Pet Trade Blues - the efforts and moral problems involved in attempting to save Brazil's Lear's macaws from extinction

International Wildlife, March-April, 2000 by Richard Hartley

But the birds have also faced other problems, as their dryland habitat undergoes intense change. "You see that field over there," Sr. Zequinha explains, pointing to a parched, open plain seemingly devoid of vegetation. "We used to swim there. And next to it we used to grow rice."

This scenario is almost impossible to fathom. Countless riverbeds, which have apparently been dry for decades, dot the area. And an unrelenting recent drought, perhaps fueled by global climate change, has made an already impoverished population even more desperate. Lear's and people suffer together as the food staples for both dry up. The leaves of the licuri palm are given to cattle during times of food scarcity, and the birds, in turn, raid cornfields. That creates the perception among small farmers that the macaw is an agricultural pest and should be done away with.

In addition, the local people are resentful of conservation efforts they regard as valuing the lives of a hundred birds more than their own. A recent economic downturn also bodes badly for the Lear's, as traffickers can more easily lure residents to scale the perilous cliffs and pluck Lear's from their nests to feed the illicit international demand for the bird.

Ornithologist Charles Munn, a senior zoologist with the Wildlife Conservation Society, feels that purchasing as much Lear's habitat as possible, making it economically viable through ecotourism and co- opting the traffickers in the conservation efforts present the best hope for the birds' survival. While government officials agree with some of this, they are loathe to be so forgiving of former traffickers.

Since 1992, the National Lear's Committee has spearheaded official efforts to protect the birds, and in 1997 it received a $200,000 grant (US$165,000) from the Brazilian government for Lear's preservation. Almost from the start, however, discord has impeded collaboration. One of several fundamental disagreements separating two opposing camps centers around the idea of using ex-traffickers and the extensive knowledge they possess about the Lear's as a pillar in the conservation strategy.

One of the traffickers is Carlos Arajo Lima, known as Carlinhos, the man most responsible for depleting the Lear's population. BioBrasil Foundation, a private conservation group established in 1996 to protect endangered fauna and their habitats, believes that Carlinhos has forsworn trafficking, and for the past four years, the organization has been paying him to provide vital information to help locate feeding grounds and possible undiscovered populations.

But that doesn't sit well with men like Eurivaldo "Caboco" Macedo Alvez, 28, who is responsible for guarding the Lear's area against poachers. Caboco is paid by Funda?o Biodiversitas, a conservation organization that receives the government's endorsement for its work with Lear's and is made up of a cross section of respected Brazilian biologists. "Yeah, I know Carlinhos," Caboco says, "that no good thief."

"Last year," he continues, "I apprehended two guys who said Carlinhos paid them $1,000 each [US$510] to get Lear's. I handed them over to the authorities, but nothing happened," says Caboco. "If I find them here again, I won't hesitate to shoot."