Deforestation can generate significant atmospheric changes by reducing carbon storage and disrupting the water cycle. The loss of the Amazon rainforest is causing precipitation anomalies that transform the vegetation structure from forest to savanna.

The objective of the project is to promote interdisciplinary collaborations to investigate the status and function of the Amazon rainforest in Peru and to generate long-term financing capacity by combining knowledge on climate, forest dynamics, ecological biodiversity and socio-economic modeling.

The intention is to identify proposals and develop specific plans to catalyze funding proposals on tropical ecosystem studies and their responses to regional and global climate change as well as human intrusion.

In addition, a course-workshop entitled “Biophysical and biometric methods for determining primary productivity in ecosystems” was held, financed by the BBVA Foundation. Twelve university students, from different specialties such as Chemistry, Biology, Mechatronics Engineering, among others, were taken to the Tambopata National Reserve, Madre de Dios (Puerto Maldonado), to participate in presentations given by professors and experts from the Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú, as well as from the Pennsylvania State University (Penn State University, United States) and the Max Planck Institute (Germany), Hochschule Rhein Waal University (Germany), and the Geophysical Institute of Peru.

The workshop was organized from October 12 to 17, 2022, with the participation of teachers and students from the Universidad Nacional de Ingeniería (UNI), the Universidad Nacional San Antonio Abad del Cusco (UNSAAC), the Universidad Nacional de la Amazonía Peruana (UNAP) and the Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú (PUCP), as well as community project leaders from PUR Projet (France) and the ONG AIDER (Peru).

As part of the workshop program, participants were able to visit the Tambopata Tower, which is fifty meters high and whose main function is to monitor greenhouse gases (GHG), mainly CO2 and water. In this infrastructure, there are meteorological monitoring instruments, such as the Eddy Covariance system. 

In addition, work was carried out to measure parcels using new methodologies for monitoring carbon and water cycles in tropical forests.

General 

To develop research proposals on climatological issues, forest dynamics, ecological biodiversity and socioeconomic models between students and professors of PUCP, PSU and UNI through a workshop to exchange ideas.

Specific aims

• Meet the students and teachers involved in the framework project: An alliance for integrated socio-economic and environmental research in the Peruvian Amazon.
• To carry out a workshop in the city of Cusco, to consolidate the inter-institutional proposals.

• Norma Salinas ( Principal Investigator, PUCP)
• Eric Cosio (Co-investigator, PUCP)
• Chris Forest (Principal Investigator, Penn State)
• Julio Kuroiwa (Principal Investigator, UNI)

• Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú (PUCP)
  • Instituto de la Naturaleza, Tierra y Energía (INTE-PUCP)
• Universidad Estatal de Pennsylvania (Penn State University, Estados Unidos)
• Universidad Nacional de Ingeniería (UNI)