Armonía: 30 Years of Working to Conserve Bolivia’s Threatened Avifauna
Agosto 04, 2026 por Armonia
Before it took flight, Armonía was an idea.
An idea conceived on the night of August 10, 1992, on an old airstrip atop the Caparuch Plateau, south of Noel Kempff Mercado National Park. There, on a plain of lush forest islands and soil steeped in the scent of damp earth, was Louis Jammes. He was 44 years old and had already built a prolific career as a bush pilot. For decades, he had flown renowned scientists, including several researchers from Chicago’s Field Museum of Natural History, to some of the most remote corners of the Bolivian Amazon.
One of them was Ted Parker, the American ornithologist considered the world’s foremost expert on bird calls. That day, Jammes had flown him to the area to lead a group of birdwatching enthusiasts.
After the activity ended, they decided to camp. As they waited for dawn, they talked for hours about something they shared: a love for feathered, beaked creatures. At some point during that long night, a concern surfaced, and Jammes thought aloud:
—There is no one conserving birds in Bolivia. Why not do something?
That “something” soon took concrete shape: creating an organization dedicated to protecting birds in Bolivia. Parker, a man deeply devoted to the wild creatures of South America and concerned about the destruction of its ecosystems, was immediately enthusiastic about the proposal. A new day arrived, and the two parted with a promise to stay in touch. Parker wanted to follow closely the fate of the project that had taken root beneath the moonlight.
A month later, in September 1992, the idea began to take flight. Jammes reached out to Biology students at Universidad Autónoma Gabriel René Moreno and encouraged them to join the effort. One of the first to take up the challenge was Érika Cuéllar. More people soon joined, and from this collective effort Armonía was born in Santa Cruz de la Sierra—the first Bolivian organization dedicated to bird conservation.
When Parker learned the news, he not only celebrated the emergence of a project that would help fill a long-overlooked gap in Bolivia, but also told Jammes that, once he had completed an expedition planned for August 1993 in Ecuador, he would travel directly to Santa Cruz to meet with the team and bring materials that could help strengthen the organization.
But fate cut that plan short, and Parker never returned to Bolivia. On August 3, 1993, the small plane he was flying in while conducting biodiversity research in a remote cloud forest in Ecuador crashed into a mountainside. He was 41 years old. Several of his colleagues also died in the crash.
“Everything he was bringing us must have remained in his luggage,” Jammes recalls more than three decades later.
The loss was a devastating blow, but it also became another reason to strengthen Armonía. Keeping the organization alive meant, in a way, carrying forward the ideals Parker had shared with Jammes and the commitment that had led him to dedicate his life to protecting nature.
“I remember Ted always complaining about how little was being done for conservation in the face of the continent’s rapidly advancing wave of destruction. He hurried from country to country as if he were running out of time. He gave his life to it,” Jammes wrote at the time in a tribute to Parker, whom he also considered a friend.
“Your time in Bolivia will not have been in vain. May you rest with the Great Potoo. We will make sure it continues to sing,” he wrote in tribute in an article titled Remembering Ted Parker.
The First Steps
In January 1993, with nothing more than boundless creativity and a deep commitment to protecting nature, Armonía’s first team, led by Louis Jammes, embarked on a task that at the time seemed unlikely: sparking interest in birds and showcasing the extraordinary richness of Bolivia’s birdlife to foster environmental awareness among Bolivians, at a time when little was said about environmentalism or environmental protection.
To achieve this, they started with whatever they had at hand, without waiting for ideal conditions or extraordinary resources.
“At first, we had nothing, not even an office,” Jammes recalls. To fill that gap, he offered his home in the La Madre neighborhood of Santa Cruz. There, in his bedroom and sitting on a bed, the founders began shaping, almost by hand, an organization that would eventually become Bolivia’s leading reference for bird conservation.
In fact, when the time came to choose an image to represent Armonía, they selected the Elanoides forficatus, a small bird of prey, for a practical reason. “Simply because it is a bird that is entirely black and white. And we didn’t have a color printer at the time,” he explains.
The emblem did not only appear on newsletters, letters, and documents. It was also painted on the small plane that Jammes had dedicated to supporting scientific and conservation work. He used it to transport researchers to different regions of Bolivia at reduced rates. Wherever these expeditions went, the name Armonía went with them.
Jammes says the initiative was sustained by the unconditional dedication of its members. No one received a salary. Each person contributed hours of work, enthusiasm, and, to the extent they could, money from their own pockets to move the project forward. “In reality, we had nothing, except great enthusiasm and the support of many people. Poor, but with countless ideas, we were happy.”
The Beginning of Armonía’s Work
Armonía’s first year was intense. Among the organization’s first tasks was compiling a list of the bird species recorded in Bolivia. After meticulous research, the team classified 1,336 species in a hand-stitched booklet titled Birds of Bolivia. The publication became a pioneering and indispensable resource for birdwatchers, researchers, and bird enthusiasts across the country.
At the same time, they created Bolivia’s first birdwatching group, with 40 members. They also established a database on Bolivia’s birdlife and built an international network of contacts they called “antennas”: people who shared information, promoted Armonía’s activities, and kept the organization connected with birdwatchers, researchers, and conservationists across Bolivia and around the world.
These “antennas” included Luis Rea in La Paz, Bolivia; Robin Foster and Louise Emmons in the United States; Adrián Azpiroz in Uruguay; Julio Rafael Contreras in Argentina; Yuri Machado in Brazil; Jesús Guerrero in Spain; and Robin Brace in England.
At the time, Armonía also offered numerous Biology students from Universidad Autónoma Gabriel René Moreno the opportunity to develop and lead their own conservation projects. According to Jammes, few organizations then gave young researchers such a high level of trust and prominence.
“If one of the students came to Armonía with a project and we agreed with it, we looked for ways to fund it, but the project director was the student who had proposed it.”
Armonía’s dynamism soon began attracting attention beyond Bolivia’s borders. During its first year of activities, BirdLife International invited Armonía to become its partner organization in Bolivia, bringing it into one of the world’s most important bird conservation networks.
This recognition was reflected in a letter sent to the organization on November 30, 1993, in which BirdLife stated: “We consider Armonía to be not only the organization leading bird conservation in Bolivia, but also the Bolivian conservation organization that most closely represents our interests and has the greatest potential for growth.”
That recognition came with new challenges. Before long, Armonía would take on what would become its first major research project.
The Blue-throated Macaw: Armonía’s First Major Conservation Fund
Almost at the same time that Armonía was beginning to establish itself, American scientist Charles Munn of the Wildlife Conservation Society had confirmed the survival of the Blue-throated Macaw (Ara glaucogularis), a bird endemic to Bolivia that at the time was believed to be on the brink of extinction.
As soon as it became known that the species still survived in Bolivia, there was an urgent need to better understand its distribution and conservation status. Munn then contacted Armonía and, during a meeting with Louis Jammes and Érika Cuéllar, provided the young organization with an $8,000 research grant to conduct the first survey of this fascinating bird, recognizable by the turquoise and blue hues of its wings and its bright yellow chest.
To carry out the study, Armonía brought on a new volunteer, Alan Hesse, a British-French citizen who was then studying Behavioral Sciences at the University of Nottingham in the United Kingdom. Years later, he would become a conservation biologist and author of the award-winning graphic series The Adventures of Captain Polo. Together with him, members of the organization set out to search for the elusive Ara glaucogularis across the northern, eastern, and southern areas of Trinidad. The research lasted five months, from July to November 1993.
Conducting that study was a true adventure. At a time when GPS systems were not yet widely available and there was no internet access, and with extremely limited financial resources, the team had to make do with the bare essentials. “We had nothing. I didn’t even have a tent. I carried a mosquito net made from a curtain, a backpack, a machete, and a pair of binoculars that belonged to my father and dated back to the 1950s. That’s how we started,” Hesse recalls.
After several weeks of searching, the team obtained results. According to Hesse, they found very isolated populations of just two or three individuals. Most of the species did not inhabit protected areas, but rather large ranches or cattle-producing areas whose owners “were not at all sympathetic to conservation because they had a purely extractive approach.”
They also identified a less visible problem: most local people were unaware of the Blue-throated Macaw’s uniqueness and critical conservation status. In some cases, they could not even distinguish it from other macaws in the region. As an example of the consequences this lack of information could have, Hesse recounted—in his article Searching for the Blue-throated Macaw—the case of two young men who, according to a teacher from a rural community in Beni, killed a Blue-throated Macaw to use as fishing bait.
To counter this situation, the team realized that their first task was to help people connect with this unique bird. During their travels through the region, they shared food with local residents and distributed drawings of the Blue-throated Macaw along with boxes of colored pencils for children. These activities allowed them to engage families in conversations about the importance of the species and foster a sense of pride in having on their land a bird found nowhere else on the planet. At the same time, they helped children learn to recognize and value the species.
Later, between 1994 and 1996, the organization achieved further milestones. It published two newsletters and two issues of the annual magazine Guajojo. It continued to welcome new members, including ornithologists Miguel Ángel Arrivas and Francisco Sagot, who strengthened the organization’s scientific work. Thanks to a $20,000 donation from the then British Ambassador to Bolivia, Michael Jackson, Armonía was able to rent an office in Santa Cruz’s first ring.
During those same years, Armonía’s relationship with BirdLife International also opened the door to a valuable academic contribution. Renowned British ornithologist David Snow decided to donate his entire specialized ornithology library to the organization. The shipment, consisting of two tons of books, arrived in Bolivia by sea after several months of travel. “I know it was two tons because, thanks to the Blue-throated Macaw project, we had a Mercedes Jeep with that load capacity, and we filled it completely with the library,” Alan Hesse recalls.
The consolidation of this first stage was sealed on August 12, 1996, when Armonía obtained its legal status. Although the organization’s work had begun years earlier, it adopted this date as its official founding date.
The Rebirth
In 2002, after nearly a decade marked by the search for the Blue-throated Macaw, Armonía opened a new chapter in its history under the leadership of Bennett Hennessey and Sebastián Herzog, who took on the organization’s executive and scientific leadership, respectively.
By then, Armonía was practically closed, Herzog says. However, they both saw an opportunity: to rebuild it from the ground up and begin a new chapter.
Bennett Hennessey and Sebastián Herzog recall numerous challenges from that period, but agree that one was particularly difficult to overcome at the outset: putting the administration of an organization seeking to reinvent itself in order. Accustomed to spending long days in the field studying birds, both had to take on tasks for which their training as biologists had not prepared them: securing funding, organizing finances, and building a solid institutional structure.
“Those are issues that are always difficult at the beginning of any organization. Many start with people like Bennett and me: people who love birds, who are biologists or come from related fields, and who enjoy spending time in the field studying birds. But when it comes to laws, administration, regulations, rent, taxes, and everything else, we don’t have the slightest idea,” Herzog explains.
However, they faced these demands and, little by little, began laying the foundations for the new Armonía. They established a board of directors, developed institutional bylaws and protocols, and, after securing new funding, created an administrative and accounting department. They also purchased the property where Armonía’s office in Santa Cruz is currently located.
During this process, Bennett Hennessey highlights the decisive support of his wife, Ruth Alipaz. Alipaz, who was studying Business Administration at the time, suggested that he hire an administrator to take charge of an area that none of the founders had expertise in. “The first thing I did, and this was my wife’s suggestion, was to look for an administrator. She told me, ‘You need an administrator. You don’t know anything about financial reporting and administrative management.’” Following her advice, one of the first professionals they brought on was Grover Bravo, who took over Armonía’s administration. “From there, we grew quickly because we showed that we were a more solid organization,” Hennessey recalls.
With a stronger institutional structure in place, Armonía was able to broaden its scope of work. For Hennessey and Herzog, the challenge was no longer simply to strengthen the organization, but also to redefine its role.
Until then, much of its work had focused on birdwatching, scientific research, and sharing knowledge about Bolivia’s birdlife. These activities remained fundamental, but they both realized they were not enough. Understanding species and documenting their status was only the first step; if they wanted to halt their decline, they needed to turn that knowledge into concrete conservation action.
This thinking marked a turning point in Armonía’s history. From then on, the organization began combining scientific research with initiatives to protect the most threatened species and their habitats, while also incorporating a strong focus on working with Indigenous and farming communities.
Bennett Hennessey says this shift also required him to rethink his own understanding of conservation. “At that time, I was a biologist who had come from abroad and thought conservation meant working in the field, creating reserves, and keeping people out. But several of the Bolivian coordinators made me realize that wasn’t enough. They understood that communities had to be involved; it couldn’t be just a project in the field.”
The Mamaco conservation program helped him understand this reality, which was new to him. One of the coordinators, Hugo Aranibar, proposed allocating part of the budget so that an Indigenous community could obtain their identity documents. At first, the idea seemed strange to him. “I thought: we are protecting birds, what does this have to do with conservation? But I trusted him,” Hennessey recalls. Over time, he understood that the decision had helped the community strengthen recognition of its territory and later establish the Mamaco Refuge. “That’s when I understood that helping people is also conservation,” he concludes.
The support of BirdLife International was decisive in turning this new vision into reality. With its support, Armonía launched a series of programs focused on conserving threatened species and priority ecosystems across the country. These included initiatives for Important Bird Areas (IBAs), as well as programs dedicated to the Red-fronted Macaw, Blue-throated Macaw, Cochabamba Mountain Finch, Horned Curassow, Mamaco, and Polylepis forests, among others.
At the same time, these projects became a platform for a new generation of Bolivian biologists and conservationists to enter the field of threatened bird conservation. One of them was Rodrigo Soria, who was introduced to Armonía in 2003 by his then thesis advisor, Sebastián Herzog. Shortly after completing his studies at Universidad Mayor de San Simón, Herzog invited him to join the organization and take charge of several research projects.
Without hesitation, Soria accepted the challenge, and through his work, one of the most important milestones of that period was achieved: the rediscovery of the Horned Curassow (Pauxi unicornis), a Critically Endangered species, in the humid montane forests of the Isiboro Sécure protected area and Indigenous territory.
“It is important to bear in mind that this is a species found in a very difficult area to work in. Despite this, what we achieved was, first, to better understand the bird’s distribution and the levels of threat—which were not the same at all sites where its presence was known—and to gain the support of some local partners, something many people thought was impossible,” he recalls.
Soria left the organization in September 2005 to pursue graduate studies abroad. He returned in June 2011 as Programs Supervisor and later, in 2017, after a transition period, assumed the position of Executive Director. Since then, he has led a team committed to the conservation of birds and their habitats, continuing a mission that has always been the guiding light of Armonía: creating balance between people and nature.
Under his leadership, the organization has strengthened and expanded its conservation programs while consolidating its presence at the national level. “During this period, we have seen the diversification and strengthening of several programs. We have increased our national engagement in areas where we had not previously had a strong presence, through partnerships with other national and international organizations, stronger support for SERNAP, and greater engagement with local, regional, and national decision-makers,” Soria says.
For Soria, although significant challenges remain ahead, Armonía has played a decisive role in transforming conservation in Bolivia. It has not only promoted research and programs to protect the country’s diverse threatened bird species, but has also helped train new generations of conservationists, strengthen partnerships with local communities, and engage with actors traditionally perceived as adversaries of nature conservation, such as ranchers. The organization has helped position Bolivia as a regional reference for biodiversity protection.
This journey is reflected in dozens of projects, research initiatives, and collective efforts that have shaped the organization’s history. However, summarizing everything that has been achieved in a single story would be impossible. Looking back, its members agree that certain milestones stand out for providing a particularly clear measure of the impact of this work.
The Blue-throated Macaw: A Conservation Success Story
“Armonía’s mission is to prevent species extinctions, and throughout our history, we have achieved something that very few conservation organizations in the world can say: reversing the population trend of a species that was on its way to extinction,” says Soria.
The Blue-throated Macaw is perhaps the best example. In the early 1980s, this species endemic to the Beni savannas was thought to have disappeared. During the 1990s, only a few individuals were known, and by the 2000s, some estimates placed its wild population at between 125 and 150 individuals. However, thanks to the national census conducted by Armonía in 2015, it was confirmed that the population was approaching 450 individuals. By 2025, estimates placed it at nearly 800.
According to Soria, this population growth was made possible by a series of actions promoted by Armonía. One of them took place in 2008. Until then, Bennett Hennessey recalls, the species was known only through scattered pairs across the Beni savannas. “There was one pair here, another an hour away on horseback. We had never seen a large group.”
The story changed when Hennessey and Mauricio Herrera secured funding to explore a remote area that no one had reached because of the high cost of access. There, Herrera Carrera found 17 Blue-throated Macaws gathered in one place—the largest group recorded at the time.
“Back then, seeing 17 individuals together was incredible. Mauricio called me and said, ‘We’ve found the largest group of Blue-throated Macaws, and the owner wants to sell the ranch,’” Hennessey recalls.
Tjalle adds that “at the time, nothing was known about the movements of the Blue-throated Macaw. Now we know that more than 200 individuals feed in the gallery forests within the reserve and that, thanks to all the knowledge generated through monitoring, they gather there and then disperse to other areas outside the reserve to nest.”
After learning this, Hennessey says he contacted World Land Trust, Rainforest Trust, and American Bird Conservancy and proposed that they help finance the purchase of the property. The response was positive, and in 2008, Armonía inaugurated the Barba Azul Nature Reserve, a unique site dedicated to conserving the Blue-throated Macaw.
However, this was not the only component of the strategy Armonía developed to prevent the species’ extinction. Three years earlier, in 2005, Armonía had launched its Nest Box Program, an initiative designed to increase the breeding success of the Blue-throated Macaw, which was critically threatened by illegal trafficking, hunting, and habitat loss. For more than a decade, nest boxes were installed on a private ranch that the team could access only with the owners’ permission.
This is where activist Laney Rickman came into the picture. A passionate advocate for the Blue-throated Macaw, she learned about Armonía’s work in Bolivia in 2005 and decided to make its conservation a personal cause. Through her efforts to mobilize international support, the resources needed to acquire 650 hectares of the former Esperancita ranch were raised in 2017.
Although Laney died before seeing the project completed, Armonía, under Soria’s leadership, purchased the Esperancita ranch, the most important known breeding site for the Blue-throated Macaw to date, and established the Laney Rickman Nature Reserve in her honor. Her sister, Dorothy Paterson, continued to mobilize financial support from the United States and, years later, brought Laney’s ashes to the site. They now rest in the reserve that bears her name, while new generations of Blue-throated Macaws find a safe refuge there to breed and ensure the species’ survival.
The results of this strategy speak for themselves. What began as an experiment became one of the most effective tools for preventing the species’ extinction. As of the publication of this report, 183 chicks have successfully fledged from artificial nests since the Nest Box Program began. During the 2025–2026 breeding season alone, 19 chicks took their first flight, matching the highest number recorded to date, achieved the previous season. The impact has been so significant that nearly one in four wild Blue-throated Macaws is now estimated to have been born in a nest box installed by Armonía.
But this achievement would not have been possible without the daily work of the park rangers who, over the years, have built, installed, and monitored the nest boxes.
One of them is César Flores, a ranger at the Laney Rickman Nature Reserve since 2009. Over the years, he has not only participated in monitoring the Blue-throated Macaw but has also refined the construction of the nest boxes. He recalls that the first models had an opening that was too wide, so they were occupied by owls, ducks, and other species. Over time, he reduced the entrance diameter to 11 centimeters, allowing the boxes to be used almost exclusively by Blue-throated Macaws.
“That is what we have learned most through our work with Armonía. Now these are the nests we build ourselves, and, thank God, they are working. Every year, we have 18 or 19 chicks.”
For Flores, watching the chicks leave the artificial nests is the greatest reward after months of work.
“It is the most beautiful thing we can see, because it is the result those nest boxes are producing for us.”
Birdwatching Tourism to Connect Omereque’s Communities with the Red-fronted Macaw
When Filemón Soto Gómez arrived in the community of San Carlos in Cochabamba, the Red-fronted Macaw (Ara rubrogenys), a species endemic to Bolivia and Critically Endangered, was seen as a threat. No one imagined then that, decades later, the same bird would become a symbol of pride and an ally in improving the lives of families in the region.
“I arrived in San Carlos in 1979, when all of this was much more heavily forested. It rained more, and the landscape was very different. Over time, deforestation began, droughts came, and everything started to change. The Red-fronted Macaw had always been here, but we saw it as a harmful animal because it damaged our corn and peanut crops. We wanted it to disappear because we did not know its value. It normally fed on native plants such as quebracho and soto. But there were times when it could no longer find enough food, so it would enter the crops. People used to chase the macaws away or kill them. Not anymore; now we protect them.”
This change in perception did not happen by chance. It was the result of years of work alongside local communities, during which Armonía promoted an idea that at first seemed difficult to imagine: that conserving birds could also create opportunities for the people who live alongside them.
This change began to take shape in the early 2000s, when Armonía came to Omereque, drawn by the region’s extraordinary birdlife. Bennett Hennessey and Sebastián Herzog identified one of the Red-fronted Macaw populations there and understood that its conservation depended not only on protecting its habitat but also on involving the communities that lived alongside it.
In 2005, the organization recovered a community-owned area that is now home to the 50-hectare Frente Roja Community Nature Reserve and began working with the communities of San Carlos, Perereta, and Amaya. Over the years, this process enabled the three communities to assume ownership and management of the area. The approach differed from that of many traditional conservation projects: Armonía chose to promote community-based tourism and birdwatching so that local residents could see protecting the Red-fronted Macaw as an opportunity for development and, over time, take leadership of the project.
For Iván Pérez Hurtado, Armonía’s current Administrative Director, who joined the organization in 2007, this approach is precisely what has distinguished it from many other conservation organizations. Rather than arriving with preconceived projects, Armonía seeks to understand each community’s social and economic context, listen to its needs, and develop solutions together.
“We do not come with a formula for protecting threatened species. First, we understand the communities, how they think, and what their needs are,” he explains. In his view, many initiatives fail because they are conceived “from an ivory tower” and then implemented without the genuine participation of local people.
The same logic also guides the way Armonía seeks funding for its projects. “In English, there is a term, donor-driven. There is a donor who funds a particular area, and many organizations end up changing even their objectives to access those resources. Armonía does not,” he emphasizes. Rather than adapting its mission to funding opportunities, the organization seeks resources to develop projects that respond to needs identified on the ground.
For the same reason, the work does not end when an agreement concludes or funding runs out. The goal, Pérez says, is to remain for as long as necessary for communities to take ownership of the projects and sustain them independently.
The Frente Roja Community Nature Reserve embodies this approach. There, the Reserve’s management committee, made up of community members themselves, makes decisions about how the protected area is managed, while Armonía supports the process in an advisory role. “We have been a kind of advisers; they are really our bosses,” says Pérez. More than a conservation project, the Reserve represents an approach in which communities ultimately become the true protagonists.
The Alliance Between Ranchers and Conservationists: A Utopia That Became Reality
En la década de 1990, convencer a los ganaderos del Beni de que la conservación de la Paraba Barba Azul también podía beneficiarles parecía una idea imposible. Cuando apenas comenzaban los esfuerzos por proteger a la especie, Alan Hesse buscó una forma de involucrar a los propietarios de las estancias donde sobrevivían los últimos ejemplares conocidos.
Con el apoyo de BirdLife International organizó un acto en Trinidad para reconocer a los siete ganaderos que albergaban en sus predios a la Paraba Barba Azul Ara glaucogularis. La entonces presidenta honoraria de BirdLife y reina de Jordania firmó, junto a las autoridades bolivianas, unos certificados diseñados por el mismo Hesse que los distinguían como “Guardianes de la Paraba Barba Azul”. La expectativa era que ese reconocimiento despertara su interés por proteger a la especie.
However, moving from that initial approach to a genuine alliance between ranchers and conservationists would take many years. It was two decades later that a shift in approach began to take shape, transforming the relationship between Armonía and Beni’s producers.
“The idea of working with ranchers came back with Gustavo Sanches and me,” says Rodrigo Soria. “At the time, we did not know that Armonía had already tried it before. In fact, in 2016 we organized the first cattle ranching meeting with the goal of planting the idea among ranchers that cattle ranching is compatible with wildlife protection.”
For that meeting, Armonía invited ranchers and conservationists from Argentina, Paraguay, and Mexico. Unlike the recognition initiative Armonía had promoted more than two decades earlier, this time the goal was for Beni ranchers to learn from the successful experiences of other ranchers.
“What we wanted was for ranchers to hear from other ranchers about their experiences combining biodiversity conservation with productivity.”
This shift in approach also transformed the relationship between Armonía and producers. Rather than approaching them solely with environmental arguments, Armonía began to demonstrate, through its own experience, that it was possible to produce and conserve at the same time.
“Both of us saw that tourism did not have the potential to generate enough funds to manage the reserve; and, secondly, we had to comply with the Social Economic Function (FES) so as not to lose our property rights over the land.”
This approach was put into practice by Tjalle Boorsma, who helped turn this vision into concrete action. One of the main outcomes was the creation of the Beni Eco-friendly Ranching Alliance. Boorsma, who joined Armonía’s team in 2015 as coordinator of the Barba Azul Nature Reserve, acknowledges that he too arrived in Beni with a mistaken perception. During his first years, he saw cattle ranching solely as a threat to conservation. However, working on the ground completely changed his perspective. He came to understand that, in the Beni savannas, cattle also play an ecological role and that maintaining ranching is much more favorable for conservation than replacing it with agriculture.
Tjalle Boorsma became Conservation Director in 2018 and, since 2026, has served as Director of Development.
“That was when I began to see ranchers as conservation allies, because as long as a property remains dedicated to cattle ranching, the grasslands are maintained as well,” he explains.
This shift in approach also transformed the relationship between Armonía and producers. Rather than approaching them solely with environmental arguments, Armonía began to demonstrate, through its own experience, that it was possible to produce and conserve at the same time.
“We have a presence on the ground and we raise cattle. Producers no longer see us simply as an organization that talks about protecting birds; they also see us as ranchers. And when you raise cattle, you speak the same language as ranchers,” says Boorsma.
This shared language made it possible to build the trust that for years had seemed out of reach. “If you do not protect this forest and allow the trees to grow, your cattle will have no shade. An animal that spends all day under the sun experiences more stress and produces less. That is where conservation practices connect with economic benefits,” he says.
The experience accumulated at the Barba Azul and Laney Rickman reserves eventually became a laboratory for developing solutions. Fire management, sustainable cattle ranching, and grassland restoration began attracting other producers, who visited the reserves to learn firsthand about the practices implemented by Armonía.
“We learned by doing, making mistakes, and correcting them. Then we were able to approach other producers and tell them: ‘We had the same problems you have. This is what we did. Would you like to come and see it?’” says Boorsma.
Years later, this process led to the creation of the Beni Eco-friendly Ranching Alliance, an initiative of Armonía and the Federation of Ranchers of Beni (Fegabeni) that brings together producers and conservation partners to promote sustainable cattle ranching and demonstrate that protecting the Blue-throated Macaw and livestock production can not only coexist, but also reinforce one another.
The Birds of Bolivia Guide: The Book That Sparked a Birdwatching Culture
Another milestone in Armonía’s history was the publication of the first modern field guide to the birds of Bolivia. The idea arose from a need Sebastián Herzog experienced after arriving in the country in 1994, when he began fieldwork for his doctoral research. At the time, there was no specialized field guide to Bolivian birds, and researchers had to rely on publications from other countries to identify species.
“You would be standing in the forest with absolutely no idea what had just flown past your nose. And if you can’t identify the species, that is the foundation of all scientific and conservation work,” he recalls.
This gap led Herzog and Bennett Hennessey to envision a book that would bring together, for the first time, the available knowledge on Bolivia’s avifauna. Securing funding took years, and the project faced several setbacks, from the 2008 global financial crisis to a lack of resources needed to complete the editing process. Even so, the team persevered.
During the final months of the project, Herzog devoted as many as 80 hours a week to completing the final manuscript. “I worked like a hermit, Monday through Sunday,” he recalls.
Finally published in 2016 in both English and Spanish, the guide went beyond the scientific community. In addition to becoming a reference for researchers and birdwatchers, it opened new opportunities for birdwatching tourism. The Swiss Cooperation recognized that it was not simply a book, but “a sustainable development tool” capable of attracting visitors, strengthening local enterprises, and generating income for communities.
Following its publication, the guide facilitated the arrival of international birdwatching tour operators, encouraged the creation of birdwatching clubs in Bolivia, and prompted the publication of new scientific records on species distribution. “Basically, a birdwatching movement was formed in Bolivia,” Herzog concludes.
A Mission That Continues
For Pérez, this shared conviction explains why the organization has been able to overcome so many challenges throughout its history. Beyond specific projects or the resources available at each stage, the team has maintained the same approach to conservation: working with scientific rigor, developing solutions together with communities, and always thinking in terms of processes that can be sustained over time.
But if there is one thing that characterizes Armonía today, it is the certainty that much remains to be done. “We have achieved incredible things, but there is still a lot of work ahead,” Soria acknowledges.
In addition to the challenges inherent to conservation, Soria points to a broader challenge that Armonía, like many other organizations dedicated to protecting biodiversity, must face: closing the funding gap for protecting nature—and our future.
“There is a huge gap between the amount of funding needed to protect our natural environment and the amount of funding available to all conservation organizations. It is important—truly important and urgent—to close this gap. That is why Armonía has begun working, in coordination with its partners, to develop financial sustainability mechanisms.”
For Soria, this effort is essential because conservation not only protects biodiversity but also safeguards people’s well-being.
“The future of our society itself depends on the nature around us. Nature provides us with water, oxygen, and the nutrients we need to produce our own food. Birds are the flagship group that helps us achieve this goal.”
To this end, Armonía has begun rethinking the way it works on the ground. Rather than changing its priorities, it seeks to expand the scale of its action.
“The priorities remain the same; the threats do too. What we want to change is our approach: moving from working in specific sites to working across entire landscapes so that our actions have a greater impact,” Soria explains.
This transformation is also reflected in the organization’s program structure. Pérez notes that today its work is organized around priority geographic areas, defined according to the presence of the country’s most threatened bird species. “We now work in priority landscapes. Birds are excellent indicators of ecosystem health, and by protecting them, we are also conserving everything that depends on those environments.”
For Pérez, this shared conviction explains why the organization has managed to overcome so many challenges throughout its history. Beyond specific projects or the resources available at each stage, the team has maintained a consistent approach to conservation: working with scientific rigor, building solutions alongside communities, and always thinking in terms of processes that can be sustained over time.
But if there is one thing that characterizes Armonía today, it is the certainty that much remains to be done.
“We have achieved incredible things, but there is still a lot of work ahead,” Soria acknowledges.
In addition to the challenges inherent to conservation, Soria points to a broader challenge that Armonía, like many other biodiversity conservation organizations, must confront: closing the conservation funding gap—the difference between the financial resources needed to protect nature and those that are actually available.
“There is a huge gap between the amount of funding needed to protect our nature and the amount of funding available to all conservation organizations. It is important—truly important and urgent—to close this gap. That is why Armonía has begun working with its partners to develop mechanisms for long-term financial sustainability.”
For Soria, this effort is essential because conservation does more than protect species; it also safeguards people’s well-being.
“The future of our society itself depends on the nature around us. Nature provides us with water, oxygen, and the nutrients we need to produce our own food. Birds are the flagship group that helps us achieve this goal.”
Among the main challenges, Soria highlights reducing the indiscriminate use of fire in the regions where the organization works, one of the most serious threats to numerous species and ecosystems; promoting the regeneration of Andean Polylepis woodlands, which are essential for biodiversity and water supplies for many communities; and expanding the impact of conservation efforts.
To address these challenges, Armonía has begun rethinking how it works on the ground. Rather than changing its priorities, it seeks to expand the scale at which it operates.
“The priorities remain the same, and so do the threats. What we want to change is our approach: moving from working in specific sites to working across entire landscapes so that our actions have a greater impact,” Soria explains.
This transformation is also reflected in the organization’s program structure. Pérez notes that its work is now organized around priority landscapes, identified according to the presence of the country’s most threatened bird species.
“We now work in priority landscapes. Birds are excellent indicators of ecosystem health, and by protecting them, we are also conserving everything that depends on those environments.”
Thirty years after obtaining its legal status—and more than three decades since a small group of birdwatchers began envisioning an organization dedicated to protecting Bolivia’s birdlife—Armonía continues to pursue the same goal that inspired its founders: preventing the extinction of Bolivia’s most threatened birds.
Escrito por Armonia
Celebrando los 30 años en la conservacion.