Bolivian Amphibian Initiative working with local communities

Local communities are very important to work in conservation, to try to involve them from the beginning and to make them part of the decisions is very important aspect. This is the thing that Bolivian amphibian Initiative is trying from the beginning and this is the case of two localities in Titicaca Lake.

In Sicuani in the amphibian course with the involvement of the community

Sicuani a small community located between Copacabana and Isla del Sol in Titicaca, we are working with them since a couple of years obtaining information about the species, habitat and training some members of the community. This community is very interested to work in tourism and we are exploring some possible ways to work in the area with ecotourism and specific tours that normally are not offered in the area.

Nelzon one young of Sicuani working with us

Sawiña is another small town close to Copacabana, very interested to work in ecotourism and they already have some facilities and also a tour very linked with the frog of the lake. We are supporting them with this initiative and we are organizing training workshops, educational material that they can use for their activities so we together can work for the conservation of this critically endangered species.

Rodrigo and the kayra Uta (house of the frog) the touristic offer of Sawina

Rodrigo showing us the kayra uta and the animals we can see in the lake

With this joint effort with local communities we want to ensure the long lasting conservation attitudes of the people. This change of attitudes of local communities will allow us to have better impact in the conservation activities we want to carry out to protect the endangered species of the different areas.

Calendar that will be distributed in the different communities in the lake
"The titicaca water frog is just in the lake, help us to protect it"

Working together for one species

Telmatobius culeus (critically endangered)

The conservation of one species normally requires a lot of effort and a team work, this is the case of Titicaca water frog (Telmatobius culeus) a critically endangered species. The lake is very big and there is very few information about this species even there is some research done.

going in to the lake with the peruvian team (photo:Raul Berenguel)

This is the reason that since last year we are coordinating our conservation work with the Peruvian project coordinated by Denver Zoo, Universidad Nacional del Altiplano Puno, Peru, Universidad Peruana Cayetano Heredia Lima, Peru. This time we met again in the Peruvian side to plan our next steps in the conservation of this critically endangered frog working in research, captive breeding and education. It was nice feeling that our work of these years provided data that was useful to suggest the next steps of this initiative and now we can start a joint effort to understand better this frog and to be able to do conservation.

Showing the team the methods we use in Bolivia (photo:Raul Berenguel)

This time we were showing and explaining how the work is carried out in Bolivia and explaining the Peruvian team, the methods we use the advantages and disadvantages of these methods. With this we want to use the same methods and to coordinate the work in both countries that are interested to save one species. 

The Peruvian team and us (Denver Zoo, Universidad Nacional del Altiplano Puno, Universidad Cayetano Heredia and Bolivian Amphibian Initiative)