Christian churches throughout the world celebrate Palm Sunday by distributing palm fronds to the faithful. In Columbia, the palm of choice is the national tree, the Quindío wax palm. Harvesters typically cut down the entire wax palm tree, including some that are 200 years old. They then strip the palm of fronds, and sell the fronds for church use.
This is bad news for Colombia’s critically endangered yellow-eared parrots, which nest only in the Quindío wax palm and also eat its fruit. The yellow-eared parrot looks something like a green and yellow macaw. Its name comes from yellow ear patches that are part of a mask-like band of yellow across its head. There are only about 660 of the parrots left.
The conservation campaign to save the parrots and the palms may be the most successful in Columbia’s history. The country banned the harvest of wax palms, and even rebel guerillas enforce the sanction. Thanks to the palms and the parrots, in Columbia today celebrating the environment has become a part of Easter.
A similar campaign began this year in Ecuador to preserve that country’s wax palms and its increasingly-rare golden-plumed parakeet.
This year Palm Sunday is on April 1.
