RBTCO Pilón Lajas

Between 2004 and 2006 WCS technically coordinated the update of the Pilon Lajas management plan, which was approved in 2008 by Ministerial Resolution Nº 332. Its development has contributed to strengthening the role of the T'simane Mosetene Regional Council (CRTM) in the management of the Reserve. The management plan includes the vision of indigenous communities and lays the foundation of shared management of the area between the CRTM and SERNAP.

The planning process involved the indigenous communities of the Reserve as well as the settler communities living along the Yucumo-Rurrenabaque road, on the northeast limit of the Reserve. The methodology included a group of techniques to enable communities the compilation and analysis of data (community mapping, georeferencing of sites, natural resource use zoning matrix, activity calendar). It also contributed to the training of local promoters in the planning and development of community self-diagnostics and land-use maps. Self-diagnoses of the municipalities associated with the Reserve (Rurrenabaque and San Borja) were also included in the planning process.

The implementation efforts of the Management Plan and Life Plan of Pilon Lajas are aimed at strengthening community participation in protecting the area and implementing natural resource management. WCS provided support for joint patrols between rangers and community members of Pilon Lajas. WCS also collaborated on the hunting self-monitoring of Asuncion del Quiquibey, identifying 28 hunted species, including the white-lipped peccary (Tayassu pecari), the collared peccary (Pecari tajacu),the spider monkey (Ateles chamek), the coati (Nasua nasua), the red-footed tortoise (Chelonoidis carbonaria), the Bolivian red howler (Alouatta sara), the razor-billed curassow (Mitu tuberosum) and the tapir (Tapirus terrestris), and in the monitoring campaigns of diseases in domestic animals and wildlife in the communities of Asuncion del Quiquibey and San Luis Chico.

The efforts made by CRTM in the conservation of biodiversity and sustainable development in the RBTCO PilonLajas were recognized internationally with the 2010 Equator Prize. On September 20, 2010, at the Museum of Natural History in New York, Clement Caimani the President of the CRTM, received the award on behalf of his organization, he also received a Special Recognition Award for the Applied Use of Indigenous Knowledge.