Mission
To conserve nature, especially threatened bird species and habitats, in partnership with communities and governments (local, regional and the national government).
History
Asociación Armonía was legally established in 1996, and rapidly became the Bolivian BirdLife partner. As a result of its successful work, Armonía became partner of WLT, as well as other international organizations.
Partnership with WLT
Asociación Armonía and World Land Trust (WLT) first made contact through WLT-US. WLT formed a partnership with Armonía in 2008, helping to fund the creation of the Barba Azul Reserve in Bolivia’s Beni savanna (11,000 Hectares/27,180 acres).
The Barba Azul Reserve became the world’s first protected area for the Critically Endangered Blue-throated Macaw and WLT supported habitat restoration at the reserve. In addition to this, WLT is supporting Asociación Armonía’s new work developing sustainable methods of ranching, which includes a live fencing project and methods of grass management that avoid large-sale burning.
WLT has a key role in Barba Azul Reserve’s path toward its self-sustainability, and it is included in WLT’s keepers of the wild program.
Other Activities
Running conservation programmes to protect species such as Blue-throated Macaw and Red-fronted Macaw. Thanks to our actions (artificial nest-boxes, protection of key reproductive and feeding sites, fighting the illegal trade of macaws, etc.) we are witnessing the population recovery of these two Endemic and threatened Macaws.
Large-scale restoration of the threatened high-Andean Polylepis forests (key habitat for numerous threatened and range-restricted bird species), with almost half million trees planted between 2020 and 2023 (we aim to plant at least 1,000,000 million trees more)
We support the sustainable development of local indigenous communities (e.g. agroforestry, bee keeping, cattle ranching, land use planning) that live in areas that are key for the most threatened birds of Bolivia.
We assist several national and subnational protected areas to help them improve the protection of key sites for the most threatened bird species within their territories.
Supporting the consolidation of the bird watching tourism through the integration of local indigenous communities within this economic activity.
Through the Conserva Aves program (2023-2027), Armonía supports the establishment of subnational protected areas in sites that are key for the most threatened birds of Bolivia.
Organising volunteer programmes focused on research, project management and ornithology
Running the bird centre headquarters, which has one of the most extensive collections of research and books on Bolivian ornithology.