Capacity building to support management

The project «Monitoring protected areas in Peru to Increase forest resilience to climate change (MonANPerú)» led a highly successful training course to analyse the dynamics and ecological changes in Peruvian tropical forests, at the National Agrarian University of La Molina, 25-26th July, 2018.

The course was attended by 20 people, including students, researchers and specialists from the Peruvian Protected Areas Authority (SERNANP). Participants learned how to use ForestPlots.net as a tool for forest data management and analysis and how to calculate and interpret the parameters of biomass and tree mortality rate, using the BiomasaFP package in the programming language R. The participants explored a range of issues including the impact of El Niño event in 2016 on the dynamics and structure of the forest, and the contributions of castaña (Brazil nut; Bertholettia excelsa) trees to the carbon stocks of the Tambopata National Reserve.

Perhaps the most exciting aspect of the course was working with professional staff from SERNANP to use the plot data to understand the ecology of the species that they manage, and discuss the implications for management and monitoring. The course demonstrated how ForestPlots.net can be used to put valuable ecological information directly into the hands of the people and organisations who work on the ground to manage tropical forest resources.

MonANPerú is funded by the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation. The course was funded by the Royal Society (Global Challenge Research Fund) and the Moore Foundation, and supported by the Herbario Forestal (MOL).