Literaturdatenbank
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Borman, R. A., Townsend, W. R., Puig, P. S. H., & Kiester, A. R. , A comprehensive podocnemis unifilis recovery program implemented by the cofán community on the rio aguarico, ecuador. Paper presented at Turtle Survival Alliance 2006 Annual Meeting.
Added by: Admin (13 Dec 2008 16:50:05 UTC) |
| Resource type: Proceedings Article BibTeX citation key: Borman2006 View all bibliographic details  |
Categories: General Keywords: Habitat = habitat, Podocnemididae, Podocnemis, Podocnemis unifilis, Schildkröten = turtles + tortoises, Südamerika = South America Creators: Borman, Kiester, Puig, Townsend Collection: Turtle Survival Alliance 2006 Annual Meeting |
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| Abstract |
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We report on the efforts of a Cofán community to recover a seriously depleted population of Podocnemis unifilis in the vicinity of Zábalo on the Rio Aguarico, Ecuador. This work is comprehensive in the sense that management is applied across the entire demographic structure of the population and that the results are monitored. A headstarting program begun in 1990 by the Cofán is now supporting approximately 24,000 hatchlings in three communities. Previous to the headstarting effort harvesting of adults had been prohibited in Zábalo by a community ban. Over six years of monitoring of nesting and river levels show that many nests are lost naturally each year to episodic flooding. Under the headstarting program most nests are transplanted to an artificial beach when threatened by flooding, thereby increasing hatchling survivorship. Preventing this natural mortality gives a demographic basis for the sustainable harvest of a meaningful quantity of eggs for human consumption. Monitoring of adults has demonstrated significant population recovery. Studies of movements of newly released yearlings showed that they remained in the management area, a possible reason for the quadrupling of the number of nests on the Zábalo community beaches, from around 200 nests in 1990 to over 800 in 2005. This work was initiated by the Cofán of Zábalo and has been supported externally by many NGOs, the most recent and most comprehensive support coming from The Field Museum. Because this conservation effort is community based, operational costs are considerably lower than those reported by many other headstarting programs, although data quality was not sacrificed.
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