Proyecto Tití is committed to working with rural communities to lessen their impacts on the forests that cotton-top tamarins need to survive. We work with communities to find mutually beneficial solutions to problems facing communities and through the use of conservation agreements we hope to lessen the impact that people have on forest consumption and use. We work to empower communities and individuals to become actively involved in programs that show their commitment to cotton-top tamarin conservation through personal commitments, alternative livelihoods or training programs. We also work to insure that members of our programs support not having cotton-tops as pets and work to reduce the number of cotton-tops that are kept as pets in their community.
As we look to create and build new forest corridors that will connect small patches of privately-owned forests to a larger protected area for cotton-tops, we now work with a myriad of small farmers that have a few acres of forest on their land. In an effort to protect, restore, and connect these forest patches into effective corridors for wildlife, we work with local farmers to identify what land can be protected and what land can be developed. In collaboration with Fundación Herencia Ambiental Caribe, a plan has been developed to create a forest corridor that will connect land in the Montes de María Region. In 2015, Proyecto Titi began working with farmers in San Juan Nepomuceno, to protect, restore, and create a forest corridor that would connect privately owned land to the Santuario de los Colorados. To date, thanks to this active partnership, in Phases I, II and III of our joint forest connectivity project in San Juan Nepomuceno, more than 814 hectares have been designated for forest conservation and restoration in private farmers’ land with participation of 11 villages, and 123 land owners and their families committed to conservation agreements. In exchange, the farmers receive additional training in agricultural practices, seeds, tools and supplies needed to improve their agricultural practices.
ARTISANS
Proyecto Titi has worked with local artisans to create artisan cooperatives that have led to the creation of “eco-mochilas” traditional tote bags used in Colombia that are hand-made by women in the village of Los Límites, near Proyecto Tití’s field site in Santa Catalina, Colombia. These beautiful eco-mochilas are crocheted using plastic bags. The creation of eco-mochilas helps to reduce the amount of plastic that would otherwise be littering the environment.
There were no plush cotton-top tamarin toys found in Colombia, so local artisans filled that niche by creating a variety of designs featuring cotton-top tamarins. Learn more about the success of ASOARTESANAS here.
BINDES & TITÍ LEÑA
Our early work with communities focused on creating bindes, small cook stoves made from clay that reduced the need to cut trees for firewood. Bindes burned fuel more efficiently and also reduced the amount of smoke that could impact women’s health.
Learn more about bindes and how they are made here.
Fence posts in many rural communities are made from young sapling trees. As these are harvested from the forest, this has a negative impact on the long-term survival and regeneration of the forests for cotton-tops. We created Tití Posts, fence posts made from recycled plastic instead of trees. Tití Posts are used in various efforts to fence properties allowing us to save more trees for tamarins.
Purchase a Tití Post today to help save a tree for a tamarin.