Sierra del Divisor National Park Protection - 2022-23 Progress

Global Conservation is funding the deployment of Global Park Defense in Sierra del Divisor National Park in the Peruvian Amazon. In a historic first, we recently secured approvals and began the first joint patrol operations in Peru between the national park, marines, communities and the police against illegal coca plantations and illegal logging using UAV Drones, Satellite Communications and SMART Patrols.

Sierra del Divisor National Park is one of the greatest refuges for biodiversity on Earth, with thousands of species of wildlife and flora, storing more than 500 million tons of carbon dioxide. This is equivalent to over half the annual 1 Billion tons of CO2 emissions from cars in the USA.  The region comprising Sierra del Divisor is home to around 20 indigenous communities and provides food and water for more than 230,000 people. Sierra del Divisor National Park is also a great asset for Peruvian development and will be a major contributor towards's Peru's efforts to reduce carbon.

The President and local communities celebrating the creation of Sierra del Divisor National Park at COP21 Lima in 2015.

Given its vast territory of 1.3 million hectares — equivalent to 1.5 times the size of Yellowstone -  and  approximately 165 million metric tons of above-ground carbon, which contributes significantly to reducing greenhouse emissions, protecting from rapid deforestations is difficult.

Global Conservation is supporting community-based patrolling  to enable surrounding villages to protect their own lands and the park from illegal logging and land clearing by coca producers.

Global Conservation is supporting Sierra del Divisor National Park with a multi-year park and wildlife protection program – the Global Park Defense system and methodology - to assist under-resourced national park rangers and local communities to protect their endangered forests and wildlife.

Global Conservation is working to deploy Global Park Defense to protect Serra del Divisor National Park in Peru (“Watershed Mountains”), a newly-established 3.3 million-acre national park protecting an immense expanse of Amazon rainforest from illegal logging, coca plantations, mining and wildlife poaching.

Marine-supported high-speed river patrols make rapid deployment possible, reducing length of typical patrol from 6-8 hours into the park, down to 2 hours.

UAV Drones are used by the Marines and Communities to assist patrol security and surveillance, and for mapping illegal land clearing.

The Global Park Defense program will be focused on the Southern Gateways to the national park, including ranger training, surveillance cameras on rivers and trails in the park, SMART Ranger Patrols, aerial and UAV drone surveillance, and targeting patrols based on satellite and aerial monitoring to increase the effectiveness of forest and wildlife protection.

With our Partners in Conservation - Rainforest Foundation Peru and SERNANP National Parks Peru - Global Conservation will be focusing on 5 areas in deploying the Global Park Defense program to protect the forests and wildlife of Serra del Divisor National Park:

1.         Systems and Equipment

2.         Surveillance and Monitoring

3.         Training and Capacity Building

4.         Community Guardians

5.         Carbon for Forests – Sustainable Financing

Handoff of Inreach Satellite Communications equipment to Sierra del Divisor National Park. The InReach Satellite Communications network uses smartphones to provide real-time communications deep within the forests to enable joint patrols and calls in time of urgency such as ambushes or medical emergencies.
 

Peru faces massive deforestation due to land clearing for coca production and illegal logging even deep within the national park. While much progress has been made establishing the new national park in 2015 and involving the military in sweeps to eradicate large scale coca growing in the park, wildlife poaching and illegal logging continue to take their toll.

Joint patrols documenting using UAV Drones and GPS illegal land clearing for coca cultivation near their communities.

See video here - Invasion of Coca in the Forests of Sierra del Divisor.

Threats to Sierra del Divisor

The Sierra del Divisor faces imminent threats from wildlife poaching, hunting, land clearing for coca production, and illegal logging. Unchecked, these threats could destroy the area in a matter of years.  The Peruvian Amazon has lost over 1 million hectacres of forest in the past 15 years.

Once protected by its remote location, the Sierra del Divisor is now besieged by a variety of threats that could destroy it forever. Neighboring areas already devastated by mining and logging highlight the urgent need for permanent protection.

According to satellite imagery from the organization Monitoring of the Andean Amazon Project (MAAP), an unauthorized logging road encroached to the edge of the 1.47-million-hectare Reserved Zone earlier this summer. Source: Rainforest Foundation Peru.

Land clearing along roads into the park and nearby forests open up the area to rapid explotation and land clearing. Photo: Rhett Butler.

Threats to Sierra del Divisor

The Sierra del Divisor faces imminent threats from wildlife poaching, hunting, land clearing for coca production, and illegal logging. Unchecked, these threats could destroy the area in a matter of years.  The Peruvian Amazon has lost over 1 million hectacres of forest in the past 15 years.

Once protected by its remote location, the Sierra del Divisor is now besieged by a variety of threats that could destroy it forever. Neighboring areas already devastated by mining and logging highlight the urgent need for permanent protection.

Coca plantations are destroying previously intact forest areas enabling illegal activities devastating the national park to flourish. 

Land clearing along roads into the park and nearby forests open up the area to rapid exploitation and land clearing. Photo: Rhett Butler.

Illegal logging continues throughout the area, with thousands of logs floated downstream in the wet season.

Unregulated wildlife poaching and hunting jeopardize native animal populations. The area attracts poachers since it’s a sanctuary for many exotic and rare species.

One of Global Conservation’s top priorities is to strengthen the regulatory support for the park and technical support for institutions of the regional environmental authorities.

We are promoting the creation and implementation of legal instruments and technical mechanisms, in order to strengthen the operational and operative capacity of the regional environmental authority as the governing body, and its articulation with Navy, National Police, Public Ministry to build joint operations and competency in environmental protection, tourism safety and comm Coca plantations are destroying previously intact forest areas enabling illegal activities devastating the national park to flourish. 

Global Conservation signed a Cooperation Agreement between the Regional Government of Ucayali - Regional Environmental Authorities of ARA and RF Perú towards the creation and implementation of a Regional System of Conservation of Natural Protected Areas of Ucayali, and the Promotion of initiatives for the integral and sustainable development of the buffer zone of the Sierra del Divisor National Park, contributing to the effective integrated management of the national park and buffer zones.

A multi-year Work Plan has been prepared with emphasis on the objectives of Global Conservation to create and implement a Comprehensive Sustainable Development Program with local populations and indigenous communities located in the Buffer Zone of the Sierra del Divisor National Park.

Global Conservation is also seed funding a Ecotourism Project connecting the city of Pulcalpa to gateways of the national park and the Tourist Circuit of the Ucayali Region.

Similar to the 4 Rivers Lodge, a floating hotel will be constructed along with security base for marines and police near the park entrances. 

After meetings with the Governor and his Chief Adviser Mr. Tony Tang, and the Regional Directors of Agriculture and Tourism, a suitable lake-side location was selected and design of the floating ecolodge and adjacent Marine base are in process. Visits to the area by Global Conservation’s Architect Carmen Consultant Quispe and Eng. John Taipe received excellent logistics support by the Peruvian Navy (2 vessels and 6 troop personnel) to study location for establishment of the Ecolodge Infrastructure, as well as for the land area of ​​the Peruvian Navy Base.

The new Ecotourism Route will provide investment and jobs for the two primary native communities - Nuevo Saposoa and Tacshitea.

A separate meeting with the Admiral of the Navy authorized the use of their patrol vessels to assist national park rangers and other patrolling in the area.

The Governor committed to implement a Food Security Project in the New Saposoa and Patria Nueva Native Communities and the formulation and execution of productive Projects based on sustainable forestry and botanicals. For this, a specialist is now assigned to be installed in the community to provide permanent technical assistance.

The Regional Tourism Director will promote the Project Profile: “Promotion of the Callería Tourist Corridor - CC.NN Nuevo Saposoa - Patria Nueva, province of Coronel Portillo department of Ucayali”.

With the Peruvian Navy Fourth Naval Zone of Ucayali a new agreement was signed to promote the installation of a Fluvial Control Unit - UCF in Tacshitea, refurbish port infrastructure in the Port of Pucallpa for visitors going to the national park and new Ecolodge, and strengthening the capabilities of Navy personnel in use of Global Park Defense systems and technologies for better deployment and patrol efficiency.