Lear's Macaw situation

This is the text of Kilma Manso's letter in July 2017

CORN REPLACEMENT PROJECT / 2017

Dear Partners,

In the name of the partnership between ECO, Parrots International, Lymington Fundation, Loro Parque Fundación, The Parrot Society UK, The Parrot Fund, Emerald Feather, American Federation of Aviculture and Nutrópica, it gives us the immense satisfaction to inform that the Corn Replacement Project for 2017 will commence  in a few days in the whole Lear’s macaw field range.

We emphasize that, due to the extremely severe drought which affected the entire region for around two years leading to complete losses of crops and livestock, there was no damage to corn crops in all the Lear’s field range (cities of Canudos, Glória, Euclides da Cunha, Jeremoabo, Paulo Afonso and Santa Brígida) for the year of 2016. This situation led the farmers to stop their cultivation, mainly in the regions that comprise the largest portion of property victimized by the attacks of Lear’s macaws in previous years (unfortunately where the farmers have a precarious financial situation and used to replant new corn areas as they knew that the Corn Reimbursement Program will compensate their losses due to the attacks of Lear’s macaws). But, to the contrary, this year is being completely unusual with regard to the raining season as it has been very heavy and protracted, which made the farmers be very happy and hopefully that this year they will get great harvests and also will be able to grow very well their livestock. Everywhere now is completely green and the most common landscape are corn plantations and green grass (please see photos, attached).   

So, again, we need to put our efforts in the Program in order to avoid adverse postures on the part of farmers whose plantings will be victims of attacks by macaws, as the macaws most probably will systematically attack their plantings along their foraging routes in a few days (when the corn cobs become bigger); and be able to preclude the farmers employing their children to scare away the birds many times causing them to lose school classes only to avoid losses of their corn. And, mainly, we need to be able prevent new events of farmers injuring or killing Lear’s macaws.

This situation emphasizes the absolutely indispensable nature of the Replacement Project for the success of the Conservation Program for the Lear´s Macaw, since its contribution to diminish the conflict situation in the foraging areas and avoid a negative image of the birds on the part of the local population with whom we have created a partnership allied with various actions that can come together for the in situ conservation of this species.

We express our most sincere appreciation to all which have contributed directly or indirectly to the Corn Replacement Project and point out that we’ll be delighted to have you all as partners this year again. We also welcome questions as well as suggestions that will contribute to improving this very important activity.

Kilma