Blue Throat Macaw Habitat Project

Blue Throat Macaws come from a small area of Bolivia. Because their natural range is so small, commercial development or the wrong kind of commercial activity in the area could mean disaster to their already low numbers. Currently there are only about 350 Blue Throat Macaws living in the wild and project manager and Biologist Bennet Hennessey says there needs to be at least 700 to be a sustainable population. Any loss of existing habitat would certainly have a negative impact on their already critically low population numbers. Hennessey, who is the executive director of the Bolivian Bird Conservation NGO Armonia/Birdlife International, says the most effective way to preserve sufficient habitat for the Blue Throat Macaw is to purchase four key tracks of land, averaging about 3000 acres each, that sustain the largest concentrations of Blue Throats Macaws. These tracks of land are owned by private parties who have agreed to sell the land once Hennessey and is group can raise the money for the purchases. The land in the area sells for about $30 an acre bringing the cost of each parcel to about $100,000 each. This land is also attractive to foreign ranching interests, making it a race for conservationist to buy it first.

It is our goal to provide the group with a loan for each property. They will repay the money from funds raised via their eco tourism activities where guests can come stay in their lodge and observe wild Blue Throat Macaws on the river cliffs only a few hundred meters from the lodge. Read more about this project.

You can help by either providing funds to help create these loans, by helping them repay one of their loans once it has been made and/or by visiting them as an eco tour guest.