The first-ever Smithsonian course in Peru was held at Inkaterra Guides Field Station, the brand’s third lodge in the Amazon rainforest of Madre de Dios, which will be opened to guests on June 26.

‘Biodiversity Monitoring for Professionals in Conservation and Sustainability’ trained participants on Biodiversity Monitoring and Assessment Programs (BMAP) for large-scale development projects. The week-long workshop was led by Dr. Francisco Dallmeier, Director of the Smithsonian Center for Conservation and Sustainability, and featured talks by Igor Salazar (General Manager, Hunt Oil Peru), wildlife photographer Michael Tweddle, and U.S. Science Envoy Thomas Lovejoy, who shared his five-decade research project on the ecological effects of forest fragmentation in the Brazilian Amazon, a seminal work that pioneered the field of conservation biology.

A knowledgeable experience for scientists, students, volunteers and eco-conscious travelers, Inkaterra Guides Field Station welcomes guests to be part of diverse research and conservation projects overseen by NGO Inkaterra Asociación. Interactive excursions include a Palmetum with the most complete sample of native palms; a bio-orchard with crops nurtured with ancestral agroforestry techniques; a bird banding station; and a motion-sensitive camera trap system to study wildlife in hotel grounds, such as ocelots, giant armadillos, tapirs, peccaries and tamanduas. With four cabanas and two large pavilions, the lodge houses an Eco-Center and a lab to perform analysis on flora and fauna.

SUSTAINABLE LANDSCAPE CORRIDOR PROPOSED TO LOCAL AUTHORITIES

The creation of a 78,756Ha conservation corridor in the Tambopata National Reserve – from Bajo Madre de Dios River to the Peru-Bolivia border – was presented by NGO Inkaterra Asociación to local authorities. In a meeting with Luis Otsuka, Regional Governor of Madre de Dios, Inkaterra Chairman José Koechlin, U.S. Science Envoy Dr. Thomas Lovejoy and Dr. Francisco Dallmeier (Director of the Smithsonian Center for Conservation and Sustainability) assessed the threats of illegal mining in the rainforest, as well as the urgency to declare a sustainable landscape corridor to mitigate its effects via ecotourism and other activities with a positive impact over biodiversity and regional economy.

A convention on this initiative was later held at Inkaterra Hacienda Concepción. Attended by Alfredo Thorne (Minister of Economy and Finance) and Brian Nichols (U.S. Ambassador to Peru), the Peruvian and the U.S. Governments expressed their support to the creation of the sustainable landscape corridor. “If we do nothing, connectivity in the Madre de Dios corridor will be lost towards 2040 (…). By the year 2100, high-biodiversity areas will turn into islands, and one the most important places for our planet will be gone,” stated Dr. Dallmeier to El Comercio. “We only have 25 years left to work it out with sustainable corridors, securing landscape connectivity.”