In a meeting with representatives from the Amarakaeri Communal Reserve, an indigenous community in Peru, and the Puerto Azul Mberowe Native Community, we established a joint action plan to protect three key areas in the Peruvian Amazon: the Madre de Dios Territorial Reserve, the Amarakaeri Communal Reserve, and our Los Amigos Conservation Concession.

During the meeting Juan Loja, the Director of our sister organization’s (Conservación Amazónica – ACCA) Madre de Dios office, and the president of Amarakaeri’s leadership group, Walter Quertehuari, agreed there is a mutual need to join forces to reduce illegal activities, such as the illegal logging that threatens the three territories. They highlighted the importance of these efforts to strengthen the technology-based deforestation monitoring efforts in the region and promote sustainable economic activities in the ten indigenous communities that are partners of the reserve.

Asvín Flórez, head of the Amarakaeri Communal Reserve, noted that the collective work between the community, co-management, and Conservación Amazónica – ACCA will be important to continue strengthening livelihood of communities through conservation. Venancio Corisepa, another member of the community, said one of the first actions would be to establish boundaries between their community and the Los Amigos Concession. In addition, they proposed the continuation of strengthening and supporting community forest rangers that guard the forests.

Juan Loja also underlined the importance of consolidating this joint venture between three organizations, since the collaborative work with Puerto Azul will help us protect the proposed Madre de Dios Territorial Reserve where uncontacted indigenous peoples (referred to by the acronym PIACI in Spanish) reside.

Image by International Space Station

An image provided by the International Space Station has been circulating around the internet showing an aerial view of cascading ‘rivers of gold’ in the Peruvian Amazon. These fascinating ‘rivers’ are in fact destructive and toxic pits that form as a result of illegal gold mining activities. Though these pits are a common sight for our GIS team, many media companies and the subsequent public were shocked by this unusual sight, inspiring a wave of recent news articles from around the world.

With the increase in illegal gold mining in the Peruvian Amazon come deforestation, mercury poisoning to community water sources, and social conflicts including prostitution and forced labor. As the demand for gold continues to increase, this illegal practice has expanded farther and farther into sensitive Amazonian ecosystems.

However, we’re keeping an eye on these activities from above, and then use this information to aid authorities working on the ground down below. Satellite imagery company Planet published an article about how we were using data from satellite imagery to crack down on illegal gold mining. “The vastness of the Amazon can be a major challenge to its conservation, but technology, especially satellites, have emerged as an extremely powerful tool,” says Dr. Matt Finer, our Senior Research Specialist and Director of their Monitoring of the Andean Amazon Project (MAAP).  “With the latest generation of satellites and related algorithms, we have been able to go from annual to more real-time monitoring. And it is this real-timeness that makes all the difference in linking this technology with effective policy action on the ground to reduce and avoid deforestation.”  

MAAP aims to document the most urgent deforestation cases in near real-time and identify the direct causes of deforestation in the Andean Amazon. In doing so, MAAP is able to better understand larger-scale deforestation patterns, hotspots, and drivers. With this information, MAAP is able to improve policy and conservation action based on this cutting-edge technical information. 

“Publishing this imagery is a new way to show the problem”, Matt Finer told Spanish news giant Agencia Efe. “It allows more people on a global scale to see it.”

This February saw the installment of a fish farm that will help generate sustainable livelihoods in the Peruvian Amazon and act as an important food source for local people. Located in the small district of Inambari, Madre de Dios near major conservation areas like the extensive National Tambopata Reserve, this initiative contributes to the development of aquaculture activities by offering low-cost fish feed for the different stages of cultivation of the Piaractus brachypomus fish – commonly known as “Paco” -, as well as other omnivorous Amazonian species. Paco are an important food source for local communities as it has a high protein content. The feed has been put through an ‘extrusion’ method, which means that it has gone through a cooking process that uses high temperatures and pressure for a short period of time.

The idea for this initiative began with a local association of aquaculturists (called Asociación de Acuicultores de Primavera Alta y Primavera Baja) when they saw the need to lower the costs of running sustainable fish farms to make them better alternatives to other forms of livelihoods that may destroy the rainforest. Thanks to financing by Amazon Conservation and the Peruvian government’s National Program for Innovation in Fisheries and Agriculture (PNIPA), this association is now able to feed their paco fish farms at a lower cost, also showing their neighboring communities that conservation and sustainable living can be done.

This is one of the many ways our Alliance is promoting sustainable livelihoods and food security for people who call the Amazon home. 

Despite the challenges of not being able to enter conservation areas and regularly meet with the communities that we partner with due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, we’ve been able to adapt our conservation training programs to be delivered through online.

Recently, our sister organization in Bolivia, Conservación Amazónica – ACEAA, hosted a series of webinars on sustainable forest products. This included a webinar on açaí, a very important fruit that grows in the Amazon Rainforest. Families harvest these berries and sell them at local and regional markets as a key source of income. Because açaí cannot survive in a monoculture environment, that is, it can only grow in wild forests, local communities have the incentive of protecting their forests so that this valuable berry can thrive.

Additionally, from February 9 -11 Conservación Amazónica – ACEAA led a series of workshops on ways to improve how ecological data is used in Bolivia, in partnership with NatureServe and iDiv Biodiv Research. These virtual forums brought together nearly 90 experts from public and private organizations that specialize in the generation of biodiversity data and its applications to  conservation in the country as part of the TAO (Tropical Andes Observatory) Project. 

The groups aimed to find solutions for how biodiversity data is generated, integrated and delivered to decision makers in critical biodiversity points such as the tropical Andes so that they can be taken into consideration when policies are developed around conservation. Results and best practices developed in the workshop are now being compiled and will be distributed to partners in Peru, Ecuador, Spain and Germany for knowledge sharing and implementation in other areas. 

Putting science at technology to work for conservation is one of our three core approaches to protecting the Amazon, and our conservation hubs serve as important research centers for scientists from around the world to conduct studies in rainforest environments. But according to data from the UNESCO Institute of Statistics, less than 30% of the world’s researchers are women, and environmental conservation has historically been known as a male-dominated field. This #WomenInScience Day, we highlight some of the impressive scientists in our organization that are reinforcing this career path for future young researchers interested in conservation.  

 Ruthmery Pillco, originally from a small village outside of Cuzco, Peru, is the coordinator for the Andean spectacled bear research project at our Wayqecha Biological Station. She is a trilingual speaker of Spanish, English, and Quechua, and has extensive experience as a field biologist, having written an undergraduate thesis on woolly monkeys and working on a master’s one about Andean plants and climate change. When asked why she chose biology as a career, Ruthmery replied that, “From a very young age I have always been curious, and wondered why things are [the way they are] and how to solve problems,” and cites her greatest scientific accomplishment as the propagation of the Costa Rican Pleodendron, which is an extremely rare tree species considered a “living dinosaur”. Only 5 mature trees are known in the world, and the seeds that she was able to plant is helping prevent the species from becoming extinct.  Regarding her Andean spectacled bear research at Wayqecha, she most looks forward to learning more about the ecology of this species and how it will be affected by climate change, telling us that, “Peru and the planet have an incredible biodiversity of plants and animals, many of which are disappearing due to human activity. As people, we have a considerable responsibility to preserve this great legacy, nature, and as a researcher, I want to support this important commitment.”

Over at our sister organization Conservación Amazónica – ACEAA in Bolivia, we highlight researcher Lucero Hernani Lineros, who coordinated with the Amazon University of Pando to conduct research on primates at our Tahumanu Biological Station in Bolivia. Lucero cites this experience as the start of her passion for studying primates, though her inclination towards a career in science began in her childhood. With science, she says, “I was able to follow my curiosity and desire to promote to greater society the vision of unity between humans and nature.” When asked about what she thought was her biggest achievement, she highlights a research project she conducted over a span of two years studying the effect of anthrophony on the behavior and physiology of grey titi (Plecturocebus donacophylus),a project that will be shared in the International Congress of Primatology of IPS – SlaPrim in Ecuador next year.

Lucía Castro, the Science Projects Coordinator at Conservación Amazónica – ACCA in Peru, recalls that since she was little, she was drawn to nature as it piqued her curiosity. “Over time,” she says, “I wanted to work to protect it.” As a Science Projects Coordinator, Lucia is always in contact with researchers, working together to implement technology that assists conservation studies. She also helps with forest conservation initiatives, assuring the local populations in Cusco and Madre de Dios have sustainable livelihoods. When asked about what her goal was, Lucia replies, “My intention is to help make available the scientific information compiled by Conservación Amazónica – ACCA in the tropical Andes, so that together with researchers and scientists from around the world, we can seek solutions to the environmental problems of today and tomorrow.”

Finally, Judith Westveer is our Science Director at Conservación Amazónica – ACCA and currently lives in Madre de Dios, Peru, which is a long way from her home in the Netherlands. Judith helps drive conservation forward by developing the science vision for our three conservation hubs in Peru, and wants to make sure that the Andean Amazon ecosystem is studied so that it can be better protected. Judith was drawn to pursuing a career in science because in addition to being naturally talented in math and biology in school, she believes that “nature is infinitely interesting, especially how all the plants and animals live together and depend on each other.” This, in part, led her to the field of conservation. She tells us, “I witnessed with my own eyes how nature is being destroyed on a large scale. The subjects I studied during my bachelor’s, master’s, and PhD were in sensitive areas that may no longer exist. I feel called to counteract this destruction, by the intrinsic value of nature.” Additionally, Judith feels her greatest scientific accomplishment is not her various publications on wetland restoration during her Ph.D, but the presentations and conversations she had with local communities, provincial working groups, and the Dutch government based on her scientific results. With this, “they understand how the results of my research could lead to action, and thus rivers and streams are now better managed and protected.”

Scientists like these incredible women take on important initiatives to protect forest, research critical conservation topics, and advance our knowledge of the Amazon. We are grateful for all the incredible work they do!

Marcapata Ccollana, an indigenous community of Quechua origin in Cuzco, Peru has just been established as an agrobiodiversity zone with the help of our sister organization, Conservación Amazónica – ACCA. More than 55,800 acres of vast agricultural genetic diversity and ancestral lands are officially protected, which preserves various types of endemic Andean root vegetables.

Located in the Quispicanchi province in Cusco, Marcapata Ccollana’s altitudinal gradient ranges from 9,100 ft -17,000 ft (2,800 m – 5,200 m) above sea level. These conditions favor the growth of more than 99 varieties of potatoes, 25 of corn, 56 types of unique root vegetables, and multiple varieties of quinoa, tarwi bean and kiwicha seed, which  are essential for the food security of 200 local families, especially in light of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Additionally, that Marcapata Ccollana is also “an important force of cultural diversity” is evidenced in the Quechuan “ayllu,” the communal structure that shapes the natural resource management of the area. This is in combination with other ancestral practices known to conserve agrobiodiversity, such as the Chuki, T’aya, and Wachu crop-rotation systems.

The recognition of Marcapata Ccollana as an agrobiodiversity zone was a community-driven effort with the support of our sister organization Conservación Amazónica – ACCA, the Peruvian National Protected Areas Service (SERNANP), the United Nations Development Program (UNDP), and the Regional Government of Cusco.

Creating a Mosaic of Protected Areas 

The Marcapata Ccollana Agrobiodiversity Zone is connected to the Ccollasuyo Agrobiodiversity Zone, established in November 2020, and to the Ausangate Regional Conservation Area, established with our support in 2019. This mosaic of conservation areas allows us to safeguard biological diversity and the quality of ecosystem services for the well-being and sustainable development of indigenous Andean communities such as the Phinaya, Sallani, Ccollasuyo and Marcapata Ccollana. In a context of climate crisis, this action increases the resilience of these ancestral lands.