An Overview Of Our Solution
NPC promotes the conservation of forest habitats and wildlife, using primates as flagship species. Through various methods including: land protection; research; improvement of degraded habitat; public awareness; commercialization of sustainable products on behalf of local people; and fighting against the illegal wildlife trade at the local and national level, we aim to create private and community run reserves which protect natural biological corridors by connecting existing protected areas, ensuring long-term habitat protection for primates and sympatric species. We help local communities strengthen stewardship of nature and their traditional and cultural identification, benefiting both humans and the environment. We run many low cost projects which have proven successful and we use this experience to promote effective conservation.
- Population Impacted: 8,500
- Continent: South America
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Analyse du contexte
Our work is focused at the heart of the tropical Andes Biodiversity Hotspot in Peru, the most biologically diverse region on earth. Our area of work is in the Condor-Kutuku conservation corridor, part of the Peruvian Yungas Ecoregion, a national priority according to the National Agrarian University. Several Important Bird Areas (PE056 and PE058) and Key Biodiversity Areas overlap the region. Following the IUCN, as the area protects natural biological corridors between protected areas, it is a priority for protection as it will allow organisms to travel between areas and reduce forest fragmentation. Peru is losing almost 300,000ha of forest per/year, with most occurring in the northern Amazon.
The area was originally populated by Chchapoya, Awajun and Quechua indigenous groups. Spanish settlement of the area began soon after the conquest of Peru, but the population remained low until the 1980s when the construction of the main highway brought mass migration from Cajamarca and other areas, establishing many new settlements. The population is now mainly mestizo (mixed indigenous and immigrant) but several indigenous communities survive.
The major threats to wildlife and forests in this area are: small scale commercial and subsistence hunting, land clearance for cattle ranching and cultivation of vegetables for family owned plots for consumption or local sale, illegal logging of tropical hardwoods and large scale mining projects, and hunting. The construction of new roads and the development of infrastructure increases the impact of these threats through immigration and “squatting” on unused lands. Deforestation and hunting has led to a notable reduction in the presence of animals, reduction in flow rates in streams, changes in local weather patterns, and scarcity of the most hunted and logged species generating resource scarcity. Peru is also a centre of wildlife trade, with 0.35-1.25 m animals trafficked between 2007-2012.
Décrivez la solution technique que vous voudriez voir le public cible adopter.
Hunting for food,n and sale of bushmeat or live animals into the illegal pet trade, is a major problem in Peru. We aim to engage local people in acting against wildlife trafficking through forest patrols and denouncing traffickers. The majority of animals which come into the traffic are from rural areas where local people are either employed by traders to capture wildlife, or augment their incomes with the opportunistic sale of wildlife and derivatives. To reduce this without negatively impacting local livelihoods or customs, and the additional possibility of increasing sustainability and improving living standards, we also suggest targeted hunting to reduce pressure on threatened species, and the avoidance of hunting females in order to reduce long term impacts on populations. We also aim for an overall reduction in offtake rates. Threatened species are often those which attract interest from tourism and investigation, thus increasing opportunities for complementary income streams.
Décrivez votre intervention comportementale.
e use Community-based Conservation methodologies to address issues on several fronts. Among our most impactful interventions are local and regional awareness programs, voluntary agreements to control hunting and deforestation, small scale assistance programs, and community involvement in research and conservation activities. These are particularly effective as they can be tailored to individual communities, building on our previous successful interventions, rather than imposing outside ideas of how conservation should be administered. We are often invited to villages by local authorities to give talks explaining the benefits of intact forests. In many cases villagers voted for and signed voluntary pledges to set up internal controls on deforestation and hunting without depending on any direct economic incentives or dedicated vigilance activities.
We provide information on the benefits of intact ecosystems through environmental services such as water and nutrient cycles, pest control, sustainable resource supplies, and economic possibilities. An illustrative example is introducing information about the slow reproductive rates of some of the most threatened mammals and birds, leading to an appreciation of the impact hunting and trade can have. Providing suggestions for alternative consumption strategies, such as consuming species which breed more quickly and can damage crops, leads to behaviour change with two immediate benefits for wildlife and people.
Leviers comportementaux utilisés
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Through communal meetings, training, film presentations, schools activities, posters/leaflets and other social marketing techniques we appeal to local community members on several fronts. Demonstrations of the complex social interactions of wildlife helps generate empathy for animals, while scientific information is used to show the negative effects unsustainable offtake rates can have on species and resource availability. This is used to garner voluntary pledges to reduce hunting, particularly for trade, either in village assemblies or individual agreements with land-owners at sites of particular interest. No direct economic incentives are provided in the first instance, but the presence of students and researchers, as well as nature tourism, has provided additional income streams. This has a further benefit for local economies, through the purchase of goods and services in surrounding areas.
Décrivez votre mise en œuvre.
We promote community-based conservation, working communities in areas identified through field surveys of key species. This has led to the creation of 11 new locally managed reserves. In each area we evaluated threats to wildlife,we identified local leaders to begin working with in order to secure integrity of these reserves and their buffer zones. We designed and distributed information in different formats and suggested ideas of possible alternatives. Our regular and extended visits to communities have shown changes in local customs (i.e. pet keeping/trade). Our interventions focused on 36 villages in Amazonas and San Martin Regions. Many local contacts have contacted us when they have intervened in cases of trafficking, requesting assistance in communicating with wildlife authorities and the handling of animals. We monitored wildlife allowing us to be able to quantify positive effects on populations and habitat.
Our work has been aided through our local partner network, enabling us to make contact with, or be contacted by, appropriate individuals in new communities. This happens through ‘Conservation Contagion’, when people hear of our work and propose new partnerships. Making local people partners from the start, with the intention of them leading in the future, is key to success; as is tailoring interventions to the realities of each community (i.e. not imposing an outside conservation model).
On occasion, we find distrust of outsiders and negative gossip narratives based on previously held suspicions. We have been able to overcome these through open trust building and positive word-of-mouth between villagers. Unrealistic expectations has also been an issue; these are dealt with by giving clear explanations from the start. Our aim to put the projects in the hands of the community means we help them, rather than us running the project with their help. This leads to project ownership, generating enthusiasm and increasing chances of long-term success.
Décrivez le leadership de votre solution. Qui dirige la mise en œuvre?
We work with groups run by local residents who have the final decision on their project management. Often women and young people come forth naturally as the leaders. Members' backgrounds are varied, including native residents, immigrants from the Andes and the coast and of mixed descent. We assist local groups running reserves and conservation projects by helping them establish and aim for financial and environmental sustainability. We do this through supporting capacity building events and assisting in the development of management skills. We run conservation education campaigns in villages and towns in rural areas of northern Peru, areas which are often neglected by the state. NPC Perú itself was founded by a group of students and volunteers who wanted to ensure the longevity and expansion of conservation gains achieved when working on our first project. We continue to provide opportunities to Peruvian and Latin American students to undertake research.
Principaux intervenants et partenaires du programme
We work together with stakeholders at all levels. Our anti-trafficking work involves various government authorities across Peru, not just in enforcement but also in education and promotion work, with government personnel taking part in events to help train our local conservation partners. We partner with several Peruvian NGO’s and have formally and informally partnered with several Peruvian universities, developing co-managed projects and providing research and thesis opportunities to dozens of students. These partnerships generate multiplier effects, enabling us to have a greater geographic and numeric impact in areas where other organisations are based. Our work with the wildlife authorities includes capacity building to deal with wildlife crime and logistical aid when carrying out operations, in fact, between 2011-17 San Martin had the highest number of confiscations outside of Lima/Callao.
In the rural communities we work with the general population and help create or partner with grassroots organisations. One of our strongest allies has been the Ronda Campesina (Peasant Patrol), the largest and most influential grassroots movement in north-eastern Peru. It is a network of autonomous, civil organisations, aimed at self-protection. They practise vigilance and civil justice in the rural Peruvian countryside and cities where state control is insufficient or absent. As the organisation exists throughout our work area and we are in contact with its leaders from national to local levels, we ensure that Rondas are conservation initiators. In individual communities, we support existing stakeholder groups to develop conservation activities, such as village coffee cooperatives to improve sustainable or certified production, the control of hunting, support women’s groups to develop additional income streams from production of artesania, and assist local youth and student groups in educational activities.
Qui a adopté le(s) comportement(s) souhaité(s) et dans quelle mesure?
The main community partners and leaders are generally farmers or small business owners. Some were previously commercial hunters who later became allies, occasionally becoming field guides or park guards. Working with local authorities these partners have been able to capture hunters entering their forests or those transporting wildlife for sale. We use quantitative and ad-hoc measures for evaluation, including density and abundance estimates of wildlife before and after interventions, as well as comparative surveys between locally protected areas and unprotected area, which allows us to demonstrate increases in diversity, abundance and densities of many species. Outside of communities, our activism in law enforcement has led to environmental authorities increasing their commitment to action. We have quantified this through the evaluation of confiscation records for wildlife across many regions and years in Peru, comparing areas where we have worked and not worked.
Quel a été votre impact sur la pollution de l'eau?
We have conducted surveys to quantify our impact on key areas and species. For example, through line transect sampling we found a 35% increase in yellow-tailed woolly monkeys at one site in Amazonas between 2007 and 2015, with a significant increase in young animals. The number of groups remained the same, suggesting this population expansion represents a natural increase due to reduced hunting and not groups moving in from surrounding areas. We also measured a reduction in deforestation rates at this site, with rates significantly below the regional average. Near La Primavera in San Martin, we measured increased abundance and diversity of species surrounding the locally run protected area, again probably due to decreased hunting around the reserve. Our work in wildlife law enforcement has brought an evident reduction in trafficking at the local and regional scales, led to the arrest of dozens of traffickers and the confiscation of more than 4500 animals.
Quel a été l'impact de votre solution sur les problèmes d'équité?
All of our work is carried out in conjunction with and for the benefit of local communities in northern Peru. Our holistic community-based approach focuses on inclusion of rural stakeholders through all stages and parts of our projects. Campesino communities in northern Peru are mainly of mixed Spanish and indigenous descent, historically migrating from the Andean sierra and settling lands informally in the foothills. These communities, and the remaining indigenous population are among the most marginalised peoples in Peru, with limited access to education and healthcare and often without formally recognized rights to the land where they live and work. Our work has allowed many communities to get formal management rights for the conservation of, sometimes extensive areas of, forests which are the source for many of the resources they use, gaining sovereignty. Within the communities where we work, we ensure we work equally with all sectors, and are expanding to include more communities.
Quels ont été les avantages connexes de votre solution par rapport au développement durable?
University researchers provide a steady income source for local people as does small scale tourism development at some sites. During inventories and monitoring, we register bird species, which has been useful in generating increased tourism interest. We have helped with the certification process for organic and bird friendly coffee products, which include no-hunting clauses. At two sites, we have worked to sign carbon credit sales contracts between the communities and carbon trading firms.
Durabilité : Décrivez la durabilité économique de votre solution.
Our community anti-hunting/traffic mechanisms are essentially zero cost once employed and can be replicated/renovated with minimal investment. The use of alternative species to supplement diets or animal selection restrictions are within the reach of local communities. Our behavioural change interventions have been supported by various grants and private donations. These are very low cost solutions as interventions can be carried out while visiting communities for other work, such as distribution surveys, capacity building, or other related activities. ong term, we aim for additional income from tourism, carbon credits, or other market revenue which will be able to sustain interest in maintaining communal hunting restrictions.
Retour sur investissement : Combien a coûté la mise en œuvre de ces activités?
Our interventions cost ～$500 per village, including all costs,repeat visits and training activities. Much of our success is through trust building and gaining friendships, achieved by working together on related projects (which had additional costs). This is outweighed by the benefits to local economies. For example, in the communities around the yellow tailed woolly monkey sites, researchers and tourists contribute ～$7,500 to the local economy annually. Where coffee certification has been achieved, this has increased the income of 38 families. Carbon funding is also set to generate full-time employment, supporting 11 families over a 20-year period, along with other investments in the communities involved.
Comment pourrions-nous reproduire cette solution ailleurs avec succès?
Many small-scale projects have reduced local hunting/traffic through the use of economic alternatives. We have been able to amplify this through a process of ‘conservation contagion’ by reducing reliance and specificity on the economy and focus instead on behavioural change and generating awareness, pride and understanding, whilst still aiming to improve livelihoods. Our community conservation work has helped create, maintain and manage 22 community reserves in northern Peru, and we have begun working in Colombia and Argentina. Our experience has shown when given the correct tools, local people have the desire and ability to conserve forests and wildlife. To expand our impact, we will replicate our work in communities surrounding the reserves we are currently co-developing. The costs would be similar to those estimated above (～$500 per village). With this, we could conduct the necessary meetings, presentations and training with community stakeholders and associations.