Management Plan, captura and local community involvement of vicuñas in Argentina.

WAWRZYK, A; VILA, B.; ARZAMENDIA, Y.; YACOBACCIO, H; LAMAS, H; BORGNIA, M; BONACIC, C.; LAKER, J.

Brasilia, Brasil.

Congreso; XIX Annual Meeting of the Society for Conservation Biology, capacity buildinf and practice in a globalized World.; 2005

Society for Conservation Biology

Some vicuña (vicugna vicugna) populations have recently been moved from CITES Appendix 1 to Appendix 11, allowing limited exploitation. Management plans are particularly important to ensure that these populations are not over-exploited. The plan identifies the costs, benefits and risks of the management activity before it starts, giving importance to rights to access resources, cultural attitudes, historical background, ethnicity and environmental impacts. The objective of our group is to develop science-based managament plans for the wild management of vicuña, implement participatory instruments enhancing the cooperation between scientists and local communities and designing techniques for capture and shearing that provides economic returns to livelihood, is sustainable for the vicuña population and has a low environrnental impact. The ultimate aim is to balance income generation with ecological sustainability and equitable sharing of benefits. The traditional Andean "chaku" consists in a drive, capture, shearing and release of wild vicuñas that minimizes thie short and long-term effects on individuals and populations. The first capture in Argetina occurred in November 2003 in which 102 vicuñas were captured, of which 70 were shorn, providing 16.5 kg of fiber. In the second capture (November 2004), 165 vicuñas wcre captured, 129 shorn and 27.4 kg of fiber collected.