The Amazon Conservation Association, our Peruvian sister organization, Asociación para la Conservación de la Cuenca Amazónica (ACCA) and the Amazon Center for Environmental Education and Research (ACEER) partnered with Greenheart Conservation Company Ltd. to build the first-ever canopy walkway in an Amazonian highland cloud forest. The walkway will be a major resource for education and research at our Wayqecha Cloud Forest Research Center, which borders the southern tip of Manu National Park.

The canopy walkway provides access to the upper parts of the forest, which is where much of the action is, including an amazing diversity of bromeliad, orchids, birds and butterflies. This facility will offer new educational opportunities to researchers, students, tourists, and local communities to study the Andean cloud forest ecosystem from a bird’s-eye perspective.

The canopy walkway is the most sophisticated structure of its type anywhere. It consists of four aluminum towers connected by a 146-meter-long network of suspension bridges that pass under, through, and above the forest canopy. The tallest tower is 44 meters above ground level. One of the towers is a large, dedicated “classroom tower” where groups can assemble undisturbed on an upper platform for environmental education. Another important feature of the canopy walkway is a rigid truss bridge through a small rock canyon that leads to the base of a waterfall passing through an area with a completely distinct climate and extraordinary plant life. Other bridges lead visitors across forested slopes that cover eight distinct eco-zones, providing a view from more than 10,000 feet in elevation down to the Amazon basin.

ACA employed and trained a team of 12 local workers to build the canopy walkway. Of these, 10 were from the local community of Juan Velasco Alvarado de Sunchubamba, whose territory borders Wayqecha, one was from Pillcopata, and one was from the Queros Wachiperi native community. A thirteenth member, Njurah, comes from Nigeria with previous experience building canopy walkways, and is now acting as a foreman for the team as construction wraps up.

For more than a month these workers were delivered Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) and Greenheart-sponsored training focused on training, leadership, and conflict resolution. They were further trained in the skills necessary for construction and maintenance of the walkway itself. Many of these skills are transferable to other types of employment and for many this was their first taste of employment beyond farm labor. After the inauguration of the walkway, these workers are capable of any necessary maintenance and will likely continue to be employed as “environmental interpreters,” leading tours for students, researchers, and tourists.

The canopy walkway will be inaugurated this fall and will be available to researchers, students, the local community, and the general public. For more information about the walkway, contact us at info@amazonconservation.org . For a glimpse of the construction process, visit our new online Canopy Walkway Photo Gallery. (Photos above by Joshua Rapp and Julia Weintritt)

Oxford University professor Yadvinder Malhi has been working at ACA’s Wayqecha Cloud Forest Research Station as the director of the project, “Effects of Climate Change on a Tropical Ecosystem.”  As a leader in his field, Malhi is researching the implications of climate change for the cloud forest outside of Cusco, Peru.  What follows is our recent interview with Malhi: 

ACA: What changes might we see on a global scale, due to global warming?

YM: There will likely be many effects.  One of these is changes in the distribution of plant and animal species, which may or may not be able to adapt to the changes in climate.  In addition, rainfall patterns may be altered; places that have never had droughts might see months without rain–affecting plant, animal and human populations living in those regions.

ACA: In what way can the Amazon help to limit the effects of global warming?

YM: The Amazon is critical because it limits the effects of climate change.  Its forests absorb carbon dioxide and convert it into biomass.  Without this, global warming would be greater and more intense.  The influence of the Amazon on rain cycles is significant since it ensures that rainwater is retained and returned to the clouds to generate new rainfall.  Without the Amazon, water would go directly to the rivers and from there to the ocean and we’d then all have less water available.

ACA: What does your research in the cloud forests of Cusco, Peru involve?

YM: We work closely with the San Antonio Abad University of Cusco (UNSAAC), Oxford University in England, Wake Forest University in the United States and the University of Edinburgh in Scotland.  Over the course of four to six years, we are researching the carbon and water cycles in the Amazonian cloud forest, as well as the distribution of plant and animal species and how climate change can affect this distribution. This project is part of a larger one that is studying other types of Amazonian forests at sites in Brazil, Colombia, Bolivia, and northern Peru.  We are also using a system of satellite imagery to see the Amazon from space and observe variations in climate across different Amazonian areas.

ACA: What is the importance of ACA’s Wayqecha Cloud Forest Research Center?

YM: Of the two cloud forest research sites, Wayqecha is the best.  There are other sites—in Ecuador and other areas of the tropical world, but neither Africa nor Asia has sites like this.  That’s why the research we are conducting is not only important to Cusco and Peru, but to all of Latin America and the globe.

ACA: Why is Peru a natural laboratory?

YM: Peru is one of the most vulnerable areas to climate change because of the Andes Mountains, the Amazon and cities like Lima, located in the desert, which need water from the mountains.  Without that water source, they would disappear.  The Andes are “hot spots” or focal points of global warming.  That’s why Peru is a good place to learn about adaptation to climate change; it serves as a natural laboratory because of its sensitivity to global warming.

ACA: When will you finish this project?

YM: It will be another four years; I expect to finish by 2012 with the help of local Peruvian scholars.  That’s why we’re training students from Cusco and other regions of Peru, those that are working towards Master’s and Doctoral degrees.  We think it is important to train them as this work should be led by Peruvians themselves.

ACA: What is the role of UNSAAC and the Amazon Conservation Association?

YM: There is a strong collaboration between us; with UNSAAC (Universidad Nacional de San Antonio Abad del Cusco) through students and professors and ACA, which offers a good deal of support through scholarships for Peruvian and foreign students as well as the entire infrastructure of the Wayqecha Research Center in the cloud forest of Cusco and the Los Amigos Research Station (CICRA) in the Amazon rainforest in Madre de Dios – two research centers in strategic areas that are dedicated to comprehensive research and conservation of the Amazon basin in southeastern Peru.

ACA: What can our readers do to help?

YM: We can protect the Amazon, but global action will be important. North America, Europe, China and India and even Latin American countries like Peru have to facilitate studies and research. Thankfully, politicians are already beginning to understand that the greatest danger to the world this century is climate change.  I have a lot of hope that decisions and actions will be taken in the next few years.  Some countries already encourage limiting carbon dioxide emissions—to be successful, we all need to work together.

We are happy to welcome Dr. Adrian Tejedor as our new Science Manager based at CICRA, our research station in Madre de Dios, Peru. CICRA is the busiest research station in the Amazon basin, where we’ve  hosted over 450 researchers and assistants to date. Adrian has a PhD in Ecology, Evolution, and Behavior from the City University of New York and extensive experience studying neotropical evolution and biogeography. Adrian has led a range of research in tropical ecology and written several scientific publications on bat biology and evolution. Adrian coordinates research, courses and the scholarship program at CICRA and oversees the science program for ACA.

The Manu-Tambopata Corridor Initiative (MAT) was launched in February 2009 to conserve one of the most important biodiversity hotspots in the world, a 519,000 acre (210,000 hectare) area of rainforest in the Peruvian Amazon. This initiative is the centerpiece of ACA’s efforts to lessen the environmental impacts of the Interoceanic Highway, a transcontinental road that models predict could produce a swath of deforestation the size of Massachusetts and Connecticut combined.

The Interoceanic Highway is expected to be completed by 2011 and runs across the South American continent from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil on the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean ports of Peru. This expanse of paved highway threatens to create a band of deforestation of up to 62 miles (100km) across. Rampant deforestation in this region would likely change the weather patterns in the Amazon and emit millions of tons of carbon dioxide, a major greenhouse gas that contributes to climate change.

Establishing the Manu-Tambopata Corridor will protect the area between the Los Amigos Conservation Concession and the Tambopata reserve.  At the same time, it will conserve the last unprotected stretch at the heart of the Vilcabamba-Amboró Mega Corridor, which connects 16 protected areas from Peru to Bolivia in a chain of pristine tropical rainforest and pampa ecosystems. The region is home to an incredible abundance of plants and animals, including giant river otters, jaguars, scarlet macaws, spider monkeys, and wild vanilla trees among others. The MAT will connect world-famous Manu National Park to the Tambopata National Reserve by way of ACA’s Los Amigos Conservation Concession.

The objective of the MAT Corridor Initiative is to protect forest cover and ecological connectivity while creating sustainable economic and social benefits for local communities. ACA will work with rural families and regional policy makers to introduce a mosaic of conservation areas and sustainable land management practices that can make a profit, such as agroforestry, ecotourism, extraction of non-timber forest products, and carbon finance. The MAT initiative will promote these conservation-based industries as a substitute for predatory land uses that threaten to destroy the rainforest, such as logging, large-scale agriculture, cattle ranching and slash-and-burn farming. Stay tuned for updates as these exciting projects develop!

The Andean region’s smallest known frog was recently discovered in the cloud forest near Peru’s Manu National Park.  Over the past two years, 10 new frog species have been found in the forest around ACA’s Wayqecha Cloud Forest Research Station, which sits 9,824 feet above sea level in the department of Cusco. 

Smaller than a dime, the Noble’s pygmy frog (Noblella pygmae) surprised herpetologists studying at Wayqecha because it contradicts the informal rule that high altitude vertebrates tend to be larger than low altitude vertebrates.  Noble’s pygmy frog is among the smallest vertebrates ever found at this altitude, and one of the smallest amphibian species in the world.

In addition to its exceptionally small size, the species is unique because females lay only two eggs at a time, and instead of passing through an aquatic tadpole stage, baby frogs are land dwelling as soon as they hatch, which is possible thanks to the moist cloud forest habitat. Edgar Lehr from the Senckenberg Natural History Collection in Dresden, Germany and Swiss-Peruvian ecologist Alessandro Catenazzi from the University of California at Berkeley describe this new species in the latest issue of the journal Copeia.

The end of 2008 has been a time of change for ACA. In our most recent news, we would like to say goodbye to Dr. Nigel Pitman, ACA’s Science Director, who is moving to Brazil. We at ACA want to express our gratitude to Nigel, who has led the charge for strong and innovative science in all ACA’s programs.

Over the past 5+ years, Nigel has devoted his work to the development of the world-class Los Amigos Biological Station (CICRA). His warmth, creativity, and unfaltering dedication to science and conservation in the Peruvian Amazon will be greatly missed by both ACA and the CICRA community. We salute him for his numerous achievements (PDF, 5MB), including the Los Amigos biodiversity monitoring program, Science Saturdays, and turning CICRA into a bona fide research institution that welcomes researchers to a home away from home.

We would like to extend our thanks to Nigel and warm wishes to him and his family as they move on to new adventures.

In October 2008, ACA embarked on the final stage of our project to map all the Brazil nut stands in the northern territory of the indigenous Tacana. The tree census in the Bolivian Amazon is intended to support the Tacana petition for government recognition of their territorial land claim, known as a TCO in Bolivia.

Mapping activities and territorial management planning began in 2007, when ACA began work in the Puerto Pérez and El Tigre areas of Bolivia. Since then, much of the mapping has been conducted by CIPTA (Consejo Indígena del Pueblo Tacana), the Tacana People’s Council.

The data collected in this project will be used as the basis for natural resource management plans for the new TCO. These data will also be used to produce new knowledge about distribution of Brazil nut forests, nut production, harvesting dynamics, and growth rate.

Tacana TCO II History: Several years ago, CIPTA made a land claim in the Bolivian state of La Paz, known as TCO Tacana II, on behalf of four Tacana communities: Puerto Pérez, Las Mercedes, Toromonas, and El Tigre. However, since the TCO system requires indigenous petitioners to both prove that they actively use the natural resources within the land claim and create a natural resource management plan for the area, the claim was put on hold. Then, in April 2007, ACA began mapping locations of productive Brazil nut trees in the TCO to support the petition. By the end of 2007, researchers had completed a census of Brazil nut forests in Puerto Pérez and El Tigre. Between June and July 2008, they finished the Brazil nut census in Las Mercedes. So far a total of 13,019 Brazil nut trees have been mapped.

Gold mining in the Amazon can devastate riverside forests and human health. Artisanal gold miners, often from poor migrant communities, are lured to Madre de Dios, Peru by the dream of easy riches. The state is the most active alluvial gold mining region in Peru, producing between 50 and 100 tons of gold annually.

Unfortunately, that gold rarely enriches the artisanal gold-mining communities, who are sometimes entrapped by mounting debt for equipment, loans, and concession rentals. Instead, they find themselves locked in an endless cycle of deforestation, mercury poisoning, and poverty.

Artisanal miners extract gold from river bottoms and edges using dangerous techniques that expose them to high levels of mercury. Liquid mercury is used to amalgamate the gold, both at the site of extraction and later in shops or in homes where gold is boiled with mercury to form larger nuggets to sell to urban gold traders. Often, the mercury vapors waft out of cooking pots while the whole family looks on. The mercury can poison children and adults alike, causing extreme swelling, hair loss, weakened muscles, kidney dysfunction, insomnia, and memory impairment. In the environment, mercury is likely to reduce reproduction and cause birth defects in wildlife.

Over the last year, ACA has partnered with the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to produce new scientific data about mining-related mercury emissions in Madre de Dios and their impact on human health. In December 2007, USAID invited ACA to participate in a meeting with the EPA concerning mercury contamination, and a partnership was born. In May, ACA hosted EPA researchers at our project office in Puerto Maldonado, led tours of mining communities and gold shops, and introduced the EPA team to regional government representatives. On field trips, EPA researchers measured mercury levels that far exceeded any they had encountered at their other project sites, in countries as diverse as Brazil and Senegal. In the fall, the EPA team returned at the invitation of Madre de Dios regional government to install a pilot mercury-capture device that reduced mercury emissions from the amalgamation process by 90%.

Recently, these findings have sparked a dynamic conservation initiative, supported by ACA, the EPA, Argonne National Laboratory, Stanford University, and the Dirección Regional de Energia y Minas – Madre de Dios, to:

• Discover how much mercury is building up in the environment around gold mining communities by testing samples from plants, fish, soils, air, and people;
• Provide scientific data about mercury contamination to local decision makers; and
• Develop methods to limit these communities’ exposure to mercury.

One cornerstone of the initiative will be a mercury testing program for aquatic ecosystems. EPA-affiliated researchers plan to test the mercury levels of a variety of common food fish for sale at local markets, transcribing the results into a simple red-yellow-green guide for safe consumption, patterned on the Monterey Bay Aquarium’s popular Seafood Watch guide. As ACA seed-grant recipient Luis Fernandez noted, “Fish consumption is the most important pathway for human methylmercury contamination.”

Over the next year, look to ACA’s website to track progress on this exciting initiative and learn more about how we’re making conservation an attainable goal for local communities.

Figure from: “Mercury in the Environment” USGS Fact Sheet 146-00 (October 2000).