A new corps of rapid inventory scientists trained in Peru

We trained 32 students from Peru and Bolivia to conduct and write up a rapid biological and social inventory. Credit: Álvaro del Campo

Our rapid inventory training course brought together 32 biologists and social scientists from Peru and Bolivia and 11 instructors from Field Museum, Peru, and Bolivia to inventory three diverse habitat types and six local communities surrounding a research station owned by Instituto de Investigaciones de la Amazonia Peruana (IIAP), a local research institution. The two-week training funded by the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation was an experiment. Never before had we challenged students to complete a full inventory, from field inventories to written and oral presentations of the results. The outcome was spectacular. The exercise culminated in students presenting their findings to the municipal government and other decision-makers in the auditorium of the local school. IIAP will now build on the momentum generated by the course to request a private conservation concession to protect the research station and its forests.