Promoting Conservation of Threatened Birds in Western Colombia Final Report November 30, 2016 Project ID: F02178914 Overall aim: The risk of extinction decreases for threatened bird species in Western Colombia. Site Location: Endemic Bird Area “Colombian Inter-Andean Slopes” in Western Colombia. Dates in field: 9-18 Sep 2015, 22 Sep-2 Oct 2015, 12-22 Oct 2015, 28 Oct-7 Nov 2015, 28 Nov-7 Dec 2015, 19-24 Jan 2016. Authors: Eliana Fierro-Calderón, Diana Eusse-González, Jessica Suárez Valbuena & Diana Patricia Ramírez Mosquera. E-mail: [email protected] Address: Asociación Calidris Carrera 24 # 4-20 Barrio Miraflores Cali, Valle del Cauca Colombia http://calidris.org.co/ TABLE OF CONTENTS Acknowledgements ......................................................................................................................... 4 Acronyms ......................................................................................................................................... 5 Section 1 .......................................................................................................................................... 6 Summary ..................................................................................................................................... 6 Introduction ................................................................................................................................ 6 Project members ......................................................................................................................... 8 Section 2 ........................................................................................................................................ 10 Aim and objectives .................................................................................................................... 10 Methodology ............................................................................................................................. 10 Social methods ...................................................................................................................... 10 Ecological methods ................................................................................................................ 11 Outputs and Results .................................................................................................................. 14 Social results .......................................................................................................................... 14 Ecological results ................................................................................................................... 16 Achievements and Impacts ....................................................................................................... 19 Section 3 ........................................................................................................................................ 22 Conclusion ................................................................................................................................. 22 Problems encountered and lessons learnt ............................................................................... 22 In the future .............................................................................................................................. 23 Section 4 ........................................................................................................................................ 24 Appendices ................................................................................................................................ 24 More outputs and results ...................................................................................................... 24 Other activities ...................................................................................................................... 34 Financial Summary Sheet ...................................................................................................... 35 Bibliography .............................................................................................................................. 37 Project outputs and papers on preparation .......................................................................... 38 Address list and web links ......................................................................................................... 38 Distribution list .......................................................................................................................... 38 3 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS We want to thank to the Departmental System of Protected Areas Valle del Cauca for attending the workshops, and the interest they showed during the development of this project. A special thanks to Ana Elvia Arana who supported us in every step, sent invitations, provided the workspace, and invited us to participate in the different activities of SIDAP during the last couple of years. Thanks to Corporación Autónoma Regional del Valle del Cauca for letting us use their meeting places in La Unión and Cali for the development of these workshops. Corporación Serraniagua, Fundación DapaViva, Fundación Colibrí, the Biology program of Universidad ICESI, and Parques Nacionales Naturales de Colombia (territorial Andes Occidentales) allowed us to visit and work in the different localities. Thanks to their staffs who connected us with people in the field and to our guides in the different localities: Johnnier, Esteban, Joel, Remy, Lina, Ana Milena, Julian, Giovanny, Juan Vicente, Gustavo, and Uriel. We also want to thank all the people that gave us permission to use their photographs in the different stages of the project, so we could share information about the species’ conservation. Hugo Loaiza, Jeisson Póveda, Félix Uribe, Murray Cooper, Wilmer Quiceno, Fabrice Schmitt, Dušan M. Brinkhuizen, Judd Patterson, Vince Smith, Diego Calderón, Priscilla Burcher, Jenn Sinasac, Luis G. Olarte, Fundación EcoAndina, Scott Olmstead, Ken Chamberlain, Yamil Saenz, Richard Johnston, Jeisson Zamudio, Carlos M. Wagner, and Oleg Chernyshov. A special thank you to Professor Stuart Marsden who has been supporting us and giving us advice since the beginning. The discussions and training methods helped us improve this project and its applications in conservation. He also helped us during the data analysis. We have learned a lot from him and we are very grateful. Calidris’ staff helped us during the development of the proposal, and supported us in different stages of this project. They attended and adaptation of the Calgary workshop and gave feedback on the materials and reports. Thanks to Felipe Estela for his advice on methods, species, and analysis during these years. Many thanks to all the people who belonged to this CLP team. Their support, tenacity, perseverance, and hard work made possible the development of this project. Finally, thanks to Conservation Leadership Programme for awarding us this grant and giving us the chance to develop this second stage, which has been very important for our organization and for the conservation of the species we are targeting. A special thank you to Kiragu and Stuart P. for their advice and patience. 4 ACRONYMS CIAS Colombian Inter-Andean Slopes CLP Conservation Leadership Programme CVC Corporación Autónoma Regional del Valle del Cauca EBA Endemic Bird Area ENGO Environmental Non-Governmental Organization GIS Geographic Information System IBA Important Bird Area SIB (Spanish initials) Information System Biodiversity SIDAP (Spanish initials) Departmental System of Protected Areas 5 SECTION 1 SUMMARY The Colombian Inter-Andean Slopes Endemic Bird Area is one of the richest places of biodiversity in Colombia. It is also the place where the most important cities in Colombia are located and where a great amount of productive activities are developed. Our project’s goal was to improve the effectiveness of two conservation strategies (the study and assessment of bird populations, and the implementation of environmental campaigns about species conservation) for 16 threatened bird species within the CIAS EBA in Western Colombia. To do this, we designed an outreach and media strategy to promote and share information about the threatened species. We developed several workshops to generate cooperation between key stakeholders for the development of conservation actions, and capacity building in project planning and fundraising. We carried out field trips and gathering of information on the target species, we recorded 8 of the 16 target species and we acquired new information about habitat preference for five of them. This information was published in a workbook with recommendations on the conservation of the species and their habitats. This project led us to receive funding to design conservation plans of four threatened species, including two of our target species on this project. INTRODUCTION To develop effective conservation actions for any species requires basic information about natural history, ecology and distribution (E. Fierro-Calderón, 2012). In the Tropics a general gap of knowledge exists across the taxa, especially in threatened species because of their low population densities, low detection rates, punctual distribution, among other factors. Assessing threats and conservation opportunities within the habitats of threatened species and to contribute to the knowledge about their ecology are important steps in designing successful long-term conservation strategies.