Changes in the social and economic lives of indigenous groups living in the heart of the Colombian Amazon are threatening the survival of a huge river-dwelling turtle whose ancestors shared the Earth with the early dinosaurs. The charapa (Podocnemis expansa), which can grow to three feet (80 cm.) in length and weigh 120 pounds (55 kg.), is the largest freshwater turtle in South America. Found in the tributaries and lakes of the Orinoco and Amazon River watersheds in Venezuela, Colombia, Peru, Bolivia, and Brazil, the ancient reptile has played a significant role in the lives of the indigenous people who share its habitat.
But that's changing, according to Claudia Nuñez, a biologist with Fundacion Natura, a conservation group in Colombia. Once the Miraña-Bora and Nonuya tribes hunted the charapa and other wildlife only for food. Now, after contact with colonists in the region, they also illegally trade turtles, caimans, cats, giant otters, and primates for cash and goods. The result is overhunting of fauna native to the biologically rich Colombian Amazon.
"The charapa was always important to the way the Miraña-Bora envisioned the cosmos," Nuñez says. "The turtle is linked to their marriages, their farming practices, and is used in rituals as a symbol of the tribe." But contact with Westerners has caused cultural deterioration among the groups, she adds, and that has changed the way they use the charapa and other animals. "So helping them recover their traditions is one way to conserve the biodiversity of the Amazon." With support from the US Agency for International Development and The Nature Conservancy, a US nonprofit group, Fundacion Natura has been working with five indigenous communities in the Amazon. The goal is to combine traditional wisdom with Western science, in order to manage the charapa and other wildlife sustainably, so their survival is ensured while the communities continue to have a source of sustenance, cultural symbols, and income.
Since little is known about the charapa, Nuñez and her colleagues studied the female turtles that come ashore to dig holes in the riverbanks' sandy soils and lay their eggs. The biologists counted about 5,000 nesting females between 1994 and 1997. They also held workshops with the communities, to discuss how the charapa's nesting sites can be protected, and worked with residents to recover eggs laid in nests considered to be at risk, incubate them, and release the newborn charapas in nearby lakes. The indigenous groups' reserves overlap the boundaries of Cahuinari National Park, 1.4 million acres (575,500 hectares) of tropical forest, rivers, and lakes in the southern corner of Colombia, not far from the borders with Brazil and Ecuador. Natura hopes to raise the funds needed to continue its conservation and community development work in Cahuinari and to help resolve land-tenure conflicts, so the indigenous groups can gain sovereignty in their territories. "The communities understand that the deterioration of their culture is a liability if they are to obtain autonomous control of their lands," Nuñez says.
Contact: Fundacion Natura, Calle 61, #4-26, Santafe de Bogota, Colombia,
tel 571-2/340-0129, fax 571-2/340-0580,
This article is provided from the Rainforest Alliance's Conservation Media Center,
based in San Jose,Costa Rica. For more information, contact Diane Jukofsky or Chris Wille,
Rainforest Alliance, Apdo. 138-2150, Moravia, San Jose, Costa Rica; Phone: 506-240-9383;
Fax: 506-240-2543; Email: infotrop@sol.racsa.co.cr
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