Help communities to conserve Peru's Dry Forests

A Rocha Peru is commencing its third year of the Dry Forest Conservation project in Pacasmayo, helping to collaborate with local communities to restore, conserve, and sustainably manage dry forest landscapes.

In January 2020, a new conservation agreement was established to protect 0.28 has of degraded forest in Santa Maria, adjacent to an agricultural zone. This resulted in the project undertaking its third planting campaign, reforesting the 0.28 hectares by planting 60 seedlings with 6 community members.   

The project, in collaboration with local beneficiaries, conducted monthly monitoring visits of nearly 700 trees that had been planted in the reforestation phases of 2019. Irrigation alternatives are currently being identified to help better protect the trees.

The local conservation groups of CAU Tecapa and Muchick-Santonte continued to have monthly meetings and undertake their monthly patrols of the dry forest, to identify illegal logging and fuelwood collection activities in the conservation areas. In addition, in January participants from the Muchick group were trained in bare-root reforestation methodology which was then applied in their routine patrol to the Tronco Prieto forest.

With regards to capacity building, A Rocha Peru continues to give workshops to transfer knowledge and capacity to restore, conserve and sustainably manage dry forest landscapes. In December, 25 local community members were trained on leadership and ecotourism in natural protected areas. In January, 6 people from the local community were trained on Agroforestry, its importance and application.

The project meets monthly with artisans. At their December meeting, they held a Christmas celebration with a sale of handicrafts and in January, they expressed the diversity of the Canoncillo forest through environmental drawings learning a new painting technique on canvas.

This report covers the period September-November 2019 (inclusive). The project is currently delivering the second phase of reforestation activities, which commenced in November and will conclude in December 2019. To date 96 tree seedlings have been planted, from the 330 tree seedlings produced in the local municipal nursery as at the end of August. For further detail on this planting Campaign please refer to attachment 1 which outlines beneficiaries and number of trees planted by location. Trees planted earlier in the year as part of the project's initial restoration activities are growing well and being monitored on a monthly basis.

The local conservation groups of Tecapa and Muchick-Santonte continue to undertake at least monthly patrols of the dry forest, in partnership with A Rocha Peru, to identify illegal logging and fuelwood collection activities in the conservation areas. They are more established and continue to undertake capacity building through meetings and planned activities with A Rocha Peru. The Muchick group has established a micro business focused on the production of algarrobina syrup with sales of 800 soles or approximately 250 dollars as at October.

With regards to capacity building, the project has continued to deliver workshops on the production of traditional crafts using sustainable dry forest resources. The workshops focused on basket making with different local grasses, bark and dry matter harvested from the dry forest floor, including ‘viruli’, ‘hinea’, ‘carrizo’ and “junco”, as well as weaving with plastic bags. A total of 14 sessions have been held since June with an average of 13 participants per session of which 66% were female. 

A Rocha Peru held a number of workshops in partnership with other local and regional agencies during this period, including a specialist workshop on forestry legislation, in partnership with the Agrarian Agency of Pacasmayo, and a specialist workshop on local fauna in el Cañoncillo dry forest, in partnership with the NGO Conservacción.

Finally A Rocha Peru and the local community participated in World Clean up day on 21 September 2019 in the El Cañoncillo dry forest. This was a successful community event that encouraged participation and a positive approach to caring and conserving the local environment. 

• December Project Update report (PDF)