Amazon Conservation Association

Last updated
Amazon Conservation Association
TypeNon-governmental organization
Founded1999
HeadquartersWashington, DC
Revenue7,834,629 United States dollar (2016)  OOjs UI icon edit-ltr-progressive.svg
Website http://www.amazonconservation.org

Amazon Conservation Association (ACA) is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization working to conserve the biodiversity of the Amazon basin through the development of new scientific understanding, sustainable resource management and rational land-use policy.

Contents

Founded in 1999 by tropical ecologists Adrian Forsyth and Enrique Ortiz, the organization works in close partnership with the Peruvian nonprofit organization Asociación para la Conservación de la Cuenca Amazónica (ACCA), headquartered in Cuzco, and ACA-Bolivia, headquartered in La Paz. ACA and its sister organizations work by conducting scientific research and establishing partnerships with governments, local communities and other conservation organizations to expand the amount of land protected in the region.

A principal objective of the organization is to develop field research sites ranging from high elevation cloud forest to the lowland Amazonian forest. It is this altitudinal gradient that harbors the greatest known richness of species on the planet. At the ACA field sites university students and researchers are brought to study and observe this diverse ecosystem.

Programs

Monitoring of the Andean Amazon Project (MAAP)

Mining in Peru detected by ACA using Planet imagery Illegal Mining, Peru, 2016-01-29 by Planet Labs.jpg
Mining in Peru detected by ACA using Planet imagery

The Monitoring of the Andean Amazon Project (MAAP) uses remotely sensed images of deforestation events in the Andean Amazon to identify potential causes of forest loss. They combine the use of NASA Earth observations and derived forest loss datasets with high-resolution imagery from Planet and DigitalGlobe to identify drivers of deforestation. [1] These case studies are published regularly and have documented a variety of deforestation drivers including hydroelectric dams, fires, cattle ranching, gold mining, oil palm plantations, oil extraction, and agriculture. Results are synthesized to identify patterns in deforestation in the region. [2] MAAP reports have led to improved policies and conservation actions in the Amazon.

The Brazil Nut Project

ACA works with castanheiros (Brazil nut harvesters or producers) in the southwestern Amazon to both ensure that local and indigenous populations have a sustainable source of income and provide an incentive to conserve native forests. [3] Land areas that contain castanhais, or Brazil nut forests, range from several hundred to several thousand acres in size and are given in concession (territory) to local families for the nut collecting, also known as extraction. This extractive activity represents more than half the yearly income for thousands of families in these areas, and so far has politically justified the protection of the Brazil nut concession areas for extractive purposes. ACA's program offers technical support to castanheiros, helping them map their trees, redesign extractive trails, and earn more by teaching more efficient gathering techniques.

Mining expansion in Peru detected by ACA reported in a MAAP article using Planet imagery Illegal Mining, Peru, 2017-01-20 by Planet Labs.jpg
Mining expansion in Peru detected by ACA reported in a MAAP article using Planet imagery

Through its partner in Peru, La Asociación para la Conservación de la Cuenca Amazoncia (ACCA), ACA has helped to increase the number of Brazil nut producers in the department of Madre de Dios, Peru who have contracts and formal management plans to extract this sustainable resource. In 2006, ACCA assisted 93 small-scale producers gain government approval for Brazil nut extraction in 80,598 acres (326 km2) of forest. The organization worked with these producers to map their stands, develop forest management plans, and win 40-year concession contracts with the Peruvian National Institute for Natural Resources (INRENA). Producers were also trained in sustainable forest management through workshops, meetings, and technical assistance.

Los Amigos Conservation Concession

In 2000, ACA and its local partner ACCA established the world's first private conservation concession, called Los Amigos ("Friends", in Spanish). [4] The Los Amigos Conservation Concession lies at the mouth of the Los Amigos River and covers approximately 360,000 acres (1,500 km2) of old growth of Amazonian forest in the department of Madre de Dios in southeastern Peru. [5] Here, the organization focuses on sustainable forest management, research activities, conservation education in local schools, and natural resource management training for communities. The Los Amigos Biological Station, commonly known by its Spanish acronym, CICRA (Centro de Investigación y Capacitación Río Los Amigos) sits on a high terrace at the confluence of the Madre de Dios and Los Amigos rivers, contiguous to the Los Amigos Conservation Concession.

In 2005–2007, CICRA was the most active research station in the Amazon basin, hosting an average of 25 researchers and assistants per day. During the same period, it hosted 145 different research projects addressing animal behavior, biogeochemistry, botany, conservation biology, geology, hydrology, zoology, as well as biological inventories of 25 different taxa, ranging from copepods to marsupials. Most research visitors are associated with universities in Peru or abroad, and many receive funding to visit the station through ACA's and ACCA's grant programs. CICRA is also a leading training site for young Amazonian scientists and conservationists. Between 2002 and 2007, the station hosted 19 field courses, ranging from introductory courses on Amazonia to specialized courses on plant identification, ornithology, and arthropod biology.

Wayqecha Cloud Forest

The Wayqecha (meaning "friend" in Quechua) Research Center covers 1,450 acres (6 km2) of cloud forest habitat, and serves as an ecological buffer for Peru's Manú National Park. At 3,000  masl, the Wayqecha Biological Station sponsors research on cloud forest ecology and climate change and species adaptation. Since 2003, ACA has offered a competitive grant program for Peruvian students and international researchers that are interested in cloud forest science and conservation. [6]

Pampas del Heath

ACA-Bolivia works to understand the ecology of the Madidi National Park and the last portion of the pampas ecosystem, home of the maned wolf.

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Amazon rainforest</span> Large rainforest in South America

The Amazon rainforest, also called Amazon jungle or Amazonia, is a moist broadleaf tropical rainforest in the Amazon biome that covers most of the Amazon basin of South America. This basin encompasses 7,000,000 km2 (2,700,000 sq mi), of which 5,500,000 km2 (2,100,000 sq mi) are covered by the rainforest. This region includes territory belonging to nine nations and 3,344 formally acknowledged indigenous territories.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Amazon basin</span> Major drainage basin in South America drained via the Amazon River into the Atlantic Ocean

The Amazon basin is the part of South America drained by the Amazon River and its tributaries. The Amazon drainage basin covers an area of about 7,000,000 km2 (2,700,000 sq mi), or about 35.5 percent of the South American continent. It is located in the countries of Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, Guyana, Peru, Suriname, and Venezuela, as well as the territory of French Guiana.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Department of Madre de Dios</span> Departments of Peru

Madre de Dios is a department and region in southeastern Peru, bordering Brazil, Bolivia and the Peruvian departments of Puno, Cusco and Ucayali, in the Amazon Basin. Its capital is the city of Puerto Maldonado. It is also the third largest department in Peru, after Ucayali and Loreto. However, it is also the least densely populated department in Peru, as well as its least populous department. It has one of the lowest poverty rates in Peru.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Puerto Maldonado</span> Place in Madre de Dios, Peru

Puerto Maldonado is a city in southeastern Peru in the Amazon rainforest 55 kilometres (34 mi) west of the Bolivian border, located at the confluence of the Tambopata and Madre de Dios rivers. The latter river joins the Madeira River as a tributary of the Amazon. This city is the capital of the Madre de Dios Region.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Peruvian spider monkey</span> Species of New World monkey

The Peruvian spider monkey, also known as the black-faced black spider monkey, is a species of spider monkey that lives in Peru, as well as in Brazil and in Bolivia. At 60 centimetres long, they are relatively large among species of monkey, and their strong, prehensile tails can be up to 1 m (3 ft) long. Unlike many species of monkey, they have only a vestigial thumb, an adaptation which enables them to travel using brachiation. Peruvian spider monkeys live in groups of 20–30 individuals, but these groups are rarely all together simultaneously. The size and dynamics of the resulting subgroups vary with food availability and sociobehavioral activity. They prefer to eat fleshy fruit, but will change their diet in response to scarcity of ripe fruit. Individuals of this species also eat small animals, insects and leaves based on availability. Females separate from the band to give birth, typically in the fall. These females inhabit a group of core areas where resources are abundant in certain seasons. Typically, males exhibit ranging over longer distances than females, with movement of individuals enhancing the fluidity of subgroup size. Peruvian spider monkey are independent at about 10 months, with a lifespan of about 20 years.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Peruvian Amazonia</span> Area of the Amazon rainforest

Peruvian Amazonia, informally known locally as the Peruvian jungle or just the jungle, is the area of the Amazon rainforest included within the country of Peru, from east of the Andes to the borders with Ecuador, Colombia, Brazil and Bolivia. This region comprises 60% of the country and is marked by a large degree of biodiversity. Peru has the second-largest portion of the Amazon rainforest after the Brazilian Amazon.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Los Amigos Biological Station</span>

The Los Amigos Biological Station is a research station in lowland Amazonian forest at the base of Peru's southern Andes, at 270 masl in Department of Madre de Dios. The station's official name in Spanish is Centro de Investigación y Capacitación Río Los Amigos. It is commonly known by its Spanish acronym, CICRA.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Deforestation in Brazil</span> Conversion of forest to non-forest for human use in Brazil

Brazil once had the highest deforestation rate in the world and in 2005 still had the largest area of forest removed annually. Since 1970, over 700,000 square kilometres (270,000 sq mi) of the Amazon rainforest have been destroyed. In 2001, the Amazon was approximately 5,400,000 square kilometres (2,100,000 sq mi), which is only 87% of the Amazon's original size. According to official data, about 729,000 km² have already been deforested in the Amazon biome, which corresponds to 17% of the total. 300,000 km² have been deforested in the last 20 years.

The Wayqecha Biological Station is a tropical ecological research station near Peru's Manú National Park. This research station is located in the upper reaches of the river Cosñipata, an affluent of the Madre de Dios River, in the Paucartambo Province, Cusco Region. The station ranges from 2200 to 3700 m in elevation and includes several Andean ecosystems, such as montane forests, elfin forests, montane scrub and high-Andean grassland (puna). These ecosystems are connected by a series of trails and by the road Paucartambo-Shintuya. The station was established in 2005 and is managed by two non-governmental organizations: the Peruvian NGO Asociación para la Conservación de la Cuenca Amazónica (ACCA) and the US-based Amazon Conservation Association (ACA), which also manages the Los Amigos Biological Station in the lowland rainforest of southeastern Peru.

Don Julio Gualberto García Agapito was a Peruvian environmentalist who was murdered on February 26, 2008 after reporting a shipment of illegally harvested mahogany in Peru. Don Julio was Lieutenant Governor of the town of Alerta in the Tahuamanu Province of Madre de Dios, Peru.

Alto Purús National Park is a national park in the Amazon rainforest of Peru, established in 2004. It covers an area of 2,510,694.41 ha (9,693.85 sq mi) in the provinces of Purús (Ucayali), Tahuamanu and Tambopata.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tambopata River</span> River in Bolivia, Peru

The Tambopata River is a river in southeastern Peru and northwestern Bolivia. Most is in the Madre de Dios and Puno regions in Peru, but the upper parts of the river forms the border between Peru and Bolivia, and its origin is in La Paz department in Bolivia. The Tambopata River is a tributary of the Madre de Dios River and merges into this river at the city of Puerto Maldonado. The river flows through the Tambopata National Reserve.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Deforestation of the Amazon rainforest</span>

The Amazon rainforest, spanning an area of 3,000,000 km2, is the world's largest rainforest. It encompasses the largest and most biodiverse tropical rainforest on the planet, representing over half of all rainforests. The Amazon region includes the territories of nine nations, with Brazil containing the majority (60%), followed by Peru (13%), Colombia (10%), and smaller portions in Venezuela, Ecuador, Bolivia, Guyana, Suriname, and French Guiana.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Extractive reserve</span> Land category in Brazil, protected for sustainable use

An extractive reserve is a type of sustainable use protected area in Brazil. The land is publicly owned, but the people who live there have the right to traditional extractive practices, such as hunting, fishing and harvesting wild plants.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Southwest Amazon moist forests</span>

The Southwest Amazon moist forests (NT0166) is an ecoregion located in the Upper Amazon basin.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Amazon biome</span> Ecological region of South America

The Amazon biome contains the Amazon rainforest, an area of tropical rainforest, and other ecoregions that cover most of the Amazon basin and some adjacent areas to the north and east. The biome contains blackwater and whitewater flooded forest, lowland and montane terra firma forest, bamboo and palm forest, savanna, sandy heath and alpine tundra. Some areas of the biome are threatened by deforestation for timber and to make way for pasture or soybean plantations.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Las Piedras River (Peru)</span> River in Peru

The Las Piedras River is a major tributary of the Madre de Dios River in the southeast Peruvian Amazon.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Philip Fearnside</span>

Philip Martin Fearnside is an American biologist and scientist, active for many years in Brazil, where he developed the most important part of his career and gained wide national and international notoriety.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">2019 Amazon rainforest wildfires</span> Wildfires in Brazil

The 2019 Amazon rainforest wildfires season saw a year-to-year surge in fires occurring in the Amazon rainforest and Amazon biome within Brazil, Bolivia, Paraguay, and Peru during that year's Amazonian tropical dry season. Fires normally occur around the dry season as slash-and-burn methods are used to clear the forest to make way for agriculture, livestock, logging, and mining, leading to deforestation of the Amazon rainforest. Such activity is generally illegal within these nations, but enforcement of environmental protection can be lax. The increased rates of fire counts in 2019 led to international concern about the fate of the Amazon rainforest, which is the world's largest terrestrial carbon dioxide sink and plays a significant role in mitigating global warming.

The Matsés National Reserve is a protected area of Peru located in the Loreto Region, Peruvian Amazon. It has an area of 420,635.34 has..

References

  1. "Methodology". MAAP. 2015-04-27. Retrieved 2018-05-10.
  2. "About MAAP". MAAP. 2016-09-01. Retrieved 2018-05-10.
  3. "Conserving Brazil Nut Forests". www.amazonconservation.org. Retrieved 14 August 2020.
  4. "Concesiones para conservación". www.inrena.gob.pe. National Institute of Natural Resources, Peru. 18 January 2005. Archived from the original on 2007-09-17. Retrieved 26 October 2007.
  5. Janovec, John; Galvan, Adan (14 August 2003). "The Los Amigos Conservation Area". cnx.org. Archived from the original on 20 July 2008. Retrieved 26 October 2007.
  6. "Funding Research Today for a Sustainable Tomorrow". www.amazonconservation.org. 22 October 2006. Retrieved 14 August 2020. See also: "Field Research Grants". www.amazonconservation.org. Archived from the original on 2007-10-30.