Project Coordinator: Sebastian K. Herzog; skherzog@armonia-bo.org
With just under 1420 species, Bolivia is the sixth richest nation in the world for bird diversity, yet lacks a field guide to its birds. Thus, the country’s wealth in avifauna is not well known, and foreign bird watchers hesitate to embark on birding trips to Bolivia. In addition, lack of awareness and appreciation abounds among Bolivians for their biodiversity and its conservation problems. Between 2005 and 2008 Armonía worked on the production of a field guide and handbook to the birds of the Bolivian Yungas (710 species) with intermittent support from WWF Bolivia, reaching 80% completion. The project has just received a new boost through financial support from the Swiss Development Cooperation (COSUDE) in Bolivia, and it has been redesigned as a guide to all of the country’s birds. Additional funding is needed, however, to complete artwork and species accounts as well as for printing. The final products will be a compact bilingual (Spanish-English) field guide and a detailed handbook published both as an English or Spanish version. Revenues from book sales will be invested into eco-tourism capacity building (mainly training of naturalists/local guides for bird watchers) in rural areas with eco-tourism ventures as well as into the production of regional field guides in Spanish.
