Costa Rica Bird Watching: The Green Macow (The Conservation Plan)

Costa Rica Bird Watching: The Green Macow (The Conservation Plan)

The great green macaw (Ara ambiguus) has a limited distribution in the Atlantic wet lowlands of Central America, from Honduras south to northern Colombia, with a small isolated population in the Pacific in Esmeraldas and Guayaquil, Ecuador. The world population is about 7.000 individuals. In Costa Rica, this species is currently limited to approximately 600 km2 of tropical very wet forest in the northern part of the country, in the border area with Nicaragua. It highly depends on the Almendro tree (Dipteryx panamensis) both for feeding and nesting substrate. This endangered species, which is listed in Appendix I of CITES, is in serious danger of disappearing from Costa Rica in the near future.

THE CONSERVATION PLAN

The survival of the great green macaw depends on the availability of adequate, intact forest habitat. For this reason, together with local and national stakeholders, we proposed in 1998 the implementation of a conservation plan that could protect enough habitat to maintain a small and viable breeding population in Costa Rica. This integral conservation plan is known now as "San Juan-La Selva Biological Corridor", and included the creation in 2005 of the "Maquenque National Wildlife Refuge", with an extension of 54,000 ha of natural ecosystems embracing the breeding range of the great green macaw.

With this perspective, we managed to restrict or prohibit the cutting of forest in the critical nesting zone of the macaw as well as to partially prohibit the harvest of almendro. To promote sustainable development in the Northern Zone and the conservation of the great green macaw, we encourage local farmers and communities to manage their lands in a sustainable manner by way of the extraction of non-timber products such as medicinal plants, fruits and seeds and to support reforestation initiatives with native trees that are both commercially important and benefit the great green macaw through incentives from the Government.

To resolve nest poaching, we developed an intensive environmental education program at the beginning of the Project for 18 months in different communities within the influence area.

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