Posted on March, 08 2015

Heads of Protected Areas in different corners of the Peruvian and Colombian Amazon, Collaborators from Nacional Service of Natural Protected Areas by the state SERNANP, National Natural Parks of Colombia and directors from the Latin-American Network of Technical Cooperation in National Parks, other Protected Areas and Wildlife REDPARQUES had a meeting on Thursday, February 5 in the district of Huaraz, Peru, to discuss, exchange experiences and celebrate the closing of course ¨Building Resilience in protected areas of the Amazon Biome in climate change scenarios¨.

This meeting was the closure of a virtual three-month course led by WWF Living Amazon and funded by the Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation, Building and Nuclear Safety BMUB, which aims to educate about the importance and relationship on management of protected areas of the Amazon Biome as tools and natural solutions to climate change.

At the meeting, issues such as the vulnerability of protected areas and possible scenarios and solutions to reduce threats to biodiversity, local communities and people were discussed.  "The Amazon is a region that has always had droughts due to climate variability but in a climate change scenario situation gets worse, that is why if populations address the issue, hand in hand with protected areas, better adaptation will be possible ", says Omar Ubillus , REDPARQUES representative .

During the workshop key issues were identified as the importance of protected areas not only by the size and area occupied in the region but their influences on economies of the Amazon Biome countries,  the need of support and its links to local and national land use planning  for climate change adaptation, etc.

A field trip to Glacier Pastoruri at Huascaran National Park was part of the agenda with the goal to learn more about the route of climate change, understanding the socio- environmental impacts that have affected the glaciers in the Andes.

According to the study of vulnerability of protected areas by the SERNANP with WWF support, climate change will affect most protected areas in Peru in coming decades and confront this situation requires a dynamic management approach that incorporates a vision landscape and region, working on the establishment of regional ecological networks, connectivity corridors , restoration of degraded areas, etc. To start adaptation work will be critical to attack other traditional threats to protected areas in coordination with neighboring communities and considering alternatives to the livelihoods of those affected.

It is clear that managers of Protected Areas need to make the leap from the technical to the political as spaces and tools for advocacy in decisions of local governments and ministers are required. In Peru, management committees are a step forward in linking with decision makers in different sectors.
This is another contribution to the Amazon Conservation Vision developed by the Amazon Countries under the CDB framework´s program related to Protected Areas (CBD – PoWPA).