Though the global pandemic has taken many jobs from rural Costa Rican towns popular with tourists, women in Boca Tapada have been hard at work.
In partnership with Fundación CRUSA, we at the Macaw Recovery Network launched a pilot program for 10 local women to join our Great Green Macaw field team during the birds’ breeding season.
Andrea, Carmen, Elvida, Geylin, Justina, Karina, Lilliam, Yendri, Yerlin and Maria Elena all became Community Rangers. They monitored Macaw nests for months then went the extra mile, taking on conservation work to protect parrots in the Neotropics from extinction.
The women began the program with conservation classes with our team and our partners at Las Arrieras Reserve, Refugio Lapa Verde, Corredor Biológico San Juan La Selva and Centro Científico Tropical. The ladies then put on their boots and went to work. Over the last three months, they helped the field team reach ten more nesting sites and three more wild Macaw nests. As we wrapped up the pilot program, María Elena, one of the younger rangers, inspired others to join forces on a habitat recovery project.
The Community Rangers have learnt that the critical dangers the Great Green Macaw and other wild species in their country face are deforestation and poaching. Maria Elena proposed that her team maintain a Community Nursery of their own, volunteering their work in this initial stage. They will work with others locally to provide food and nesting sources for Macaws as part of ongoing reforestation efforts.
For us, there’s no better way to ensure the future of our environment and natural resources than Uniting people for Conservation! We’re moved and excited to see that’s exactly what these new Community Rangers are doing. They’re germinating Mountain Almond seeds in their homes and hope to have 500 seeds germinating by the end of June. By the time these new program is fully funded, the ladies plan to plant 6,000 Mountain Almond trees, the Macaws’ natural habitat, in the following two years!!
Meanwhile, we are leading talks with local government members to bring them on board and find a suitable plot of land for the nursery. We also will provide leadership training for the Community Rangers to coordinate their project among their families and neighbors for the recovery of the Great Green Macaw.
Once more we confirmed that in unity we are stronger, and together we can thrive.
We’re planting a seed of hope, certain that we’ll all see it grow.
We hope you will join Maria Elena and these Rangers in developing valuable reforestation efforts, so that Communities can Unite for Conservation!
Pamela Herrera
Community Outreach Manager