Community Involvement
Community involvement is
vital if
the Andean bear is to be saved from extinction. The
problem will not be solved by research alone. The biggest
threat
to the Andean Bear is humans: habitat encroachment, hunting and illegal
trade are the main reasons for the decline of this great species.
It is only once both local and international communities gain
an
understanding of these bears and an appreciation of their importance
that we will be able to mitigate the threats that humans pose.
The Andean Bear Project
aims to form
strong relationships with local communities that share land with the
bears. Despite living with bears for generations, many locals know
little about them due to their elusive nature. Many villagers fear that
the bears will attack them or their family, despite the fact that this
does not happen - Andean bears are timid and avoid contact with
humans.
Bear biologists and bear tracking volunteers
chat with
local farmers and villagers that they meet while working on the
project. Most local people are very curious
when
they see our radio equipment. We let locals know what we are
doing and why we are doing it, in the hope that the community will help us save the bears from extinction.
The Andean bear
conservation project also
has teaching assistant
volunteers, who help out in local schools and explain to the students
more about the bears and their importance in the local ecosytem.
Community schools are usually under-staffed, so the
volunteers
help with general education as well as environmental awareness.
Community volunteers can also introduce themes such as good
nutrition, personal health care and dental higiene, all of which are
lacking in this area of poverty.
One of the biggest
sources of conflict
between bears and local farmers is the bears' tendency to eat corn.
In many of the regions where bears live, communities live
in extreme poverty and locals can not afford to lose their
only
source of income to the bears.
If we hear of a bear invading a corn field in an area where
we
work we investigate the site and, where a significant amount of corn
has been eaten, we compensate the farmer as much as we can.
This
lessens the ill will towards the bears and in general bears are no
longer hunted in the areas where work.
Since
education is so important for the future of the local communities and
the bears they share the land with, the project helps with the cost of
transport from some of the more remote villages to the nearest college.
The students are aware that the bear project is helping them
get
to their secondary education, and the communities know that if a bear
is killed in the area, this support will be withdrawn.
Andean
Bear Conservation Project: Community Involvement
The Andean Bear Conservation Project works with local communities to
reduce human-bear conflict and raise awareness of the need for habitat
conservation. Community involvement is crucial if Andean
bears
are to survive now that their habitat is fragmented by human activity.
