The Macaw ProjectBringing Color Back to the Skies — One Rainforest at a Time
The Macaw Project celebrates the world’s leading parrot and macaw conservation organizations, and shines a spotlight on a single, audacious 10-year mission: returning the Great Green Macaw to the Bocas del Toro Archipelago of Panamá by 2030.
17 species. One shared crisis. A world of people fighting back.
Of the world’s 17 macaw species, several are Critically Endangered and two have already vanished from the wild — Spix’s Macaw only now returning through reintroduction. Habitat loss and the wildlife trade are the two forces conservationists are racing against, across every macaw range country in the Americas.
Almendro: Tree of Life
The Mountain Almond, or Almendro de Montaña (Dipteryx panamensis), is the single most important tree in the Great Green Macaw’s world — its cavities are the only nest sites the macaw reliably uses, and its seeds are a keystone food source. Watch the story of the “tree of life” and the giant parrot whose survival depends on it.
More on the almendro program →The Panama Project’s Macaw Project — Bocas del Toro
Since 2020, a community-driven reforestation effort has planted more than 15,000 Mountain Almond (Almendro de Montaña) trees across the Bocas del Toro Archipelago — laying the groundwork, tree by tree, for the region’s first Great Green Macaw breeding aviary and, ultimately, the species’ return to the wild.
15,000+ Trees Planted
Volunteer-planted Mountain Almond (Almendro de Montaña) trees across the archipelago, 2020–2024, each offsetting travel emissions and rebuilding future macaw habitat.
Aviary Construction Begins
Design work for the region’s first Great Green Macaw breeding aviary at Dolphin Bay is complete; construction phasing begins in 2027.
First Trees Fruit
The earliest almendro trees planted in 2020–2021 are expected to reach fruiting maturity around 2028, finally producing the seeds macaws depend on.
Reintroduction to the Wild
The 10-year goal: the first captive-bred Great Green Macaws released into a restored Bocas del Toro habitat.
Standing on the Shoulders of Global Macaw Conservation
From the Pantanal to the Peruvian Amazon to the Costa Rican lowlands, a small network of organizations has spent decades pulling macaw species back from the edge. Meet the groups whose research and methods inform every part of the Bocas del Toro plan.
See the World Map of Macaw Conservation