Community involvement and tourism as conservation aids in Paraguay (and a long list of birds!)

Guest blog by WLT's web manager, Helena Akerlund, who spent some time in Paraguay last year volunteering with Guyra Paraguay.

John will shortly return from a World Land Trust staff and supporter trip to Paraguay and will no doubt report on the journey here in Green Issues, perhaps including an account of having finally seen in the wild that most elusive of animals: The jaguar. I hope so, but if he still hasn't been lucky enough to spot one, let's hope none of the first-time visitors in the group did when John was looking the other way, or there will be no end to his grumbles!

In the meantime I thought I'd squeeze in the last and long overdue account of my visit to Paraguay - now a distant six months ago.

The Eco Club: Ensuring the future of the Pantanal is in safe hands

"Los Exploradores" performing a song they had written themselves, complete with synchronised arm movements, which not everybody had mastered!

The Three Giants Lodge, the visitor facility at the Chaco-Pantanal Reserve in the north of Paraguay, was brand new when I was there, so our visit coincided with a dinner celebrating its opening. The local Eco Club and rangers attended and Guyra staff gave thanks to all who had helped realise the vision. (The work on the lodge is now completed and John and the others took part in its official grand opening last week.)

The Eco Club members are children and teenagers from the nearby community Bahía Negra, who, thanks to Guyra's involvement, are learning about reserve management and species identification. The idea is that responsibility for the management of the Chaco-Pantanal Reserve will soon lie completely with the local community, without the need for Guyra staff to travel quite so often between the capital and the reserve. For this to be achieved long-term it's essential to involve the younger generation. (Find out how you can support Guyra's community work in Bahía Negra here.)

Generally speaking not many local children stay in Bahía Negra when they grow up - there's simply not much there for them to do, and being located in a really isolated part of the country, the temptation to move south to the cities is great. The Eco Club provides some of the training needed to equip future reserve staff with key skills for managing the reserve and visitor facilities.

Most of my time in Paraguay was spent in the company of only a few people, so it was great to be able to meet with all the children of the Eco Club (who were very keen to practice their English) and witness their apparently endless enthusiasm for the club and the reserve.

Why visit Paraguay?

This image, taken from a plane by Pepe Cartes of Guyra Paraguay, shows just how isolated the Three Giants Lodge is. The lodge is the small white square on the riverside, and it's completely surrounded by the vastness of the Pantanal wetland, forest and palm savannah.

A few weeks ago I watched a TV programme about the (Brazilian) Pantanal and the giant otters living there. Seeing the floating lily leaves, the otters' heads bobbing up and down in the water and hearing the call of a Great Kiskadee and grunting of herons and jabirus, I was transported right back to the Chaco-Pantanal Reserve. If it wasn't for the distance and cost involved, I would not hesitate to make it my annual holiday destination!

The Pantanal is quite simply a fantastic place to go for a complete wilderness experience. The relatively high chance of seeing jaguars is a clear bonus! It's a heaven for birdwatchers too - as is the rest of the country. As John pointed out in an earlier blog post about visiting Paraguay: "Paraguay is at the cross-roads of several very important biogeographical regions. This makes it a very good place to go and see a huge range of species."

San Rafael, with its combination of forest and grassland, makes a perfect location for watching butterflies and birds - with the added bonus that it's relatively close to cities and airports. With a track running through the reserve it also makes it a tad more accessible to visitors who may not want to walk for miles along narrow forest trails.

Going to Paraguay also makes for a great conversation starter! If I had a penny for every person who asked me "Why Paraguay?"... Well, why not? The wildlife, the people, the cheap cost of getting around - and the fact that there weren't thousands of other tourists, made my trip thoroughly enjoyable.

For conservation projects to be successful in the long run, reducing the need for continuous donations and grants is an important factor. Tourism plays one part in the vision for making the Guyra reserves sustainable. This is a project still in its infancy, but I have no doubt that better facilities and services will be developed in the future, to make the reserves more attractive to the high-end of the market. (People like me, used to camping and bringing my own food to cut costs, just don't bring in that much money!)

In the meantime, adventurous travellers can get the best of two worlds: Intimate contact with nature, whilst sleeping in a comfortable bed!

More information about Paraguay and WLT's work there

• Conservation projects updates from Paraguay
• Project information and background
  
• See the Chaco-Pantanal Reserve on Google Earth (Click on the blue dots to see images from the reserve)

See also the previous blog posts about my stay in Paraguay and some wildlife videos I made whilst in Paraguay, which can be seen on WLT's new multimedia website Wildlife Focus.

Jaguars in the Pantanl on TV

Jaguar in the Brazilian Pantanal © Bill Markham

WLT supporter Bill Markham kindly informed us of a project he has been working on, recording a series about the Pantanal (in Brazil) for Channel Five. Entitled Jaguar Adventure, the series starts 8th April at 7.30pm and from the synopsis it looks like it could be very interesting:

"The Pantanal - the world's biggest wetland, the size of Britain... and home to the planet's largest population of Jaguars. These big cats are notoriously hard to find, let alone film. But when Tigress Productions heard of a location where they were being sighted regularly, Nigel Marven couldn't wait to get there."

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Becoming a birder... (Birds in Paraguay)

I knew very little about birds before going to Paraguay - not because I wasn't interested, but because I never had anyone to teach me, and always had a slight fear of binoculars (don't ask). Now, on the other hand, I feel as if I know more about birds in South America than I do about European birds, and have also managed to identify some species here in the UK that were previously unknown to me, based on their similarities to their South American cousins.

This list is in no way complete. Although my knowledge improved exponentially, thanks to the help from Guyra staff and knowledgeable rangers, I have a notebook full of scribbles and questionmarks that I have am unable to add. Still, I hope it will give some sort of idea of the birds that can be seen in the Pantanal, Chaco and Atlantic Forest. (I will gradually edit the list to include links to the photos I took of some of these birds, so if you are interested in seeing these, check back in a couple of weeks.)

Latin name	English name
Tapera naevia	Striped Cuckoo
Mita jaryi	Great Kiskadee
Colaptes campestris	Field Flicker
Milvago chimachima	Yellow-headed Caracara
Pseudoleistes guirahuro	Yellow-rumped Marshbird
Vanellus chilensis	Southern Lapwing
Tyrannus savana	Fork-tailed Flycatcher
Coragyps atratus	Black Vulture
Progne chalybea	Gray-breasted Martin
Falco sparvenius	American kestrel
Pardirallus nigricanus	Blackish Rail
Buteogallus meridionalis	Savannah Hawk
Barypthengus ruficapillus	Roufus-capped Motmot
Synallaxis ruficapilla	Roufus-capped Spinetail
Chlorostilbon aureoventris	Glittering-bellied Emerald
Hylocharis sapphirina	Roufus-throated Sapphire
Pionopsitta pileata	Red-capped Parrot
Milvago chimango	Chimango Caracara
Ceryle torquata	Ringed Kingfisher
Trogon surrucura	Surucura Trogon
Rhea americana	Greater Rhea
Rhynchotus rufescens	Red-winged Tinamou
Nothura maculosa	Spotted Nothura
Sturnella superciliaris	White-browned Blackbird
Xanthopsar flavus	Saffron-cowled Blackbird
Buteo albicaudatus	White-tailed Hawk
Polystrictus pectoralis	Bearded tachuri
Ammodramus humeralis	Grassland Sparrow
Glaucidium brasilianum	Ferruginous Pygmy Owl
Donacospiza albifons	Long-tailed Reed-finch
Coryphaspiza melanolis	Black-masked Finch
Elothoeptus anomalus	Sickle-winged Nightjar
Athene cunicularia	Burrowing Owl
Circus buffoni	Long-winged Harrier
Pyrocephalus rubinus	Vermilion Flycatcher
Jacana jacana	Wattled jacana
Phalacrocorax brasilicus	Neotropical Cormorant
Anhinga anhinga	Anhinga
Arunolinicola leucocephala	White-headed marsh-tyrant
Amblyramphus holosericeus	Scarlet-headed Blackbird
Stelgidopteryx ruficollis	Southern Rough-winged Swallow
Platalea ajaja	Roseate Spoonbill
Himantopus melanurus	South American Stilt
Asio clamator	Striped Owl
Busarellus nigricollis	Black-collared Hawk
Sorophilia collaris	Rushy-collared Seedeater
Hydropsalis torquata	Scissor-tailed Nightjar
Nyctibius griseus	Common Potoo
Otus choliba	Tropical Screech-owl
Synalaxis albescens	Pale-breasted Spinetail
Gubernetes yetapa	Streamer-tailed Tyrant
Geothlypis aequinoctialis	Masked Yellow-throat
Agelaius cyanopus	Unicoloured Blackbird
Elaenia flavogaster	Yellow-bellied Elaenia
Coryphospingus cucullatus	Red-breasted Finch
Rynchops niger	Black Skimmer
Phaetusa simplex	Large-billed Tern
Sterna superciliaris	Yellow-billed Tern
Caracara plancus	Southern Crested-caracara
Cranioleuca obsoleta	Olive Spinetail
Sittasomus griseicapillus	Olivaceous Woodcreeper
Cacicus chrysopterus	Golden-winged cacique
Synallaxis albescens	Pale-breasted Spinetail
Cranioleuca obsoleta	Olive Spinetail
Syndactyla rufosuperciliata	Buff-browned Foliage-gleaner
Thamnophilus caerulescens	Variable Antshrike
Caicus solitaris	Solitary Black Cacique
Piaya cayana	Squirrel Cuckoo
Dromococcyx phasiarellus	Pheasant Cuckoo
Platyrinchus mystaceus	White-throated Spadebill
Cyanocompsa brissonii	Cyanocompsa brissonii
Tachycineta albiventer	White-winged Swallow
Guira guita	Guira Cuckoo
Ardea alba	Great Egret
Ergetta thula	Snowy Egret
Botaurus pinnatus	Pinnated Bittern
Ardea cocoi	White-necked Heron
Tigresoma lineatum	Rufescent Tiger-heron
Nycticorax nycticorax	Black-crowned Night-heron
Mycteria americana	American Woodstork
Ciconia maguari	Maguari Stork
Jabiru mycteria	Jabiru
Theristicus caerulescens	Plumbeous Ibis
Phimosus infuscatus	Bare-faced Ibis
Dendrocygna autumnalis	Black-bellied Whistling-duck
Butorides striatus	Striated heron
Calindris melanotos	Pectorial Sandpiper
Aramus juarauna	Limkin
Chloroceyle amazona	Amazon Kingfisher
Verniliornis passerinus	Little Woodpecker
Lepidocolaptes angustostris	Narrow-billed Woodcreeper
Melanerpes candidus	White Woodpecker
Paroaria capilata	Yellow-billed Cardinal
Fluvicola albiventer	Black-backed Water-tyreant
Buteo gallus	Great Black-hawk
Picoides mixtus	Checkered Woodpecker
Colaptes melanochloros	Green-barred Woodpecker
Piculus chrysochloros	Golden-green Woodpecker
Ramphastos toco	Toco Toucan
Heliomaster furicifer	Blue-tufted Starthroat

(Many thanks to Pepe, Roberto, Rionaldo, Juan, Arne and Silvia for help with identification. Any errors in this list are entirely my own and most likely due to difficult to interpret handwriting and clumsy typing. Please do let me know if you spot any!)

Finally, a massive thank you to everybody at Guyra for having me, showing me around and making me speak Spanish (mostly), despite not being very good at it!