Asociación Pro Fauna Silvestre – Ayacucho

Asociación Pro Fauna Silvestre – Ayacucho (Facebook) supports sound environmental management, Indigenous People’s rights and livelihoods, and scientific research in the Ayacucho region of Peru.

The organisation comprises of an association of volunteers working to encourage sustainable environmental management, scientific research, conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity and natural resources in the Ayacucho region of south-central Peru.

The team also promote ecotourism and environmental education with a focus on ensuring that activities improve quality of life for Indigenous communities, and value their ancestral knowledge of sustainable resource use.

Their conservation research and awareness campaigns are renowned for being valuable and wide-ranging, despite the organisation’s limited resources since their foundation in 2010 and being entirely volunteer-led. This is a true testament to the passion and dedication of all members of the association.

Asociación Pro Fauna Silvestre – Ayacucho is a locally-focused organisation, operating in a region where very few other conservation organisations work and where communities are still recovering from loss of life and trauma due to armed conflict. The team are deeply embedded within local communities and place these relationships at the centre of their work.

The association’s members research the biological diversity of the central Andes of Peru, carrying out expeditions in places that have not been previously studied to produce biological inventories, and studies on species ecology and the threats they face. The volunteer team has also contributed to amphibian assessments for the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species, and has run several environmental awareness campaigns.

Synchronicity Earth’s Amphibian Programme is supporting Asociación Pro Fauna Silvestre – Ayacucho’s transition from a purely voluntary to a funded organisation, enabling it to build it’s capacity and sustainability. As well as this, Synchronicity Earth are funding Asociación Pro Fauna Silvestre – Ayacucho to carry out long-term habitat monitoring of amphibians in Alliance for Zero Extinction sites in the Ayacucho region, and to carry out an amphibian conservation awareness campaign locally.