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Andean Bear Project Awarded Darwin Initiative Grant
A Darwin Initiative grant has been awarded to a project run by Chester Zoo, in collaboration with WildCRU, for its work on human-wildlife conflict, working with communities for the conservation of Andean bears in Bolivia.
Developed by Chester Zoo in partnership with WildCRU and Bolivian NGO PROMETA, the Andean bear project is working towards human-bear coexistence in the Andean dry forests of Bolivia.
The Darwin Initiative is a UK government grant scheme that helps projects worldwide aimed at protecting biodiversity and the natural environment. The scheme has supported since 1992 1,068 projects in 159 countries awarding a total of £140m, and our Andean bear project is now one of the projects supported.
Dr Alexandra Zimmermann, Head of Conservation Science at Chester Zoo and Senior Research Fellow at WildCRU says:
“Through the support from the Darwin Initiative, we will be able to facilitate human-bear coexistence in the southern Bolivian Andes. Our project links poverty reduction and benefits from biodiversity conservation by improving livelihoods and wellbeing of communities who live alongside this threatened species.”
Building on our expertise in human-wildlife conflict, and sustainable development and livelihoods, from our four previous successful Darwin Projects in India, Indonesia and Nepal, the Andean bear project will identify and trial new income generating schemes such as cheese making and beekeeping and will assess the markets for these products.
In addition to monitoring of the bears, and improving livelihoods for the local communities, this collaborative project will also provide crucial information on the ecological and social dynamics of human-wildlife conflict in the region.
The Andean bear is vulnerable to extinction and severe changes in climate regimes in the dry forests of the Andes are a major problem for the species. Climate change has caused the main economic activity in the region to change from arable agriculture to livestock farming resulting in increased encounters between people, bears and livestock, along with decreased tolerance of predators.
The Whitley Award won by Conservation Fellow Dr Ximena Velez-Liendo in 2017 allowed the team to conduct a year of research focusing on a priority region of Tarija in the southern Bolivian Andes. The project gained momentum attracting full governmental support for the development of the first ever national Andean bear conservation action plan and is set to lead to the species being declared as Bolivian National Heritage.
Professor David Macdonald, Director of WildCRU, adds:
“This project is a standard-bearer for the blend of science and practicality that is the hallmark of modern conservation, with concern for the well-being of these endangered bears and that of the people that live alongside them.”
Our research so far has revealed low community tolerance of the bears and that the species is frequently blamed and retaliated against for livestock and crop losses. However, life for the communities in the region is difficult, and conservation efforts must work within a context of poverty, water shortage, limited infrastructure and few opportunities for income generation.
Dr Ximena Velez-Liendo, Chester Zoo Conservation Fellow, explains:
“By developing a wider variety of livelihoods for communities, we aim to ensure that economic development goes hand in hand with protecting crucial natural habitats. Our goal now is to use the Darwin Initiative grant to generate scientific evidence for bear and puma presence, movements, and habitat through participatory monitoring, and to understand the physical and spatiotemporal aspects of human-bear conflict dynamic.”
The Andean bear project will achieve this by combining reduced livestock losses, increased benefits from conservation and triggering more wildlife tolerant social norms. We will generate evidence of bear and puma presence, movement and habitat through participatory monitoring while training the communities to foster their ability to develop sustainable livelihoods independently enhancing their resilience to environmental changes.
Ultimately, this project intends to improve the well-being of communities and the population of threatened Andean bears in a key region of its global range by linking poverty reduction and biodiversity conservation.
