By Gail Koelln | Co-director
The Parrot Rangers of Kalebaskreek Village in Suriname continue to work steadily protecting and monitoring their parrot populations. Every week parrot counts are performed, including three land-based point counts, a river-float count, and sometimes counts in the local swamp. The Field Supervisor is a young mother who happily declared that “this is my first job I have ever had. I am glad I can support my family with this.” She communicates every week with One Earth Conservation (OEC) regarding finances, work, and submission of count forms. A volunteer started working in early January 2024 on inputting the data from these forms into a computer for analysis.
Overall, the community is supported with stipends, WhatsApp communication, and personal visits by outside support teams. There are three teams of four rangers and each of the teams works for one week, and then the next team rotates in. Each ranger on a team works eight hours during their allotted week. This adds up to a total of 65 workdays during this past quarter. They currently have a full set of binoculars, a spotting scope, two GPS devices, plenty of data forms, notebooks, uniforms, waterproof tablets, a camera, and their very own Unconditional Solidarity patch with a blue-and-yellow macaw on it.
The rangers have not engaged in any trapping nor have they seen any trappers on the rivers. They are unsure about working to make Kalesbaskreek Village an ecotourist destination because many villagers still sustain their households with hunting. They are considering organizing themselves for now to just offer parrot ecotourism. If they agree as a village, this conservation program will work closely with OEC and others on the development of this type of ecotourism.
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By Gail Koelln | Co-director
By Gail Koelln | Co-director
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