Save the Putumayo River Landscape In The Peruvian Amazon from Land-Grabbing

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Project Overview

Peru's last large tracts of rainforest will vanish if road development, logging, cattle grazing and large-scale, slash-and-burn agriculture continue unchallenged.

Species at Risk

Giant Otter (EN), Wattled Curassow (EN)
Carbon stored

576,993,105 mT*

*(metric tons of CO2 equivalents)
Partner

Instituto del Bien Común
2,038,733 Proposed Acres Conserved by

Designation
Project Cost: $2,271,400

Peru

Proposed Acres

2,038,733

Project Overview

Peru's last large tracts of rainforest will vanish if road development, logging, cattle grazing and large-scale, slash-and-burn agriculture continue unchallenged.

Species at Risk

Giant Otter (EN), Wattled Curassow (EN)
Carbon stored

576,993,105 mT*

*(metric tons of CO2 equivalents)
Partner

Instituto del Bien Común
2,038,733 Proposed Acres Conserved by

Designation
Project Cost: £1,802,698

Peru

Proposed Acres

2,038,733

The Peruvian Amazon’s last pristine, lowland forests are being cut down and plowed over for roads and further degraded by logging, slash-and-burn agriculture, cattle grazing and colonization. As large-scale oil palm and cacao operations push their way through this extraordinary landscape, invaders use its proximity to the Putumayo River to bring rainforest resources to market.

Second in size only to the Brazilian Amazon, the Peruvian Amazon covers nearly 60% of Peru’s landscape and supports over 12,810 species. It is home to hundreds of Indigenous communities who rely solely on the land to survive. As one of our planet’s most important carbon stores—containing over 49 billion metric tons of CO₂ equivalents—it sits center stage in the global fight against climate change.

With your help, we can save Peru’s last large tracts of rainforest. Rainforest Trust and our partner, Instituto del Bien Común, are working to support the creation of the 1,691,428-acre Ere-Campuya Regional Conservation Area and formal land titling of approximately 347,305 acres of the communal lands of 13 Indigenous communities surrounding Ere-Campuya.

Header photo: Wattled Curassow, by Kris Wiktor

Discover the Peruvian Amazon

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The Wattled Curassow, by Derek Ramsey

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Giant Otter with pups, by Slowmotiongli

Stop Land-Grabbing And Destruction Of Biodiversity In The Peruvian Amazon

Land-grabbing and exploitation jeopardize the sovereignty of Indigenous territories and traditions in the Peruvian Amazon, and imperil wildlife species already on the brink of extinction. A vast diversity of wildlife species live here, including Jaguar, Giant Otter and the Harpy Eagle. With 1,600 to 1,800 vascular plant species, it is among the most biologically diverse regions in all of Amazonia.

Support Strategic Conservation In Peru

The areas safeguarded here contribute to the 6.2 million acres in Peru’s Putumayo basin, a biological corridor five times the size of the Grand Canyon National Park. The proposed Ere-Campuya conservation area was created collaboratively with Indigenous guidance. Mapping and legal recognition of the adjacent Indigenous communal lands will provide protection against illegal logging, mining, land conversion and encroachment by outsiders. Rainforest Trust is also partnering with the International Land Coalition, a human rights-based organization, on this project and others. We value their deep human rights expertise and accountability mechanisms.

LEARN MORE ABOUT THIS PROJECT >

We Value Transparency.

Conservation work is critical, challenging, and can be costly. We work hard to ensure we raise only the funds needed for each project. In the rare case we raise more money than needed or a project comes in under budget, excess monies will be transferred to the Conservation Action Fund. This fund supports our important conservation work throughout the tropics.

Learn more about the Conservation Action Fund Learn more about the Conservation Action Fund