Research for conservation

Efficient conservation actions require solid arguments. WWF Peru works to generate firsthand scientific information to design and direct the best protection and resource management strategies. Whether through the analysis of the most recent geographic and biological information to model the possible advances of the threats against the Amazon, or through direct field work that studies key animals, WWF gathers and produces unprecedented information to sustain successful tools for the conservation of our biodiversity and to maintain the Amazonian environmental services.

One of the most attractive research experiences in the Amazon is the work carried out by WWF in the southeast region of Peru - in the Tambopata National Reserve and the Bahuaja Sonene National Park -, where a team of Peruvian and foreign scientists work hand in hand with former parkguards and hunters to carry out the only large scale sustained study involving big cats - and other animals - with radio-transmitters in the region.

Through camera traps and the placement of radio-transmitter devices on nearly 20 jaguars and pumas; over 80 macaws and parrots, aside from 40 white lipped peccaries – a kind of wild boar -, the animals are studied to learn about their behavior and determine the minimal areas required to sustain healthy populations of these species.

This information provides improved arguments for the creation and management of protected areas and other strategies for the conservation of these species, which aside from being the most charismatic in the Amazon, play a key role in the health of the forests.