Women in Conservation Initiative Assists Colombian Communities

Women learning to make crafts. Photo: Proaves

American Bird Conservancy’s Colombian partner, Fundación ProAves, is expanding its successful pilot program, Women in Conservation, to help protect six of its bird reserves by promoting business opportunities for women living in nearby rural communities.

Many of the local communities present a challenge to reserve management because they often cut forests to create food plots or for lumber to sell, and hunt wildlife. Women in particular lack job opportunities, and often have to resort to illegal poaching or wood-cutting to provide food for their families.

A successful pilot program, begun by ProAves in 2004, trained women from four villages to use natural, non-threatened resources to create high quality handicrafts such as macramé, hand-painted objects, and embroidered bracelets and bookmarks. ProAves sells the finished products at shops on their reserves, and at events, exhibitions, and ornithological meetings worldwide. ProAves has also been able to assist the businesses in getting their products to international markets with successful contacts with local shops in Virginia and with fair trade shops in the United Kingdom, including the Tariro Fair Trade Coffee House and The Fair Trade Shop.

The money goes directly to the community, generating both income and a positive attitude towards the reserves among the local community. ProAves also employs local men as forest guards, guides, and field assistants, and to help with reforestation activities, further benefiting the community, and designs environmental education programs to involve local children in conservation efforts. With American Bird Conservancy’s support, ProAves is now expanding the program to other communities (see map), helping to alleviate pressure on the reserves’ protected resources.