By Geoff Gallice | President of the Board, ASA
Dear supporters of the Amazon,
Kids are back in school and the dry season is now in full swing in the Peruvian Amazon, which means we're finally working once again with our local future conservation leaders! This year we're collaborating with our friend Carmen Chavez, of the Red de Aprendizaje y Conservación, who has recently published an incredible book called 'Quien Anda Ahí' (Who Goes There?), which aims to teach children and other people of all ages all about the animals that live in the rainforest. Mammals, in particular, are tough to see here, so the book focuses on the use of camera traps to study elusive rainforest wildlife. It also contains detailed and beautiful accounts of some of the more common and charismatic Amazonian animal species, as well as a few things that scientists have learned about them by using camera traps. We are bringing groups of elementary-aged kids to Finca Las Piedras, our research and education center in the Peruvian Amazon, where they learn about rainforest species through hands-on activities based on the book and by putting their own camera traps out in the forest and later looking at what they've captured. The kids come from a variety of small, rural single-teacher schools that struggle to provide high quality environmental education, so these visits are incredibly important as local young people develop environmental identities and learn to value the forest in ways most have not yet considered. We want the next generation to understand that the rainforest is more than just a bunch of trees that can be cut down and sold as timber, or animals that can be hunted or sold as pets, and your support is making that possible here in Peru.
On the research front, we're also making some exciting advances. Our butterfly inventory in southeastern Peru grows by the day, and to date we have documented more than 1,000 species. We're also publishing studies about butterfly natural history and basic biology that are building a foundation of knowledge that is improving our ability to conduct science-based conservation in our region. What parts of the Peruvian Amazon hold the largest number of butterfly species? Which butterflies depend as caterpillars on plant species that are threatened with extinction? Our work aims to generate the information needed to answer these questions and more, in a place that holds more species than anywhere else on Earth but where research is severely lacking.
None of this important work would be possible without your support, and we thank you for helping us continue to fight for the Amazon.
With gratitude,
Geoff, Johana, and the entire ASA team
Links:
By Johana Reyes | Project leader
By Geoff Gallice | Project leader
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