Mongabay Series: Forests of the World
The Bolivian government’s resolve to close all national parks in reaction to the COVID-19 pandemic in mid-March aimed to prevent the spread of coronavirus. But it has also had unintended consequences for wildlife and the monetary viability of the parks themselves, not only in Bolivia but also in Latin America.
A few days after the announcement on March 16 of the closure of Bolivia’s 22 domains, the government confiscated a boat in Madidi National Park. On board, they discovered a shipment of fish illegally trapped in the domain and a tapir (Land Tapirus), a species classified as vulnerable on the IUCN Red List.
“The boat was intercepted. We are involved in the need for other people from the surrounding communities to possibly enter the national park for hunting and fishing in order to provide food to their families,” said Marco Uzquiano, director of Madidi National Park.
Uzquiano said he was involved in the mandatory closure would not be enough to prevent criminal teams from benefiting from the illegal sale of wild plants and animals extracted from herbal spaces. The closure of spaces through the Bolivian government is similar to the measures followed through maximum countries in the region to prevent the spread of COVID-19.
In addition to illicit activities, parks in Bolivia and elsewhere suffer from the reduction in the income of tourist visits; in some countries, guests’ incomes represent up to 40% of the park’s annual budget. There is also uncertainty about the long-term projects developed through indigenous communities in buffer zones and buffer zones.
Mongabay spoke to several experts about the factor and the fact that those stalls, which are visited by thousands of tourists every year, now have a break. The Galapagos Islands off the coast of Ecuador, the Eduardo Avaroa Reserve in Bolivia and Machu Picchu and Mano in Peru are some of the places that are experiencing a respite from human pressure.
Madidi is not the only park in Bolivia that reports problems. Carrasco National Park, in Cochabamba department, has been the target of an unforeseen invasion of potential land grabbers. “At least two hundred invaders crossed the checkpoint and entered without authorization,” said Maikol Melgar, executive director of Bolivia’s National Protected Areas Service (SERNAP). “The rangers couldn’t help them. With the authorities, we were able to evacuate them. There were only a small number of people left.
Melgar said the organization intended to move the interior of the area, but that the government was able to identify the cars they were using and some of the invaders, and used the data to file a complaint.
Melgar said there were only three hundred park rangers overseeing the surveillance of 22 herb spaces across the country. Approximately two hundred rangers ran inside the spaces when the closure was ordered and remained quarantined. The rest will remain at home for the duration of the closure.
At the moment, park rangers are conducting patrols in case of emergency. Otherwise, they function as checkpoints.
Melgar said he was involved in the closure of protected spaces can have an economic effect. He said tourism revenues accounted for between 35% and 40% of the annual budget. “We still can’t quantify the effect on why the duration of the closure is still uncertain, it can be one month, 3 months or the total year.”
Bolivia’s maximum visited area, the Eduardo Avaroa Andean National Wildlife Park on the border with Argentina, generated about $290,000 a month before the pandemic.
According to Melgar, as the Treasury covers the desires of notable reserves, the scenario is not yet monetaryly critical. For this reason, they did not “think of cutArray,” he added.
Uzquiano, from Madidi National Park, said ecotourism projects for communities living in parks, as well as other network projects, will be affected because they generate revenue. “The Aboriginal population will seek tactics to survive. People will enter the park to provoke illegal activities,” he said.
The government has still proposed a solution.
On the other side of the border, the Peruvian Protected Natural Areas Service (SERNANP) also ordered the rangers to remain where they were after Prent Martín Vizcarra announced quarantine measures. “Some were at home and others at checkpoints,” said Werner Aroche, rangers at Cerros de Amotape National Park in Peru and South American representative of the International Ranger Federation (IRF).
Aroche said park rangers who remained in the spaces deserve to stay at checkpoints without conducting patrols. “So far, we have not had reports of park rangers with COVID-19 symptoms. In total, we are 715 rangers in Peru’s 75 herbal spaces, but not all of us are on duty.”
Regarding illegal activities, Aroche said citizens living in the reserve buffer zones at the ousting branch were tracking entrances to the park and final roads and other points.
Pedro Gamboa, director of SERNANP, said that of the 715 rangers in Peru, 420 are at their checkpoints. “We have postponed the rotations and are sending them fuel and supplies. Because of immobility, we have had reports of illicit activities.”
Gamboa said special patrols will only be carried out when illicit activity is detected. To this end, there is a constant communication with the forestry programme of the Ministry of the Environment, which will take into account alerts on forest canopy adjustments in the areas. He added that in places with police and military support, such as Machu Picchu, Alto Mayo and Tambopata, coordination is essential to deal with one of these incidents.
With regard to the economic effect of the suspension of activities in national parks, Gamboa stated that the investment comes directly from the public purse and from the contributions of foreign agencies. Tourism revenues make up only 30% of the overall budget of about $25.7 million according to the year.
“This year’s budget is already approved, but the next one will be different,” Gamboa said. He added that there were no plans to reduce staff. “Our fear has been to appease the staff. We’ve never made cuts for a lack of budget.”
Suspension of access to Peru’s domestic parks follows the flight ban and the declaration of some national quarantine on 16 March.
Of Colombia’s 62 spaces under the National System of Protected Areas, 25 were engaged in ecotourism before the pandemic. However, according to the National Parks Authority, these spaces do not have ecotourism cash.
Cash does not yet go directly to the parks to the National Environment Fund, which then distributes it to all entities in Colombia’s national environment system, according to one official.
With respect to the park rangers scenario, the park authority indicates that it has reduced staff at domain checkpoints.
Jorge Parra, the Protected Areas Coordinator of Wildlife Conservation Society Colombia, expressed fears about the presence of illegal armed groups in national parks, as they can take credit for this emergency and enter the area without problems. “Before the coronavirus outbreak, there were reports of armed groups and several national park groups had to leave the Amazon.”
Parra said he was also involved in what will be positioned in the productive and cooperative activities that position themselves around the protected spaces. “This is a direct effect because most of Colombia’s protected areas have cooperation projects underway, as well as study projects.”
Despite the pandemic, staff in Ecuador’s areas continue to paint to combat any illegal activity that may occur. However, they prioritize the highest pressing responsibilities and take preventive measures against COVID-19, the Ministry of the Environment in Mongabay said in an email.
Of Ecuador’s 59 herb areas, 33 were engaged in tourism before the pandemic. According to the ministry, its sustainability will not be affected by its closure, as all have the state budget and the Protected Areas Fund (FAP).
Tarsicio Granizo, director of WWF Ecuador, said the Galapagos National Park would suffer the economic effect of the lack of tourism. This protected maritime domain is the only one that charges an advance and includes this contribution in its budget. “The budget of the Galapagos National Park will be affected because part of it comes from its forehead,” he said.
Hail also stated that there was a major threat of crime and illegal activities in the protected areas during this period. “That is, it is concerned that illicit mining activities may take credit for the emergency in spaces such as Cayambe-Coca, Cotacachi-Cayapas, Podocarpus, among others. I know the park rangers are running and patrolling the spaces. They are part of the organization of unnamed heroes who paint while we are isolated.
Beyond economic unrest and threats, experts interviewed through Mongabay said the coronavirus crisis has allowed the rest of the areas, especially ecosystems most frequented by tourists.
“Nature is taking its position as adjustments to human activity,” said Ivon Arnold, director of the Native Foundation of Bolivia, on the prevention of activities. He called the respite an “irreplaceable and exclusive opportunity in life to observe the adjustments that will happen in nature.”
Arnold said this era can be treated as an experiment to evaluate what is going on as herbal spaces in Latin America and the world closed to human activity. “Sometimes nature gives us unthinkable classes and this is one of them. A lesson and a call to replace the way we act. If we don’t recognize that, other conditions like this will arise,” he added, referring to the origins of coronavirus wildlife.
José Luis Mena, director of WCS Peru’s Species Initiative, called the closure of national parks a truce and an opportunity to assess the state of biodiversity in these spaces while making plans on what will happen when tourism resumes. “It’s an unbeatable scenario to collect knowledge based on an intelligent method and then compare [the results] with [those received when] the tourism influx [restarts],” he said.
Mena also pointed to an imaginable relief in money trafficking in reaction to the closure of Asian markets. In China, for example, the government has temporarily banned the sale of wild animals.
Aroche, the park ranger of Tumbes Park in Peru, said it was an opportunity to practice from the first line of nature the adjustments that will happen in those spaces protected free of human pressure. He added that the first two weeks of the closure of Peru’s national parks, wild animals were reported in spaces where they had not been sighted in the past. “More species are noticed, even on the roads, they faint on the trails. In Tumbes you could see white-tailed deer, pumas and birds that had not been noticed before in those spaces,” he said.
For Parra of WCS Colombia, national parks are very vital because they play a central role in maintaining local biodiversity. “It’s a smart strategy to keep national parks in their herbal state to stay in touch with biological agents like viruses.”
Parra added that they want to publicize tactics to prevent long-term outbreaks of wildlife-related diseases. “Coronaviruses are in all species, but they have their own [guest] wildlife. When we abuse wild animals, things like the ones we’re experiencing now happen. Maintaining national parks ensures that [viruses] don’t come out.”
Header image: River otters in Maná National Park, Peru. Image via Adi Barocas.
This story was first reported through Latam’s team on Mongabay and was posted here on our Latam online page on March 31, 2020.
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