•  juanjuÍ, peru
• Monday, April 18, 2011
• Inter Press Service

A conservation area covering a mere 23.5 hectares has become a refuge for a unique and endangered animal species in the northeastern Peruvian region of San Martín: the Andean titi monkey. This wilderness preserve was created by a local woman who singlehandedly set out to re-establish a small area of native forest.

The early morning silence of the forest is suddenly broken by what sounds like the cries of warriors. Some come from the north, others from the south, then from the west and the east. This is the sound of ten families of Andean titi monkeys (Callicebus oenanthe), also known as the Río Mayo or San Martín titi monkey, marking their territory. Each family comprises four members: a mother, father and two offspring.

'Each one cries at a different time, but all between 6:00 and 7:30 in the morning,' explained Josie Chambers, a young biologist from the United States, who enthusiastically shared video footage and photographs of the endangered primates with Tierramérica.

The monkeys are around 30 centimetres long and their fur is a mix of brownish grey and orange. Some stare with open curiosity at the camera, others hide and make warning sounds. They have survived thanks to the refuge provided the Pucunucho private conservation area, located in the province of Mariscal Cáceres in the region of San Martín.

San Martín is one of the three most deforested regions in the Peruvian Amazon. To confront this problem, civil society organisations and local residents joined together and pressured the government to grant them four conservation areas, encompassing a total of 267,133 hectares, under the Forest and Wildlife Law of 2000.

Pucunucho forms part of this network of conservation areas aimed at preserving or restoring biodiversity. 'It’s amazing that a young forest like Pucunucho, which was just restored in the last 16 years, could be a refuge for an endangered species,' said Chambers, 21, who has already had the opportunity to work with red colobus monkeys in Uganda and white-faced capuchin monkeys in Costa Rica.

Andean titi monkeys can only live at altitudes of up to 1,000 metres above sea level, and it is in lowland areas like these that forests have become scarcest, due to the advance of agriculture, cattle farming and urbanisation. Pucunucho, for example, is just a 10-minute drive from the city of Juanjuí, the capital of Mariscal Cáceres.

'Their habitat needs to be expanded so they don’t remain isolated. Otherwise, in 30 or 40 years, they will die off from a lack of genetic exchange,' stressed Chambers. Proyecto Mono Tocón (the Andean Titi Monkey Project) hopes to create a 180-hectare corridor to provide a larger area for the monkeys to live in. To achieve this goal, they will need the cooperation of neighbouring landowners, who would have to allow part of their property to be used for the initiative.

The corridor would be located along the sides of the Pucunucho River basin, which branches off from between the basins of the Huallaga and Huallabamba Rivers. 'Yes, I would be willing to help take care of the little monkeys,' 70-year-old Pucunucho area landowner Isaías Moreno told Tierramérica. He wants to follow in the footsteps of Trinidad Vela, a local woman now 74 years old, who began to rescue this forest area in 1994 by planting native tree species.

© Inter Press Service (2011) — All Rights Reserved. Original source: Inter Press Service

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