NCI Helps Indigenous Awajun Protect Rainforest

05/15/2014

May, 2014 | We are pleased to announce that with the help of our Amazonas office in Peru and the indigenous Awajun people, the 114,406 acre Pamau Nain Awajun Conservation Concession was declared on Friday, May 23rd by the regional government. This legally protects part of the Awajun’s ancestral homeland of pristine Amazonian rainforest for a renewable forty year period, to be managed by the local communities.

To ensure the implementation of effective conservation practices, we helped create the Pamau Nain Conservation Association, which unites the leaders of nine Awajun communities to coordinate conservation, cultural and sustainable development activities.

We initiated the Pamau Nain project by visiting each of the neighboring Awajun communities, and prepared all of the necessary biological studies, mapping work and legal rights studies. NCI also drafted the public notification of the area’s creation, and organized a site visit by the environmental authority as part of the process to create the conservation concession. We will continue to assist local communities in implementing successful conservation practices by working with the Pamau Nain Conservation Association.

The Pamau Nain area is comprised of Amazon rainforest, the world’s most biodiverse ecosystem, and home to an incredible wealth of species including tapirs, jaguars and spider monkeys. We are continuing to work with the Awajun people to declare additional protected areas and concessions, as well as with the regional government to protect an even greater variety of ecosystems.