Patrolling the Yurúa Conservation Concession
Helping the Yurúa Community Conservation Association monitor and protect its 45,700 hectare conservation concession.
In an effort to protect its conservation concession despite the many challenges related to COVID-19, members of the Yurúa Communal Conservation Association (ACCY), with UAC’s financial support, conducted a patrol of the Breu River, which serves as the boundary between the Concession and indigenous lands in Acre, Brazil.
The Association is made up of representatives from bordering indigenous communities who work together to manage and protect the Concession. However, managing a conservation concession is not an easy task. Remote communities face logistical, financial, and other challenges. Patrolling remote rivers requires several days of travel, and access to boats, motors, fuel and food. Plus, the men and women must leave their families and critical subsistence activities like hunting and farming. UAC has partnered with the Association to fund these patrols, as well as important training on data collection methods and the use of cameras and GPS units to accurately document threats, endangered species and other important observations.
Conservation concessions are granted by the Peruvian government to promote protection of natural areas, expand the system of protected areas, and increase local involvement in conservation activities. The concessions can be managed for strict conservation of biodiversity as well as sustainable uses such as ecotourism, research, education, and collection of non-timber forest resources, among others. Indigenous communities and other associations benefit from the concessions by generating income from these sustainable uses while ensuring these areas remain protected from outside threats.
“It is a part of our commitment as leaders and as a concession to work in favor of the conservation of natural resources because many people in the country do not have what we have in our forests. We want to continue to have access to our natural resources because we depend on them and must care for them . .. because the natural resources also belong to our children.”
–Juan Pérez Tello, president of Yurúa Communal Conservation Association and Chief of the Santa Rosa Indigenous Community.
Despite challenges associated with COVID-19, including the absence of authorities to help with monitoring and less financial support from donors, the Association continues to monitor Concession boundaries. In February, with UAC support, members documented illegal logging in the lands of the Santa Rosa Indigenous community, which serves as par of the Concession’s buffer zone. Loggers, likely from Brazil, had cut several trees including Copaiba (see above). Used shotgun cartridges indicated illegal hunting, as well as logging. UAC will continue supporting the Association with more patrols and training workshops to ensure protection and effective management of the Concession.
The Yurúa Communal Conservation Association manages a 45,700-hectare concession of intact tropical forest located between the Yurúa and Breu rivers near the Brazil Brazil. The concession protects the resources that are the foundation of the subsistence lifestyles of the Yurúa’s 16 Indigenous communities. It also serves as a buffer zone for the Murunahua Indigenous Reserve for isolated tribes. (Click to enlarge).