Neotropical Primate Conservation

Yambrasbamba community vote to conserve the “Pampa del Burro” forever

nogashanee — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 14:41:27 +0000

Members of the Yambrasbamba community voted this week to conserve an area of the community known as the “Pampa del Burro” forever! The vote was taken during a general assembly held on the 29th of January. The area, of 2777 ha, includes two kinds of habitat; White sand forest and cloud forest, both are very special habitats, home to many different species of endemic and endangered wildlife.

La Esperanza, where our Peru office is located, is part of the community of Yambrasbamba, and this decision is a result of a long process of conservation education and awareness we have been doing with the community.In the vote the community members had the choice of for how many years they want to register their reserve with the ministry of Environment, with a legal minimum of 10 years and maximum of forever. Without much hesitation they all voted for the maximum, showing their high enthusiasm with the idea of conservation. When the meeting was over we were approached by community authorities who offered to make more conservation areas in different areas of the community.

Two more concessions for conservation are now published

nogashanee — Sat, 28 Jan 2012 15:23:16 +0000

Last week we received more great news that two reserves we have been working to create for the last two years have now been accepted by the regional governments of San Martin and Amazonas and have now been published in the national regional press and in the local municipality. If no objections are presented in the next thirty days, the reserves will be established. Then we have three months to hand in the technical report.

The first reserve, Tres Quebradas, of 5,100 ha, to be managed by the local association ‘Asociación de Área de Protección y Conservación Tres Quebradas’ in Bagazan, San Martin, was approved by the San Martin Regional Government and will protect nearly 4,176 ha. of habitat for the Critically Endangered Adean titi monkey.

The other reserve, Iguahuana- Dry Forests of Delta, of 423 ha, to be managed by Mr. Rosas Torres, of Delta, Amazonas, was approved by the Amazonas Regional Government, and will be the first reserve to protect the dry forests of the Marañon valley, a very special habitat with many endemic species.

We hope that within a few months the long process will be finished and these two reserves will be fully established and protecting the primates and other species of Peru.

Newsletter Vol. 18

nogashanee — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 19:31:09 +0000

Please download our latest newsletter, Vol. 18 for January 2012. Click here.

NPC’s End of Year Report for 2011

nogashanee — Sat, 14 Jan 2012 01:19:37 +0000

NEW, our yearly report for 2011 is now available to download, Click here.

Presentation of a new schoolbook

nogashanee — Fri, 23 Dec 2011 15:51:38 +0000

On the 21st of December we officially launched our new school text book “Nuestra Selva y Su Sentir”. The 178 page book is aimed at 5th and 6th grade Primary school students in Amazonas and San Martin.

The event was organized by the education authorities, UGEL - Utcubamba, Amazonas (Unidad de Gestión Educativa Local), together with the University of Chachapoyas, UNTRM, was our main partner in producing this book.

The event was very successful with a lot of enthusiasm by those who participated. It was attended by the President of Amazonas Region, Dr. Jose Arista, as well as the head of the Amazonas branch of the ministry of Education, government and education officials and local press.

With funding from SAN, IPPL US, UGEL Utcubaba, Wild Futures and NPC we were able to complete a first print run of 3000 copies and plans are already under way to produce a second addition.

This is the first book of its kind giving school children information about the ecological importance of Amazonas and San Martin and its endemic species, which will develop feelings of pride and stewardship towards their local environment. The book also covers dangers to forests and gives suggestions of what can be done for conservation.

The book was written by: Noga Shanee, Petter Arana Tuesta, Néstor Allgas Marchena, Sam Shanee, Leyda Rimarachin Cayatopa, Karla Ramirez Capetillo, And Stephany Soto Bendezú, and was designed by Liz Tyson.

We thank everyone who was involved with this project and hope that it will go a long way towards promoting conservation in these two regions, and help long term protection of primate species.

Prize winning photo!

nogashanee — Thu, 22 Dec 2011 19:45:24 +0000

Peruvian ornithologist Alejandro ‘Apu’ Alarcon Pardo recently won first prize in the third annual photography competition held by the Faculty of Biological Sciences of San Marcos University, Lima. The prize winning photo was taken on a recent trip to the El Breo Conservation Concession organized by NPC and AMPA, this was the first to document wildlife and plants in the area. Well done Alejandro!

Last stages of the creation of a Concession for Conservation for the protection of the Critically Endangered Rio Mayo titi monkey

nogashanee — Sat, 10 Dec 2011 16:29:48 +0000

The regional government of San Martin recently accepted the solicitude for the Concession for Conservation Shitariyacu. The solicitude was handed in by a local committee of villagers from the village Ricardo Palma with help from NPC and the Titi Monkey Project. Information about the concession has now been published in the national regional press and in the local municipality, now we all have to wait 30 days to see if there are any objections to the creation of this reserve.

The 1,590 ha conservation area is home to the endemic and Critically Endangered Rio Mayo titi monkey (Callicebus oenanthe) and other primate species, as well as a whole host of other endemic and endangered animals. It protects primary rain forest in one of the most deforested areas of Peru. This new area borders another Conservation Concession we are working towards with the community of Bagazan. Together the two areas will protect approximately 7,000 ha of habitat.

Adopt a reserve!

nogashanee — Sun, 04 Dec 2011 21:29:31 +0000

It is now possible to support our work by ‘adopting’ one of the reserves we are helping to create. These donations will go directly towards work involved in making and maintaining a reserve.

To download the adoption info, click here.

For the adoption form, click here.

To customize your adoption pack by ordering an originally designed t-shirt, click here.

Another successful wildlife rescue

nogashanee — Fri, 25 Nov 2011 05:13:16 +0000

We had known about the ‘Royal Pool’ tourist centre in Lamas since our first visit to San Martin in 2007. We had heard that they have a mini-zoo with a lot of primates. We wanted to know what primates they had and in what conditions they were kept. On our first visit we were horrified by the level of abuse and abysmal conditions in which the animals were kept. The cages were tiny, plain and dirty and the animals didn’t have access to water. Most of the animals were extremely emaciated and sickly. The smell was awful.

One of the most shocking examples was a young ocelot, kept in a small cage, who had had his leg bitten off by another, adult, ocelot. The stump was exposed and infected. Another example is of two baby woolly monkeys and one baby Spider monkey who were kept together in a damp concrete cell and nearly starved. When visited a second time, two months later the three baby monkeys had already died and been replaced with other, younger monkeys of the same species.

We were able to talk with and record two of the young keepers, who told us that the animals at the zoo are continually being bought from illegal markets to replace animals that have died. Many of the animals in the zoo are endangered species listed by the IUCN and protected by CITES.

We knew that the zoo did not have a license from the Wildlife Authorities to keep animals, and repeatedly informed the authorities in the hope that they would intervene. Unfortunately nothing happened.

On the 22nd of November this year, I visited the Royal Pool again. There were only a few animals around. The keeper said that the rest had died in a ‘terrible plague’ and there were few survivors. There were three new monkeys, one tamarin in a small metal cage, one capuchin monkey in a tiny bird cage hanging from a wall, who was extremely skinny and just licked his empty water bowl throughout my visit, and a young common woolly monkey who was recently bought from the market and still looked in good conditions except from a serious fungal infection on her tail. She was locked in a dark room and was taken out only to amuse tourists. The keeper said that they are going to buy new animals such as deer and ocelots, and many more.

I went straight to the Regional Environmental Authorities and said that it was time to act now, before they bring anymore animals. They responded rapidly and efficiently and within 24 hours had organized a group of two wildlife agents, an environmentalpolice man and a public prosecutor. Together with a staff member from IKAMA Peru and many transport cages. The owners did not resist, they didn’t have papers for any animal and seemed quite intimidated by the group of authorities. While handling the animals we felt how skinny and weak they really were.

We confiscated all 15 wild animals they had and re-housed them between the IKAMA Peru and Urku rescue centers, depending on the facilities each had for the different species. We hope all of these animals will recuperate quickly and that those who can, will go back to the wild as soon as possible.

What is very interesting in this story is that this tourist center, which is run by a British nurse and her husband, received hundreds of tourists from Peru and all over the world, from many different backgrounds and cultures. All of them have seen the horrible state the animals were kept in (for example a visitor uploaded their travel photos:

http://blog.travelpod.com/travel-photo/marichoube/1/1226232060/1_the-royal-pool.jpg/tpod.html ) but there was never any complaint about this horrible zoo on the internet or registered with the authorities.

Noga

nogashanee — Mon, 21 Nov 2011 21:52:56 +0000