On May 21 2007 the state government of Loreto, Peru, declared the Regional Conservation Area Tamshiyacu-Tahuayo of over 1 million acres of lowland Amazon forests as the first area in a planned regional system of conservation areas. The Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation has awarded a series of grants to Nature & Culture International to support this ongoing work.
Nature & Culture International works in partnership with PROCREL (a local government project) and the Peruvian Institute of Amazonian Investigation (IIAP) to identify key ecological processes essential for the health of Amazon ecosystems, and to assist community-based sustainable development and conservation practices.
The success of this program represents an extraordinary precedent, and a historic moment for Loreto, since a different path and vision of sustainable development and conservation of the Amazon has been initiated. Nature & Culture International wishes to thank Iván Vásquez, the President of the state of Loreto, who has played an important role in this conservation movement.
Six more Regional Conservation Areas have been identified and are underway.
