20 for 20: Celebrating Wayqecha, the Only Cloud Forest Research Station in Peru

Wayqecha Cloud Forest Research Station part of 20 for 20 Years of Conservation Wins by Amazon ConservationAmazon Conservation’s Wayqecha Research Station and Conservation Hub, the only cloud forest research station in Peru, officially opened its doors in 2006. Located at 2,900 m of elevation in the cloud forest region of Cusco and just 175 km from our Los Amigos Conservation Hub in the Amazonian lowlands, these research sites together provide a full panorama of the biodiversity and climate changes in the Andes-Amazon region.

Wayqecha Research Station protects the cloud forest’s biodiversity and facilitates research that leads to a better understanding of this ecosystem. Cloud forests receive hundreds of inches of rain every year and their trees, mosses and soil work as giant sponges capturing the abundant rainfall and then releasing it slowly into a network of small streams and creeks that represent the smallest tributaries of the vast Amazon drainage.

Cloud forests are of critical conservation value for many reasons, including containing a vast storehouse of species, many of them narrowly endemic, and also serve as natural corridors for plant and animal species pushed uphill by global warming.

Canopy Walkway at Wayqecha Cloud Forest Research Station and Conservation HubAdditionally, three years after opening, we added the first-ever canopy walkway in an Amazonian highland cloud forest. The canopy walkway provides access to the upper parts of the forest, which is where a lot of natural activity is, including an amazing diversity of bromeliad, orchids, birds and butterflies. 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. 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 Cloud Forest Canopy. 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.

This is part of a series commemorating our 20th anniversary protecting the Amazon. We’re celebrating this milestone with a look back at our 20 biggest conservation wins over the past 20 years. Click here to support protected areas and research stations around the Amazon.

20 for 20: Deforestation Decreases 92% After Years of Work Leads to Operation Mercury

Operation Mercury Before and After Illegal Gold Mining Intervention as part of 20 for 20 Years of Conservation Wins by Amazon ConservationFor decades, the southern region of Madre de Dios had been plagued by unmanaged and illegal gold mining that converted once thriving habitats into wastelands, and contaminated lands and rivers with mercury. This became so severe that the Peruvian government declared a state of emergency, and subsequently launched Operation Mercury, a series of highly-coordinated military interventions that apprehended illegal gold miners and destroyed the mining camps that not only destroy thousands of acres of forests, but were the breeding ground for human trafficking, child labor, sex slavery, and hired hit men.

The result was immediate: a 92% decrease in deforestation caused by illegal gold mining in the region. This intervention was a culmination of years of work.

For the past five years, our deforestation satellite monitoring program has given the Peruvian government real-time reports on illegal deforestation. We applied our satellite monitoring expertise to build the government’s capacity in understanding and using this high-tech information within the judicial system, by training judges, prosecutors, and government officials, as well as creating specialized offices to conduct their own satellite monitoring. Since often the complexity and bureaucracy inherent in governments makes it difficult for agencies to step out of their own silos to effectively work together on fighting complex environmental crimes, we also worked to establish the formal intra-governmental relationships necessary for action to take place. Now the government has a working system – called the National System for Control and Monitoring – that uses high-tech information and is able to coordinate large-scale interventions like Operation Mercury.

This is part of a series commemorating our 20th anniversary protecting the Amazon. We’re celebrating this milestone with a look back at our 20 biggest conservation wins over the past 20 years. Click here to support more capacity-building conservation programs in the Amazon.

MAAP: Fires In The Bolivian Amazon 2020

Base Map. Major fires in the Bolivian Amazon during 2020. Data: MAAP/ACEAA.
Base Map. Major fires in the Bolivian Amazon during 2020. Data: MAAP/ACEAA.

We have detected 120 major fires this year in the Bolivian Amazon, as of the first of October (see Base Map).*

The majority of these fires (54%) occurred in savannas, located in the department of Beni.

Another 38% of the major fires were located in forests, mostly in the dry forests of the Chiquitano.

We emphasize that 25% of the major fires were located in Protected Areas (see below).

 

*The data, updated through October 1, is based on our novel real-time Amazon Fires Monitoring app, which is based on the detection of elevated aerosol emissions (by the European Space Agency’s Sentinel-5 satellite) that indicate the burning of large amounts of biomass (defined here as a “major fire”).

 

 

Major Fires in Protected Areas of the Bolivian Amazon in 2020. Data: MAAP/ACEAA.
Major Fires in Protected Areas of the Bolivian Amazon in 2020. Data: MAAP/ACEAA.

Major Fires in Protected Areas

The most impacted Protected Areas are Noel Kempff Mercado National Park (21,000 acres burned), and Copaibo Municipal Protected Area (99,000 acres burned hectares).

Other impacted Protected Areas impacted include Iténez National Park, Keneth Lee Reserve and Pampas del Río Yacuma Integrated Management Natural Area.

 

Satellite Images of the Major Fires in the Bolivian Amazon

We present a series of high-resolution satellite images of the major fires in the Bolivian Amazon.

Image 1 shows a major fire in the extreme northwest of Noel Kempff Mercado National Park in September. Note that the fires are burning in the transition between Amazon forest and savanna.

Image 1. Major Fire #61 (Sept 8, 2020). Data: Planet.
Image 1. Major Fire #61 (Sept 8, 2020). Data: Planet.

Image 2 shows a major fire in Copaibo Municipal Protected Area in September. Note that it is located in the transition zone of the moist Amazon forest and Chiquitano dry forest.

Image 2. Major Fire #65 (September 7, 2020). Data: Planet.
Image 2. Major Fire #65 (September 7, 2020). Data: Planet.

Image 3 shows another major fire in Copaibo Municipal Protected Area, also in the transition zone of the Amazon forest and the Chiquitano dry forest.

Image 3. Major Fire #51 (September 4, 2020). Data: Planet.
Image 3. Major Fire #51 (September 4, 2020). Data: Planet.

Image 4 shows a major fire in the savannas of Beni.

Image 4. Major Fire #68 (September 12, 2020). Data: Planet.
Image 4. Major Fire #68 (September 12, 2020). Data: Planet.

 

Citation

Finer M, Ariñez A (2020) Fires in the Bolivian Amazon 2020. MAAP.