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‘More profitable than farming’: how Ecuador’s birding boom is benefiting wildlife

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Saturday, June 1, 2024

When it came to dividing up his late father’s farm between five brothers, Vinicio Bacuilima says he drew the short straw. Maraksacha, on the main road out of Ecuador’s capital Quito, is a tiny patch of land on the edge of a steep ravine, making it very difficult to make a living from farming.Then Bacuilima’s wife Anita Cajas had an idea: turn their paltry inheritance into a site to attract visiting birders. Creating the Maraksacha Reserve was a risky venture, but it paid off, with feeders attracting a host of colourful hummingbirds and tanagers.“Because we’re on the main road from Quito to Mindo, we get lots of visitors – especially bird photographers,” Cajas says. They “enjoy sitting on our terrace, drinking coffee, and getting such closeup views of the birds”.Anita Cajas at Maraksacha Reserve. It was her idea to turn her family’s inheritance into a birding site. Photograph: Nicolás FaicánBirding tourism is thriving in Ecuador, with increasing numbers of specialist tour groups, local bird guides and wildlife lodges. The country boasts more than 1,600 different species – almost twice as many as the whole of Europe – in an area only slightly larger than the UK. As the business of birding grows, more and more subsistence farmers are transitioning their land from agriculture to bird reserves, benefiting not just the birds, but the country’s economy too.Angie Drake, a sustainable tourism consultant in the US, says by improving biodiversity and reaching out to wildlife tourists, some farmers have expanded their land’s potential far beyond the traditional farming model.“They are finding ways to balance profitability with environmental stewardship,” she says. “This innovative approach offers a blueprint for other farmers wanting to reconsider their relationship with the land.”One family, the Avilas, have devoted their lives to saving one of South America’s most bizarre species: the long-wattled umbrellabird. This black, crow-like species sports a teddy boy’s quiff and what looks like a long, woollen scarf hanging down from its throat. On his land near Recinto 23 de Junio, landowner Luis Avila has switched from dairy farming to conservation, replanting trees and promoting the site to wildlife tourists – work that he says is a better livelihood than farming.The sword-billed hummingbird (Ensifera ensifera). Photograph: Bill Coster/Alamy“Wildlife tourism is far more profitable than farming but that’s not the only reason we made the change,” says Avila’s son, Luis Jr. “We wanted to save not just the umbrellabird, but all the special creatures here, and safeguard them for future generations.”Projects such as this are eligible for funding from the Ecuadorian government. Launched in 2008, the Socio Bosque scheme offers “the poorest private and communal forest landowners annual payments for each hectare of forest cover maintained”, with sums of between $30 (£23) and $60 a hectare.However, the application process is complex and funding can be sporadic, so some landowners – including Bacuilima and Cajas – have given up applying.The Avila family: Luis Jr, Alejandra and Luis Sr. Photograph: Dr Stephen MossBut the income provided by birders alone has been enough to propel some farmers to take up the nature reserve model. A few years ago, Favián Luna decided to convert his 120-hectare tomato farm in the Tandayapa Valley, north-west of Quito, into a cloud-forest reserve and lodge called Alambi Reserve. Visitors go to photograph many species of hummingbirds, including the Andean emerald, native to the Chocó bioregion of the Ecuadorian Andes.Nearby, at Mashpi Amagusa, former farmers Doris Villalba and Sergio Basantes have created a reserve, lodge and garden, which attracts 260 species of sought-after birds. Highlights include glistening-green, flame-faced and beryl-spangled tanagers, and the rare, endemic rose-faced parrot.At Finca La Victoriana in Pichincha, the owner Jacqui bought the house and land, and began to reforest the site while growing crops to feed herself. But during lockdown, when she was stuck in nearby Quito, all her crops were stolen. She was saved from having to sell up by a visiting friend, who heard an unusual sound from lower down the valley and realised this was one of South America’s most charismatic birds: the Andean cock-of-the-rock.The bright orange and black males gather every day at their “lek”, a courtship arena where they perform to the watching females.Male Andean cocks-of-the-rock (Rupicola peruvianus) lekking to attract a mate. Photograph: Jiri Hrebicek/AlamySince 2005, Ángel Paz and his younger brother Rodrigo have transformed their former dairy farm in Mindo into a bird reserve. At first, things didn’t go to plan: it took a month for the first visitor to arrive, and he paid just $10 for a four-hour tour. Since then, however, thousands of people have made the pilgrimage.Ángel has slowly habituated five species of antpitta – a notoriously elusive family of birds – to appear more or less on cue. He calls one female Shakira, because when she appears she shakes her hips from side to side.Refugio Paz de las Aves became well known, yet it was nearly lost for ever. After the death of Ángel and Rodrigo’s mother, some of the siblings wanted to sell the site to local dairy farmers.A global crowdfunding appeal launched by Ángel’s son Vinicio with support from Drake raised $160,000 to buy the land, protecting the habitat for the foreseeable future.For Ángel, success is about allowing wildlife the time to return and prosper. “My brother and I have protected our home and its birdlife for almost two decades, and watched the wildlife – and the people who visit – flourish,” he says. “For us, it’s all about making a connection with the unique species that live here.”The chestnut-crowned Antpitta (Grallaria ruficapilla). Photograph: AlamyFind more age of extinction coverage here, and follow biodiversity reporters Phoebe Weston and Patrick Greenfield on X for all the latest news and features

With hundreds of highly prized species, bird tourism is thriving in the country – and farmers are increasingly turning their land into nature reservesWhen it came to dividing up his late father’s farm between five brothers, Vinicio Bacuilima says he drew the short straw. Maraksacha, on the main road out of Ecuador’s capital Quito, is a tiny patch of land on the edge of a steep ravine, making it very difficult to make a living from farming.Then Bacuilima’s wife Anita Cajas had an idea: turn their paltry inheritance into a site to attract visiting birders. Creating the Maraksacha Reserve was a risky venture, but it paid off, with feeders attracting a host of colourful hummingbirds and tanagers. Continue reading...

When it came to dividing up his late father’s farm between five brothers, Vinicio Bacuilima says he drew the short straw. Maraksacha, on the main road out of Ecuador’s capital Quito, is a tiny patch of land on the edge of a steep ravine, making it very difficult to make a living from farming.

Then Bacuilima’s wife Anita Cajas had an idea: turn their paltry inheritance into a site to attract visiting birders. Creating the Maraksacha Reserve was a risky venture, but it paid off, with feeders attracting a host of colourful hummingbirds and tanagers.

“Because we’re on the main road from Quito to Mindo, we get lots of visitors – especially bird photographers,” Cajas says. They “enjoy sitting on our terrace, drinking coffee, and getting such closeup views of the birds”.

Anita Cajas at Maraksacha Reserve. It was her idea to turn her family’s inheritance into a birding site. Photograph: Nicolás Faicán

Birding tourism is thriving in Ecuador, with increasing numbers of specialist tour groups, local bird guides and wildlife lodges. The country boasts more than 1,600 different species – almost twice as many as the whole of Europe – in an area only slightly larger than the UK. As the business of birding grows, more and more subsistence farmers are transitioning their land from agriculture to bird reserves, benefiting not just the birds, but the country’s economy too.

Angie Drake, a sustainable tourism consultant in the US, says by improving biodiversity and reaching out to wildlife tourists, some farmers have expanded their land’s potential far beyond the traditional farming model.

“They are finding ways to balance profitability with environmental stewardship,” she says. “This innovative approach offers a blueprint for other farmers wanting to reconsider their relationship with the land.”

One family, the Avilas, have devoted their lives to saving one of South America’s most bizarre species: the long-wattled umbrellabird. This black, crow-like species sports a teddy boy’s quiff and what looks like a long, woollen scarf hanging down from its throat. On his land near Recinto 23 de Junio, landowner Luis Avila has switched from dairy farming to conservation, replanting trees and promoting the site to wildlife tourists – work that he says is a better livelihood than farming.

The sword-billed hummingbird (Ensifera ensifera). Photograph: Bill Coster/Alamy

“Wildlife tourism is far more profitable than farming but that’s not the only reason we made the change,” says Avila’s son, Luis Jr. “We wanted to save not just the umbrellabird, but all the special creatures here, and safeguard them for future generations.”

Projects such as this are eligible for funding from the Ecuadorian government. Launched in 2008, the Socio Bosque scheme offers “the poorest private and communal forest landowners annual payments for each hectare of forest cover maintained”, with sums of between $30 (£23) and $60 a hectare.

However, the application process is complex and funding can be sporadic, so some landowners – including Bacuilima and Cajas – have given up applying.

The Avila family: Luis Jr, Alejandra and Luis Sr. Photograph: Dr Stephen Moss

But the income provided by birders alone has been enough to propel some farmers to take up the nature reserve model. A few years ago, Favián Luna decided to convert his 120-hectare tomato farm in the Tandayapa Valley, north-west of Quito, into a cloud-forest reserve and lodge called Alambi Reserve. Visitors go to photograph many species of hummingbirds, including the Andean emerald, native to the Chocó bioregion of the Ecuadorian Andes.

Nearby, at Mashpi Amagusa, former farmers Doris Villalba and Sergio Basantes have created a reserve, lodge and garden, which attracts 260 species of sought-after birds. Highlights include glistening-green, flame-faced and beryl-spangled tanagers, and the rare, endemic rose-faced parrot.

At Finca La Victoriana in Pichincha, the owner Jacqui bought the house and land, and began to reforest the site while growing crops to feed herself. But during lockdown, when she was stuck in nearby Quito, all her crops were stolen. She was saved from having to sell up by a visiting friend, who heard an unusual sound from lower down the valley and realised this was one of South America’s most charismatic birds: the Andean cock-of-the-rock.

The bright orange and black males gather every day at their “lek”, a courtship arena where they perform to the watching females.

Male Andean cocks-of-the-rock (Rupicola peruvianus) lekking to attract a mate. Photograph: Jiri Hrebicek/Alamy

Since 2005, Ángel Paz and his younger brother Rodrigo have transformed their former dairy farm in Mindo into a bird reserve. At first, things didn’t go to plan: it took a month for the first visitor to arrive, and he paid just $10 for a four-hour tour. Since then, however, thousands of people have made the pilgrimage.

Ángel has slowly habituated five species of antpitta – a notoriously elusive family of birds – to appear more or less on cue. He calls one female Shakira, because when she appears she shakes her hips from side to side.

Refugio Paz de las Aves became well known, yet it was nearly lost for ever. After the death of Ángel and Rodrigo’s mother, some of the siblings wanted to sell the site to local dairy farmers.

A global crowdfunding appeal launched by Ángel’s son Vinicio with support from Drake raised $160,000 to buy the land, protecting the habitat for the foreseeable future.

For Ángel, success is about allowing wildlife the time to return and prosper. “My brother and I have protected our home and its birdlife for almost two decades, and watched the wildlife – and the people who visit – flourish,” he says. “For us, it’s all about making a connection with the unique species that live here.”

The chestnut-crowned Antpitta (Grallaria ruficapilla). Photograph: Alamy

Find more age of extinction coverage here, and follow biodiversity reporters Phoebe Weston and Patrick Greenfield on X for all the latest news and features

Read the full story here.
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Time Spent in Nature is Good for Your Brain, but an Excess Can Negate These Benefits

A “Goldilocks” measure of green space might help stave off dementia, but an excess could lead to cognitive decline

Time Spent in Nature Can Be Good—and Sometimes Bad— for Your BrainA “Goldilocks” measure of green space might help stave off dementia, but an excess could lead to cognitive declineBy Teresa Schubert edited by Gary StixThere's nothing like a good walk through your local park to unwind and release stress from a busy day. Taking some time in nature is undeniably good for you, with well-documented benefits to physical and mental health. But new research suggests that when it comes to the risk of dementia and Alzheimer’s disease, easy access to nature can sometimes help but, at other times, can be too much of a good thing.The causes of dementia—a broad category of conditions that can affect memory, language and other brain capacities—are multifaceted and complex. There is often a genetic component, but there are also contributions from health risk factors that arise throughout life. In 2024 the Lancet Commission on dementia identified 14 such factors that reliably increase the risk of developing dementia. These include physical health factors such as cardiovascular disease, high LDL cholesterol, diabetes, and obesity and traumatic brain injury, as well as psychological factors such as depression and social isolation.Thousands of studies provide solid evidence about the dangers of these risk factors, but researchers are far from having all the answers about dementia. In the past 10 or so years, researchers have begun looking beyond these established risks to the effect of an individual’s physical and social environment, which might be more under our control than factors such as genetic predisposition. You might not be able to change your genes, but in some cases, you can change where you live or your hobbies or habits. According to Marco Vinceti of the University of Modena and Reggio Emilia in Italy, “there is growing and convincing evidence that risk of neurodegenerative disease, including cognitive impairment and dementia, can be substantially reduced by environmental and behavioral factors, and this may even be true in individuals having high genetic susceptibility.” Studying the role of environmental factors has led to the recent discovery that exposure to air pollution (such as from wildfire smoke or heavy traffic) increases your chances of developing dementia. This is also the line of questioning that led researchers to discover the positive effects of green space.On supporting science journalismIf you're enjoying this article, consider supporting our award-winning journalism by subscribing. By purchasing a subscription you are helping to ensure the future of impactful stories about the discoveries and ideas shaping our world today.The benefits of green space for mental and brain health are numerous. Living near and spending time in green space (including parks, wooded areas and even farmland) can decrease the risk of cardiovascular disease and type 2 diabetes and is associated with a lower risk of Alzheimer’s disease and other forms of dementia later in life. According to Anjum Hajat, an epidemiologist at the University of Washington School of Public Health, access to green space “is important because it provides people with an easy, low-cost option to improve their health. Spending time in nature may have other benefits, too, like increasing physical activity or increasing time spent with friends and family; both of these things have many health benefits.”Based on this research, you might be ready to give up city life. You might presume that more green space is better, and that living on a few wooded acres with nothing but trees for miles around will lead to the lowest possible chance of dementia. It turns out this is not so simple. A 2022 research study led by Federico Zagnoli of the University of Modena and Reggio Emilia revealed that more green space is not always better. The researchers found a U-shaped association between exposure to green space and dementia risk—low levels of green space were associated with a higher likelihood of developing dementia, and medium levels were linked to a lower risk. But the highest level of green space exposure didn’t reduce dementia risk relative to the medium level—and in some cases even increased it! In other words, too little green space has an adverse effect, but so might too much of it.Why might more of a good thing be bad? Living out in nature can mean lower access to medical and social services, fewer places to socialize and higher chances of social isolation—circumstances that would otherwise support brain health and reduce dementia risk. Although research on some of these factors is still ongoing and not yet certain, there is solid evidence for the risks of social isolation. As Vinceti puts it, “The higher risk of dementia associated with ‘extremely high’ green spaces around the place of residence is likely attributable to social isolation and socioeconomic disadvantage in certain rural areas. Rurality may also be correlated with other risk factors, such as lower socioeconomic status or high pesticide exposure.” So the conclusion is that green space itself is not bad for your brain health, but living on a few acres of land surrounded by forest and farmland might increase your risk of dementia in other ways. Although trees have a positive effect, they are no substitute for a nearby hospital, local community center and a walkable neighborhood with friendly neighbors. Aiming for the lowest possible dementia risk is all about a balance: enough neighborhood density to have easy access to services and social support but plenty of trees for a walk in the park..

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