<
https://mongabay.org/impact/report-on-indigenous-womens-wildcat-conservation-program-sparks-international-support-funding/>
"In the central Andes of Peru, conflicts between people and predators have
shaped life in the highlands for the past few decades. With forests vanishing
and wildlife pushed into close contact with rural villages, animals like the
endangered Andean cat, the near-threatened Peruvian desert cat, and the puma
were increasingly seen as threats. But now, a group of Indigenous Quechua women
is changing that narrative, one camera trap and one embroidery at a time.
In August 2024,
Mongabay published a feature about the mission of
Mujeres
Quechua por la Conservación (Quechua Women United for Conservation), a
pioneering women-led citizen science conservation project in the Ayacucho
region of Central Peru that aims to obtain baseline data on wildcats and
mitigate conflict with the cats. First initiated by Quechua conservation
biologist Merinia Mendoza Almeida with funding from the Small Wild Cat
Conservation Foundation (SWCCF), the women in the community have since made it
their own. The group blends field research, traditional knowledge, and women’s
leadership to reduce livestock predation by bolstering chicken and guinea pig
corrals with new wire and wood to keep small felines at bay, and by finding
alternatives to grazing livestock in mountain areas where pumas roam.
At first, the women were bemused by the project, but slowly began to weave it
into their lives, finding it an enjoyable community space they could claim
ownership of which men don’t dominate. Since the start of the project, there’s
been a reduction in puma and wildcat attacks on domestic animals, and attitudes
toward wildlife began to improve within the community."
Via Susan ****
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
