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FUNDACIÓN ECOLOMBIA: AN INTEGRAL APPROACH TO FIGHTING ILLEGAL TRAFFIC OF FAUNA IN COLOMBIA ABSTRACT FUNDACIÓN ECOLOMBIA is a non profit NGO which started its work in December 1999, with the mission of creating a sustainable future for Colombia, in which people and nature can live in harmony. Even though its office is located in Medellín, most of the activities of FUNDACIÓN ECOLOMBIA take place in the town of La Pintada, where the institution is tending to run a pilot project that can be extended to other sites in a close future. La Pintada is a town with 11,000 inhabitants and an economy based on tourism and cattle-raising. The level of unemployment is very high; tourism varies throughout the year, becoming significant only on spring, summer and Christmas vacation, while extensive cattle-raising requires very few employees; because of this, people is this town are only employed temporarily, and job opportunities are not common. Cattle-raising is also the major cause of the loss of 98.5% of the original area of tropical dry forest, life zone in which this town is located. So far, FUNDACIÓN ECOLOMBIA has been primarily dealing with the problem of illegal traffic of fauna, as a collaborator for environmental authorities. The foundation struggles with this issue through four main working lines: rehabilitation and reproduction of confiscated fauna, restoration of habitat, environmental education, and generation of alternative sources of income for the communities. ALTERNATIVE SOURCES OF INCOME FOR THE COMMUNITIES Alternative sources of income are vital to fight illegal traffic of fauna. Based on a market survey, FUNDACIÓN ECOLOMBIA has developed four lines of products that are providing employment for inhabitants of La Pintada town and, hopefully in the long term, will support the other activities of the foundation. ENVIRONMENTAL EDUCATION FUNDACIÓN ECOLOMBIA is convinced that no reintroduction program would succeed if the human community is not involved. A strong program on environmental education has been developed with the cooperation of educational and administrative institutions of La Pintada. Activities involve workshops with elementary schools, high schools and other institutions, a festival, house to house workshops and several activities in order to sensitize the community on fauna traffic, care for animals, biodiversity and related subjects. RESTORATION OF HABITAT In order to give released animals a proper environment to live in, FUNDACIÓN ECOLOMBIA is restoring areas that used to be cattle grasslands, uniting two forest fragments through a biological corridor of planted tropical dry forest species. Current protected area is about 82 ha and is expected to get larger through interinstitutional agreements. Tropical dry forest is, with paramo, the most threatened neotropical ecosystem; this will be one of the largest fragments of forest in this zone and its main purpose is the reintroduction of rehabilitated wildlife. REHABILITATION AND REPRODUCTION OF CONFISCATED FAUNA FUNDACIÓN ECOLOMBIA works with three key species in Colombian wildlife traffic: the critically endangered and vulnerable birds Crax alberti, Ara ambigua and Ara militaris, and one of the most traded primates, Alouatta seniculus. These programs take place in the Wildlife Rehabilitation Center Los Farallones, established in a land leased from the Institute for the Development of the Department of Antioquia. International protocols have been adapted to existing conditions, and currently there is a running rehabilitation program for Alouatta seniculus that has resulted in two rehabilitated groups ready to be released, and three babies born during the process. The ethological transformation of the animals has been studied in captive and semi-captive stages, with excellent results for the program. This program has six acclimatizing cages and two cages in semi-open enclosures for final rehabilitation phases, which means a capacity of around 60 individuals. The captive breeding program with Crax alberti has started with a six compartment cage and five individuals (3/2). In 2003 there were two sterile eggs laid. No further success has been obtained. Artificial insemination is being considered as an option for improving results. With this program FUNDACIÓN ECOLOMBIA plays an important role in the potential National Conservation Strategy for Crax alberti. The Ara ambigua reproduction program started in 2004 with funding from Zoo de Doué. Five individuals are currently in the phase of couple integration in a flight cage, and Environmental Authorities in the country are willing to donate confiscated animals to the program. A six compartment cage is available for the breeding phase. FUNDACIÓN ECOLOMBIA also works as a rescue centre for environmental authorities, where individuals of many species recover until a proper place to release them is found. Those animals that would not survive in wild conditions remain for educational purposes. The Wildlife Rehabilitation Center Los Farallones is currently one of the biggest shelters for confiscated and endangered fauna in Colombia and a centre for research in favour of many local and national institutions that develop conservation programs.
FUNDACIÓN ECOLOMBIA: AN INTEGRAL APPROACH TO FIGHTING ILLEGAL TRAFFIC OF FAUNA IN COLOMBIA
INTRODUCTION FUNDACIÓN ECOLOMBIA was founded in December 1999, with the mission of creating a sustainable future for Colombia, in which people and nature can live in harmony. Throughout this time, the foundation has been primarily dealing with the problem of illegal traffic of fauna. We strongly believe that poverty is the main cause for illegal traffic of fauna, and that any solution to this matter should benefit both the animal and human populations. Therefore, FUNDACIÓN ECOLOMBIA confronts this issue through the integration of four programs: rehabilitation and reproduction of confiscated fauna, restoration of habitat, environmental education, and generation of alternative sources of income for the communities.
WORK SITE 
The main office of FUNDACIÓN ECOLOMBIA is located in Medellín, but most of its activities take place in a little and young town called La Pintada (see figure). The town formed from a series of invasions in the middle of a large land of rich cattle-raisers. As an obligated convergence for many routes, the settlement began to form around a train station and the intersection of one of the main roads (the Panamericana) with one of the main rivers of the country (Cauca river). The population now counts with almost 11,000 inhabitants. These conditions favour many social characteristics, like prostitution, violence, poverty, and some other consequent situations that include a high quantity of single and young mothers and a high level of analphabetism in the adult group. La Pintada is in the Tropical Dry Forest life zone, an ecosystem of which it only remains 1.5% of the original cover in Colombia. The cattle-raising activity has taken most of the original forests and only a few fragments remain in the site. The lost of native fauna is evident and widely recognized by the community. Because of an economy based on tourism and cattle-raising, the level of unemployment is very high. Tourism varies throughout the year, becoming significant only on spring, summer and Christmas vacations, while extensive cattle-raising requires very few employees. Therefore, people in this town are only employed temporarily, and job opportunities are not common.
In 2001, FUNDACIÓN ECOLOMBIA got to this town and leased a land of 82 hectares from the Department of Antioquia. The payment for the land consists of the recovery of forest and the improvement of facilities for the construction of a wildlife rehabilitation centre. The foundation hopes to change the social and environmental situation of the town, as a pilot project that can be extended to other sites in a close future. The strategic location allows us to easily spread our programs towards many surrounding towns.
PROGRAMS ALTERNATIVE SOURCES OF INCOME FOR THE COMMUNITIES FUNDACIÓN ECOLOMBIA is convinced that any environmental project must involve the community in order to easy its success and guarantee its continuity. When a farmer weights the benefits of living in a place with high diversity and free wildlife against feeding his/her children, it is obvious where the arrow will go. We can not start talking about changing the behaviour of a community if we do not bring alternatives for them to have the same or a better quality of life. This is why alternative sources of income are vital to fight illegal traffic of fauna. Based on a market survey, FUNDACIÓN ECOLOMBIA has developed four lines of products that are providing employment for inhabitants of La Pintada and, hopefully in the long term, will support the other activities of the foundation. Our lines include plush dolls of Colombian primates, hand woven bags, natural soaps and mobiles made out of natural products like gourds and seeds. Customers are mostly zoos and gift-shops in Colombia, USA and Europe. Most of the persons involved are mothers, many of them single and half of them with three or more children. These women find in the program their only permanent source of incomes during the year.
ENVIRONMENTAL EDUCATION A strong program on environmental education has been developed with the cooperation of educational and administrative institutions of La Pintada. Massive activities have allowed covering almost the total population. This program uses several methods to reach people and to characterize their behaviour towards wildlife; they include workshops with elementary schools, high schools and other institutions, a festival, house to house workshops, guided visits to the Wildlife Rehabilitation Centre, production of didactic material and several activities in order to sensitize the community on fauna traffic, care for animals, biodiversity and related subjects. Many accomplishments have come out of this program, may be the most important are that people have voluntary given their former pets to the program of rehabilitation, the Red Howler Festival was declared by the local administration as an institutionalized festivity for the town, and a group of eco-guides was conformed and now helps us to run several activities in our programs.
RESTORATION OF HABITAT As we told before, La Pintada is a town with cattle-raising tradition, this activity is demanding of pastures and is the major reason for the lost of forest cover in Colombia. In La Pintada there only remain a few and isolated forest patches, usually linked to important geological forms, like stream depressions or steeped hills. In order to increase the land available for animal release, FUNDACIÓN ECOLOMBIA began a program of ecosystem restoration in the land leased from the Institute for the Development of the Department of Antioquia, institution who is committed to its conservation as forest cover, even if the foundation was not there. 35 hectares that used to be cattle grasslands are being recovered by either reforestation with tropical dry forest species or acceleration of natural succession, by means of diminishing invasive species trough controlled cattle admittance. This area connects two patches that sum 45 hectares of native forests. After the process is completed, this will be the largest forest fragment in the area and will increase the capacity for the release of rehabilitated wildlife. Current total protected area is about 82 ha and is expected to get larger through interinstitutional agreements.
REHABILITATION AND REPRODUCTION OF CONFISCATED FAUNA Two major problems of illegal wildlife trade are confronted in the program of FUNDACIÓN ECOLOMBIA. The first one is the difficulty of individuals of species with a complex social structure and high imprint to return to the natural environment and survive after years of captivity and human dependence; this is a critical situation, particularly for primate species. The second one is that the extraction of highly endangered species from the natural environment carries strong consequences for free populations, not only because of the extraction of the individual itself, but because of the high significance of such individual as a potential parent in isolated or small sized populations. In order to offer solutions to these issues, FUNDACIÓN ECOLOMBIA has established two programs for animals confiscated by environmental authorities, developed in the Wildlife Rehabilitation Centre Los Farallones: rehabilitation of species of high imprint and reproduction of endangered species. So far, three species are involved: the Red Howler Monkey (Alouatta seniculus), the Blue Billed Curassow (Crax alberti), the Great Green Macaw (Ara ambigua) and the Military Macaw (A. militaris). The Red Howler Monkey is one of the most traded primate species; even though it is still not critically endangered, the pressure on the populations because of individuals extraction, as well as habitat loss, is growing. The rehabilitation program is based on international protocols that have been adapted to financial and natural conditions. Currently, the wildlife rehabilitation centre shelters nearly 70 individuals, taking into account all stages of the rehabilitation. This program has six acclimatizing cages and two cages in semi-open enclosures for final rehabilitation phases, which means a capacity of around 60 individuals; this is the largest population of Red Howler Monkeys in captivity in the world. The success of the program has been evaluated through studies on the ethology of two groups that went through the whole process; the studies demonstrated that both groups showed a similar behaviour to wild groups of the same species. The birth of three monkeys, in three different groups, is also a proof of the favourable conditions offered to the animals in the program.
Crax alberti is one of the major symbols for critically endangered species in Colombia; it has a very restricted distribution, being only present in the north of Colombia, in low humid not-intervened forests. The captive breeding program is developed in a six compartment cage that simulates the conditions of understory, with five individuals (3/2). In 2003 there were two sterile eggs laid. No further success has been obtained. Artificial insemination is being considered as an option for improving results. With this program FUNDACIÓN ECOLOMBIA plays an important role in the potential National Conservation Strategy for Crax alberti.
Deforestation because of cattle raising and banana growth in its distribution area, are the main causes for the loss of habitat of the Ara ambigua, even though the populations in the Pacific coast remain almost intact, their density is not enough to compensate the other phenomena, therefore this species is classified as vulnerable. The reproduction program started in 2004 with funding from Zoo de Doué. Four individuals are currently in the phase of couple integration in a flight cage, and Environmental Authorities in the country are willing to donate confiscated animals to the program. A six compartment cage is available for the breeding phase.
The Wildlife Rehabilitation Centre Los Farallones also works as a rescue centre for environmental authorities, where individuals of many species recover until a proper place to release them is found. Those animals that would not survive in wild conditions remain for educational purposes in adequate spaces for this. The Wildlife Rehabilitation Centre Los Farallones is currently one of the biggest shelters for confiscated and endangered fauna in Colombia and a centre for research in favour of many local and national institutions that develop conservation programs.
PROSPECTIVE PROGRAMS FUNDACIÓN ECOLOMBIA aims to become an leader institution for neotropical primate rehabilitation and breeding. Therefore, further programs will be oriented to cover threatened species in this group. So far, the major efforts are focused in Saguinus leucopus and Ateles spp. Environmental authorities are especially interested in these programs but some technical work and financial aid is needed before starting. |
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