| Protecting the Andean Cloud Forests of Peru
| Steep slopes and fragile
soils make cloud forests highly susceptible to erosion |
Andean cloud forests are critical to protect because
of their extremely high biodiversity and because their steep slopes
and fragile soils make them highly susceptible to erosion and degradation.
In the past, their remoteness and difficult access kept these beautiful
forests inaccessible, protecting them from human encroachment. Today,
however, with modern techniques and equipment, these cloud forests
are increasingly threatened as people cut secondary roads within
the forests and clear large areas for short-term gains in agriculture
or timber.
 NCI
is working to conserve these fragile and unique forests through
the effective protection and management of key sites that will form
a chain of protected areas the length of the ecosystem, complemented
by appropriate community development plans that integrate conservation
into new sustainable livelihoods for community members. NCI projects
include strengthening national park and reserve management in northern
Peruvian cloud forests, programs in Cuyas
to conserve extremely rare western slope cloud forests, and a paramo
conservation program.
Through a partnership with the Peruvian Association
for the Conservation of Nature (APECO) and with support from the
Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, NCI is helping to significantly
strengthen management and protection of the three large protected
areas in Peru’s northern montane forests – Río
Abiseo National Park, Alto Mayo Forest, and the Cordillera de
Colán Reserved Zone.
| NCI is working to protect
cloud forest parks nearly the size of Delaware |
NCI has doubled the number of park personnel in
these areas and has begun several sustainable development and social
programs with neighboring communities. Conservation of these three
protected areas, totaling 1.4 million acres or nearly the size of
Delaware, forms the core of a conservation strategy for this entire
ecosystem. More than 300 species of birds are found in these forests,
of which 23 are threatened, including the Royal Sunangel hummingbird,
the endemic Ochre-fronted Antpitta, and the rare Long-whiskered
Owlet. One of the areas, the Rio Abiseo National Park, also harbors
the endangered and endemic yellow-tailed wooly monkey and five endemic
frog species.
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