comunitarios que habitan en el Corredor Biológico Paso del Istmo, además de la realización de más de 13 talleres relacionados al reciclaje, la huella ecológica y otros temas de educación ambiental.

De este modo, Paso Pacífico pretende ratificar su compromiso social y ecológico para heredar un planeta azul en mejores condiciones para las generaciones venideras. Por ello a través de nuestros programas tratamos de acercar la ciencia desde los más pequeños hasta a los adultos mayores fomentando estrategias para proteger nuestras playas y costas.

Junior Rangers participate in one of our International Coastal Cleanup events. Photo from Anabel Chévez.

Guardaparques Junior y miembros de la comunidad participan en uno de nuestros eventos de la Limpieza Costera Internacional.

Ya bien lo decía Cousteau, “Somos agua de mar organizada”.

Para más información y material educativo, organizaciones como Plastic Bank a través de su web ha puesto a disposición un método para calcular nuestra huella de plástico, y como fomentar mejores hábitos de consumo para beneficio de nuestro planeta.

Referencias

  1. Heinrich-Böll-Stiftung El Salvador / Break Free From Plastic. Atlas del Plástico, Datos y cifras sobre el mundo de los polímeros sintéticos. 2019. Ediciones Böll.
  2. The Nature Cosnervancy. 2020. Let’s Stop the Flow of Plastic Waste. Retrieved July 27th 2020, from bit.ly/plasticTNC
  3. Schuyler, Q., Hardesty, B.D., Wilcox, C. and Townsend, K. 2014, Global Analysis of Anthropogenic Debris Ingestion by Sea Turtles. Conservation Biology, 28: 129-139. https://doi:10.1111/cobi.12126
  4. White, E. M., Clark, S., Manire, C. A., Crawford, B., Wang, S., Locklin, J., & Ritchie, B. W. 2018. Ingested micronizing plastic particle compositions and size distributions within stranded post-hatchling sea turtles. Environmental science & technology, 52(18), 10307-10316
  5. Wilcox, C., Puckridge, M., Schuyler, Q.A. et al. 2018. A quantitative analysis linking sea turtle mortality and plastic debris ingestion. Sci Rep 8, 12536 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-018-30038-z

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By Latoya Abulu for Mongabay

The idea of a “pristine wilderness” in conservation efforts — a natural zone free of people — is an erroneous construct that doesn’t reflect the reality of how many high-value biodiverse landscapes have operated for millennia, a new study says. In fact, enforcing this concept can cause environmental degradation of these areas when their human inhabitants, such as Indigenous peoples and local communities who have adapted to living sustainably in these zones, are displaced from them, the study says.

In their paper published Oct. 5, 2021, in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the authors make the case that a “pristine wilderness” where rich biodiverse forests continue to thrive without humans present is a Eurocentric construct. It emerged during the Enlightenment period in the West and was later imposed on Indigenous peoples and local communities the world over as they were displaced from their ancestral lands. This idea gained particular traction during European colonial and conservation efforts in the 19th and 20th centuries across the Americas, Africa, Asia Pacific and Australia, and may be experiencing a particular resurgence today among large international conservation organizations, philanthropists, foundations, and certain governments.

Wildlife rangers in Cambodia. Image courtesy of Rhett Butler/Mongabay.

A high-profile case that may be giving renewed salience to this idea is the Post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework’s draft target 3, which highlights the importance of preserving at least 30% of Earth’s land and ocean by the year 2030. Historically such territorial preservation has been achieved by establishing exclusionary conservation areas, notably national parks. Indigenous and non-Indigenous scholars and human rights organizations say the creation of such conservation areas will lead to the continued displacement and abuse of Indigenous peoples and local communities if it’s framed in the Eurocentric concept of creating a “pristine wilderness,” a system also dubbed “fortress conservation,” where human inhabitants are seen as a liability.

“Fortress conservation is motivated by the mistaken belief that successful conservation outcomes require ‘pristine wilderness’ free from human inhabitants,” David R. Boyd, the U.N.’s special rapporteur on human rights and the environment, writes in his policy brief on the Post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework.

“Mounting evidence confirms that Indigenous Peoples and other rural rights holders possess the knowledge and ability necessary to successfully conserve and manage biodiverse ecosystems more effectively than governments and at a fraction of the cost, particularly where their rights are recognized, respected and supported.”

Separating humans from nature

The idea that natural wilderness areas should be sanitized of any kind of human presence stems from the Enlightenment theory that sought to release humankind from the binds of religion and other subjective cultural influences, and showcase an objective human isolated from the surrounding world. In doing so, however, this process created a whole new “religious” idea of human beings as separate from nature, while its exclusion of other beliefs narrowed the possibilities and solutions that could be used to address our environmental crises — notably Indigenous traditional knowledge.

The result is the now familiar binary of humans versus wilderness, with the former seen as a civilized entity and the latter, an untamed, primitive, wild space. As this concept evolved over the centuries, it fed the notion that humans could tame and conquer nature — and, by extension, “uncivilized” Indigenous peoples — without any adverse impacts on the humans that were tied to it.

For the authors of the new study, the underlining issue is that, at its core, this construct isn’t in touch with the reality of how many ecosystems operate and how high-value biodiverse landscapes are continuously preserved by human stewardship.

Certain ecosystems as “historical products”

Tropical forests, such as the Amazon, are often showcased as the last key biodiversity hotspots that were in place prior to human contact. However, more than half of the spatial landscape of the Amazon has seen and lived along with human activity over the last 10,000 years, to the extent that the region is shaped by it.

The forests are the center of the domestication of more than 80 crop species, such as cassava (Manihot esculenta), wild rice (Oryza spp.), peanuts (Arachis hypogaea), and chili (Capsicum baccatum). Agroforestry and the cultivation of maize began around 6,300 years ago and intensified more than 1,000 years later. This domestication and cultivation actively produced human-generated organic soils called Amazonian dark earth that now extend across a significant part of the Amazon and support the “distinct human-modified forests” and their diversity.

“This has influenced forest composition to such an extent that much of the forest is disproportionately rich in domesticated species,” the paper says.

Agroforestry cultivation practices, called chagra by Indigenous communities such as the Nonuya, Andoque and Ceima Chacivera in the northwestern Colombian Amazon, have been shown to lead to “diverse and highly dynamic landscapes” that are largely in line with forest cover thresholds set by the Food and Agriculture Organization and the Kyoto Protocol.

Maps detail how much of the “wild” hotspots of the Amazon are actually the ancestral territories of Indigenous communities that have lived, hunted, gathered and cultivated there for millennia. Most areas that aren’t Indigenous territories are areas containing either the predicted human-generated soils, domesticated plants, or earthworks.

In the case of another biodiversity hotspot, Southeast Asia and New Guinea, humans have been hunting and using horticulture techniques, such as swidden, for more than 40,000 years. A technique of rotational agriculture used sustainably in the highlands, it requires clearing a strip of forest by cutting down trees and burning them to have land to cultivate for a short period. The land is then returned to the forests as the farmers shift to another strip of land.

Sustainable swidden agriculture is often lumped together with the encroachment of farms on forests, giving it the name “slash and burn.” Certain large conservation organizations and the REDD+ program see it as “incompatible with nature and conservation” or having degraded the “pristine ecology of tropical forests.”

However, today, swidden agriculture supports more than 14 million highlanders in the Southeast Asia and New Guinea region, and paleo-ecological research has demonstrated how it may increase landscape-scale biodiversity and forest resilience to climate change.

“Despite long being cultivated, these highland zones capture some of the most biologically, linguistically, and culturally diverse zones on earth,” the paper says.

Ecological functions performed by people

Removing humans from these zones that they have co-evolved with and shaped may degrade the ecosystem’s health by removing the human drivers they have come to depend on. A case study focuses on what occurred in Australia from the 1960s to the 1980s. After displacing the Aboriginal inhabitants, who consist of the world’s oldest continuous culture, from the tropical deserts, savanna and forests around the western deserts, uncontrolled wildfires and an erosion of the region’s biodiversity ensued.

According to researchers, the culprit was the lack of humans to perform low-intensity patch burning and hunting. Patch burning diminishes the intensity and destruction of wildfires on flora and fauna through controlled burns, while hunting balances species’ populations. The lack of patch burning in the region helped precipitate the decline and endangerment of many species in the western deserts, including keystone species such as the sand monitor lizard (Varanus gouldii).

“Long-term, multidisciplinary data from all three biomes indicate the long, continuing legacies of humans in shaping these supposedly ‘wild’ landscapes, ranging from food tree manipulation in the Australian Wet Tropics, to the construction of place-based societies across the Western Deserts,” the paper says.

Aboriginal notions imagine a “pristine wilderness” to be one that is, in fact, ecologically degraded without the presence of humans. This illustrates how the concept of “fortress conservation” doesn’t take into account the environmental necessities of various different ecosystems to maintain their integrity.

The co-evolution between people and place, between managed forests and the cultural, spiritual and economic needs of Indigenous peoples and local communities, occurred over millennia. Displacing humans from their lands to create “pristine” conservation areas not only entails human rights violations and social conflicts over territory, but may erode the biodiversity of ecosystems that co-exist with human intervention while impeding conservation efforts by ignoring Indigenous traditional knowledge of forest management.

Boyd, the U.N. special rapporteur, highlights multiple recommendations for the post-2020 global biodiversity targets to avoid continuing on the same failing conservation path of separating humans from nature, and encourages embarking on a transformative path that puts rights-based approaches at the heart of biodiversity conservation.

“Accelerated efforts to expand protected areas have proven insufficient to stop or even slow the tidal wave of environmental destruction sweeping the planet,” Boyd says. “Indigenous Peoples and other rural rights holders who successfully steward vast portions of the world’s biodiversity [are] vital conservation partners whose human, land, and resource rights must be recognized and respected if biodiversity loss is to be stopped and reversed.”

Citations

Fletcher, M., Hamilton, R., Dressler, W., & Palmer, L. (2021). Indigenous knowledge and the shackles of wilderness. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 118(40), e2022218118. doi:10.1073/pnas.2022218118

Oldekop, J. A., Holmes, G., Harris, W. E., & Evans, K. L. (2015). A global assessment of the social and conservation outcomes of protected areas. Conservation Biology, 30(1), 133-141. doi:10.1111/cobi.12568

Iriarte, J., Elliott, S., Maezumi, S. Y., Alves, D., Gonda, R., Robinson, M., … Handley, J. (2020). The origins of Amazonian landscapes: Plant cultivation, domestication and the spread of food production in tropical South America. Quaternary Science Reviews, 248, 106582. doi:10.1016/j.quascirev.2020.106582

Piperno, D. R. (2011). The origins of plant cultivation and domestication in the New World tropics. Current Anthropology, 52(S4), S453-S470. doi:10.1086/659998

Bush, M., Correa-Metrio, A., McMichael, C., Sully, S., Shadik, C., Valencia, B., … Overpeck, J. (2016). A 6900-year history of landscape modification by humans in lowland Amazonia. Quaternary Science Reviews, 141, 52-64. doi:10.1016/j.quascirev.2016.03.022

McMichael, C. H., Piperno, D. R., Neves, E. G., Bush, M. B., Almeida, F. O., Mongeló, G., & Eyjolfsdottir, M. B. (2015). Phytolith assemblages along a gradient of ancient human disturbance in western Amazonia. Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution, 3. doi:10.3389/fevo.2015.00141

Barker, G., Barton, H., Bird, M., Daly, P., Datan, I., Dykes, A., … Turney, C. (2007). The ‘human revolution’ in lowland tropical Southeast Asia: The antiquity and behavior of anatomically modern humans at Niah Cave (Sarawak, Borneo). Journal of Human Evolution, 52(3), 243-261. doi:10.1016/j.jhevol.2006.08.011

Mertz, O., Leisz, S. J., Heinimann, A., Rerkasem, K., Thiha, Dressler, W., … Potter, L. (2009). Who counts? Demography of swidden cultivators in Southeast Asia. Human Ecology, 37(3), 281-289. doi:10.1007/s10745-009-9249-y

Bliege Bird, R., Bird, D. W., Fernandez, L. E., Taylor, N., Taylor, W., & Nimmo, D. (2018). Aboriginal burning promotes fine-scale pyrodiversity and native predators in Australia’s Western Desert. Biological Conservation, 219, 110-118. doi:10.1016/j.biocon.2018.01.008

Crabtree, S. A., Bird, D. W., & Bliege Bird, R. (2019). Subsistence transitions and the simplification of ecological networks in the Western Desert of Australia. Human Ecology, 47(2), 165-177. doi:10.1007/s10745-019-0053-z

Bliege Bird, R., Tayor, N., Codding, B. F., & Bird, D. W. (2013). Niche construction and dreaming logic: Aboriginal patch mosaic burning and varanid lizards (Varanus gouldii) in Australia. Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 280(1772), 20132297. doi:10.1098/rspb.2013.2297

Banner image: Indigenous Tikuna man in the Amazon rainforest. Under a human rights-based framework, communities on the ground would take a leading role in biodiversity protection, with outside conservation projects or initiatives structured as an equal partnership rather than an imposition. Image by Rhett A. Butler/Mongabay.

Republished from Mongabay with permission under a CC BY-ND 4.0 license.

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By Jason G. Goldman

One of the best places in the world to see whales in their natural habitat is in Latin America. The waters around the continent include some 64 species of whales and dolphins: about three-quarters of the planet’s total cetacean biodiversity. That might explain why whale watching tourism has grown around 11% each year there, a rate that three times the annual growth of global tourism and nearly five times the annual growth of Latin American tourism more generally. In Central America, the numbers are even more impressive, with (pre-pandemic) annual growth in whale tourism of some 47%. This is the second fastest growing whale watching industry in the world.

Whales are found throughout the Pacific and Caribbean coasts of Central America, but most cetacean (whales, dolphins, and porpoises) tourism is situated in just a few countries: Mexico, Costa Rica and Panama. Together, these three countries account for a whopping 97 percent of all whale watching operations in Central America, according to a 2008 report published by the International Fund for Animal Welfare and the Whale and Dolphin Conservation Society.

But other countries are working hard to earn a piece of that business. In 2006, for example, El Salvador established a marine protected area off the Pacific coast of Los Cóbanos, west of San Salvador, near the Guatemala border. Ten years later, in the 2014-2015 whale watching season, about 400 whale watching tourists had participated in sixty-five expeditions, generating more than $14,000 worth of revenue for whale watch operators in the area. As whale watching tourism has grown in this small community – thanks in part to local fishermen who no longer spend one hundred percent of their time fishing – so has tourism more generally. More hostels and lodges are being built, some of which offer their own in-house whale watching activities, bringing even more revenue to the Los Cóbanos area.

These small businesses aren’t in it alone. One of the most important things that the federal government has done is to publish a set of best practices for sustainable whale watching activities, most recently updated in 2019. These guidelines help business owners to ensure that the whales themselves are not overstressed by the presence of tourism boats.

For example, the mandate that any group of whales can only be continuously observed by a maximum of two boats for thirty minutes. The regulations specify that cetaceans should only be approached from in front rather than behind, to avoid spooking the animals, and that the boats must maintain a distance of 100 meters – and 200 meters for blue whales, which themselves can reach nearly 30 meters in length. The government also provides guidelines for how to respond if a boat accidentally strikes a whale or dolphin, or if somebody spots an injured animal.

None of this would have been possible without the collaboration of Paso Pacifíco, which has been officially tasked with coordinating best practices for wildlife-related tourism by El Salvador’s Ministry of the Environment and Natural Resources.

“Los Cóbanos is where the bulk of the action is in terms of whale tourism; there’s been a lot of humpback whale tourism in the last two or three years,” says Paso Pacífico executive director Sarah Otterstrom, especially since the government has cleared up the gang-related violence that used to be common in the area. She explains further that “There’s been a lot of investment by international NGOs” in maintaining sustainable wildlife tourism in the region. This tourism also includes SCUBA and snorkel activities centered on the area’s protected coral reef ecosystem.

In the meantime, some three hundred kilometers southeast, in the Gulf of Fonseca, researchers have now documented twenty-one cetacean species, including some that are rare or vulnerable to extinction. Members of the communities there are now looking to Los Cóbanos as a model for establishing a sustainable whale-based tourism economy of their own.

Header: Humpback whales seen in Los Cóbanos, El Salvador. By Flickr user zambomba; used under CC BY-NC-SA 2.0.

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The Pacific leatherback sea turtle has survived since the dinosaur age—and as the largest turtle species, this reptile is a giant in its own right. Yet today, these turtles are in imminent danger of extinction, in part because of declining numbers of viable nests. In Indonesia, which is the primary nesting habitat for the Western Pacific leatherback sea turtles, numbers have dropped by over 80%. In Mexico and Central America, the main sea turtle nesting grounds for their Eastern Pacific counterparts, the decline is over 90%. 

These turtles are vulnerable along their migration routes throughout the Pacific Ocean and coastal habitats in the Americas. Today, the greatest threats to the leatherback sea turtle population as a whole include:

  • Fishing (including intentional and unintentional catches; the latter is called bycatch)
  • General loss of habitat to coastal development and resource extraction
  • Poaching
  • Collisions with boats
  • Pollution and climate change

Mothers and hatchlings face additional hazards during sea turtle nesting season:

  • Human predation (for turtle meat and eggs, considered a delicacy in Central America)
  • Poaching (selling turtle eggs into the illegal wildlife trade)
  • Predation by native and non-native animal species
  • Hatchling disorientation by beachfront lighting in populated areas
  • Loss of nesting habitat to coastal development and resource extraction

Strategies for Protecting Pacific Leatherback Sea Turtles

Although Pacific leatherback sea turtles are legally protected in the US, Mexico, and some Central American countries, many threats to the species require additional effort to eliminate. The following strategies can aid significantly in bringing this species back from the brink of extinction. 

Governments, companies, and other organizations can do the following:

  • Work with domestic and international partners to ensure compliance with conservation laws
  • Reduce waste and pollution in the Pacific ocean and coastal lands
  • Develop new fishing gear technology to help prevent sea turtle bycatch
  • Create legal and best practice policies for protecting sea turtles (such as creating coastal ordinances that reduce boat collisions, light pollution, and nest disturbance)
  • Educate the public about sea turtle conservation

Individuals can do the following:

  • Reduce waste and trash in the ocean; consider volunteering for beach cleanups
  • Keep your distance from sea turtles; don’t approach them, feed them, or disturb their nests
  • Report marine life in distress
  • Vote for political policies and candidates that support marine conservation efforts

Help Save Pacific Leatherback Sea Turtles with Paso Pacífico

An excellent way to help save endangered species like Pacific leatherback sea turtles is to support conservation organizations. Paso Pacífico is accomplishing important steps in protecting these ancient giants. 

At Paso Pacífico, our mission is to create wildlife corridors that safeguard biodiversity while connecting people to their land and ocean. Our goal is to restore and conserve Mesoamerica’s Pacific Slope ecosystems. The threatened mangrove wetlands, dry tropical forests, and eastern Pacific coral reefs are among these ecosystems.

All conservation programs at Paso Pacífico benefit directly from your donations. These include education programs that teach children the principles of biology, ecology, and environmental citizenship.

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The yellow-naped amazon parrot (also known as the golden-naped amazon) is a strikingly beautiful and intelligent bird widely considered a subspecies of the yellow-crowned amazon parrot. It is predominantly native to forests, woodlands, and tropical zones in Pacific coast regions from southern Mexico to northern Costa Rica. Unfortunately, these parrots are also currently endangered, largely by deforestation and the illegal pet trade. Here’s what you need to know about the lives of yellow-naped amazons and how they function in their ecosystem.

Flying yellow-naped amazon parrot. Photo by Nestor Herrera.
Photo: Nestor Herrera

The Life Cycle and Habits of Yellow-Naped Amazons

These vibrant birds can live to be about 20-30 years old in the wild. They are monogamous and choose a life partner when they reach maturity at 2 years of age. Females make nests in tree cavities as high as 30 meters off the ground, and males guard their nests from outside. Males also feed the nesting females, but never enter the nest itself. Breeding pairs are territorial, so although these parrots live in large groups, it’s important for them to establish, defend, and keep their own area.

Yellow-naped amazons are highly social birds, which means it’s important for their numbers in the wild to remain significant enough to support their preference to live in large groups. This is just one reason to protect them as an endangered species; they also contribute to keeping their ecosystems healthy.

Natural nests are often hard to find because of deforestation and competition from other animals like bees.
This very tall tree has an artificial amazon nest provided by Paso Pacifico. The parrots love it!
This very tall tree has an artificial amazon nest provided by Paso Pacifico. The parrots love it!

The Yellow-Naped Amazons’ Dispersal Duty

As herbivores, yellow-naped amazons eat fruits, seeds, berries, nuts, blossoms, and leaf buds. For this reason, and because they fly for long distances, these parrots are able to help significantly with seed dispersal. They generally leave seeds intact after eating the fleshy part of fruits and drop these wherever they perch to eat. This helps palms and a wide variety of other trees regenerate. Trees in turn help to feed and house other species as well as convert carbon dioxide to oxygen, all of which is crucial for amazon ecosystems as a whole.

Help Save Yellow-Naped Amazon Parrots with Paso Pacífico

An excellent way to help save endangered species like yellow-naped amazon parrots is to support conservation organizations. Paso Pacífico is accomplishing important steps in protecting these beautiful and intelligent birds.

At Paso Pacífico, our mission is to create wildlife corridors that safeguard biodiversity while connecting people to their land and ocean. Our goal is to restore and conserve Mesoamerica’s Pacific Slope ecosystems. The threatened mangrove wetlands, dry tropical forests, and eastern Pacific coral reefs are among these ecosystems. All conservation programs at Paso Pacífico benefit directly from your donations. These include education programs that teach children the principles of biology, ecology, and environmental citizenship. Contact us today!  

Paso Pacífico rangers give health checkups to young parrots and work with local families to keep them safe from poachers. Learn more here.

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Bird populations in Central American countries include a wide variety of migratory species. Migratory birds make up around 25% of Costa Rica’s avifauna and almost 50% of El Salvador’s. Some travel as far as South and North America.

Migratory birds are an important natural resource because they contribute to biodiversity across the Americas, particularly with regard to the pollination of flowers, seed dispersal, and pest control that they provide. All of these behaviors are crucial for a healthy ecosystem, but also for promoting the growth of crops that feed humans and animals. Some migratory birds in Central America include:

  • Tanagers
  • Warblers
  • Grackles
  • Emeralds
  • Hummingbirds
  • Cotingas
  • Finches
  • Doves

Because many migratory bird species have become endangered as the result of human-caused pollution and man-made energy sources, the US and other countries have adopted policies to preserve these avians.

The Migratory Bird Treaty Act

The Migratory Bird Treaty Act of 1918 administers four international conservation accords signed by the United States in 1916, 1936, 1972, and 1976. Its goal is to preserve the long-term viability of all protected migratory bird populations.

The Migratory Bird Treaty Act forbids humans from harming protected migratory bird species. This includes capturing, killing, selling, and transporting them without prior authorization from the Department of the Interior’s US Fish and Wildlife Service. You can read about more US migratory bird initiatives here.

World Migratory Bird Day

World Migratory Bird Day occurs every second weekend in May and October. This event gives bird enthusiasts and environmentalists worldwide the chance to celebrate these birds and increase awareness of the manmade and other environmental perils that they face.

Migratory Bird Flyways Map

The United States Fish and Wildlife Service (USFW) and its partners help to monitor and recommend actions to preserve migratory birds based on their routes between breeding and wintering grounds, which are called flyways.

Four administrative Flyway Councils (in the Atlantic, Central, Mississippi, and Pacific regions) have been formed to coordinate these efforts. These are advised by the technical committees of biological professionals from member agencies, who assess population and habitat data.

Other Organizations that Support Migratory Bird Preservation

There are other organizations dedicated to preserving migratory birds and other species in the Americas, including Paso Pacífico. Our mission is to create wildlife corridors that safeguard biodiversity while connecting people to their land and ocean. Our goal is to restore and conserve Mesoamerica’s Pacific Slope ecosystems. The threatened mangrove wetlands, dry tropical forests, and eastern Pacific coral reefs are among these ecosystems.

All conservation programs at Paso Pacífico benefit directly from your donations. These include environmental education that instructs young Junior Rangers in the care of endangered baby parrots, monkeys, sea turtles, migratory birds, and other local wildlife. Contact us today!

Header photo by Dan Pancamo.

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Paso Pacifico rangers closed out a period of migratory bird activities by hosting a ‘Festival of Kites’ for kids in Sapoa and Ostional with the motto “sing, fly and soar like birds.” In this activity, the children used their imaginations and crafting skills to use the kite as a metaphor. The kites represented the beautiful migratory birds that fly long distances to reach Central America during the winter.

The children ran through the beaches and watched their kites soar and fly, imitating the birds that have come a long way to visit the beaches and forests of Nicaragua.

On a bright and sunny day, the community rangers used this opportunity to talk to the kids about the importance of taking care of the beaches, mangroves, and forests that are home to thousands of birds and other animals. With this hands-on activity, kids were able to imagine what it’s like to soar like a bird!

 

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Oysters keep the oceans healthy. They filter up to 50 gallons of ocean water a day and form banks with their shells, giving habitat and protection! Without them, seawater is more polluted, coasts erode more easily, and there is less habitat for sea life.

With your support and with generous funding from the PRBB Foundation, the oyster cooperative in the village of Pochote has made great strides for oysters and more. The aim of the oyster program is two-fold: to restore coastal ecosystems and to elevate women fishers through leadership and income from sustainable aquaculture. In the last two years, the women fishers have learned boating and swimming skills, strengthened their fishing cooperative through regular meetings and legal support, and improved their livelihoods through selling oysters and poultry.

Earlier in the program, the women harvested very small oysters from the coastline and placed them in bags hung from open-ocean long-lines. The oysters grew there into market-sized products.

This approach was a good start, but it was limiting because it did not help restore the oyster beds or generate a profitable volume of oysters.

Therefore, during the past year, the women have focused on monitoring wild populations of tropical rock oysters (Striostrea prismatica). Their goal has been to understand the timing of oyster reproduction to eventually capture a portion of the wild larvae, organisms that are otherwise mostly lost to the sea. Using local materials, the women built buoys and set up 36 collectors along 3 lines suspended in the water. We couldn’t be more proud of their work.

Collectors are simply a batch of seashells in a bag that can attract oyster larvae and help bring these mollusks to the next stage of development. While the larvae are microscopic, regular sampling helps us know their presence and abundance.

Over the past year, women have been visiting the long-lines weekly, removing algae and other growth from the linds and taking a sample. Paso Pacifico’s biologist Osmar Sandino reviews samples collected by the women using microscopes at the UNAN-Leon laboratory. Over time, monitoring and additional oyster farming equipment will enable the women to grow more oysters on their ocean farms.

The oyster program has grown gradually through the years. Donors like you have been part of their journey, and so have foundations including the Waitt Foundation, the Loyal Bigelow and Jedediah Dewey Foundation, and more recently the PRBB Foundation. Our commitment to supporting these women remains strong. We couldn’t be more grateful for our donors, and we know that the women fishers are thanking you too.

Photos: Hal Brindley, Yorlin Vargas, and Julio Collado.

 

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