LUCIO AND CHASCAS, BOLIVIA

Lucio, a farmer, lives with his wife and daughter. In 2021, floods on a scale never before seen in the area, swept away everything in their path. Lucio lost all of his crops, and in its current state, more than half his land is now useless for planting as it is covered with stones, sand, and mud.

He, like many in the community, is in a precarious economic situation, since he had everything invested in his crops. Lucio is trying to persuade the local authorities that a retaining wall be built on the river, but if this doesn’t happen, he is pessimistic that the community can recover. And given the increasing regularity of climate change-induced events, he thinks that it is only a matter of time before this happens again.

Lucio sees a huge change from when he was a child. People are beginning to abandon their farms and taking safer jobs like construction work.

A strong, proud man, he was on the shoot for quite some weeks, and would often help the crew with their work, although he did not need to. The money he earned on the shoot helped pay off the debts from the loss of his land.

Chascas, a spider monkey, is about three years old. Senda Verde received a call about Chascas after her mother was killed in order to get the babies. This was a rare case where the mother had twins. Both siblings were kept by a family, but the male died when both fell from the roof while playing.

Once she arrived at Senda Verde, around five months old, Chascas would have nightmare flashbacks, screaming, panicking, every night for a couple of years. Now, however, Chascas is a very happy, free-roaming monkey, part of the gang, and loves new baby arrivals.

The black-faced spider monkey is listed as endangered, with an estimated 50 percent population decline over the past fifty years. Habitat loss from deforestation—for cattle farming, agriculture, mining, and of course logging—is one of the major reasons. But also, as usual, they are hunted illegally for food, and babies are captured for the illegal pet trade.