Peruvian Amazon rainforest: more than adventure
how your vacations can give happiness to you and help the environment
Eduardo Rios, returning from field camp in Santa Clara II zona, Loreto - Peru
As we have experienced since 2002, most of visitors loves the experience to go to the jungle, and see the wildlife, interact with locals, and help local people.
We were working with different communities, teaching basic english, teaching about first aid techniques, talking about recycling, giving advice about sustainable agriculture, giving seminars about forestry and timber companies… all these activities let us know different small communities, but we didn’t have a base headquarter outside Iquitos.
This year, we have the goal to build a butterfly breeder in Buen Pastor community where we are buying a portion of land. This will be our base headquarter in the jungle, outside Iquitos, and just a few miles in front of Alpahuayo-Mishana national reserve.
The project is called “Terra nova butterfly breeder”, and will be a center where we will breed some species of butterflies, and later release them in the forest. Why butterflies? They are bioindicators that forests are healthy and growing. A lack of them means forests are with problems as deforestation, pollution, unsustainable agriculture, or overexploitation of the land.
The two last reasons are less obvious, and here it’s where our bioindicators can give us an approach about what’s happening. Then actions will be taken to reverse those problems, and reduce the negative impact in the whole system, that’s why we will work in close contact with local authorities in order to coordinate actions.
I’m expecting to finish the project by June 2012, and meantime, we will get some funds from visitors who can make a plan to spend some weeks in “Terra nova”. It will not be a five-starts hotel but the contact with nature, and adventure will be assured.
As a plus, I will organize tours to the Alpahuayo-mishana reserve for birdwatching, river trips in Nanay and Amazon rivers, and lot of fun in between!! :)
For a complete description of this project, feel free to send to us an email with your questions or comments. You can visit my website.
Additonally, you can find me in facebook (www.facebook.com/desarrolloamaazonicoperu) and Twitter (www.twitter.com/edamazonico)
Best regards
Eduardo Rios
Project Director.
Iquitos - Loreto
Peru
