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Tití Guardians: My Community and I are Friends of Cotton-top Tamarins!

June 11, 2022  536  536   

Tití Guardians:  My Community and I are Friends of Cotton-top Tamarins!

As Proyecto Tití works with communities to build sustainable income generating programs, we also are committed to ensuring that people feel a sense of pride and accomplishment in understanding how their efforts are helping to protect cotton-top tamarins. We provide opportunities for communities to gather for a 5-part series of discussions and activities to empower individuals to take charge of protecting the natural resources that are vital to their survival and to the future of cotton-top tamarins. It’s fascinating to see how much nature is part of their culture and daily lives. As they exchange stories of how as kids they spent time in the forest with their families, walking along the arroyos and enjoying all the wildlife they would see, they can now see first-hand how things are changing in their communities as they identify the signs of forest destruction in the region. 

Photo: Alberto Alvarez. "“I went to Cartagena to visit a friend.  He asked me if I could catch a cotton-top tamarin for him that he could have as a pet.  If it wasn’t for my involvement in this program and understanding how bad this is for the species, I would have done it.  Now, I work to keep cotton-tops in their forest home.”

As individuals work on various activities in their communities to reduce their impact on the natural world, they also become amazing leaders in spreading the message within their communities of the need to protect forests for cotton-top tamarins. As part of these discussions, each community develops actions that highlight their commitment to protect cotton-tops and their forest homes. 

Whether it is painting murals on walls to depict cotton-tops in the forest and not as pets, or local landowners designing signs saying that this is private property and poaching of animals and cutting of trees is not allowed, to creating recreational areas that are filled with information about the need to protect cotton-top tamarins, communities are taking action and influencing others to be responsible for protecting Colombia’s precious biodiversity. These individuals have committed to being the guardians of their natural resources, today, tomorrow, and forever.