By Gail Koelln | Co-director
The Parrot Rangers of Kalebaskreek Village in Suriname have worked steadily protecting and monitoring their parrot populations. Every week parrot counts are performed. They are doing three land-based point counts and they do a river-float count as well and sometimes counts in the swamp. The Field Supervisor is a young mother who recently 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 will start 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, two GPS devices, plenty of data forms, notebooks, uniforms, and a camera.
The rangers have not engaged in any trapping nor have they seen any trappers on the rivers. It is now “not the season” for parrot trapping and the country has not allowed exports of certain species of parrots, which limits the likelihood of trappers coming to the Kalebaskreek area. Given the challenges and distances they face, it is amazing that such good work is being performed by the rangers with such a high level of commitment.
The village will be holding meetings to determine if they would like to engage in a village-wide ecotourism project. If they agree as a village, this conservation program will work closely with OEC and others on the development of ecotourism.
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