SAVING THE GREAT
GREEN MACAW
The Northern Zone of Costa Rica, Huetar
Norte, is home to the magnificent but
endangered great green macaw (
Ara
ambigua
). An estimated 100
reproductive macaws, representing the last
of the great green macaw population in
Costa Rica, live in the wet forest zones of
the San Carlos lowlands. These unique
ecosystems display a vast array of endemic
flora and fauna. Many other species depend
on these forests for their survival, and
help maintain the delicate and complicated
relationships within their habitat.
Unfortunately, the habitat of the great
green macaw has been reduced to a mere ten
percent of its original size. This
reduction is due to one of the world’s
heaviest deforestation rates over the past
two decades, despite low human activity in
the area. Logging interests, the lack of
government control over the illegal cutting
of trees, and the illegal poaching of macaw
nestlings for the pet trade have nearly led
to the extinction of macaws in Costa Rica.
So far, there is no federally protected
area in the great green macaw nesting
range. Only the proximity to the vast
Indio-Maiz Reserve of Nicaragua allows
these birds to cross the border and find a
similar, intact ecosystem.
The Great Green Macaw Research and
Conservation Project was set up six years
ago to study and to understand the life
cycle of the great green macaw so that
scientifically founded conservation action
could be undertaken. The project is funded
primarily by the United States Fish and
Wildlife Service. Dr. George Powell,
founder of the Monteverde Cloud Forest
Reserve, began to research the great green
macaw in 1994, and biologist Guisselle
Monge Arias, also an active member of
Friends of the Earth, has conducted the
project over the last two years under his
supervision. Other members of the research
team are interns offering three months or
more of their valuable time and energy.
Every year during the breeding season,
adult macaws are captured and collared with
transmitters that allow us to follow and
locate them using telemetry techniques. The
birds are then tracked on a day-to-day
basis as they move between feeding,
drinking and roosting sites. They are also
tracked over long distances when their main
food source, mountain almond,, loses its
fruits and the birds migrate to seek
different food sources from higher altitude
forests.
The research project has expanded to
involve many local people and
organizations. The National Commission of
the Great Green Macaw, currently
co-coordinated by COECOCEIBA/FoE Costa
Rica, meets monthly and brings together
forestry engineers, biologists, community
leaders, government representatives,
educators and environmentalists. These many
interests meet and discuss the options and
alternatives for managing the forest in
order to maintain a viable great green
macaw population in northern Costa Rica.
The Commission’s first result was the 1996
implementation of restrictions on the
cutting of the mountain almond tree, as its
wood is highly prized by the logging
industry and has come under intense
pressure during the last ten years.
When the Great Green Macaw Project has
compiled sufficient data, the plan is to
create a proposal for a national park in
the Northern Zone, and to encourage the
Costa Rican government to take action in
conservation issues. The project is also
encouraging the sustainable management of
forest resources in the area, and has
identified 72 large landowners potentially
receiving government support for land
management in the priority conservation
zone for the macaw. These landowners will
be invited by the National Commission of
the Great Green Macaw to a monthly meeting
to discuss alternatives to the classic
exploitation method of forest management,
and will be encouraged to participate in
the macaw conservation programme.
Olivier Chassot and Guisselle Monge
Arias, FoE Costa Rica
