Nicaragua Yellow-naped Amazon
Conservation
Recovering the
Legend in Solentiname Archipelago
The Solentiname
Archipelago in Lake Nicaragua (also known as Lake Cocibolca) was formed
thousands of years ago by a violent volcanic eruption. Slowly then a mixture of dry and wet forest
advanced with all the wondrous species of the mainland. Much more quickly however, people have
deforested the islands and taken the parrots.
Fundación del Rio witnessed this devastation and to help reverse this
trend, purchased nearly half the island of Macarroncito, the last island in the
chain. There they built a biology station, made some habitat corrections, and
invited a local family to protect the yellow-naped amazon. Anecdotal accounts
suggest the yellow-napes are making a recovery, but no one knows for sure. One Earth's plan is to help them set up a
long term monitoring program and also to support their plans for a full scale
conservation effort on this one island, which then could spread to the other
islands. Dr. Joyner visited there in 2014 to do a quick survey of the
yellow-naped population of the island. We
will continue to support them by bringing people to the station for classes and
ecotourism, and hence help families financially so they can afford to conserve
their lands and their birds. Solentiname means place of rest, and our goal is
to make this a place of rest for the many to come so they enjoy this island and
in so doing protect the bird and support the people. For reflections on this work, go here.
This is an ongoing project.
Nicaragua Yellow-naped Amazon
Conservation
Keeping the
Dream Alive on Ometepe Island
On a voluntary
basis, for the last several years biologists have been counting parrots on one
part of this twin volcano island in Nicaragua's Lake Colcibolca. As the yellow-naped parrot is endangered throughout
Central America, One Earth stepped up to lead the way for monitoring and
conserving the parrots on the island. Dr. Joyner has been supervising a group
of biologists to count the birds, and begin education and awareness
programs. She went there in early 2014
to do a preliminary survey of half the island and conduct parrot conservation
and monitoring workshop. The group of biologists,
known as LOCOS, completed counting the rest of the island after she left, and
repeated counting the entire island in November of 2014. We now have two
complete counts of the island, and a beginning education program. The data is still being analyzed, but preliminary
results suggest over 1000 yellow-naped and red-lored amazons and a substantial
show of family groups. The majority of these birds are yellow-naped
amazons. We need to repeat this count at
least once in 2015 and also start documenting nesting locations and success
rates. For reflections, go here, a report of
the spring count, go here.
This is an ongoing project.
Current
Partners: Flora y Fauna Internacional, Nicaragua, Fundacion del Rio, LOCOS
