Supporting local ecotourism initiatives to advance Amazon lake conservation efforts

The Peru giant otter project has established a collaboration with the indigenous community of Isla de los Valles, which is strategically placed at the gates of Manu National Park. Recently, on our way to the park, one of our main giant otter study areas, we visited the community and attended its weekly assembly meeting. We seized the opportunity to present the community leaders with a pair of newly purchased binoculars and a Birds of Peru guide. We instructed members of the community’s tourism committee on how to properly use and conserve these items, so that they can improve the experience of visitors to the nearby oxbow lake.

The Isla de los Valles community, composed of people from both Matsigenka and Yine ethnicities, has recently decided to set aside 3300 hectares of its land bordering Manu National Park for nature tourism and protection. Prior to this, the lake, the first of two dozen oxbows flanking the Manu River, did not have protected status and was frequented by loggers and hunters. The tourism operation currently includes a wooden catamaran and charges a small fee for visitors. We will participate by helping monitor the resident giant otter group and the bird community within the lake. We hope this is the start of a fruitful collaboration. We see the involvement with local communities as a vital part of the giant otter project’s mission of promoting conservation of Amazon oxbow lake ecosystems.

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The Peru giant otter project is led by San Diego Zoo’s Conservation Institute, in collaboration with the WildCRU unit at the University of Oxford. It is funded by the People’s Trust of Endangered Species. The connection with local communities is mediated by SePeru, an organization that supports the sustainability of human practices in the Peruvian Amazon.