LUZ M. MELENDEZ RESERVE

Since 2012 we have made wildlife surveys covering Luz M. Melendez Preserve and the surroundings, listing 239 species of birds and 22 species of large and small mammals, currently we are working on surveying the plants, insects, and butterflies. 

The preserve land is vulnerable to various threats to which they are subject. The major threats are uncontrolled agriculture and land grabs, gold mining, illegal logging, excessive extraction of other natural resources (bushmeat, fish, fruit and palm leaves, etc.), paving the road Cusco – Puerto Maldonado and increased migration to the region to increase pressure and threats on the protected area processes. 

Hope a lot more is coming. We want to build a capable field center, with 6 rooms, 1 kitchen, 4 restrooms, a library, and a conference room. We want to help to develop more birding groups in Madre de Dios and in the rest of Perú and Bolivia. We want to keep developing more nature trips for genuine ecotourism. We believe ecotourism is key to conservation. We want to expose our participants to opportunities to see many more birds. We want to encourage people to participate as ambassadors of national parks, preserves, concessions, and private protected forest for conservation.  We want to look for more economic resources to buy more land for conservation, and at the moment we have the offer of the land in the neighbor, 38 hectares of land next to Marina Reserve and we seek $20.000 dollars to buy it.