All about Bolivia
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Facts that the U.S. CIA has compiled about Bolivia.
Armonia in Bolivia
Since 2002, the Bolivian Bird Conservation NGO Armonia/BirdLife International has grown from two conservation projects and three employees to 15 Bolivian bird conservation programs with 25 employees.
Bird Endowment, of course, considers Armonia to be important because of their
increasingly important role as the on-the-ground organization most critical
to Saving the Blues™ in Bolivia.
As bird lovers, we also admire the work they are doing on the other 14 projects they are currently conducting. For more information on Armonia, go here. This is the site of BirdLife International, the global partnership of conservation organisations that strives to conserve birds, their habitats and global biodiversity, working with people towards sustainability in the use of natural resources. BirdLife Partners operate in over one hundred countries and territories worldwide.
Loro Parque is a leader in
Saving the Blues™ in Bolivia
This Canary
Island foundation plays the most important role in Saving the Blues™ in Bolivia, providing committed annual funding for its partnership with the Bolivian NGO Armonia.
Since 1995, Loro Parque Fundacion continually has provided financial support for the efforts of
the NGO and BirdLife International partner Armonía to save the critically endangered
Blue-throated macaw in the wild.
You can be a player in
Saving the Blues™ in Bolivia
The items listed below all are proprietary
products from the Armonia / Loro Parque Fundacion Blue-throated
Macaw Ara glaucogularis Conservation Program in Bolivia.
All proceeds from the sale of these items are returned to Bolivia to help further the conservation efforts of the project. 100% !! If you buy a T-shirt for $19, Bird Endowment then sends the BTM project the full $19.
Supplies of these items are limited.
Above: Front. Below: Back
The Wild Blue-throated macaw
in Bolivia at the beginning of 2007
A new Armonia director and a growing effort in 2005
has realized some important gains in several areas of the Armonía/Loro
Parque Fundacion Blue-throated Macaw Ara glaucogularis Conservation Program
in Bolivia -- including an observed population increase of at least 100.
"As of January 2007, the critically endangered Blue-throated macaw still numbers
fewer than 250 individuals in the Beni Department (State) of Bolivia, where its
population has declined over the years largely because of habitat alteration/disturbance
and extensive trapping for the bird trade," said
A. Bennett Hennessey, executive director of Armonia.
The Armonia / Loro Parque Fundacion cooperative program began in 1995, according to David Waugh, the Environment Director at Loro Parque Fundacion and, along with Hennessey, a program supervisor of the joint Blue-throated effort in Bolivia. It has three components:
1). Field Research based around population monitoring, surveying potential
sites, and reviewing distributional limits and possible expansions.
2). An Education Component working with both urban and rural populations utilizing educational workshops.
3).Research and experimentation into factors that could increase the Blue-throated
population. This includes considering the availability of suitable nesting
sites and the competition over them. It is in this area that Bird Endowment
has entered into an agreement to
assist The Armonia / Loro Parque Fundacion program through funding from the
United States.
In 2006, "Mauricio Herrera, working as the project coordinator, has completed the overall census for the species, finding a new population 100 km west of historic records. We have observed 100 individuals, and believe the area could hold 150 to 250 individuals (an area the size of Portugal)," Hennessey told Laney Rickman at Bird Endowment.
This research discovered 24 ranches not previously known to have blue-throated macaws. The research leading to the new discovery covered 138 ranches in the Beni area. This interaction with ranch hands and families meshed nicely with the education portion of the program, he said. The education workshops were presented, mostly informally, to 32 rural populations, often at night while ranch hands relax from the day's work.
More than 60 workshops were conducted in educational centers of Provincias Cercado, Yacuma, Moxos, Marban y Manore, as well as 138 informal presentations at each of the ranches visited.
The program's third area of focus concerns nesting sites and competition over nesting
sites. This area is covered more fully at BE's Nido Adoptivo ("Nestbox Adoption") page, which explains our
participation and your opportunity to help in the Armonía/Loro Parque Fundacion Blue-throated Macaw Ara glaucogularis Conservation Program.
The Official Educational T-shirt
(Used in the Armonía/Loro Parque Fundacion Blue-throated Macaw Ara
glaucogularis Conservation Program in Bolivia to educate ranch hands
as well as urban dwellers. The sale of one Tee here will fund the free distribution of two Tees in Bolivia.)
Featuring the Loro Parque logo on right sleeve and Armonia logo on the left,
the back of the shirt exhorts participation in the program to "Protect the Blue
Beard Macaw!" Please list desired sizes in the PayPal comments section.
Price $19 Adult sizes S, M, L, XL (plus shipping $2)
Price $14 Child sizes 4, 6,
8, 10, 12 (plus shipping $2)
BTM Conservation Notebook
Covers are individually hand-painted by Bolivians in oil and acrylic on artboard
(we think the covers are framable as folk art!). The inside cover page tells
(in Spanish) the story of the Armonía/Loro Parque conservation efforts in Bolivia.
(100 pages, 4" x 6")
Price $5 (plus shipping $2)
Wooden BTM Keychain
Handcrafted by Bolivian artisans (shown here, front and back.
Price $5 (plus shipping $1)
