Comunidad Inti Wara Yassi

Comunidad Inti Wara Yassi (CIWY) is a Bolivian non-governmental organization dedicated to environmental education and the care of sick, mistreated and abandoned wildlife.[3][4] In 1986, Juan Carlos Antezana and Tania "Nena" Baltazar began working with impoverished youth in a small neighborhood in El Alto, La Paz.They worked to support the needs of miners' children who had relocated to the area, providing alternative education including carpentry workshops, tailoring, horticulture in greenhouses and other activities.This deeply affected the children, and they agreed to create an environmental movement with the aim of showing the public the negative effect of destroying the rainforest and other activities that cause damage to nature.CIWY's vision is a world in which wildlife thrives and lives freely in its natural habitat, free from the dangers of poaching and the destruction of its ecosystems.CIWY collaborates with the Bolivian authorities to enforce the law, to seize and rescue animals from poachers and merchants, as well as zoos when conditions do not meet legal requirements.The sanctuaries are managed by a team of professionals and volunteers from around the world..[6][4][3] Parque Machía is situated in Villa Tunari in Chapare Province, in the department of Cochabamba.The natural habitat within Parque Ambue Ari is an ideal location to care for jaguars, pumas, ocelots, exotic birds, tapirs, coati and red howler monkeys; however, local farmers have encroached on the sanctuary's land and hunters have been found within its territory.Its location is important for the development of CIWY's work, as it is linked to the Madidi National Park, a 1.8-million hectare reserve and an ideal land for reintroduction programs.Through the years, as CIWY's work began to encompass wildlife care and environmentalism, the type of education provided changed to focus on these topics.