The Amazon Burning - Kids and Bugs to the Rescue!

Dear rainforest champions,

Another year has started here in the Peruvian Amazon while the rainy season is in full bloom! As for updates on our project activities, our environmental education efforts for the year are in the planning stages and waiting for schools to reopen in mid-March after the school holidays end. Same as last year, we will be focusing our activities on single-teacher rural schools. We hope to continue expanding the impact of our work on previous years.

As for our research project with butterflies, we are happy to announce that four new undergraduate students have been selected for this year’s research residency program. All of them are women, three Peruvians, and one Ecuadorian. We are extremely excited about the results the residency program has had so far in developing research skills for the future generation of local scientists and can’t wait to see all the progress our residents will make this year.

Thank you for your support to this project. If you want to boost your involvement in our research and education efforts, please consider becoming a monthly donor. New monthly donations (up to $200 per unique donor) will have their first donation matched at 100% by GlobalGiving after four total payments.

With gratitude,

Geoff, Johana, and all the ASA team

Links:

• ASA website

Dear supporters of the Amazon,

As you probably remember from our last report, kids were back at Finca Las Piedras, our research and education center in Peru, for a great season of learning about mammals and the use of camera traps to study them. This annual environmental education effort reached out to more than 120 local children from rural schools and dozens of parents and teachers that joined them in this immersive learning experience. Kids were given a series of educational materials to continue their exploration of mammals back at home, and teachers received copies of the book '¿Quien Anda Ahí?' (Who Goes There?) – the main resource for this year’s project.

We are extremely happy with the results of the children’s visit to our station and couldn’t be more grateful to all of you that made it possible. A special thanks to Nat Geo explorer Carmen Chavez, who produced the book and gave us free copies for the participant schools. If you want to learn more about mammals in the Amazon (and learn some Spanish on the way!) click here to download the book for free!

With gratitude,

Geoff, Johana and all the ASA team