Collaborative interventions in conservation and natural resource management in the Peruvian Amazon

The Amarakaeri Communal Reserve was established in the Peruvian Amazon to protect the Madre de Dios and Karene watersheds, ensuring the stability of the area’s forest ecosystems and biological diversity, and protecting the cultural heritage of the native Harakmbut communities. The social, political and environmental context of the Reserve is a complicated mixture of uncertain, and at times overlapping, land tenure that has generated social conflict over hydrocarbon extraction, small scale mining, infrastructure development, forestry, and indigenous peoples’ rights and livelihoods. Our program aimed to enhance collaborative resource management and conservation by 1) conducting conflict-sensitive capacity building for protected area managers, government and civil society organizations, and community stakeholders; 2) creating spaces for collaborative engagement around resource use and management; and 3) providing technical capacity building in natural resource management for indigenous land managers.