ACCA
Conservación Amazónica (ACCA) is a Peruvian non-profit organization founded in 1999, working at the confluence of the Andes and the Amazon. Its focus is in the field, training future conservationists, partnering with local communities, developing new scientific strategies to achieve its goals of preventing damage to ecosystems, and achieving sustainable management and use of natural resources in the most diverse ecosystem on the planet.
Acción Andina and ACCA partnered up with the objective of restoring high Andean forest ecosystems in two landscapes in the Cusco region. In the Challabamba montane forest, ACCA leads the Andean (Spectacled) Bear conservation project; its main goal is to learn about movement patterns, diets, and long-term climate change impacts of this highly endangered species. Here, Acción Andina is restoring high Andean forests, the natural habitat of the dwindling Andean Bear population, to safeguard the species’ existence. In the Q’ero landscape, ACCA, together with the Japu Native Community, also conducts reforestation activities with high Andean native species.
RESTORATION LEADERS
Marlene Mamani Solórzano
Marlene, a biologist, graduated from the Universidad Nacional San Antonio Abad del Cusco and holds a master’s degree in Forests and Forest Resource Management from Universidad Nacional Agraria La Molina. Between 2003 and 2009, she was a member of the Andes Biodiversity and Ecosystem Research Group (ABERG) and the Global Ecosystem Monitoring research teams. Her work focused on installing permanent one-hectare plots and monitoring the carbon cycle along an altitude gradient, from 1,000 to 3,500 meters above sea level. Since 2010, Marlene’s work as Field Coordinator of Conservación Amazónica (ACCA) has been to facilitate communication between high Andean communities and collaborating institutions to help preserve the Andean-Amazon ecosystems while providing a better quality of life for the communities inhabiting this area.