TCD student organizes workshop in Peru on community-based conservation

Last summer with the support of a local grass-root organization, Red AMA, Vanessa Luna organized a 2-day workshop in Chachapoyas, Peru to promote collective discussion on the factors that limit and facilitate the effective management of community-based conservation areas in the northern Peruvian Andes.  She brought together leaders from 10 communities and through use of focus groups, participatory mapping, and timelines, created a space for discussion regarding the governance of common resources.  She also took this opportunity to share the results of her Master’s research which used a combination of remote sensing, socioeconomic and road infrastructure data to compare and understand patterns of forest cover loss on community lands in the region.  Vanessa received her Master’s in Latin American Studies in May 2019 and is currently a first year PhD student in Interdisciplinary Ecology in the School of Natural Resources and the Environment. Vanessa is supported by funding from TCD and the Governance and Infrastructure in the Amazon Moore Foundation grant. the workshop was funded by a TCD Practitioner grant and she received a TCD Field Research Grant to conduct the field research for her Master’s.