Ecosystem Conservation & Culture: The Peruvian Amazon Project
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nded by an extraordinary diversity of lifeforms, we will have the unique opportunity to take part in on-going research at a biological station, discuss conservation strategy with local activists and research biologists, and study forests, rivers, plants, and animals under the guidance of indigenous experts. In Peru, we can expect to encounter creatures such as giant otters, river dolphins, anacondas, macaws, and several species of monkeys as we explore forests, wetlands, lakes, creeks, rivers, and floodplains. Here too we reside in indigenous and Ribereño (River-people) communities to learn firsthand how finely-tuned environmental knowledge shapes their culture. We also work with conservationists whose management strategies address looming threats to wildlife populations, fisheries, ecosystems, and indigenous communities.
THE PROJECT
During our program we will explore in depth field research methods, conservation and resource management in the upper Amazon, and Amazoni
an culture. This will enable us to gain a hands-on introduction to field techniques for biological and ecological research in Peru while exploring onsite pressing conservation issues and the culture of native Amazonian society.
Team activities begin at Los Amigos Research Center, the most active biological station in the Peruvian Amazon, located within a 20 million-acre conservation reserve adjacent to Manu National Park, where abundant wildlife includes giant otters, harpy eagles, spider monkeys, and jaguars. Los Amigos biologists and researchers will instruct us in field methods and integrate us into ongoing research projects such as boat-based river transects to track reptile, bird, and mammal populations, forest transects to track mammal/bird populations, and forest data collection within permanent study plots.
On our next segment we examine onsite conservation efforts in one of Peru’s largest and most biodiverse protected areas, Bahuaja Sonene National Park and Tambopata National Reserve, meeting with park managers, exploring the forest with researchers, and residing in a Ribereño community adjacent to the Reserve. In our third segment we travel to regional wildlands to learn how indigenous groups promote cultural, territorial, and environmental integrity.
We then travel to the central and northern Peruvian Amazon where we reside in a Shipibo indigenous community on the Rio Ucayali and a Ribereño community in Pacaya Samiria National Reserve, one of the largest conservation areas in the Americas. Our purpose is to learn how these people relate to forests, rivers, lakes, and biological resources. As we will discover, this unique instruction is crucial to our grasp of conservation challenges and solutions in the region. Here too, we will also learn basic ethnographic field methods while undertaking individual studies on local perspectives of flora, fauna, terrestrial, and aquatic environments.
The insights gained by immersing ourselves in the abundant life of the upper Amazon, rubbing elbows with scientists and locals, negotiating trails, traveling in dugout canoes, and grappling with questions of biological and cultural survival will form a basis to help us consider future human and environmental issues.
The on site In-country Fee is $2270 (approximately)
Read the Full Project Description
PROJECT LEADER
TBD