The Serrania del las Quinchas is a 860 km2 area of tropical rainforest and cloud forest in the foot hills of the Colombian Andes. It is home to a huge number of threatened endemic birds, including the critically endangered blue-billed Curassow, locally named ‘El Paujil’. However, fuelled by coca cultivation, illegal logging and clearance for cattle ranching, deforestation rates are currently as high as 5.2% per year.
Amongst all this, a tiny population of Currasow has been
struggling to survive. The vulnerable population was virtually
unknown until ProAves, a Colombian non-governmental organisation,
decided to explore the region in 2003. With support, ProAves
managed to acquire 3000 acres of some of the last remaining humid
lowland forest in the valley, and named it the 'El Paujil Nature
Reserve'. Aside from birds, the reserve is one of the last refuges
for all sorts of endangered and endemic lowland forest species,
including the Variegated Spider Monkey (one of the 25 rarest
primates on earth), the Magdalena Lowland Tapir, and the Fallox
Robber Frog.
Despite the growing successes of the reserve, the Currasow and the
Spider Monkey have still lost almost 98% of their habitat through
deforestation, hunting and habitat fragmentation. If these
creatures were to remain permanent residents, ProAves needed to
expand the reserve. The organisation wanted to protect and monitor
10,000 acres, and double the area effectively managed, by
constructing a new forest guard station. With the help of Healthy
Planet land adoptions, we managed to raise £4000 towards this
station's construction over the summer of 2010. Its costs included
transportation of materials, a wastewater treatment system, and
solar panels. Keep checking our news page for updates on the
station's progress.
You can adopt-a-plot at ProAves' current project in the Giles
Fuertes Nature Reserve by visiting its
park page.