Title
Conservamos La Vida: Andean Bear Conservation at the Landscape Scale.
Author(s)
Cuevas, Diana; Avecedo, Claudia; Celis, Jaime; Forero-Medina, German; Franco, Padu; Goldstein, Isaac; Marquez, Robert; Troncoso, Juan; Villegas, María
Published
2017
Abstract
The conservation of a large carnivore, such as the Andean bear, often require conservation planning and actions well beyond the PA boundaries. WCS and Parques Nacionales de Colombia identified five Andean Bear Conservation Units in Colombia, based on biological and socio-economic criteria, and conservation opportunity. The Tatama-Farallones de Cali-Munchique landscape, with an estimated area of 11860 km2, is the main conservation unit for the Andean bear at the Western Range of the Colombian Andes. To conserve Andean bears in this landscape, an unprecedented conservation project was developed as a public-private alliance, with an initial five-year duration, involving Parques Nacionales de Colombia, Wildlife Conservation Society, Fundación del Grupo ARGOS, Corporación Autónoma Regional del Valle del Cauca, Smurfit Kappa, CELSIA, EPSA, and Fundación Santo Domingo. The project is divided in four phases: diagnosis, agreements, implementation and monitoring. Within the 11860 km2, we selected 4170 Km2 as our operational working area. Through field work we determined an overall occupancy of 0.74 (EE. 0.06), and we identified free ranging cattle and the habitat loss as are the main factors decreasing the occupancy of Andean bears. We also identified the productive activities, and their location, that are vulnerable to Andean bear attacks, as well as the areas where attitudes towards bears are negative. Based on these findings the goal of the project is to maintain the actual occupancy of the species by conserving or increasing the actual wilderness forest cover and connectivity, and reducing human-wildlife conflicts through management interventions focused on the improvement and/or change of productive practices.

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PUB26820