The Venezuelan biologist and environmentalist Jose Manuel Briceno Linares, recently won the National Geographic Award for Conservation Leadershipawarded annually to conservation groups to recognize and celebrate unsung conservation heroes in natural resource management and protection in Africa and Latin America, which recognized the Marguerite Parrot Preservation Program in the Macanao Peninsula, Nueva Esparta state.
during the program With Maduro+, the constitutional president of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, Nicolas Maduro Moros, introduced and congratulated the environmentalist, who was born in Caracas, but has worked for the last 20 years on Margarita Island with his team. Currently, he works as coordinator of the Parrot Conservation Program, and brought two specimens to the stage to show them to the public.
Briceño explained to the president that he has managed to create groups of ecoguardians, trained as field assistants, who for five months take care of the parrots in the dry forest of Macanao, whose habitat is currently protected by the Venezuelan State. “Since 1994 we proposed calling it a protected area,” he reported.
These specimens are characterized by their colored lines, and they also live on Margarita, in Lara, Falcón, Sucre, Anzoátegui, La Blanquilla Island, and outside of Venezuela they are in Bonaire and Curaçao. In these two Caribbean nations, they are also working on an action plan for the next 10 years.
#OnVideo?| Environmental biologist José Manuel Briceño, winner of the 2023 National Geographic Society Buffet Award, commented on his teamwork as leader of the Amazona barbadensis or Margariteña Parrot conservation organization.#WithMaduroMoreProduction pic.twitter.com/AszbrESd85
— VTV CHANNEL 8 (@VTVcanal8) July 11, 2023
“How proud of this work that is done anonymously that so many people do to conserve regions and species,” acknowledged the head of state.
“That is what I call the Venezuelan affirmative, it is a permanent, anonymous work, and it must be worthy of all the support,” said the national president, who recalled that in the program the protective group of the Spectacled bear of the Andes of Venezuela.
At the request of the president, the conservationist requested the recovery of a road in Macanao, for its asphalting and rehabilitation towards the protected area, a request that was immediately approved by the head of state, who gave instructions to the Minister of Ecosocialism, Joshua Lorca, to take action as soon as possible.
Finally, Briceño gave away a coloring book of the birds of Macanao, in addition to the endangered species entitled “The faces of extinction, threatened Venezuelan species.” Among these species are the northern spider monkey, the scarlet macaw, the condor, the woolly weasel, the July butterfly, the reed beetle, the giant water dog, and the spectacled bear.
“When you see this, you say: what else can we do?” said President Maduro, who urged the competent authorities to support all conservationists in Venezuela.
ask you @NicolasMaduro ratifies the support of the National Government to all the groups and movements that work for the conservation and protection of the planet’s species. pic.twitter.com/i2fmdoqqG1
– Presidential Press (@PresidencialVen) July 11, 2023
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