1. Cover Sheet

Conserving the Amazon Headwaters of the Purus Manu Conservation Corridor

A proposal to USAID under APS USAID-W-GRO-LMA-10-0709

Lead Organization: World Wildlife Fund, Inc.

Contact: Meg Symington

Managing Director for the Amazon

Tel: 202-495-4727

Primary Partners: CARE, Frankfurt Zoological Society, OrganizaciónNacional de AIDESEP Ucayali (ORAU)

  1. Executive Summary

The biodiversity of the Amazon is under enormous threat from habitat destruction and fragmentation, infrastructure development, unsustainable natural resource use, and, increasingly, climate change. Reducing rates of deforestation and biodiversity loss in the Amazon requires a targeted threats-based conservation approach that works from the local-to-global level. Effective conservation also requires adaptive management in order for programs to effectively respond to changing realities on the ground, while achieving measurable results. WWF, together with a powerful team of partners, proposes to work in the Purús-Manu Conservation Corridor, a conservation priority area for WWF comprising indigenous territories, protected areas and communal lands to help USAID’s Initiative for the Conservation of the Andean Amazon achieve its goal of maintaining the Andean Amazon Biome through the sustainable management of selected landscapes.

The Purús-Manu Conservation Corridor (PMCC) is a landscape that encompasses an area of approximately 10 million ha. The landscape straddles the regions of Ucayali, Cuzco and Madre de Dios in southern Peru (all prioritized by the APS) and contains the headwaters of four major rivers systems. The area includes a core of protected areas of about 4.7 million ha: the Alto Purús National Park, Purús Communal Reserve, Amarakaeri Communal Reserve and the Megantoni National Sanctuary; four territorial reserves for indigenous groups in voluntary isolation, titled indigenous lands, as well as forest concessions and a conservation concession, all priority land use zones for ICAA II. Connecting with the Chandless State Park, indigenous territories and sustainable use reserves on the Brazilian side, the PMCC forms one of the most important and remote tracts of intact tropical forest remaining in the upper reaches of the southwestern Amazon.

WWF will work with CARE, Frankfurt Zoological Society, and OrganizaciónNacional de AIDESEP Ucayali (ORAU) to secure the long-term conservation of the PMCC and key flora and fauna species through a combination of on-the-ground interventions to improve protected area and natural resource management and environmental governance capacity coupled with efforts to build enabling regional and national policies that complement local actions. We will: 1) ensure effective conservation of the protected areas of the PMCC; 2) implement sustainable land use practices and control illegal activities in the human landscapes of the PMCC; and 3) create an enabling policy framework that ensures the long term conservation of the PMCC and the socio-economic well-being of its inhabitants

WWF has enjoyed a long, productive partnership with USAID in the evolution of innovative biodiversity conservation approaches. From BSP to GCP to SCAPES, WWF staff have gained expertise in developing conservation programs, applying threats-based and adaptive management approaches, seeking appropriate mechanisms to ensure sustainability, and integrating social and governance strategies in our actions. We have also had the opportunity to test measures to scale up conservation using a local-to-global approach, linking site conservation to national, regional, and global markets and policy interventions. Due to our experience and strong network of experts and strategic partners, WWF is well positioned to integrate the four critical elements identified in the ICAA II APS – threats-based approach, sustainability, adaptive management, and scaling up – into our overall approach and the proposed landscape and policy activities.

Through ICAA, WWF aims to work with our partners, and with local and national governments to achieve successful, measurable, and replicable biodiversity conservation outcomes and work toward long-term ecological, social, and financial sustainability of this priority landscape in the Andean Amazon.

  1. Acronym List

Acronym /
Abbreviation / Name / Country
AIDESEP / Interethnic Association for the Development of the Peruvian Amazon / Peru
APNP / Alto Purús National Park / Peru
ATFFS / Administración Técnica de Forestal y de Fauna Silvestre / Peru
BSP / Biodiversity Support Program
CC / Consortium Committee
CEDEFOR / CARE & WWF project: “Certification and Development of the Forest Sector” / Peru
CEDIA / Centro para el Desarrollo del Indígena Amazónico / Center for the development of the Amazonian indigenous peoples / Peru
CERF / Peru forestry Project / Peru
CESAH / WWF Payment for Hydrological Services Project / Peru
CIAM / Consejo Interregional Amazónico / Peru
CITES / Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora
CODECO / Committees for Communal Development
COICA / Coordinating Body for Indigenous Peoples' Organizations of the Amazon Basin / Ecuador
DFID / Department for International Development of the United Kingdom / United Kingdom
DGIS / Netherlands Directorate-General for International Cooperation / Netherlands
DIREPRO / Dirección Regional de Producción Loreto / Peru
ECOPURÚS / Ejecutor de Contrato para la Reserva Comunal Purús / Implementer of thecontracttomanagethePurúsCommunal Reserve / Peru
FECONAPU / Federación de Comunidades Nativas del Alto Purús / Federation of NativeCommunitiesfrom Alto Purús / Peru
FENAMAD / Federación Nativa del Río Madre de Dios y Afluentes / NativeFederation of the Madre de Dios River and itsTributaries / Peru
FORIN / WWF Indigenous Forestry Project / Peru
FZS / Frankfurt Zoological Society / Peru
GCP / Global Conservation Program
GoP / Government of Peru / Peru
IDB / Inter-American Development Bank
ICAA / Initiative for Conservation in the Andean Amazon
ICRAF / World Agroforestry Centre
ILO 169 / International Labour Organization's Convention 169 on Indigenous and Tribal Peoples
INDEPA / InstitutoNacional de Desarrollo de Pueblos Andinos, Amazónicos y Afroperuano / National Institute for the Development of Andean, Amazonian and Afro-Peruvian Peoples / Peru
ITTO / International Tropical Timber Organization
LWA / Leader with Associates
M&E / Monitoring and Evaluation / Peru
MINEM / Ministerio de Energía y Minas / Ministry of Energy and Mines / Peru
MRV / Monitoring, Reporting and Verification
NORAD / Norway Agency for International Cooperation / Norway
PA / Protected Area(s)
PCR / Purús Communal Reserve / Peru
PIU / Project Implementation Unit
PMCC / Purús-Manu Conservation Corridor / Peru
ProNaturaleza / Fundación Peruana para la Conservación de la Naturaleza / PeruvianFoundationforthenatureconservation / Peru
REDD / Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation
SCAPES / WWF & CARE project: Sustainable Conservation Approaches in Priority Ecosystems
SERNANP / Servicio Nacional de Áreas Naturales Protegidas por el Estado / NationalInstitute of ProtectedAreas / Peru
SPDA / Sociedad Peruana de Derecho Ambiental / PeruvianSocietyforEnvironmentalLaw / Peru
SIVICO / Systems of Community Vigilance
USAID / United States Agency for International Development / United States
TFCA / Tropical Forest Conservation Act / Peru
WWF / World Wildlife Fund

1

  1. Strategic Fit and Conceptual Approach

WWF’s mission is the conservation of nature. Using the best available scientific knowledge, we work to protect biodiversity and advance sustainable and efficient use of renewable natural resources and energy.We are committed to advancing biodiversity conservation globally, while building a future in which human needs are met in harmony with nature. With decades of experience,we have long understood that conservation success requires an integratedapproach to address thewide range of human activitiesaffecting the environment. We work with many partners around the world to strengthen stewardship of threatened species and ecosystems.

WWF-US’s organizational goal is an ambitious one. By 2020, we will conserve 19 of the world’s most important places for biodiversity and significantly change global markets to protect the future of nature. Of these 19 places, one of the highest priorities for WWF is the Amazon.

WWF has developed a comprehensive strategy for the Amazon biome. Our vision is an ecologically healthy Amazon Biome that maintains its environmental and cultural contributions to local peoples, the countries of the region, and the world, within a framework of social equity, inclusive economic development and global responsibility. Over the next 10 years, WWF will, under its Living Amazon Initiative, develop far-reaching and powerful partnerships with governments, civil society, and the private sector to launch the transformational processes needed to bring about a scenario for the Amazon in which:

  • Governments, local peoples, and civil society in the region share an integrated vision of conservation and development that is environmentally, economically, and socially sustainable;
  • Natural ecosystems are valued appropriately for the environmental goods and services they provide and the livelihoods they sustain;
  • Tenure and rights to land and resources are planned, defined and enforced to help achieve this conservation and development vision;
  • Agriculture and ranching are carried out following best management practices on lands that are appropriate and legal; and
  • Transportation and energy infrastructure development is planned, designed and implemented to minimize impact on natural ecosystems, hydrological disruption and impoverishment of biological and cultural diversity.

In the Amazon, as in each of its 19 priority places, WWF has selected critically important landscapes for the focus of its conservation efforts, where biodiversity is threatened by global and local drivers of biodiversity loss that cause habitat destruction and fragmentation, over-exploitation of resources, infrastructure development, and increasingly important, impacts due to climate change. While the landscapes often include core protected areas, they also contain areas designated for other uses by a variety of stakeholders, and a major focus is on maintaining or restoring connectivity among different elements of a landscape. These landscapes in the Amazon fall within larger blocks that were selected by WWF for their contribution to ecoregional representation and hydrological connectivity, high irreplaceability and protection of important headwaters. These blocks are illustrated in Figure 1.

Figure 1: WWF Priority Conservation Blocks in the Amazon

For ICAA, we are proposing to focus on thePurús-Manu Conservation Corridor (PMCC) within the Amazon Headwaters Block(see black circle above). This block contains important Amazonian headwaters, and offers the opportunity to develop and disseminate successful models of sustainable conservation and livelihoods in a wide variety of land uses, including indigenous territories, protected areas and private and communal lands, and forest concessions. The block also faces significant threats of habitat loss and degradation from unsustainable resource use, and poorly planned and monitored infrastructure projects, including hydrocarbon development.

Purús-Manu ConservationCorridor (PMCC)

The Purús Manu Conservation Corridor (PMCC) encompasses an area of approximately 10 million hathat straddles the departments of Ucayali, Cuzco and Madre de Dios in southern Peru (all prioritized by the APS – see Table 1 below). The direct project intervention area includes the following departments, provinces and districts in the region:

Table 1: Areas included in the PMCC

Department / Province / District
Ucayali / Atalaya / Sepahua, Yurua
Purús / Purús
Madre de Dios / Tambopata / Las Piedras, Tambopata
Tahuamanu / Iñapari, Iberia
Manu / Fitzcarrald, Manu, Madre de Dios, Huepetuhe
Cusco / La Convención / Echarate

The headwaters of four major rivers systems have their origins in the proposed project area: Purús, Yurua, and tributaries to the Madeira and Ucayali Rivers. The area includes: 1) a core of protected areas of approximately 4.7 million ha - the Alto Purús National Park (APNP), Purús Communal Reserve (PCR), Amarakaeri Communal Reserve (ACR) and the Megantoni National Sanctuary (MNS); 2) four territorial reserves for indigenous groups in voluntary isolation (2,400,000 ha)[1]; 3) titled indigenous lands (750,000 ha) and, 4) forest concessions and a conservation concession (1,570,000 ha), all of which are priority land use zones for ICAA II. Small pieces of land without official land use are dispersed throughout the region, totaling approximately 600,000 ha, or 6% of the total area.[2] In combination with the adjacent Chandless State Park, indigenous territories and sustainable use reserves on the Brazilian side, the PMCC forms one of the most important and remote tracts of intact tropical forest remaining in the western Amazon.

The primary locations for on-the-ground interventions are the following (see Figure 2 below):

a)The Protected Areas of Purús: This area is comprised of the APNP (2.5 million ha, of which the MashcoPiro Territorial Reserve overlaps in its entirety – see Figure 2 below), which is strictly protected and the PCR (202,000 ha), where sustainable use is allowed. The focus of our work is to support the respective administrations of both areas to sustainably manage these protected areas and engage in a range of activities with stakeholders geared at reducing the threats and increasing the socio-economic well-being of local communities that rely on the area’s natural resources. The environmental governance system for management of the PCR includes the participation of an indigenous organization, , which has administrative offices in the nearby town of Puerto Esperanza, and with whom WWF has been working with for several years in capacity-building for protected area and natural resource management.

b) The human landscapes of the PMCC: Although there are several settlements and villages in and around the PMCC, the proposed project will focus on those whose current and projected or potential development practices pose the highest risks for the region’s biodiversity. Specifically:

i.The 26 indigenous communities in the northeastern corner of the PMCC. Mostly from the Pano linguistic family, the communities are at different levels of transition in adopting a more Western style of life, and their livelihoods depend in large part on the natural resources from their communities and the adjacent protected areas, principally from the PCR, but occasionally in the APNP as well, notably in the case of harvesting turtle eggs and catching migratory catfish. Moreover, while commercial loggers and fishing do not occur directly inside the PCR and the APNP, these communities are increasingly being contracted by outsiders to illegally extract resources from these areas.[3] Pressure has been shown to be progressing from the communities closest Puerto Esperanza, the main town in Purús, towards the communities closest to the PCR and the APNP.

ii.The Alto Pacahuara community in the east of the APNP along the Tahumanu River: This community is comprised of religious-oriented settlers from the high Andes who are rapidly advancing towards the Madre de Dios Territorial Reserve and beyond to the APNP and encroaching into forest concessions through expansion of the agricultural frontier.

iii.Territorial reserves for indigenous peoples living in voluntary isolation: The NahuaNanti, MashcoPiro, Madre de Dios and the Murunahua Territorial Reserves are surrounding the Purúsprotected areas while the MashcoPiro overlaps the APNP almost entirely. They are effectively a buffer for the protected areas of the Purús, while the protected areas provide these groups a larger area to gather resources and resist outside threats.

iv.Two clusters of forest concessions: the Tahuamanu/Las Piedras forest concessions cluster in the east and the Sepahua/Inuyaforest concessions cluster in the west. Most of the illegal logging activities currently impacting the area originate in these clusters.

Figure 2: Location of the Purús Manu Conservation Corridor

Biological Significance

The proposed PMCC project area is one of the largest tracts of healthy tropical forest in the western Amazon region, with few impacted areas. Floral and faunal assemblages appear to be in relatively good shape as well, save for a handful of high value economic species such as mahogany, certain primate species, freshwater turtles, and large migratory catfish. Species richness and endemism levels for several taxa are very high, which is typical for Andean Amazonian tropical forests. In the 1970s and 80s, the Curanja River in the Purús area held the world record for local mammal and bird species richness. The mammal and bird species assemblages are very similar to the ones found in Manu National Park, whichis still considered among the most diverse national parks in the world.[4] The forests in the PMCC range from lowland forests to cloud forests, including the transition to high Andean grasslands, and contain the largest known remaining stands of mahogany in South America. Best represented are the lowland terra firme forests, with a significant proportion of bamboo-dominated forests. In the southern parts of the PMCC the lowland forest abruptly transitions into mountain forests, cloud forests and eventually into Andean grasslands above the tree line, at approximately 3500 to 4000 meters, providing one of the Amazon biome’s only largely intact lowland to highland gradient ecosystems that has a reasonable chance for long term protection. Finally, the PMCC’s large and largely intact habitats support viable populations even for the most area-demanding forest species such as jaguars, macaws and peccaries.

Other Environmental Values

As noted above, the PMCC contains headwater areas of four major river systems, and contains the headwaters of smaller basins as well. These basins provide valuable freshwater resources to both local and regional populations. Moreover, since the Purús and Yurua basins are the last southern Amazon tributaries not to be harnessed for hydropower, they hold special importance for the conservation of the large migratory catfish and other freshwater species. For example, the portion of the basins in the PMCC and surrounding areas contain the spawning grounds for the Yurua and Purús basin subpopulations of catfish, which are a major source of protein for local and downstream communities.

Moreover, the size of the area as well as the altitudinal gradient inside the Manu National Park also increases its resilience to changes expected with global warming. According to several climate models, the area sits in a possible transition between an Amazonian rainforest core and the drier habitats creeping up from the south and the east. A healthy and relatively large block of primary moist forest will help to slow down progressive vegetation changes and possibly increase total area of Amazon forest remaining in a drier future. In the long term, this conservation landscape with its size and gradients could serve as a starting point for an Amazon comeback after the climate impacts are reverted, as well as ensure the continuation of evolutionary processes.