Dispatches from the Field & Project Summaries
Amazon Conservation Association – Peru (“Science & Tourism Come Together”)
April 16, 2009
For the first time, Los Amigos Research Station, or Centro Investigacion Capacitacion Rio Amigo (CICRA), is allowing tourists to stay and work alongside researchers in the Amazon. Taking a 5-hour boat-ride from the nearest city, visitors reach the research station and ascend over 200 steps to reach the 160,000 hectare preserve. Up until just a few years ago, this place was an active mining camp. When gold mining ended, the miners packed up and left the infrastructure behind. When officials from Los Amigos found the camp, most of the roofs were caved in and plants were growing in many of the buildings. In spite of this, the officials knew they had found the perfect spot. The kitchen made the camp suitable for researcher and tourist housing. There were also several buildings for offices, classrooms and other housing.
Guests who come to visit can go on several hikes through the rainforest with experienced guides, many of whom come from the local community. This site has a very high concentration of bird, mammal and bug species, so guests are guaranteed to get plenty of good pictures. Many of the species around CICRA are hard to find anywhere else in the world. Though they are typically the first to disappear when development (mining and farming) takes over, spider monkeys and razor-billed curasaos inhabit the area surrounding CICRA. Their presence here indicates a pristine forest.
Guests can also take boat-rides up the Amazon River to tour the area and see what mining and logging are doing to the environment. While both mining and logging create problems, Los Amigos Director Adrian Tejedor explained to us that logging is less problematic because it only opens up small areas of the forest. Mining, on the other hand, opens up huge areas of the forest and invites mercury contamination, which is either dumped in the river or burned and inhaled by the surrounding population. Hunters can devastate animals like the tapir, which only live in clay lakes. There are few of these areas around, so hunters know exactly where to go to find the animals and in one small area can wipe out an entire population.
Many of the guides here, like those from many of the places we visited, used to work in logging, mining or hunting businesses. According to Tejedor, most new immigrants to this area are searching for jobs and have very little connection with the forest and absolutely no conservation consciousness. Whenever possible, community members are hired on for different roles around the camp. Some are even allowed to help out on research projects. Even more importantly, a few people from the community are allowed to conduct their own research projects, like monitoring the short-eared dog and keeping track of species they identify while walking through the jungle.
Another way Tejedor hopes to inspire rainforest conservation is by focusing on educating the youth. Once a month, researchers from the station go out into area communities to educate and play games with the kids to teach them about the wonders of the forest. The kids then go home and spread their knowledge to their families. Tejedor hopes this education program will steer kids away from destructive professions like mining and logging.
Researchers at Los Amigos are trying to identify the types of flora and fauna in the area, the number of species living in the area, threats against them, and their characteristics so they can better understand how to protect them. Guests who stay at Los Amigos are allowed (and encouraged) to go along with researchers to conduct studies, monitor species, and even collect bugs for the scientists while out on walks.
One researcher we spoke to said Los Amigos is special to her because of the high concentration of long-horned beetles, her specialty. She also likes working with the guests, taking them out to her different project sites and teaching them about things they may not have seen before and may never see again. The work she and other researchers are doing here also supports Los Amigos as it quantifies just how many and what type of species can be found in this area. Los Amigos then supports the researchers by giving them a place to stay and work and helping them attain additional funding so they can continue their work.
One guest we spoke with said he appreciated that they hiked for 3 days and only saw 2 other people on the trails – it increased the chance that they would see animals without them getting spooked. He also loved the allure of the place and the feeling that at some point a jaguar had been walking on the very trail he was on, even though he didn’t get to see one while he was there. He also commented on one of the most amazing sights of his lifetime: Standing in the Amazon, looking out towards Peru, but seeing glaciers!
Instead of spending a vacation doing typical touristy activities, why not explore the Amazon and gain a greater appreciation for the rainforest?
Amazon Conservation Association – Peru (CICRA), Part II
April 15, 2009
If you want to see animals in their habitat, as we have learned, you have to get up early. So today the team went for a walk-along with one of the short-eared dogs that they are studying. The team had to hide behind trees to get ‘natural’ shots of the dog. It could tell something was there but it just couldn’t find them. When the dog came out and started growling, this brought a bunch of monkeys out to the trees and they were wound up and making a lot of noise so the team got really good photos of active monkeys too. Then back for a quick bite to eat and it was off to see the work of a lead entomologist. She showed us a few samples of her long horned beetles and talked about how the tourists at the site are helping her monitor beetles and collect beetles when they are out bird watching.
Our next interview was with Adrian Tejedor, the current Director of Los Amigos Biological Station (CICRA). He had a lot to say about how mining activities are affecting the research at the station and why Los Amigos is so special in terms of biodiversity. This reserve is 160,000 hectares (and combines three parks in the area – which are not parceled out) and so remote that in a few days stay you can see several monkey species, hundreds of birds, large mammals (including jaguars) and hundreds of bugs. In addition, on a really clear day, this is the only place that you can see glaciers in the Andes from the Amazon Rainforest. The research going on at this site is very crucial as they attempt to find out about the habits of species that are rarely seen and little is known about. Thus far, over 4,631 species have been identified at the site, including humans, says Adrian.
To find out more about these unknown species we talked with a local villager who left logging and mining to come back and work in the forest. Like many villagers we talked to, Emeterio Nuncca Sencia, is a rarity in these parts as he decided one day that he didn’t want to senselessly and indiscriminately kill animals left and right as they rip up the forests and break the earth for gold. He got a job with Los Amigos and now is responsible for monitoring the short-eared dog to learn more about its eating habits, and which habitats it prefers or is not attracted to.
At this point, our time had drawn to a close at CICRA and it was time to walk back down the 238 steps and hop back aboard those skinny boats to Puerto Maldonado. During the boat ride, Adrian pointed out lots of interesting features in the landscape. 
We saw roughly 10 mining outfits while we traveled down the river. Adrian said that right now the river is still high and it’s not as easy to mine. In a few months when the river has dropped, there will be 60-70 additional mining rigs along the banks of the river in the section that we were traveling, as well as an additional 40 rigs north of the reserve. Mining for gold is quite a lucrative business in these parts – 6 months of work can net roughly $60,000, not a small chunk of change by any standard. When the price of gold was quite high a few years ago, everyone was running to the river to setup a mining operation. Adrian also pointed out the Brazil nut trees that we will be seeing tomorrow and noted that they are much taller than the surrounding trees. Harvesters of the Brazil nuts have to wait until after the rainy season to gather nuts when all of the nuts have fallen. The nuts are in a shell the size of a coconut and falling from those heights can kill you, so the harvesters have to wait until the danger has passed.
After the boat ride, we had one more drive down one straight, long, dirt road back to Puerto Maldonado where we would be staying the night. There was lots of construction going on so we were constantly covered in dust clouds during the ride. Wednesday nights in Puerto Maldonado are apparently going-out nights as it seemed the whole city was alive. The streets were full of hundreds of motorcycles zipping every direction. On our way to dinner, we got to ride in one of the motorcycle cabs, which is basically a motorcycle with a bench on two wheels attached to the back and a pod covering the whole contraption. The scooter cab doesn’t go much faster than a go-kart and a few times we thought we would have to get out and push it through the intersection before a motorcycled rammed us. We met up with Miguel Moran from Amazon Conservation Association and talked about the Brazil nut project over a pizza pie and a few beers. Then it was back in the go-kart cab and off to sleep in the sweltering heat.
Amazon Conservation Association – Peru (CICRA), Part I
April 14, 2009
This morning, we packed up, took the last few photos of Salkantay Peak and drove back down the mountain to Cuzco. With a few minutes to spare, we hopped on the next plane and headed back into the jungle to Puerto Maldonado, Peru. The flight was quick, just 35 minutes, and no sooner did we leave Cuzco than the land below became a sea of trees – no houses, no farms no roads.
Just muddy, brown rivers and trees as far as the eye could see. It was hard even to see the runway, but the pilot found a break in the trees and the runway, and then we were down.
Next, we hopped in two cabs and raced through the jungle for an hour and a half, and then took a 5-hour boat ride through the Peruvian Amazon up the Rio Madre to Dios to CICRA. The first half of the ride we held on through a torrential downpour with just the cover of a small wooden roof and a couple of ponchos. Once the rain passed, it was just the trees, a few birds, and us for the next few hours. We arrived after dark and climbed a very steep stairway (over 238 steps) up to the CICRA research facility and camp.
The site was a very successful mining lodge and so all of the buildings are well made. As far back as 10 years ago the buildings were abandoned, with no roofs and weeds growing inside the buildings. With a lot of hard work, the team restored the site and the buildings and opened CICRA about 8 years ago.
The buildings are all really nice and very energy efficient with open-air, screen walls. The downstairs rooms are all research labs and classrooms, while the upstairs are all offices – picture a restored barn or a cozy, large, thatched-roof tiki hut, with windows. We all agreed that you would be a lucky person to have an office in one of these buildings. We talked to several of the guests and researchers staying here and then it was off to bed to get ready for a very busy day.
This is the first year that CICRA is allowing tourists to come and stay at the site. Guests are treated to not only bird watching, but also many larger animals (including jaguars and anacondas) living right there on the site, and for the very lucky, are possible for viewing. One guest we spoke to said that he saw easily over 250 bird species over his 3 day stay, and that he got to help several researchers with their projects – something that you don’t get to do when you vacation at a standard resort or hotel. The place is very remote, making for better conditions for getting up close and personal with animals, but also great for just getting away and getting back to nature.