Conservation volunteering in Peru

Our private reserve is a slice of unspoilt, untouched Amazon rainforest. You can find it on the edge of one of the Amazon's mighty tributaries, the Rio Madre de Dios. Mammals and birds abound. A great canopy walkway, South American's highest, gives you access to the top of the forest, a totally new world. Our reserve is at the heart of the Amazon and at the heart of conservation work in the Amazon. It is also Peru's premier animal release centre for wild animals that have become abandoned pets and have been caught in towns near the forest.

We don't work in isolation but in co-ordination with local people. They help us with our conservation projects and we help them with their farming and by helping them to look after their unique environment. We have an experimental farm where we pass on ideas and techniques to local farmers and then support them - growing mahogany, coffee and cocoa along with livestock management and crop rotations. Now, the new Trans-Amazon highway will also bring in tourists and make cash-crop production more profitable. We are helping local people to avoid potential damage and to conserve the few remaining areas of untouched forest. The reserve is also increasingly recognized internationally as a research centre and has contributed a number of important research papers at international conferences, especially in the field of ornithology. Rainforest conservation project: The rainforest project in Peru is one for the more adventurous! But nonetheless the accommodation is comfortable and three square meals are provided! Our company was officially awarded the Reserva Ecologicà Taricaya in 2004. We are responsible for the production of a technical report every year to justify our work in the area. Data from daily observations are collected for these reports. This information demonstrates how the area is recovering from previous disturbances. It shows that our endeavours are having a positive impact on the ecosystems in this recently created reserve. The information we gather from observations taken from our canopy platforms, blinds and walks is crucial for these reports. While we know that the area is recovering well, we need concrete evidence to satisfy the relevant authorities and hence maintain the concession for the reserve that has been awarded to us.

Wildlife projects: Overseas voluntary work opportunities with us in the Peruvian rainforest also offer the chance for you to become involved in wildlife projects such as animal-release programmes and turtle monitoring. The concept of releasing captive animals (such as exotic pets) into safe environments is popular within conservation groups worldwide. Although it is not yet an idea that has taken off in Peru, our site has been officially appointed the first Animal Release Centre in this part of South America. We are pioneering this concept amidst an ongoing battle for rights to sanction the release of confiscated animals back into their natural habitats. Only then can we help with the enormous problem of illegal exotic pets.

Animal enclosures have been constructed at the reserve. These enable us to move ever-closer to our goal of finally being able to take mistreated animals out of Puerto Maldonado (the nearest major town on the Madre de Dios River) and re-locate them back to their rainforest homes. We are also undertaking a long-term conservation project involving side-necked turtles (Podocnemsis unifilis). Population numbers have declined for decades, due to the high commercial value of their eggs. Locals can raise large amounts of money, relatively speaking, by selling turtle eggs in Peruvian markets. In Puerto Maldonado the problem is particularly severe - local communities have relied on this income for several generations.

We have successfully liaised with government authorities and enlisted the help of residents from the area - the indigenous Ese'eja people - to help collect the turtle nests. We pay them the same amount that they would receive from the sale of stolen eggs to help us collect the endangered nests and move them to safety back at the centre. Last year, in conjunction with the local community, we successfully raised and released over 970 young turtles back into the wild. We engrave the young turtles with a code on their shells, which means that future recapture will associate the individuals with our project. This project is temporal between the months of July and September, with the eventual release of turtles from our artificial beach in December.

We are also involved with many other projects that operate on smaller timescales. A wide variety of creatures and wildlife can be part of such investigations, including birds, reptiles, amphibians and medicinal plants. Your time will help us achieve many short and long-term goals. Whether you are with us for a week or for several months you can rest assured that we are achieving our goals of conservation in the area. Without your help our work would not be possible.

Sustainability projects - Pilot farm: Traditionally, there were few farming communities around Puerto Maldonado - primary occupations were gold mining, rubber tapping and the collection of Brazil nuts. Although Puerto Maldonado was a boom town just twenty years ago, many of those who flocked to Madre de Dios are now suffering. With limited farming skills, people have found it difficult to make the most of the meagre plots of land awarded to them by the government. The riches of the area soon dried up, leaving fortune-seekers high and dry without local knowledge and sufficient means to make them capable farmers. Hunting, fishing, timber extraction, charcoal burning and palm-leaf collection are time-consuming, labour-intensive activities which they would gladly rescind, given the opportunity.

We are sympathetic to the daily problems facing local Peruvian farmers. We have developed a Pilot Farm project to help local people make the most, year after year, of the land and resources available to them. The pilot farm concept aims to help local people to manage their land efficiently and hence reduce their impact on the surrounding forest. We can perform various experiments with crops and productivity on behalf of the local farmers, which they themselves don't have time or the facilities to test.

Although the pilot farm has enabled us to create a self-sufficient model for local families to follow, there is a problem. Various international charities have worked in the area before, bringing concepts designed to revolutionise the lifestyles of the local communities. However, having brought the locals around to their way of thinking the money has always, up until now, dried up and the locals have been left with nothing. This has resulted, justifiably so, in general mistrust of 'outside' people trying to help. Fortunately after several years of experimentation we are now able to help local communities without having to ask them for an initial financial investment. When people come to us for aid we know that they are receptive to our ideas. The passive approach that we have adopted over recent years is finally proving productive.

Sustainability projects - Innovative mahogany plantations: This is one of our most exciting and promising overseas voluntary work projects to date. We are investigating potential market value of wood from young mahogany trees - within a few years of planting. Traditionally farmers have waited the standard period of forty years before the trees are felled and there is little mahogany left in the Amazon due to its high commercial value. Logging techniques involve huge destruction just to reach the trees of value and so the extraction process creates even more damage. We have produced an information booklet describing our investigations into growing mahogany in small parcels of land and our long-term goal is to undertake selective logging in the area over a total period of ten to twenty years. The University of Agriculture in Lima has analysed the properties of the young mahogany wood. Signs are encouraging for this project - which ultimately will create large financial gains for the locals. This work will also give them the chance to greatly reduce their impact on the remaining rainforest.

The fundamental idea behind the project is allowing the locals to harvest the trees at an early age, which makes the idea of long-term plantations redundant. Young mahogany trees have a market value as the wood is negotiable for small-scale business after just five years; hence plantations become viable much earlier than previously thought. Mahogany isn't the only feasible resource. We've also proved that other plants - such as coffee and heliconias - can be grown in the same area. This gives the locals short-term gain while they wait for the larger profitability of adult mahogany trees.

Trail maintenance: Patrolling our reserve is crucial, as poachers have been known to enter illegally to hunt. Constant monitoring of the area is therefore necessary and, due to the hard work of more than five hundred volunteers who have visited the reserve over the past few years, we now have a 50km trail network that makes this possible. Incidents of illegal entry have greatly reduced over recent months but we cannot sit back on our laurels, therefore trail maintenance has become an essential part of our work in the reserve.