Community Conservation for Andean Bears in Bolivia

Dear Donors,

We would like to profoundly thank you for choosing to support Community Conservation for Andean Bears in Bolivia. The project has been completed, thanks to the help of donors like you! At Women for Conservation, we believe that community involvement in conservation is essential. It helps to create a deeper connection between humans and the environment, creates more equitable solutions by involving community voices, and it is relatively cost-effective. 

As part of this project, we were able to reduce human-wildlife conflict between inhabitants of Cochabamba, Bolivia and local Andean Bears by training local people in sustainable livelihoods that help transition from livestock (which Andean bears enjoy hunting) as a primary source of income. These training sessions in artisan skills provided a space for shared consciousness raising about environmental issues and opened the door to ways of bolstering household income. Additionally, we targeted local regulations concerning the Andean Bear, offering it legal protection. As a result of this project, we provided increased habitat protection for these iconic bears and also noticed an increase in camera trap observations, indicating meaningful population growth!

We could not have achieved these results without your help. If you would like to learn more about our work, please visit our website at https://womenforconservation.org/, or our instagram pages @womenforconservation (in English) and @mujeresporlaconservacion (in Spanish).

With deepest gratitude,

The Women for Conservation Team