2017 REPORT ANDEAN BEAR CONSERVATION ALLIANCE. FRONT COVER Parque Nacional Natural Chingaza - Colombia Carolina Guzmán

Transcription

1 2017 REPORT FRONT COVER Parque Nacional Natural Chingaza - Colombia Carolina Guzmán INSIDE COVER Parque Nacional Natural Chingaza - Colombia WCS Colombia FRONT COVER Parque Nacional Natural Chingaza - Colombia Carolina Guzmán ANDEAN BEAR CONSERVATION ALLIANCE

2 The Andean Bear Conservation Alliance (ABCA) is a joint initiative of Wildlife Conservation Society and Cleveland Metroparks Zoo, in partnership with the Saint Louis Zoo and the Nashville Zoo, and the support of the Bear Specialist Group and the AZA s Bear Taxon Advisory Group. The goal of ABCA is to support the conservation of Andean bears through innovative funding models, research, and the implementation of effective conservation strategies. Every 5 years, ABCA develops a strategic plan to guide the upcoming activities. The alliance s strategic plan focused on the capacity building of Andean bear conservation stakeholders, and the production of Andean bear population status knowledge that will support conservation and management decision-making.

3 Dear Friends, Contents ABCA Coordinators Letter ABCA Strategic Plan ABCA 2017 Activities The ability (capacity building activities) The knowledge (occupancy monitoring programs and knowledge) The tool (publications and research) The team (communication and stakeholder participation) Acknowledgements "During the first strategic plan ( ), we developed an efficient tool to evaluate and monitor the occupancy of Andean bear populations. This second 5-year plan, has the ambitious goal of achieving knowledge about the Andean bear populations in at least half the Andean bear range by 2020." This ambitious goal requires building the capacity of many key stakeholders, developing and executing extensive monitoring programs, and raising the funds was a key year for advancing the 3 priorities mentioned above. During this year, we published the Occupancy Monitoring Guide and developed the structure and contents for 2 types of workshops critical for the capacity building efforts during We also increased the number of ABCA practitioners by adding the Autonomous Regional Corporations of the Oriental Mountain range of Colombia to the list of institutions that have been trained and are implementing the ABCA occupancy monitoring tool. ABCA s presentations at the International Bear Conference in Quito Ecuador, inspired new landscapes, such as one in southern Ecuador, to explore applying the occupancy monitoring tool. Finally, we have added an important partner, Nashville Zoo, to the alliance. We have also had conversations with other American and European Zoological Institutions as well as with Universities to increase our institutional support. The work and products of 2017 are fundamental to the achievement of ABCA's strategy goals. Kym Gopp & Isaac Goldstein

4 ABCA Strategic Plan The strategic plan focusses on 4 lines of action: 1. Capacity Building of Stakeholders ABCA capacity building focus on enhancing the ability of relevant conservation stakeholders to use effective monitoring tools to evaluate Andean bear population status and disseminate and use this information for management and conservation decision making. 2. Evaluation of the Status of Andean bear populations ABCA will collaborate with other Andean bear stakeholders to implement monitoring programs to gather knowledge about the conservation status of Andean bear populations and use the information in management and conservation decision making at the 9 priority landscapes selected. 3. Research to improve monitoring tools ABCA will continuously work on the tools to gather the best possible information about the status of the Andean bear populations, improving the existing tools and/or developing new ones. 4. Communication & Stakeholder Engagement Photo: Angela Parra The involvement of many stakeholders is needed to achieve the ambitious, collective goal of knowing the Andean bear population status. ABCA will seek the engagement of in-situ and ex-situ Andean bear conservation stakeholders to increase the number of institutions that encompass ABCA s team, and that are using effective monitoring tools to gather the knowledge about Andean bear populations, and inform decision making.

5 ABCA 2017 Activities This was a very busy and productive year for ABCA 1. The cornerstone was the publication of the Andean Bear Occupancy Monitoring Guide. 2. Based on the published guide, we developed and executed two types of capacity building workshops, training approximately 100 potential ABCA practitioners in Colombia and Ecuador: a. Introduction to Occupancy Monitoring - a short workshop to spread the knowledge about the occupancy modeling and monitoring to manage Andean bear populations. We held 2 workshops in b. Monitoring Program Development - an integral 4-week workshop on the actual design and implementation of an Andean bear occupancy monitoring program. We held 1 workshop in Completed occupancy evaluation initiatives using ABCA s developed methodology, covering extensive landscapes in Colombia and Ecuador. 4. Presentations on the experience using ABCA occupancy methodology in Colombia, Ecuador and Peru at the Biology Conservation Society Meeting in Colombia, the International Conference on Bear Research and Management in Ecuador, and the First Sun Bear International Meeting in Malaysia; and on ABCA s experience at the EAZA BearTAG meeting at the Cologne Zoo, Germany by Isaac Goldstein with the objective of enrolling European zoo institutions as ABCA s partners. 5. Held a planning meeting with the WCS and Cleveland ABCA team at Cleveland Zoo to discuss and adjust the strategy and budget. Photo: Laura Castrillón

6 Photo: Rodrigo Cisneros The ability During period, we executed many workshops to enhance the ability of key Andean bear conservation stakeholders to use effective monitoring tools, each of which was unique, and custom made for the stakeholder. Considering the experience gathered and lessons learned, during 2017 we designed 2 types of workshops. The Introduction to Occupancy Monitoring Workshop goal is to increase knowledge about the occupancy modeling and monitoring to manage Andean bear populations, and focus on the development of monitoring programs, their goals, and the importance to management and conservation decision making. During 2017, we implemented 2 such workshops. The first one at the University of Quindío (June 2017), involving university students of regional academic institutions, and a second one as part of the post-conference activities at the International Bear Conference at Quito Ecuador (November 2017), with the participation of Latin-American young conservationists. The Monitoring Program Development Workshop focuses on the design and implementation of an Andean bear occupancy monitoring program. The workshop has 3 phases for a total of 4-6 months. The Design Phase consists of a 15-day workshop covering the design of the monitoring program pilot, planning field data gathering protocol and practice, and the process data management and field practice. The Implementation Phase covers the initial portion of monitoring program implementation at any site and will last for a week. The Analysis Phase occurs upon completion of the implementation phase and includes a 5-day workshop focused on the analysis of the data. All the analysis is done by the personnel of the different institutions with the support of the ABCA team. We delivered the two initial phases with the autonomous regional corporations that signed the Andean Bear Conservation Strategy for the Occidental Mountain Range of Colombia (Corporación Autónoma de Chivor, Corporación Autónoma Regional del Guavio, Corporación Autónoma Regional de la Orinoquia, Corporación Autónoma Regional de Risaralda, Corporación Autónoma Regional de Macarena, and Chingaza NNP). The third phase of the workshop will be held in 2018.

7 Photo: Robert Márquez The knowledge Updated information on the conservation status of the Andean bear population is a key input for the development of effective conservation and management programs. The capacity building objective is to provide the tools for conservation stakeholders to monitor, evaluate the conservation state and use the information. As part of ABCA s strategy, 9 landscapes have been chosen as the focus for ABCA activities. ABCA can still collaborate on the implementation of ABCA monitoring tools at other sites (as we have done during the previous action plan), but we will invest ABCA financial resources to implement monitoring programs at the 9 priority ABCA landscapes. During 2017, ABCA collaborated on the implementation of occupancy monitoring programs at 3 of the 9 Andean bear priority landscapes. In Colombia, ABCA collaborated on the diagnostic phase of the project Conservamos La Vida in the Tatamá-Farallones-Munchique Landscape, occupancy model evaluation in the Bota Caucana Landscape, and occupancy evaluation as part of the Andean Bear Strategy for the Cordillera Central which includes the Chingaza landscape. In Ecuador, using ABCA occupancy framework, the GEF Project Desarrollo de Enfoques de Manejo de Paisajes en el Sistema Nacional de Áreas Protegidas del Ecuador para mejorar la Conservación de la Vida Silvestre en Peligro de Extinción Mundial performed the second season of Andean bear occupancy monitoring in the Cotacachi-Cayapas, Llanganates, and Podocarpus landscapes.

8 The tool ABCA developed a cost-effective tool to assess the conservation status of Andean bear populations, which was the main objective of ABCA s Strategic Plan. The tool was based on occupancy modeling that is useful, precise and practical. Useful in the sense that it can produce information needed for conservation and management decision making. Precise, because the information has a known level of certainty about the trends in the population and threats. Practical, because the tool can be used with the existing logistic, human and financial resources available to most of the Andean bear stakeholders. After trials of the tool in Colombia, Ecuador and Peru, ABCA published in 2017 the Andean Bear Occupancy Monitoring Guide. The capacity building workshops and the monitoring programs in 2017 were based on the methodology in the guide. Photo: Carolina Guzmán During 2017, WCS, Parques Nacionales Naturales de Colombia, and Angela Fuller s Lab at Cornell University discussed the possibility of improving the occupancy monitoring tool and the evaluation of abundance, which will require significant research and field testing. During 2017, the field research design was completed, and the field work will start in April 2018, and last 3 years. Moreover, complementing the occupancy work done with camera trapping, WCS, Alexander von Humboldt Institute and the National Natural Park System in Colombia developed a conservation genetic study to evaluate and monitor the population state regarding heterozygosity and inbreeding.

9 The team The main goal of the communication line of action is the engagement of stakeholders to build the team of ABCA practitioners, partners and supporters. The involvement of many stakeholders is needed to update knowledge of the Andean bear population state. ABCA will engage in-situ and ex-situ Andean bear conservation stakeholders to increase the number of institutions using effective monitoring tools and improving conservation decision making. In 2017, we created ABCA s webpage ( which is a one-stopshop for any new information, trainings, photos, tools and publications. ABCA website updates will be shared by with Andean bear conservation and management stakeholders in the region with the support of the IUCN Bear Specialist Group, and through ABCA partner social networks. In addition to the webpage, ABCA products will be presented at in-situ and ex-situ meetings to inform the conservation community, and enroll new ABCA practitioners, partners, and supporters to the team. As mentioned previously, ABCA was busy in 2017 and presented in numerous fora, including the European Zoo and Aquariums Association (EAZA), Society for Conservation Biology Meeting in Colombia (Decision making for the conservation of Andean bears using presenceabsence data), International Bear Conference at Quito, Ecuador (Andean bear monitoring as a tool for the management at protected areas), and First International Sun Bear Workshop at Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. We are pleased to report that during 2017, we added several autonomous corporations in Colombia to the ABCA practitioners team, and the Nashville Zoo to the ABCA partners team.

10 Acknowledgements We want to thank all the following institutions and people that share with us an interest in Andean bear conservation and were a fundamental part of the success of the Andean Bear Conservation Alliance activities during 2017 Corporación Autónoma Regional de Chivor, Corporación Autónoma Regional del Guavio, Corporación Autónoma Regional de la Macarena, Corporación Autónoma Regional de la Orinoquia, Corporación Autónoma Regional de Risaralda, Corporación Autónoma Regional del Valle del Cauca Corporación Universitaria Santa Rosa de Cabal, European Zoo and Aquarium Association, Parque Nacional Natural Farallones de Cali, Parque Nacional Natural Los Nevados, Parque Nacional Natural Munchique, Parque Nacional Natural Tatamá, Universidad del Quindío, Universidad Técnica Particular de Loja, Luis Antonio Achig, Irene Aconcha, José Aguirre, Yori Lorena Albarrán, Mauricio Aldana, Natalia Álvarez, Fernando Anaguano, Jhon Jaider Arias, Cristhian Aristizábal, Juan David Ayala, Vidal Felipe Bejarano, Leidy Carolina Bermúdez, Nicolás Bernal, Caros Herney Cáceres, Héctor Cadena, Carlos German Calderón, José Eliecer Camargo, Wilson Ricardo Castañeda, Laura Vanessa Castrillón, Juan Camilo Cepeda, Alejandra Mireya Chávez, Rodrigo Cisneros, Julio Rodrigo Combita, Alejandro Contreras, Jenny Carolina Cordero, Mayra Córdova, Adriana Patricia Cortes, Andres Mauricio Cortes, Cristian Julián Cortes, Baladeva Dasa ( ), Santiago F. Duarte, Johana Katerine Espirdola, Linda Julieth Fe r n á n d e z, H u g o A l e j a n d r o Fernández, Reinel Eduardo Fonseca, Fredy Orlando Gallo, Dave Garshelis, Danny Guarderas, Freddy Alejandro Gutiérrez, Carolina G u z m á n, M a r i o A l e j a n d r o Hernández, Gina Marcela Jiménez, Lydia Kolter, Daniela Landaeta, Gladis Paulina Linares, Juan Carlos López, Luisa Fernanda López, Magda Yidith López, Franklin Lozano, Patricio Macas, Juan Camilo Mantilla, Juliana Martínez, Leonardo Martínez, Carmen Denisse Mateo, Vanessa Moreno, Diego Monta, Sandra Yohana Obando, Esteban Camilo Ochoa, Daniel Fernando Ortiz, Erika Paola Ortiz, Maximiliano Ortiz, Karen Fernanda Osorio, Jaime Xavier Palacios, Iván Mauricio Pareja, Angela Parra, Carlos German Parra, Paola Nicole Parra, Wilmer Javier Peña, Alberto Alexander Piñeros, Fabian Pescador, Carolina Reyes-Puig, Elías Raigozo, Oscar Gabriel Raigozo, Daniel Restrepo, Rene Alexander Reyes, Gorki Danilo Ríos, Luisa María Rincón, Luis Felipe Rodríguez, Mónica Johana Rodríguez, Luis Arturo Román, Diana Paola Romero, Jobani Horacio Saavedra, María Fernanda Salazar, Julia Cristina Salvador, Julio Cesar Sánchez, Brayan Daniel Sarango, Freddy Saray, Mario Alejandro Santana, Carlos Armando Urgiles, Kenny José Ure, Víctor Utreras, Rafael Antonio Valderrama, Fabian Alejandro Vallejo, Felipe Velozo, Luz Estella Vera, Milton Julián Zamora, Jhon Edison Zamudio, Gladys Andrea Zuluaga, Photo: Laura Castrillón