Infrastructure and Equipment Enhancements for the Los Amigos Field Station in Southeastern Peru

Amazon Conservation Association, Washington DC

Investigators

Abstract

This award provides support for improvements in buildings, power-supply and basic instrumentation at this five-year old, rapidly growing station in the lowland Amazonian forest of Peru. The station's location is contiguous to the largest block of tropical wilderness on Earth. Funds will support construction of modest housing for long-term researchers, conversion of an existing tent platform to small lecture hall and course center, enlargement of the staff quarters, upgrading of the solar energy system, and construction of a new storage area and workshop. NSF funding will also equip the station with some basic tools for research and training including a high-quality automated weather station and others. The station has a campus of 13 permanent buildings, a daytime capacity of up to 50 researchers, and a resident staff of 13. Since its establishment, Los Amigos has hosted over 80 research projects, over 200 researchers, and at least ten large field courses. Apart from laboratory space and a 100-km trail system, research facilities at Los Amigos include wireless satellite internet access, high-resolution digital aerial images of over 200,000 ha of surrounding forests, a field herbarium, library, public-use computers, and a smaller satellite station 25 km away with six permanent buildings. The station is owned and co-managed by the Amazonian Conservation Association (ACA), a US-based non-profit organization, and it Peruvian partner, the Asociacion para la Conservacion para la Cuenca Amazonica, which holds 40-year management rights to a 135,000-ha private conservation concession contiguous to the Los Amigos station. The improvements will allow researchers to carry out research with in undisturbed forest tracts at spatial scales much larger than those typically available in extra-Amazonian sites, and to build on the large body of work completed to date in one of the most diverse regions of the Neotropics. The station is active in training of both U.S. students and young South American biologists. A strong research station will also enhance ACA's environmental monitoring and management of the Los Amigos Conservation Concession, the first private conservation concession in the tropics.