The Pampa Hermosa community in central Peru recently prohibited the collection of butterflies and orchids, hunting of birds and bears, extraction of wood, and cutting and burning of forests for pasture. The decision to conserve their cloudforest and its treasures gives the community the opportunity to be a significant “ecotravel” destination and offer tourists accessible waterfalls and a diversity of wildlife unique to this region.
To help the community of Pampa Hermosa maximize their potential, Rainforest Partnership is helping develop infrastructure to support and market ecotourism, build diverse and sustainable income sources and protect greater amounts of their cloudforest.
RP has been involved in the community since April 2008 when Lucia Eslava (Peru Program Coordinator), Niyanta Spelman (Executive Director) and Hazel Barbour (Board Chair) first visited the community. Lucia returned to the community in August 2008, at the community’s request, to mediate between the community and the University of the Center of Peru which was trying to establish a conservation concession without consulting the community. Lucia remained in constant contact as the RP representative until Niyanta and she returned to the community in August of 2009 to again meet with community members, as well as municipal and regional government representatives.
RP began Phase 1 of the project in June 2010 with Rainforest Partnership’s Patricio Prieto and Lucia Eslava in the community. Patricio spent six weeks in Pampa Hermosa and worked with the community to begin making improvements to infrastructure for basic ecotourism facilities. Keep up to date with the progress of the project here.
In addition to our partners in Pampa Hermosa we are working with Gunnar Engblom, owner of Kolibri Expeditions, who ran the Lima marathon both in 2009 and 2010 to raise money for the Rainforest Partnership Project in this region. He has been working with the community and taking birders there for the last 5 years.
Please help the communities of Pampa Hermosa improve their infrastructure for ecotourism. We made it halfway to our project goal for the year during July’s Global Giving Challenge but we still have $15,000 to go!
Make your donations today here.
