Despite pandemic, our project shows increasing promise and success
Francisco Hernandez Cayetano, President of the Federation of the Ticuna and Yaguas Communities of the Amazon, discusses the effects of the pandemic.
Just the gist
If you're in a hurry, here's what you need to know this month:
- Coronavirus has hit the project hard; community members are concerned about access to food and medicine
- Despite COVID, remote rainforest monitoring activities continue and deforestation remains at zero within the project
- Due to this project's success, 25 new communities across the Amazon are looking to join the program!
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Francisco Hernandez Cayetano, President of the Federation of the Ticuna and Yaguas Communities of the Amazon, discusses the effects of the pandemic:
"Our communities are tremendously concerned about the impacts the coronavirus could have on them. We have never experienced an epidemic like this.
Our communities are close together and cannot carry out social distancing like in the cities. In addition, we are very worried that our neighbors from Brazilian cities are already infected and what that might mean for our exposure to the virus.
The restricted travel due to the coronavirus keeps us from being able to travel to cities to sell our products and, vice versa, supplying the communities with needed provisions. Now the markets are empty and no outside food is coming to the community. People are starting to run out of food."
- Francisco Hernandez Cayetano
Some good amid the pandemic
Although communities in the Amazon are in crisis from COVID-19, forest monitoring activities around the project sites have continued. In most nearby forests, deforestation has increased as state enforcement agents have been ordered to leave their posts and help with pandemic response. But thanks to the monitoring system put in place at the project site, there has been no deforestation in our project's community.
Because of the success of the monitoring program, 25 new communities in eastern Peru have expressed interest in implementing the remote monitoring model. Perhaps after COVID-19 is dealt with, this project will have more momentum than ever!
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- The Wren Team
Mimi, Landon, Ben, and Taylor