Abstract
The AFA Conservation and Research Grants Program Restarts!
If you recall from an earlier edition of the Conservation Corner,AFA'sAvian Research Committee through its Conservation and Research Grants Program provided financial support to 65 avian research projects between the years 1982-1993. This worthy endeavor then remained mostly dormant until this year, when the program was restarted with an agreement with Laro Parque Fundaci6n (LPF) for a joint grant with them in 2006 for an avian conservation project that in some way employed avicultural techniques or contributed to the development of avicultural techniques. Because of Laro Parque's concentration on psittacines, only parrot-related projects were to be considered. Both organizations advertised the joint grant in late summer cearly fall of 2005. Unfortunately, aside from putting the announcement on the AFA website, not much was done to advertise our restarting of the program because of the visit of a nasty lady named Katrina. During the period we had planned to advertise and promote our joint grant, yours truly was recovering from the effects of Hurricane Katrina On fact, one of my last emails before I evacuated was to confirm AFA's agreement to participate in the joint grant program with David Waugh of Laro Parque Fundaci6n and to tell him I would be tfidisposedrfbr a few weeks las indeed I was!
In spite of my Katrina-related inability to do much publicity for the AFA arm of this grant, we still received 6 proposals, several of which were extremely good. But, sadly, funds were available to support only one. Our Conservation Grants Evaluation Committee ranked the projects, the projects and rankings were reviewed at the October Board meeting and approved, and our ranking was sent to David Waugh at Laro Parque Fundaci6n. The project approved for a $5,000 grant (half from each of the organizations) was entitled, Breeding the Red-brewed Amazon Amazona rhodocorytha for future in-situ conservation Oby Principal Investigator Lauri Klemann, Jr, of the Brazilian conservation organization ldeia Ambiental.
A little bit about the Red-brewed Amazon (Amazona rhodocorytha): it is a fairly large Amazon, primarily Amazon green, with a red crown, blue cheeks, orange on the lores, and a red speculum. It is a highly endangered (CITES Appendix I) native of the humid Brazilian Atlantic Rainforest. Unfortunately, 92% of the Atlantic Rainforest has been destroyed since European colonization, and species of this habitat such as the similar Red-tailed Amazon and the Red-brewed Amazon are critically endangered. Nowadays, the species is found in the southeast of Brazil from Bahia, Espf rito Santo, Minas Gerais and Rio de Janeiro states, but seems to be extinct since about 1985 in Alagoas state, where the last forests were cleared in the 1980's. In 1999 the population was estimated to be only about 845 birds. The greatest threats to the species are habitat destruction and poaching. In particular, the species does not seem to be able to adapt to conditions created by even partial deforestation. Fortunately some populations do reside in several protected parks and reserves.
The objective of the Brazilian project is to establish a scientific research breeding center for the Red-brewed Amazon at the Curitiba Zoo in Parana state, Brazil. Breeding facilities will be constructed for seven pairs of birds, to be obtained through IBAMA (Brazilian equivalent of US F&WS) from birds confiscated from poachers that are deemed not suitable for repatriation to the wild. This project complements another field study project on the Red-brewed...