We, at Asociacion Fauna Forever, have recently begun our 2011 recruitment drive to attract enthusiastic, environmentally-minded volunteer field assistants and student interns willing to get their hands dirty, and their field research skills enhanced, whilst experiencing a remote corner of the upper Amazon wilderness in Peru.
The Asociacion Fauna Forever is a Peruvian not-for-profit organization that manages a series of research, training and conservation projects in the Tambopata rainforest region in south-eastern Peru. Since 1997, we have been studying the population ecology of Neotropical mammal, bird, amphibian, reptile and insect species at multiple locations in and around the Tambopata National Reserve and Bahuaja Sonene National Park two important protected areas that cover more than 1M hectares of largely old-growth, lowland rainforest. We also investigate the value of ecosystem services provided by intact wild nature, such as nature-based tourism, as well as the benefits and impacts of other human activities, including Brazil-nut harvesting, bush-meat hunting, agriculture and selective logging. Our principal research project is called Fauna Forever Tambopata (FFT). Successful applicants can join our mixed, international team of biologists and environmental economists for periods of 20 days or more, of which at least 17 days are spent in the forest. All methodological and health-and-safety training is provided on-site, though some knowledge of ecology and outdoor skills (hiking, camping) would be an advantage. The project languages are English and Spanish. Spanish classes can be arranged for those people interested in spending longer in the region - particularly useful for our interns. To make it easier for volunteers and interns to participate in our research activities, we have divided the year up into 20-day phases. There is also a special 57-day summer phase that coincides with the principal holiday period in the northern hemisphere. All phases begin and end in the jungle town of Puerto Maldonado, which is only a 30-min flight from the Andean city of Cuzco. Note: We do ask that successful applicants cover their in-country costs, including training, accommodation, food, and local transport. These costs have purposely been kept to a minimum. Accommodation ranges from high quality ecolodges and biological research stations, to local home-stays and remote campsites. All sites are accessed by boat. Please review the Fauna Forever Tambopata project website (http://www.faunaforever.org/fft/volunteer.html) for further details about the research we undertake, the research teams, the wildlife species that inspire us, the locations that we study, and for details on how to apply. For those undergraduate and postgraduate students interested in carrying out their own field research in Tambopata, we would be keen to receive and review your research proposals, and in the absence of these we can suggest several worthwhile research topics that could be pursued. We can provide professional, on-site supervision and feedback when necessary. For further information, please contact Chris Kirkby and David Johnston at: [email protected] Many thanks. CHRIS KIRKBY Asociacion Fauna Forever PO Box 103, Carretera Tambopata Km 1.5 Puerto Maldonado Madre de Dios, PERU Tel/Cel: +51 (0)1 2715697 / +51 993915158 E-mails: [email protected], [email protected] Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/FaunaForever Twitter: http://twitter.com/faunaforever Web: http://faunaforever.org
