The WPT funded the Macaw Recovery Network’ work of protecting and growing endangered parrot populations in the Americas. At Punta Islita on the south coast of Costa Rica, efforts to boost and monitor wild macaw populations, preserve habitat and connect with communities continue. Efforts include completing surveys to estimate numbers and to locate roosts, discover how and where the birds travel, collaborating with university students to monitor wild nests, and health-check and fit  radio-tracking collars to chicks, and engaging local women to identify, collect and propagate the seeds of trees important to the macaws.

Engaging communities benefits both people and Great Greens – local women are being trained to identify, collect and propagate the seeds of trees important to the macaws. The Women Rangers Program in Boca Tapada, Alajuela was founded in 2020.  A nursery, “Casa del Titor,” which the women manage, currently houses 4,000 plants comprising 43 different plant species. The group has learned to record and monitor the progress of these plants and the weather and coordinate monthly trips out into the wilderness to collect more seeds to bring to the nursery. The team has, to date, planted 1,520 trees and aims to plant a total of 6,000 within the next two years.