JUNIN NATIONAL RESERVATION

The Chinchaycocha lake is located over 4105 m. in Junin Nacional Reservation. It hosts a grest diversity of birds which are representative of Andean ecosystems, where endemism is one of the main charactheristics. Unfortunatly this lake is affected by mining pollution, urban wate, bad water management and overusing of the natural resources. All these activities have ocassionated that the health of the lake is seriously affected. So the birds is one of the fauna groups more impacted.

One common recommendation of the different plans that have been proposed to conserve the lake is to stress in the evaluation and monitoring of the species which are indicators of the health state of the lake, also in the gathering of data to know the populational situation of the bird species and especially of the flagship and umbrella species, so this could lead to the desitions in the management of the lake.

This research looked fot the development of a methodology of evaluation and bird monitoring of the birds in Chinchaycocha lake. In this way this could guarantee the generation of reliable information with protocols, so they will allow in the desition-making of the area. Another task was to elaborate a diagnose of the proenvironmental attitudes of the local population, to fulfil one of the specific objectives of the Management Plan of Junin Nacional Reservation (2000-2005). This objective was to create environmental awareness in the local and regional level on the relevance of conservation and racional use of the natural resources of this protected area. This labor was done in the districts of Pari, Junin, Ondores and Carhuamayo inhaboted by peasants, landowners and traders of the zone.

In this project A Rocha Peru and GAP Participated

Through our partnership with Grupo Aves del Peru we are working to protect the rare bird species at the Junín Lake, which is an IBA. The Junín Flightless Grebe, Podiceps taczanowskii, probably the most threatened bird in Peru, and one of the rarest birds in the world, is only found at this one site. Oscar González is advising the rangers on how to improve their census methodology and Eduardo Calderón-Urquizo is studying the attitudes and behaviour of the local people with regard to the conservation of the lake.

A Rocha News May 2007