location: Andes

location: Andes

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Andes community-led conservation curbs more páramo loss than state-protected area: Study
- In the central highlands of Ecuador, land managed by Indigenous peoples and local communities is associated with improved outcomes for drought adaptation and páramo conservation, according to a new study.
- The study finds that páramo areas managed by communities in this region are better protected than those under the care of the state.
- Due to the advance of the agricultural frontier in the highlands, approximately 4 hectares (9.9 acres) of páramo are lost every day, which threatens the water supply of the entire region.
- Community-led land management that incorporates inclusive participation, traditional knowledge and the cultural values of those who inhabit the areas, coined by reseachers as “social technology,” can aid in the conservation of the páramo.

How a group in Ecuador protects 10% of the world’s bird species
- The Jocotoco Foundation, an Ecuadorian non-profit organization, has carved out a distinctive approach to nature conservation in Ecuador, leveraging a mix of approaches to preserve habitats critical for endangered bird species and other wildlife.
- The group, which now has 15 reserves across Ecuador that protect 10% of the planet’s bird species, works with a range of partners, including local communities.
- Martin Schaefer, Jocotoco’s head, told Mongabay the group adapts its approach depending on local conditions and circumstances: “For each species, we analyse its threats, whether we, as Jocotoco, can make a difference and by how much. Then, we review what the best approach may be.
- Following Rhett Ayers Butler’s visit to Jocotoco’s Narupa Reserve in July, Schaefer spoke about the organization’s work, the global challenges facing wildlife, and the shifting tides of public perception towards the environment.

Llama herding helps community in Peru recover from a melting glacier
- Melting glaciers in Peru leave behind barren rocky soil that can take decades to be productive again, and can harm local communities with acidic water run-off.
- Llamas can revitalize these landscapes much more quickly through their waste and by dispersing seeds for plants to regrow.
- Researchers are partnering with communities and llama herders in the Andes to improve soil quality and plant productivity as more ice retreats.

‘What we need to protect and why’: 20-year Amazon research hints at fate of tropics
- In its bold outlines, many informed people understand that climate change is reducing tropical biodiversity and thereby degrading the functionality and ecoservices of tropical forests. But what are the specific mechanisms by which these forests are being diminished over long time frames?
- One project on the slopes of the Peruvian Amazon has tried to make exactly that type of assessment, via a 20-year ongoing research project that meticulously observes a narrow transect of rainforest stretching from the Amazon lowlands near sea level to the Andean highlands above 3,352 meters (11,000 feet).
- The international team conducting this work, the Andes Biodiversity and Ecosystem Research Group (ABERG), is painstakingly observing changes in more than 1,000 tree species, birds, frogs, snakes and more to determine not only how much climate change is affecting them, but untangling how the change process works.
- This type of in-depth research is vital to conserving tropical rainforest diversity, the carbon storage capacity it offers, and its assistance in maintaining long-persisting regional and global precipitation patterns vital to agriculture and other water needs. Mongabay contributor Justin Catanoso traveled to Peru to observe ABERG at work.

A powerful U.S. political family is behind a copper mine in the Colombian rainforest
- Two members of the Sununu family, a powerful U.S. Republican Party dynasty, are among the directors or shareholders of Libero Copper, a copper mine promoted in the Colombian Amazon. John H. Sununu, a powerful former governor of New Hampshire and former White House chief of staff to George Bush Sr. is one of its ultimate beneficial owners. His son Michael Sununu sits on the mining company’s board of directors.
- The government sees the mine as strategic to the clean energy transition by providing copper used in electric cars, solar panels and wind turbines. However, Libero’s two Sununus are known in the U.S. as skeptics of the scientific consensus that climate change is man-made, raising questions now that they are at the helm of a ‘green energy’ mining project in the midst of such a fragile and strategic biome as the Amazon rainforest.
- In order for Libero Copper’s project to become a reality, the company says it requires not only an exploitation license and an environmental permit from the Colombian government, but also that authorities lift the protected area status of part of the deposit. The reason is that one-fifth of the copper that the mining company seeks to extract is buried under a protected natural area known as a nationally protected forest reserve.
- The prospect of this mine is a cause of concern for the Indigenous communities in its area of influence, especially the Inga reservation of Condagua to the north and Kamentsá Biya of Sibundoy to the west, who fear disruption of critical waterways and the destruction of their territory.

New research finds slow forest recovery in the Andes — and ways to improve
- New research led by the University of Oxford could help governments better prioritize restoration and conservation interventions across the tropical Andes.
- The study evaluated how mountain forests in the region recovered over a 15-year period, identifying four possible recovery trajectories, ranging from natural to arrested.
- Andean tropical mountain forests are some of the world’s most biodiverse forests, but so far studies on how these ecosystems bounce back after disruption have been limited; researchers estimate that restoration is stalling in 73% of the area studied.
- Between 2001 and 2014, about 5 million hectares (about 12.3 million acres) of woody vegetation has been cleared in the tropical and subtropical Andes, altering mountain forests and their ecosystem services.

In a Bolivian protected area torn up for gold, focus is on limiting damage
- Artisanal gold mining by local cooperatives abounds in protected areas across Bolivia, in particular the Apolobamba highlands near the border with Peru.
- The mining boom here began in the late 1990s, and since then the cooperatives have continued to use mercury amalgamate the gold.
- There are worries over mercury contamination as well as the diversion of river flows away from wetlands to the mines.
- NGOs working with the cooperatives say the local miners are keen on making their operations more sustainable, but that the cost and lack of government support are hurdles to achieving this.

Plan to mine ‘clean energy’ metals in Colombian Amazon splits communities
- Libero Copper, a Canadian company, plans to mine copper, molybdenum and other metals in the richly biodiverse Andean-Amazon Piedmont, which has led to strong divisions within Indigenous and local communities.
- The copper and molybdenum project is framed as a green project that could contribute much-needed minerals for the country’s energy transition, a proposal that aligns with the goals of the new left-wing government of Gustavo Petro.
- However, some communities and environmental activists oppose the mining project over concerns of deforestation, landslides and loss of forest-based livelihoods in the region.
- Others support the clean energy transition and the company’s promise of jobs in the historically neglected region.

‘They paid for it with misery’: Q&A with Chile dam critic Jose Marihuan Ancanao
- Jose Marihuan Ancanao, president of the Ayin Mapu La Peña community, spoke to Mongabay’s Maxwell Radwin about the impact of hydropower plants in parts of the Chilean Andes that are home to Indigenous people with a spiritual connection to rivers and the surrounding mountains.
- Marihuan was relocated in the early 2000s by a different hydropower plant and, although relocation isn’t a threat this time around, is witnessing the construction of another mega dam near his community.
- The 90-megawatt Rucalhue power plant has resulted in the felling of nationally protected trees sacred to the Pehuenche and, once finished, would flood some ancestral land.

Dam construction ignites Indigenous youth movement in southern Chile
- Dam construction on the Bío Bío watershed has plagued Indigenous Mapuche-Pehuenche communities in south-central Chile for decades, with many families having to relocate due to flooding of ancestral lands.
- The 90-megawatt Rucalhue hydropower plant, located near the town of Santa Bárbara, is the latest project causing controversy among local communities, who say they’re sick of battling infrastructure projects that disrespect their culture and traditions.
- Young people have been particularly outspoken against the project, staging sit-ins at the work site, sending petitions to government agencies, and helping organize a local plebiscite.
- Hydropower plants, while less polluting than many other forms of energy generation, still require the clearing of trees and the disrupting of river flows, which can have a significant impact on surrounding ecosystems.

How bears “make” a forest (commentary)
- The Andean bear, or ukuku, is the only bear that lives in South America and despite being an elusive species, it has deep spiritual and cultural significance for Andean peoples.
- Enrique G. Ortiz of the Andes Amazon Fund writes about the bear and efforts to conserve it in Peru’s Kosñipata valley, including the recent establishment of the Andean Bear Interpretation Center at Wayqecha Biological Station to raise awareness and appreciation of the species.
- This article is a commentary. The views expressed are those of the author, not necessarily of Mongabay.

Andean eagles have managed to adapt to fragmenting habitats — for now
- A new study looked at black-and-chestnut eagles’ (Spizaetus isidori) ability to survive in fragmented forests in the Andean regions of Colombia and Argentina.
- Researchers found that the eagles were able to fly between fragmented forests on different mountain ranges and survive better than terrestrial predators
- However, juvenile eagles had higher mortality rates than their adult counterparts, suggesting that conservation efforts should be focused on ensuring young eagles survive into adulthood.

Drivers of Colombia’s peacetime deforestation weave a complex web
- When the Colombian government signed a historic peace accord with the paramilitary group FARC in 2016, conservationists waited to see what peace would mean for the environment.
- New research shows how the forces driving deforestation in both war and in peace varied across the Colombian countryside between 2001 and 2018.
- Researchers found that cattle ranching, coca cultivation, and the size of municipalities were strong predictors of forest loss across this period, but that their respective importance varied across localities.
- Researchers say that considering the local drivers of forest loss can help improve both peacebuilding and environmental outcomes.

China-funded dam could disrupt key Argentine glaciers and biodiversity
- Two dams are being built on the 380-kilometer (236-mile) Santa Cruz River in Argentina’s Patagonia, threatening glacier movements and endemic wildlife that rely on the surrounding wetlands.
- Several Indigenous Mapuche communities, who consider the area to be important to their cultural heritage, say officials failed to consult with them before starting the project.
- Despite protests, lawsuits and court orders to pause construction, work on the complex, part of the China-funded Belt and Road Initiative, has continued.

In landslide-prone Colombia, forests can serve as an inexpensive shield
- Scientists say that climate change and high deforestation rates will worsen the severity of landslides across Colombia.
- Regular landslides in the country already have a huge human and economic toll; a disaster in Dosquebradas municipality in February killed 14 people after a heavy rainstorm hit the coffee-growing region.
- Yet scientists say that targeted forest restoration and protection offers an inexpensive way to mitigate landslides, with one study in the Colombian Andes showing that it would be 16 times cheaper to invest in forests than to pay the high costs of repairing destroyed roads, power lines and pipelines after landslides.
- Scientists say that using forests to fight landslides would also have major biodiversity benefits in Earth’s second-most biodiverse nation.

Moore Foundation pledges extra $300m to boost conservation of Amazon
- The Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation has allocated an additional $300 million toward the Andes-Amazon Initiative to continue biodiversity and forest conservation efforts in the region until 2031.
- To date, the initiative has been successful in conserving 400 million hectares (988 million acres) of land, about half the size of Brazil, since its establishment in 2003.
- New targets include ensuring 100 million hectares (247 million acres) of freshwater and forest ecosystems, as well as Indigenous and local communities’ lands, are effectively managed.
- To safeguard the resilience and health of the Andes-Amazon region’s ecosystems, at least 70% of its historic forest cover must remain intact, a threshold the initiative will exceed if it hits its new targets, says Avecita Chicchón, program director of the Andes-Amazon Initiative.

On agrobiodiversity, the Andes can teach the world much about crop conservation (commentary)
- Two of the world’s most important crops — maize and potatoes — have a 7,000-year history in the Andes region of South America, where other “super foods” like quinoa, maca and amaranth are also native.
- The region’s great agrobiodiversity virtually guarantees that more “future foods” like these will be adopted by the rest of the globe.
- Investing in research that supports future foods can bring positive economic impacts to households that cultivate, protect, and transform crop biodiversity, while also improving global nutrition and protecting nature, a new op-ed argues.
- This post is a commentary. The views expressed are those of the author, not necessarily of Mongabay.

In Peruvian Andes, ancient crops hold promise for a climate-blighted future
- The government of Peru has declared Marcapata Ccollana a new agrobiodiversity zone in the Andean highlands.
- The reserve is home to an Indigenous community that preserves Incan farming techniques and grows more than 100 varieties of root vegetables in addition to many kinds of beans, maize and grains.
- Agricultural biodiversity is an essential resource for adapting global food supplies to the challenges posed by climate change.

In Peru, ancient food technologies revived in pursuit of future security
- Surrounded by mountains and eagles, a man from a highland community in Peru has built a stone and mud qolca, a food storage silo inspired by ancestral technologies.
- In his community, as in the rest of the Andes, increasingly erratic rainfall patterns and unexpected frosts and pest plagues threaten the rich local biodiversity and their generous harvests.
- Almost 500 years after the construction of the last qolca in the Cusco Valley, this new effort is a bid for a tomorrow without hunger in these times of pandemic and climate crisis.

Enhancing biodiversity through the belly: Agroecology comes alive in Chile
- Agroecology, the practice of ecological principles in farming, is coming to life in a corner of Chile through different faces and practices.
- Like individual bees working toward a common, greater goal, practitioners of agroecology tend have a positive multiplication effect in their territory.
- From food producers to beekeepers to chefs, these practitioners show that scaling up agroecology requires deconstructing implicit knowledge hierarchies, a disposition to learning continuously, and sharing through horizontal networks.

Planned Brazil-Peru highway threatens one of Earth’s most biodiverse places
- Serra do Divisor National Park on Brazil’s border with Peru is home to numerous endemic animals and more than a thousand plant species, but faces a double threat from a planned highway and a bid to downgrade its protected status.
- The downgrade from national park to “environmental protection area” would paradoxically open up this Andean-Amazon transition region to deforestation, cattle ranching, and mining — activities that are currently prohibited in the park.
- The highway project, meant to give Acre another land route to the Pacific via Peru, has been embraced by the government of President Jair Bolsonaro, which has already taken the first steps toward its construction.
- Indigenous and river community leaders say they have not been consulted about the highway, as required by law, and have not been told about the proposed downgrade of the park, both of which they warn will have negative socioenvironmental impacts.

Environmental defenders in Ecuador aren’t safe, new report shows
- A new report by Ecuador’s Alliance for Human Rights examines abuses against environmental rights defenders over the past 10 years, and finds 449 defenders subjected to intimidation, threats, harassment, persecution, and assassination.
- The report concludes that not only has the Ecuadoran state failed to protect rights defenders, but it has also been directly responsible for some of the abuses, like the concerning number of persecutions and prosecutions of rights defenders.
- Three environmental rights defenders have been murdered in Ecuador over the past 10 years — Andres Durazno, Freddy Taish and José Tendetza — with no one brought to justice for the crimes.

In the Colombian Andes, a forest corridor staves off species extinction
- Recognized as one of the world’s most biodiverse regions, the tropical Andes host more than 10% of the planet’s biodiversity — roughly two million species of plants, animals, fungi and microorganisms — of which only 10% have been identified.
- This precious ecosystem is in peril because, in the past few decades, 75% of natural habitat has been lost largely to agricultural expansion.
- La Mesenia-Paramillo Nature Reserve in the Colombian Andes is attempting to stave off the threat by restoring 3,500 hectares (8,650 acres) of degraded land and connecting about 100,000 hectares (247,000 acres) of intact forest with the main Andean chain as a habitat corridor.

In Colombia, end of war meant start of runaway deforestation, study finds
- A new study analyzes the changes in forest cover in Colombia before and after the signing of a peace agreement in 2016 between the government and armed guerrillas.
- The authors found that between 1988-2012 the forest area transformed to agriculture amounted to 1.2 million hectares (3 million acres), but that in the much briefer post-conflict period of 2013-2019, the pace of conversion surged, with 500,000 hectares (1.2 million acres) turned into farmland.
- The researchers also identified a direct relationship between violent events and the loss of forest cover.

Combining negotiation, legal backing and orchids to create ecotourism reserve
- In Ecuador, the Ceiba Foundation for Tropical Conservation has worked with local landowners to create conservation agreements and sustainable ecotourism ventures in areas otherwise fragmented by intensive human activity.
- After nearly 20 years, the impacts of two small, family-based initiatives are rippling outwards into the rest of the Andean cloud forest and coastal dry forest.
- Negotiation, relationship-building, and transparency helped Ceiba earn the landowners’ trust and enable the success of the initiatives.

Camera trap study finds a threatened high-elevation mammal community in Peru
- A new camera trap study, the results of which were published in the journal Oryx last week, seeks to fill in the gaps in our knowledge of the Cerros del Sira’s mammalian inhabitants.
- An international team of scientists from Peru and the UK led by Ruthmery Pillco Huarcaya, a biologist at Peru’s National University of Cusco, deployed 45 camera traps from 2015 to 2016 in the Sira Communal Reserve, part of the Oxapampa-Asháninka-Yánesha Biosphere Reserve.
- Aside from revealing the distribution of and threats to the Cerros del Sira’s mammal community, the results of the camera trap survey led to a number of other insights.

Flashing lights ward off livestock-hunting pumas in northern Chile
- A new paper reports that Foxlights, a brand of portable, intermittently flashing lights, kept pumas away from herds of alpacas and llamas during a recent calving season in northern Chile.
- Herds without the lights nearby lost seven animals during the four-month study period.
- The research used a “crossover” design, in which the herds without the lights at the beginning of the experiment had them installed halfway through, removing the possibility that the herds were protected by their locations and not the lights themselves.

Bolivia’s Madidi National Park home to world’s largest array of land life, survey finds
- A two-and-a-half-year biological survey of Madidi National Park in Bolivia added 1,382 species and subspecies of plants and animals to the list of those living in the park.
- The team believes that 124 species and subspecies may be new to science.
- WCS, the organization that led the study, said the 18,958-square-kilometer (7,320-square-mile) park is the world’s most biodiverse protected area.

Andes dams twice as numerous as thought are fragmenting the Amazon
- A new study identified 142 dams currently in operation or under construction in the Andes headwaters of the Amazon, twice the number previously estimated. An additional 160 are in the planning stages.
- If proposed Andes dams go ahead, sediment transport to the Amazon floodplains could cease, blocking freshwater fish migratory routes, disrupting flow and flood regimes, and threatening food security for downstream communities, impacting up to 30 million people.
- Most dams to date are on the tributary networks of Andean river main stems. But new dams are planned for five out of eight major Andean Amazon main stems, bringing connectivity reductions on the Marañón, Ucayali and Beni rivers of more than 50 percent; and on the Madre de Dios and Mamoré rivers of over 35 percent.
- Researchers conclude that proposed dams should be required to complete cumulative effects assessments at a basin-wide scale, and account for synergistic impacts of existing dams, utilizing the UN Watercourses Convention as a legal basis for international cooperation for sustainable water management between Amazon nations.

Why losing big animals causes big problems in tropical forests
- A team of scientists from Germany and Spain built a mathematical model to test the interplay between plants and animals that results in the distribution of seeds.
- Field data collected from Peru’s Manu Biosphere Reserve formed the foundation of the model.
- The scientists discovered the importance of matching between the sizes of seeds and the birds in the ecosystem.
- As larger birds were removed from the forest, the forest’s biodiversity dropped more quickly.

13,000 acres of cloud forest now protected in Colombia
- Cacica Noría Regional Protected Area safeguards one of the most biodiverse places on the planet.
- The reserve will be managed by CorAntioquia, the Anorí Environmental Working Group and Proaves.
- Despite protection, the new park remains threatened by climate change.

Failed economic development plans drive deforestation in Andean Amazon
- Cultivation of coca, the plant from which the drug cocaine is extracted, has long been considered a “deforestation multiplier” in the Andean Amazon rainforests of Bolivia, Colombia, and Peru.
- But a study published in the journal BioScience last month by a team of researchers with New York’s Stony Brook University found that most deforestation in Bolivia, Colombia, and Peru isn’t caused by coca cultivation.
- The researchers hope that their study will help us learn from the past in order to avoid repeating the same mistakes.

Bolivian expedition discovers 1,000th bird species
- Madidi National Park is situated in northern Bolivia and is considered one of the most biodiverse protected areas in the world.
- Identidad Madidi is a two-year biological expedition currently surveying the flora and fauna of Madidi National Park.
- The 1,000th bird species – a dusky-tailed flatbill (Ramphotrigon fuscicauda) – was discovered through a recording of its call, and came as a surprise to the expedition’s ornithologist.

Poaching upsurge threatens South America’s iconic vicuña
- Approximately 5,000 vicuñas have been found dead over the past five years, skinned and stripped of their valuable fur to supply an illicit international trade — possibly including China.
- Identifying illegal vicuña wool is challenging for customs officials in South America and abroad, as it can easily be intermixed with legally harvested fiber and traceability schemes are lax.
- The vicuña conservation success story could be threatened by the illegal trade, but NGOs and South American governments are responding proactively to the crisis, seeking ways to curb poaching and trafficking; an international response has been slow to materialize.

Partnerships are key to The Wildlife Conservation Society’s new conservation strategy
- WCS has identified 15 of the world’s largest wilderness regions and laid out a new strategy for how to protect them from climate change and other human-induced environmental pressures.
- The group hopes to reverse the population declines of six priority species across their entire range.
- Forest conservation experts reacted positively to the new strategy, saying many of the priority regions are indeed in urgent need of additional protection.

New study argues ‘land sparing’ is better for the birds
- Land sharing vs. land sparing: scientists have been debating for decades whether it’s better to set aside huge blocks of wilderness and intensively farm the rest or create a more mosaic ecosystem where farms and forest coexist.
- This new study found forested land housed far more distinct bird families than those in small-scale farming communities, which may still contain a lot of species but not a lot of different groups.
- But critics say the study does not take into consideration future scenarios or migrations.

New reserves in Colombia protect endangered species in a ‘Pleistocene refuge’
- The two reserves fall within the Nechí Nare Endemism Center, an area where many species survived during the last ice age, known as a Pleistocene refuge.
- The reserves are home to the Silvery-brown bare-face tamarin, a monkey found nowhere else in the world.
- The new reserves will also be a significant boon to the local communities.

Migration between Peruvian Andes and Amazon impacts both environments
- The southern Andes is Peru’s poorest region, with its workingmen drawn to the backbreaking and heartbreaking labor of the lowland jungles, where they clear rainforest for small farms and pollute rivers in search of gold.
- Now, an end to insurgency and a rise in tourism is bringing a reverse migration, as men come home from the lowlands to work in the Andes tourist trade, farm and be near their families.
- The resulting prosperity brings with it new problems; the mountain population prospers and grows, leaving less land for the next generation, maybe bringing a new cycle of boom and bust.

Jhuliño’s legacy: Life and death on the Marañon River (photo essay)

This is Alvaro Huaman, in the uniform of the ronda, with Jhuliño and his baby brother. Jhuliño’s real name was Egler, but from a young age, he had been obsessed with Brazilian soccer, and so everyone had begun calling him after his favorite player. Before we went over big rapids, I would tease Jhuliño, asking […]
Amazon Headwaters Under Siege: 19 dams slated for Napo watershed

The Napo Watershed forms one of the last free-flowing river corridors of the Amazon Basin, and is an important tourism destination where visitors can immerse themselves in stunning rainforest scenery and have the adventure of their dreams. Photo credit: Nunatak Design. The Napo River watershed is immense. Fed by snow from the glaciated volcanic […]
Scaling bottom-up conservation in Latin America

NCI’s buriti project helps local communities benefit while protecting areas of this wild palm , working to provide added value sales of palm fruit and extracts. Courtesy of NCI. One of the biggest complaints about nature conservation is the business is often a top-down affair, where decisions are made by officials and NGOs in distant […]
It can be done! – Building better dams in the Andean Amazon

More than 150 dams are currently planned for five of the six major Andean tributaries of the Amazon River. Damming those large, free-flowing streams would provide hydropower to half a dozen South American countries – meeting their energy needs for decades to come, but with unknown, potentially calamitous environmental and social impacts. While it is […]
151 dams could be catastrophic to Amazon ecological connectivity

Liz Kimbrough with co-research by Anjali Kumar As South American countries begin to move beyond fossil fuels, many are looking to hydropower. The rivers flowing from the Andes Mountains down into the Amazon basin could provide a wealth of liquid potential to meet the energy demands of expanding populations, economies, and development. Current plans call […]
Proposed Andean headwater dams an ecological calamity for Amazon Basin

Article by Liz Kimbrough with co-research by Anjali Kumar Most “run-of-river” hydroelectric dams in the Amazon Basin are used to divert all of the flow away from the natural river channel to generate electricity in a powerhouse located downstream. Such dams disrupt ecological connectivity and eliminate any flow-dependent uses in the affected section of river. […]
Recently discovered ‘punkrocker’ frog changes skin texture in minutes

Skin texture variation in one mutable rainfrog (Pritimantis mutabilis), which changes from spiny at 0 seconds to smooth at 330 seconds. Photo courtesy of the Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society. Click to enlarge. In 2006, a husband-and-wife team – Katherine and Tim Krynak – discovered a tiny new frog species, smaller than a U.S. […]
Lima to restore pre-Incan aqueducts to alleviate its water crisis

Andean community leaders show hydrologists and project developers from Lima damaged amunas. These pre-Incan canals collect excess river water in the wet season so it can recharge pools and groundwater supplies for use in the dry season. Credit: Gena Gammie. To tackle a looming water crisis, the city of Lima, Peru, is planning a series […]
Study finds abandoned pasture is ‘a huge resource that is not being harnessed’

A pastured sheep near the Chimborazo volcano in the Ecuadorian Andes. Photo by Guido Alvarez. As tropical forests around the world are cleared for human development, scientists and conservationists are trying to find ways to both stem their loss and reclaim areas already deforested. In a recent study, researchers investigated restoration of abandoned agricultural land […]
Study finds Peru’s protected areas aren’t where they should be

This article is the first in a two-part series about the shortcomings of protected area definition in Peru. Read the second part here. Many of the world’s protected areas may not be located in the areas that need them the most, according to a recently published study in the journal PLoS ONE. The study examined […]
Critically endangered bird gets new addition to its reserve

A pale-headed brush-finch (Altapetes pallidiceps)., one of the most endangered birds in the world. An unassuming brown bird, tiny both in body and population size, hovers on the edge of extinction as much of its habitat has been cleared for agriculture and its nests are parasitized by cowbirds. In response, conservation organizations created a reserve […]
Scientists rediscover endangered Andean toad in Ecuador

In 1970 researchers uncovered the Tandayapa Andean toad (Andinophryne olallai), previously unknown to science, in the Pichincha Province of Ecuador. Given that only a single individual was discovered, even after further exploration in the following years, the toad was soon presumed to be extinct. Forty-two years later, however, a research team rediscovered the species in […]
Scientists uncover six potentially new species in Peru, including bizarre aquatic mammal (photos)

This potentially new lizard species was discovered on the last day of a survey in a cloud forest in Andean Peru. Photo: Luis Mamani. A group of Peruvian and Mexican scientists say they have uncovered at least six new species near South America’s most famous archaeological site: Machu Picchu. The discoveries include a new mammal, […]
In the shadows of Machu Picchu, scientists find ‘extinct’ cat-sized mammal

Rediscovered mammal had been slaughtered by the Inca hundreds of years ago The Machu Picchu arboreal chinchilla rat come back to life! Photo by: Roberto Quispe. Below one of the most famous archaeological sites in the world, scientists have made a remarkable discovery: a living cat-sized mammal that, until now, was only known from bones. […]
A paradise being lost: Peru’s most important forests felled for timber, crops, roads, mining

Peru lost nearly a quarter-million hectares of forest in 2012 In 1988, when British environmentalist Norman Myers first described the concept of a “biodiversity hotspot” – an area with at least 0.5 percent or 1,500 endemic plants that has lost 70 percent of its primary vegetation – he could have been painting a picture of […]
Rare bird paradise protected in war-torn Colombian mountain range (photos)

The Perijá brush-finch has only recently been considered a species in its own right. Photo by: Trevor Ellery. A coalition of conservation groups have established a new protected area in one of Latin America’s most neglected ecosystems: the Colombian-side of the Serranía de Perijá mountain range. Following decades of bloody conflict and rampant deforestation, experts […]
Is REDD+ bad for wildlife? New study says lowland forest protection bias unfair, urges change

Deforestation often shunted to highlands Carbon-centric conservation programs, such as REDD+ (Reduce CO2 Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation), seek to lower greenhouse gas emissions by preventing forest loss through protection of certain areas of forest that have high carbon content. This is determined by estimating the aboveground woody biomass, which is, basically, how thick the […]
Scientists uncover new species of Andean marsupial frog

The term “marsupial frog” might sound like a hoax, but, believe it or not, it’s real. Recently, herpetologists welcomed a new species, known as Gastrotheca dysprosita and described in the journal Phyllomedusa. Unlike mammal marsupials, which typically carry their young in pouches on their torsos and are found primarily in Australia, the Gastrotheca genus of […]
Key highland habitat for rare condor protected in Ecuador

Andean Condor. Photo by Francisco Sornoza. Conservationists have acquired a 2,800-ha (7,000-acre) property that completes the acquisition of some 108,000 ha of key Andean Condor habitat in Ecuador. The lands will serve as a buffer zone for the Antisana Ecological Reserve, an area that protects 140,000 ha of high-altitude forests, canyons, and páramo grasslands around […]
Climate change could kill off Andean cloud forests, home to thousands of species found nowhere else

One of the richest ecosystems on the planet may not survive a hotter climate without human help, according to a sobering new paper in the open source journal PLoS ONE. Although little-studied compared to lowland rainforests, the cloud forests of the Andes are known to harbor explosions of life, including thousands of species found nowhere […]
Featured video: ‘this is day one for the olinguito’

Last month scientists unveiled a remarkable discovery: a new mammal in the order Carnivora (even though it mostly lives off fruits) in the Andean cloud forests. This was the first new mammal from that order in the Western Hemisphere since the 1970s. The olinguito had long been mistaken for its closest relatives, olingos—small tree-dwelling mammals […]
Meet the BABY olinguito

Since its announcement on Thursday, the olinguito—the world’s newest mammal—has taken the world by storm. Hundreds of articles have been written about the new species, while its cuddly appearance has already been made the subject of cartoons. Now, conservationists have released the first photos of a baby olinguito. The new photos come from La Mesenia […]

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