SURVEY TRIP OF HUARANGO PROJECT TO NAZCA

Members of the expedition with “Ignacio” Oscar’s car which took them to Huarango forest

Nazca is an arid place in the Ica department of SW Peru, famous for the giant pictures in the sand. Close by are little rivers that flow from the high Andes and join to form the Rio Grande, which drains into the Pacific Ocean. One little valley is a Grupo Aves del Peru (GAP) Reserve. This place, the Poroma valley (300 ha), has an important amount of Huarango trees Prosopis pallida. It is still possible to see threatened endemic birds such as the Slender-billed Finch Xenospingus concolor and the Black-necked Woodpecker Colaptes atricollis. GAP has an agreement with Kew Botanical Gardens, England (www.kew.org) to manage this area. In December, an expedition led by Oscar Gonzalez (the Director of A Rocha Peru) surveyed the flora and fauna: biologists Mario Tenorio, Evelyn Perez (vertebrates) and Octavio Pecho (plants) from GAP-Ica, and Antonio Garcia (invertebrates) from A Rocha Peru. The team was able to prove the presence of key bird and mammals and assess the impact of disease and fuel-gathering on the forest. The local people are eager to support a reforestation programme which is being planned by A Rocha Peru.

Interviewing a local about the animals in the Huarango forest