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Projeto Jardins da Arara de lear

I have been made aware of an organisation - Jardins da Arara de lear -  set up in Brazil to solve the problem of the lack of licuri plams, which used to provide much of the natural diet of Lear's Macaws in the wild. As regular visitors to the Blue Macaws website will be aware, the local farmers' livestock, expecially goats, have reduced the number of licuri palms so that the growing population of Lear's macaws have been foraging in the farmers' maize fields, causing a lot of damage to the crop on which the local farmers depend to feed their families and the sale of any surplus. We have been supporting a project for more than ten years to compensate the farmers with vouchers to exchange for corn locally. It now amounts to several thousand tons annually and thus the project is very expensive to operate.  

Replacement of the failing licuri palms is absolutely necessary to reduce the foraging of macaws in the local maize fields.     

Headed up and co-ordinated by Pierre Jiminez Alonso the Projeto Jardins da Arara de lear has a website at www.araradelear.com.br. There it states its mission as follows:

"The project aims to contribute in finding solutions to guarantee the conservation of the Lear's Macaw (Anodorhynchus leari) food sources through the maintenance and expansion of licuri palms (Syagrus coronata) plantations available within the macaws habitat region. This will be done following rigorous planning of sustainable development. 

The goals are:

To add resources to the several joined conservation initiatives currently being implemented in the region, especially those from the NAP (National Action Plan), from CERMAVE/ICBio (Biodiversitas Foundation), ECO and Livingstone Foundation.   

* to develop maintenance and expansion plans for the licuri palm plantations within the Lear's Macaw habitat, working together with local communities

* to promote educational plans for the local communities regarding sustainable practices and business activities that focus on sustainable development

* to promote partnerships with companies and institutions that support social and environmental programmes"

Please visit the project website, which also has a shop with interesting products, for further information.         


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