Ending Poaching to Help Recover Critically Endangered Yellow-naped mazon Parrots in Costa Rica
Overall goal: Ending Poaching to Help Recover Critically Endangered Yellow-naped Amazon Parrots in Costa Rica
Objective 1: Nest protection: Conduct daily monitoring of YNP nests during the breeding season to deter poaching.
Objective 2: Education: Conduct workshop for 50 law enforcement officers to improve awareness of wildlife laws and enforcement.
Objective 3: Conduct 3-month bird guide training for 6 people from El Jobo and start tourism planning with local partners to create economic incentive for YNP protection.
The project aim is to improve nestling survival and recruitment to help Costa Rica’s (CR) struggling wild Yellow-naped Parrot (YNP) population recover. The coastal El Jobo region is targeted, home of a stronghold for YNPs and also a known poaching center, fueled by a flourishing local cagebird trade. Macaw Recovery Network (MRN) will protect YNP nest sites during the breeding season, raise awareness through public events and police training about laws against capturing and keeping YNPs, and start developing bird tourism locally by training guides. Project learnings will be applied by MRN throughout CR as part of its broader conservation efforts.
Decades of unsustainable trapping for CR’s cagebird trade led to a 54% population crash (2005 to 2016), and this decline is accelerating. If nothing changes, CR’s YNPs will be extinct in 30 years. Currently, around 60-100% of YNP chicks are still stolen from nests. MRN found that most (67%) residents surveyed do not know they are endangered. YNPs are also common pets (72% know someone currently keeping one). El Jobo offers a promising opportunity to shift focus from bird keeping to local pride in wild YNPs because there is a documented appreciation for watching YNPs in the wild and people recognize the tourism potential inside of CR’s booming birding industry.
MRN is leading an ambitious multi-year effort to end CR’s YNP trade and recover its wild population. This project is an important part of that larger effort, which also includes YNP censuses and a conservation breeding and reintroduction program.
