ENVIRONMENTAL EDUCATION: A PARTNER IN THE SUSTAINABLE MANAGEMENT OF VICUÑA IN ARGENTINA.

VILÁ, BIBIANA.

Proyecto MACS. Universidad Nacional de Luján, ruta 5 y 7, (6700) Luján, Buenos Aires, Argentina. blvila@mail.unlu.edu.ar

The vicuña (Vicugna vicugna, Camelidae) possesses a fine fleece, highly valued for luxury textiles. Unsustainable harvesting practices brought the species close to extinction by the 1960s.  After 3 decades of conservation, the recovery of some populations has led to conflicts with pastoral communities, whose livestock compete with vicuña for forage resources. As a result, vicuña in many communities are less appreciated now than earlier, when they were perceived as “endangered”. In Cieneguillas (a town in north western Argentina, with a high density of wild vicuña ), we adopted an environmental education (EE) approach in an attempt to give the local community the tools they needed to turn a “problem” of vicuña grazing into an “opportunity” to gain a financial return from harvesting the fibre. Outcomes of the EE were: a) involvement of the community in fibre harvest activities, b) positive attitude to the presence of wild vicuñas, c) over 100 campesinos trained in captures, d) incorporation of vicuña management in village school activities - drawings, stories and “coplas” (traditional songs) e) 83 teachers in 18 villages trained in EE techniques; f) a book on regional EE written and given free to teachers and schools.

BEHAVIORAL AND PHYSIOLOGICAL IMPLICATIONS OF VICUÑA (VICUGNA VICUGNA) AND GUANACO (LAMA GUANICOE) UTILISATION IN THE ANDES

BONACIC, CRISTIAN; Gimpel, Jessica; Macdonald, David; Goddard, Pete

A sustainable use programme for the vicuña and guanaco, based on the principle of harvesting their fleece, in vivo, in the wild or by captive breeding is being investigated and promoted in South America as an alternative source of rural income. Capture, shearing and breeding in captivity pose many new challenges to the repertoire of physiological and behavioural adaptations of both species. Management systems were evaluated in Bolivia, Chile and Argentina using physiological and behavioural indicators. Comparisons showed that cortisol concentrations, rectal temperature, blood glucose levels and blood biochemistry values are all altered to varying degrees by human management. Chronic stress and death are a danger if preventive measures are not integral to the management system. Visual contact between handlers and the animals causes more accidents. The shearing process causes increased heart rate and handling problems that may be ameliorated by the use of a blindfold. Transport systems for live animals are also a major stress, resulting in injuries and mortality if the animals are restrained or travel long distances. This paper provides a holistic analysis, using the methodology Hazard Analysis Critical Control Point, to establish improved protocols for handling and management.

EVALUATING THE INFLUENCE OF EL NIÑO SOUTHERN OSCILLATION CLIMATIC CYCLES ON VICUÑA (VICUGNA VICUGNA) HABITAT QUALITY IN THE CHILEAN ALTIPLANO
 

LAKER, JERRY¹; Herreros de Lartundo, Jorge²; Muñoz, Alejandra³; Bonacic, Cristian4; Gordon, Iain5.

1 Macaulay Land Use Research Institute, Craigiebuckler, Aberdeen. AB15 8QH, UK. Email: j.laker@macaulay.ac.uk 2 Corporacion Nacional Forestal (CONAF), Tarapacá, Chile. 3 Fauna Australis, Pontificia Universidad Catolica de Chile, Santiago, Chile. 4 CSIRO, Townsville Australia.
 

Following the introduction of protection measures for vicuña in the Chilean altiplano, the population recovered from 2,500 in 1975 to more than 26,000 in 1990. Since that peak, numbers have been steadily falling. The most recent population census, in 2003, recorded 15,000 individuals. With recent development of management systems for capture, shearing and release of wild vicuñas, it is important to evaluate the conservation risk, given that this population has apparently not stabilized. Previous studies by Bonacic et al. indicated that density-independent factors (primarily climate) appear to have an important impact on vicuña population biology. The present study investigates the interaction between variation in habitat quality and vicuña reproductive success. Using satellite imagery (NASA-AVHRR and SPOT VEGETATION) a detailed picture of biomass distribution, and resource phenology was prepared for the study zone since 1981. This clearly shows the profound influence that El Niño Southern Oscillation (ENSO) climate cycles have on altiplano vegetation. There are strong indications that the alternating 4-7 year cycle of drought and rain has interacted with local herbivore distribution and abundance, and possibly contributed to the observed fall in vicuña numbers, which occurred primarily in more marginal (sink) areas of available habitat.

CHALLENGES FOR LINKING VICUNA CONSERVATION AND BENEFITS FOR LOCAL PEOPLE

RENAUDEAU d'ARC, Nadine; Lichtenstein, Gabriela

School of Development Studies, University of East Anglia, Norwich, NR4 7TJ, UK, n.d-arc@uea.ac.uk (NRD). Instituto de Geografia, Facultad de Filosofia y Letras, Universidad de Buenos Aires/INAPL/CONICET, CP 1406, Buenos Aires, Argentina, glichtenstein@fibertel.com.ar (GL)
 

Vicuna is a wild South American camelid distributed in the high Andean Region of Argentina, Chile, Bolivia, Perú and Ecuador. Vicuna fibre is as fine as silk and is highly valued in international markets. Under CITES and the Vicuna Convention, exploitation of vicuna populations are controlled and regulated, and commercial use of fibre is only allowed if obtained from live-shorn vicunas. Much attention has been given to the different techniques to manage vicuna and obtain its fibre, but very little attention to vicuna management issues concerning local people. This paper identifies these issues by exploring two different systems: vicuna management in the wild by community groups in Bolivia and captive management of vicuna by individual producers in Argentina. Our analysis is based on primary and secondary data collected from 1997-2002 in both countries. Data includes interviews, meetings to key informants and reviews of documents from international to national and local levels. The paper suggests that the distribution and scale of benefits, the nature of property rights and the local capacity are key issues that emerge from vicuna management experiences that need to be addressed for linking vicuna conservation and benefits for local people.

LOCAL COMMUNITY INVOLVEMENT IN VICUÑA MANAGEMENT IN ARGENTINA

WAWRZYK, ANA; Vilá, Bibiana; Arzamendia, Yanina; Yacobaccio, Hugo; Lamas, Hugo;  Borgnia, Mariela; Bonacic Cristian,  Laker, Jerry.

 Universidad Nacional de Luján, Buenos Aires, Argentina (AW, BV, MB) macs@mail.unlu.edu.ar. CONICET, Argentina (BV, HY, YA). Fundandes (YA, HL). Pontificia Universidad Católica, Chile (CB). Macaulay Land Use Research Institute, Scotland (JL).

Many populations of vicuña (Vicugna vicugna) have been recently reclassified from CITES App. I to App.II, allowing controlled commercial exploitation. This poster shows the steps taken to implement such a system based on sustainable management principles. A management plan identifies costs, benefits and risks of the activity before it starts, and, in addition to practicality and economics, should give importance to natural resource use rights, cultural attitudes, historical background, ethnicity and environmental impacts. The economic return must be sustainable in the long term and have a low impact on the wider environment. Our objective in Argentina is to develop science-based management plans for the wild management of vicuña, implement participatory management tools, enhancing the cooperation between scientists and local communities in the design phase. The traditional Andean “chaku” consists in a drive, capture, shearing and release of wild vicuñas that minimizes the short and long-term effects on individuals and populations. Our first experimental capture with a community was undertaken in November 2003. Seventy vicuñas were shorn, providing 16.5 kg of fibre. In the second (November 2004), 129 were shorn, producing 27.4 kg of fibre. The aim has been to balance income generation with ecological sustainability and equitable sharing of benefits.  

ENVIRONMENTAL EDUCATION IN THE CONSERVATION OF WILD SOUTH AMERICAN CAMELIDS

GARCÍA GÓMEZ, JAVIER

Universidad de Valencia, Calle: Av. Alcalde Reig, 8, 46008 Valencia (España)Email:  Javier.Garcia-gomez@uv.es

The conservation of biodiversity needs to act at a number of different levels: the scientific-technical, political-economic, and the social-pedagogical – all are important, and all inter-related. Science and technology are fundamental to understanding environmental issues; political-economic actions determine the management of resources, tending to favour contemporary political interests. At the social-pedagogical level, it is essential that the population understands basic environmental concepts for appropriate environmental management initiatives to be accepted and implemented. Achieving a change in attitude in respect to environmental values is fundamental to reaching solid and lasting solutions. At the 1992 Rio Summit, the role of education in promoting sustainable development was made explicit by Agenda 21: “Education is critical for promoting sustainable development and improving the capacity of the people to address the environment and development issues”. This poster presents the activities carried out within a European Union funded research and development project for the conservation of South American camelids, which took a broad multidisciplinary approach to problem-solving in the Andean altiplano. We evaluated local teacher preconceptions about the altiplano ecosystem and its vicuñas, and assessed different methods for improving the effectiveness of the teaching-learning process.