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It’s Friday afternoon and I’m heading back to the ‘office’ after lunch; a wooden shack covered in chicken wire. As I approach, so does the unexpected and unwelcome sound of heavy machinery. When I’m less than ten metres from work, I see men with machetes hacking away indiscriminately at vegetation; these people not gardeners. Helplessly I watch a huge clanking and smoking digger snapping the enormous trees that normally surround my day like twigs, and a 15m recently decapitated log comes crashing down into my path. Article updated!
This is not your normal office, and the destruction that I’m describing should not be happening. My desk is dense Bolivian jungle, and my paperwork is forty Capuchin monkeys that are currently running around their ‘Mirador’ scared and screaming. These men are here to start construction of a road that will slice through the centre of Inti Wara Yassi, an animal refuge in Parque Machia near Villa Tunari, Bolivia. This road is illegal, and today the diggers have come to destroy the monkey’s home whether they are in it or not.
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To understand why this is happening, we need to rewind a little to the beginning of the park itself. In Bolivia, the illegal sale of tropical wild animals to hotels, private homes and circuses has created a booming black market where animals are frequently mistreated or malnourished. CIWY (Comunidad Inti Wara Yassi) was formed in 1992 to help combat this issue, and now looks after many different species of animals within its 38 hectares of park, including monkeys, birds, cats and even an endangered Spectacled bear. Their aims are simple; to rehabilitate injured or maltreated animals with the aim of eventual release, to raise national awareness of the need to protect the environment and prevent cruelty in the tropical pet trade, and to build links with the indigenous peoples of Bolivia with a view to increasing their income and reducing the pressure on their lands and traditions.
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There are many different reasons for the animals to be here. Gato is a beautiful puma once in the circus; he had his hind legs broken to limit permanently prevent his escape. Now he tears through the jungle dragging his volunteer walker behind him. Nicholas ‘the Destroyer’ is a large Macaw who was malnourished as a pet, and lost nearly half of his feathers and the ability to survive in the wild. His new home is his own eight metre square cage with dozens of other rescued birds nearby that squawk happily to each other through the day.
New residents continue to arrive in the most unorthodox ways; large cats arrive in taxis, monkeys on buses, in the last week a small box arrived in the post containing a near dead Squirrel monkey that was no longer required as a family pet. Due to the increasing need for CIWY’s work, they have opened new parks Parque Ambue Ari and Jacj Cuisi, also in Bolivia, again staffed by a small army of animal loving volunteers from across the world. Inti Wara Yassi remains the beating heart of the operation and it is now under threat.
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Fast forward to August 2008, when CIWY received a visit from public works technicians from the office of Villa Tunari’s mayor. Their task was to inspect Parque Machia as one of many potential routes for a new road between Villa Tunari and a large coca producing region on the opposite side of the forest. Bolivia is the world’s third largest cultivator of coca and also the third largest producer of cocaine. Eating coca leaves or making coca tea is an established and popular tradition for the country, while the illegal production and distribution of Cocaine is a large and powerful Bolivian industry. Following the visit, CIWY was obviously concerned as the potential for disruption was huge and could even mean the park’s closure. They offered two further alternative routes for the new road that completely avoid destroying forty percent of the national park; one would take it near a drug check point, and the other would involve building a bridge over the river.
Following the technician’s visit, and CIWY’s request for more information, CIWY attended a meeting at the mayor’s office on the 19th August where a five minute briefing from one of the public works technicians took place and no council officials attended. CIWY were informed of the definitive decision to run the road straight through the middle of the animal refuge, as this was preferable to any alternatives citing reasons of cost and practicality. Interestingly this route was on top of an existing road that was initially built thirty years ago. Repeated repairs have not prevented the road mostly being unusable due to land slides, and ultimately the road was abandoned. Due to the mountain’s geological composition, this risk still exists. However the various parties involved pressed on with the plan to dissect Inti Wara Yassi animal sanctuary.
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On 20th August 2008 CIWY received communication from the mayor’s office that the animals needed to be moved to allow the road to start construction. On the 27th August, a team arrived consisting of the director of environment, director of tourism, two councillors, an architect, civil engineer and a representative of the company contracted to open the road, who informed CIWY they had 5 days to relocate the animals, which includes a main monkey park, the above Mirador, three cat enclosures, a spider monkey park, various trails and the enclosure for the endangered spectacled bear. In response, CIWY appealed to the local authorities and to the press, and the work was stopped. The mayor then stated to the press that the road would no longer be made. CIWY breathed a sigh of relief, their appeals had been heard and the rehabilitation work could continue uninterrupted.
However, in 2009 the mayor’s stated intentions mysteriously vanished and work began again in earnest. Again CIWY appealed to various environmental agencies, and the National Environment Agency (DGBAP) intervened, but even they did not have the power to stop the destruction.
 The diggers crashing down trees only 10m from the monkey’s cages.
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On the 18th August 2009, the construction of the road continued, without any authorization from the authorities or an environmental impact study – a legal requirement in Bolivia. After further appeal, in September 2009 a signed agreement between the Bolivia Environment Agency, CIWY and the local mayor’s office stated that CIWY would be given one month to move the affected animals. Again this promise of compassion was revoked without notice, as one week later on the 18th September the destruction began once again, and this is where this story started.
I am standing in the middle of the Mirador, watching huge fifteen metre high diggers rip apart the monkey’s home, listening to the sound of screeching primates running for safety while teams of men with machetes seem to surround the area chopping down yet more vegetation. All of this with no warning, no environmental respect and no authorisation. Immediately we call the park office on our emergency mobile phone, continuing to watch in disbelief as more trees crash down and volunteers dodge the destruction to help put the monkeys back into the safety of their cages. Shortly afterwards three vets and a team of volunteers have arrived – grimly they film the demolition while others run to the diggers to try and stop them in their tracks.
As they call to the drivers to stop, who perhaps don’t know they are about to rip up the homes of forty scared monkeys, their calls fall on deaf ears and they resort to the only weapon left, placing themselves in the path of the digger which eventually stops just short, the pushed up earth covering the volunteer’s boots. After a discussion the drivers put down their tools. For now the threat is contained, but the promised threat of their return in the morning is very real, and CIWY tearfully puts into place a plan to guide them through this emergency.
As of this moment, three rotating teams are on 24hr watch of the road’s route, with the aim of passive protest – or bodies placed directly in the path of construction – preventing the short term construction of the road. In the meantime, despite the vicious ludicrousy of the situation, relocation of the animals can take effect. CIWY has resisted this road as long as it is able, but now that the fight is endangering the lives of the animals it is their mantra to protect they must be relocated immediately. They shouldn’t need to be relocated at all and this is the travesty.
 Chatting away with one of the more talkative birds!
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Bolivia is a developing socialist country of only ten million people, one of the poorest in South America. When its legal processes are being flouted with such blatant disregard for the natural environment it creates a mockery of Bolivia’s plans for progression and the government’s stated aim to empower the nation’s poor, indigenous majority. To help prevent continuing miscarriages of justice each individual crime must be highlighted and publicised. This is how you can help now; alert your embassy, tell the national press, and if you can then get to Bolivia and help out Inti Wara Yassi on the front line. It’s hard work, good fun, and as you can see things are more than interesting right now.
To contact CIWY: COMUNIDAD INTI WARA YASSI, Villa Tunari, Chapare, Cochabamba, Bolivia – Tel: 591-44136572
Update (Sep 29th): It appears that the contact made with various embassies and the UN is having some success; meanwhile Villa Tunari’s mayor is trying to have CIWY removed from being Machia Parque’s administrator as another route to having the road constructed before the beginning of rainy season, in an effort to avoid political embarrassment. Your help is still needed!
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