MEGANTONI-MACHIGUENGA
FUTUROS VIVOS: MEGANTONI-MACHIGUENGA IS A COLLABORATION TO CO-CREATE THRIVING FUTURES WITH THE INDIGENOUS PEOPLES AND LOCAL COMMUNITIES STEWARDING PERU’S MEGANTONI NATIONAL SANCTUARY AND MACHIGUENGA COMMUNAL RESERVE.
HOW IT BEGINS
In 2022, Legado launched Futuros Vivos with the ECA Maeni and Peru’s National Service of Natural Protected Areas (SERNANP’s) Machiguenga Communal Reserve team. In April 2023, the collaboration increased to include the broader Megantoni-Machiguenga Landscape with the partnership of SERNANP’s Megantoni National Sanctuary (MNS). Today the partners work together through the Comité de Gestión Unificado (CGU) for both protected areas; the unified management committee for both areas comprised of Indigenous and non-Indigenous community representatives alongside representatives from local authorities, public and private institutions, civil organizations, and Indigenous federations.
Futuros Vivos: Megantoni-Machiguenga is now working together to begin our legacy convenings and the creation of Legacy Plans, priorities, and actions. Please stay tuned for more updates on this process.
The Megantoni-Machiguenga Landscape in southeastern Peru is one of the world’s most critical for biocultural conservation and biodiversity. Here, three important ecoregions come together: the Amazon rainforest, the Yungas on the steep cloud-forested mountain slopes, and the high-elevation grasslands and shrublands in the Andes mountain range. It is home to endangered jaguar and spectacled bear as well as six endangered species of macaw and tapir, deer, wooly spider monkey, and other important species. Both the Megantoni National Sanctuary and the Machiguenga Communal Reserve are included on the IUCN Green List of Protected and Conserved Areas, and are, part of the Avireri-Vraem Biosphere Reserve, which was recognized as a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve in 2021.
The Megantoni-Machiguenga Landscape is also a unique socio-ecological corridor between MCR, MNS, and the neighboring Manu National Park (MNP) that protects the Nahua, Kugapakori, Nanti Territorial Reserve (an area for sole use by Indigenous peoples in voluntary isolation or initial contact [PIACI in Spanish]), thereby preserving their rights over their ancestral lands.
The Megantoni National Sanctuary Team of Peru’s National Service of Natural Protected Areas (SERNANP)
The Megantoni National Sanctuary is located in the Echarati and Megantoni districts of the province of La Convención, in the department of Cusco. The team is composed of a director, technicians, park guards, and volunteer park guards whose main objective is to conserve, with an intangible character, the ecosystems that develop in the mountains of Megantoni and the protection of Indigenous peoples in voluntary isolation or initial contact that live in the area.
The Machiguenga Communal Reserve Team of Peru’s National Service of Natural Protected Areas (SERNANP)
The Machiguenga Communal Reserve is located in the Echarati and Megantoni districts of the province of La Convención, in the department of Cusco. The team is made up by a director, technicians, park guards, and volunteer park guards that together with the ECA Maeni co-manage the protected area respecting the knowledge, innovations, and conservation practices of Indigenous communities with the aim of guaranteeing the conservation of biological diversity, for the benefit of the neighboring Asháninkas, Matsigenkas, Yine Yami, and Kakinte communities. Some joint activities include coordination with neighboring communities to carry out activities including natural resource management, environmental education, small scale agriculture, and patrolling of the area.
ECA Maeni
The ECA Maeni is the Indigenous co-management entity of the Machiguenga Communal Reserve. It is a non-profit association which focuses on the co-management of the Machiguenga Communal Reserve involving local participation in the administration, management, and conservation of the reserve. Established in 2006, the ECA Maeni works to strengthen local capacities in management and sustainable use of natural resources, the development of economic activities compatible with conservation, and improving the quality of life of its member communities. The ECA is comprised of 15 communities (14 of which are Indigenous communities) that are located in the buffer zone of the Machiguenga Communal Reserve, representing Asháninkas, Matsigenkas, Yine Yami, and Kakinte Indigenous groups.
MEGANTONI-MACHIGUENGA
POPULATION:
12,000 Indigenous peoples of the Asháninkas, Matsigenkas, Yine Yami, Quechua, and Kakinte, as well as surrounding local communities
SIZE:
497,773 ha of Amazon rainforest, cloud forest, high-elevation grasslands and shrublands
MAJOR LIVELIVHOODS:
Smallholder agriculture, subsistence hunting and fishing
ICONIC WILDLIFE:
Rich in endangered and threatened species such as jaguar, macaw, tapir, and many others.
CONSERVATION VALUE:
The Machiguenga Communal Reserve and Megantoni National Sanctuary are included on the IUCN Green List of Protected and Conserved Areas, and are part of the Avireri-Vraem Biosphere Reserve, a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve.
