PROTECTING NEOTROPICAL
MIGRANTS IN THE ANDES: BUILDING A STRATEGIC PROTECTED AREA NETWORK

A total of 97 Neotropical migrant species occur across Ecuador and Peru each year, including the threatened Cerulean Warbler. Many of the critical areas and habitats that these migrants are so dependent upon for overwintering are directly threatened by human destruction. There is an urgent need to intensify
conservation attention on these critical areas and to design and implement bi-national monitoring efforts of migrants so as to directly assist national priorities and local management plans.
American Bird Conservancy’s (ABC) experienced, in-country partners, Asociación Ecosistemas Andinos (ECOAN) in Peru and Fundación Jocotoco in Ecuador, own a network of eight strategically located private nature reserves. Taken as a whole, these reserves cover 8,885 ha and represent 12 Ecoregions across the Tropical Andes Hotspot. Many are situated in the buffer zones of large governmentally-created protected areas and all provide habitat for significant non-breeding populations of Neotropical migrants. ABC is working with our partners to expand their private reserve network, with a particular emphasis on protecting additional sites for non-breeding populations of Neotropical migrants, including the Cerulean Warbler.
We have identified important wintering and passage sites for Cerulean Warbler and aim to initiate pilot conservation activities for these species. Together, our team of reserve rangers and coordinators will undertake the following:
A) Protection of Cerulean Warbler: focus on establishing a new protected area specifically for the Cerulean Warbler in eastern Ecuador, at a core wintering site for the species. We will also develop an Andean Conservation Action Plan for the species.
B) Protection and restoration of bird habitat: build a strategic bi-national reserve network for migrant and resident birds through protection of 20,485 ha, including the purchase of 1,500 ha and restoration of 100 ha.
C) Monitoring: establish an Andean migratory monitoring network at 14 permanent monitoring stations across Ecuador and Peru, focusing on training reserve staff and monitoring migrants in our protected areas.
D) Community outreach and education: intensify local education activities in and around each reserve and nearby protected areas, with activities such as Migratory Bird Festival campaigns each October.

NMBCA support will greatly enhance the conservation of migrants across the Tropical Andes of Ecuador and Peru.
Peruvian Coordinator Wily Palomino, a field biologist who has spent the last three years as the botanical counterpart of ornithological expeditions conducting biodiversity inventories and ornithological research across the Yungas, Punas and Polylepis forest of Peru.
Wily has been directly involved with the habitat characterization in the Alto Mayo Protection Forest in Northern Peru, in projects funded by GTZ. Wily has received scientific and conservation training in Germany and Costa Rica. He is presently the manager of ECOAN’s northern Peru office.
 

http://www.abcbirds.org/

http://www.fjocotoco.org/

http://www.fws.gov/

http://www.proaves.org/