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There are few examples in the scientific literature of systematically designed environmental educational programs, quantifying the effects of various interventions. This project, by the Venezuelan national NGO Provita, will measure the impact of the project on the attitudes and behaviours of people towards the biodiversity of Margarita Island, especially on the Macanao Peninsula.
Therefore, starting in 2004 the principal objective is to develop and maintain a multi-year, multi-faceted environmental education project to increase awareness and change the attitudes and behaviours of people in Margarita towards the region’s biodiversity, using the island’s threatened parrots as conservation symbols. These parrots are the Blue-crowned conure (Aratinga acuticaudata neoxena) and the Yellow-shouldered parrot (Amazona barbadensis). These indigenous parrots and their habitats are an important part of the natural patrimony of the people of Margarita Island and, if properly conserved and managed, will have economic importance with special reference to nature tourism, and fisheries production from the mangroves.
The contributory objectives are to:
Throughout the breeding season of 2004 for A. barbadensis, a team of five biological monitors from the town of San Francisco monitored five nests of the Yellow-shouldered parrot on a 24 hour basis at the nesting site called “La Chica”. As a result we have documented that 25 nestlings of the parrot have successfully fledged compared with zero in 2003.When compared with programs of the past, we see that this number of successful documented fledglings is at the same level as those documented during Provita’s program from 1990-1999 (Sanz, 2001). This program has not only attained the more immediate goal of decreasing the loss of A. barbadensis nestlings to poachers, but it aids in our effects to develop a more long-term educational approach for protecting the parrot.Many of the men who poach the nests of the two threatened psittacids choose this lifestyle due to lack of knowledge and lack of alternatives.Our pilot program in nest-monitoring tackles both of these deficits by providing work opportunities and educational opportunities.
The construction of the house at the field site “La Chica,” has been completed, and will be used to house field assistants, visiting researchers and biomonitors who protect the nestlings of A. barbadensis throughout its breeding season.It is in the dry forest ecosystem where A. barbadensis nests. The third Yellow-shouldered parrot census was held 16, 17 and 18 of September 2004.The census included volunteers from the town, the National Guard’s “environmental brigade,” and students from the international school in Puerto la Cruz, a city on the mainland, close to Margarita.The results from the census show the nuimbers of individuals to be 1609. This gives a recruitment of 586 individuals, a 36% increase from the estimated population size calculated before the reproductive season.
The XII Festival of the Cotorra Margariteña, that celebrates the Yellow-shouldered parrot as the regional bird of the Nueva Esparta State through traditional dance, singing and games was held on 6 November and was a success in sending a generally more conservation-oriented message to the public!There were about 1,000 attendees. In particular, there was an endangered species puppet show put on by children from Boca de Río. To create the poster advertising the festival, a couple of students from each town in Macanao were chosen to help design and paint a mural depicting the Yellow-shouldered parrot in its natural habitat.
In September, a puppet-making workshop produced eight endangered species puppets and a background scene depicting the ecosystems of mangroves and dry forest.The puppet show was performed once in the town of Boca de Río in October as a practice for the show put on during the Yellow-shouldered parrot festival.All the characters were played by children from the town of Boca de Río.
During the last two weeks of August 2004, we implemented summer day camps offered to students ages 8-14 years from two different towns in the Macanao peninsula: Boca de Río and San Francisco de Macanao.The day camp for Boca de Río included 27 students, and from San Francisco 25 students, totalling 52 participants. Twenty (20) volunteer guides participated in the plan, fifteen (15) of which were trained in a two-day training program conducted the week before commencement of the plan. The day camps were six days in duration and included visits to Laguna de La Restinga and the field site in the dry forest ecosystem at “La Chica”. We conducted an evaluation of the program using species-specific surveys for the Blue-headed conure, given on the day that the mangroves were visited and general surveys before and after the program. These were given to the participants in order to analyze the effectiveness of the plan in achieving the pre-designed objectives and compare it to last year.
In August of 2004, the field team went to one of Margarita’s neighboring islands, La Blanquilla, to assess the population of A. barbadensis and the poaching pressure present.Our preliminary observations show that the breeding season for the population on La Blanquilla is a couple of weeks behind that of Margarita and that poaching pressure remains high due to the constant presence of passing fisherman who take the nestlings to sell on Margarita. We plan to visit La Blanquilla in the future for a more extensive nest survey and geo-positioning instruments to develop similar nest-monitoring programs.
Every year, the Ministry of the Natural Resources (MARNR) for Margarita holds conservation education workshops for teachers in the state of Nueva Esparta to increase knowledge of environmental education techniques that can be utilized in the schools.Using the structure of the Ministry’s workshop, we have developed an educational workshop geared towards the teachers of the Macanao peninsula with a focus on the yellow-shouldered parrot and the blue-crowned conure. The workshops took place in November 2004 and included visits to both habitats of the psittacids.
An interpretive nature trail in the field site La Chica was constructed.The nature trail is foruse in educational programs with schools, tourists and the community.It was built by volunteers and teachers from various towns located in the peninsula with the dual purpose of providing educational information about the ecology of the Yellow-shouldered parrot as well as offering the owner’s of the land a financial alternative to sand-mining through its use in eco-tourism.
Financial support:€39,793