Erika Cuellar
Position: Graduate Student
Thesis title: Guanaco survival in a changing environment: challenges for conservation and rangeland management in the Bolivian Gran Chaco.
Background
After having gained an undergraduate degree in biology in Bolivia and participated in several field research projects, I gained valuable experience in ecological research and local capacity building during the establishment of the Kaa-Iya National Park and Management Area in the Bolivian Chaco.
I read a Masters degree in conservation biology at the Durrell Institute of Conservation and Ecology (DICE) in 1999.
Between October 1999 and September 2005 I became involved in the research, conservation, monitoring and training activities associated with the Kaa-Iya National Park. Since 2000 this activity has focused on developing conservation actions to protect the last population of endangered guanaco in the country.
In January 2004 I became the honorary leader of the mammal group for The Nature Conservancy’s Regional Chaco programme. The project consisted of conducting an intensive review of the conservation status of Chacoan mammals and the pressures on their habitats, and included workshops with mammal specialists from Bolivia, Paraguay and Argentina. I am also a member of the IUCN Camelid Specialist Group and the IUCN Edentate Specialist Group.In October 2005 I joined the Wildlife Conservation Research Unit (WildCRU) at the Zoology department of Oxford University to undertake my DPhil.
Research description
The Chacoan guanaco – a llama-like member of the camel family – is virtually unstudied in both Bolivia and Paraguay, and is highly threatened by poaching and mismanagement of its Chaco savannah habitat. In Bolivia the guanaco is extinct in the highlands, where it used to be common. The country’s last remaining population is now restricted to relict grasslands in the Gran Chaco, mainly on private cattle ranches and the Isoseño-Guarani indigenous territory, bordering Bolivia’s Kaa-Iya National Park.Previous research has shown that 90 % of the native Chacoan grasslands have been invaded by woody plant species in the past thirty years, causing the native vegetation to change from open grassland to closed scrubland. The main cause for this transformation is rangeland mismanagement through overgrazing by cattle and fire suppression. It is this factor that has led to the loss of suitable guanaco habitat. In addition, guanacos mainly exist in unprotected private ranch lands; hence the requirement for a compromise between cattle ranching and guanaco conservation. To address the major constraints to the guanaco’s future my project seeks to investigate the direction and rate of change in the grasslands over the past decades, and determine the causes that are promoting this succession. I also will be studying how these grassland dynamics are affecting guanaco behaviour in terms of their ability to disperse, forage and breed. By understanding these processes, I will be able to predict future interactions among grassland species assemblages and so be able to implement effective land management interventions.
Over the past four years we have developed a baseline conservation project for the Chacoan guanaco involving local indigenous communities. This involvement has been achieved primarily by recruiting young community members and providing them with intensive training in standard field research techniques. These parabiologists – as they are termed – have become crucial to the project. Their permanent presence in the area combined with frequent visits to ranches has already increased local authorities’ and residents’ sensitivity to the plight of guanaco and other wildlife.
The concept of employing parabiologists as local community members empowered to assume responsibility for wildlife conservation at a local level can be applied anywhere where long-term conservation actions are needed. We will formulate guidelines to inform the establishment of similar initiatives elsewhere.
