COLOMBIA | 252 ACRES PROTECTED
Save the Critically Endangered Dahl’ s Toad-headed Turtle from Extinction
Colombia’ s tropical dry forest is its most threatened ecosystem. It is also the only home in the world for the Critically Endangered Dahl’ s Toad-headed Turtle. The turtle’ s range once covered an area three times the size of Hawaii, but has been reduced to mere fragments by agriculture, urban expansion, and cattle ranching. Today, the species is restricted to just four known locations.
In 2019, Rainforest Trust and partner Wildlife Conservation Society-Colombia, with support from CAF donors, established the 297-acre Reserva Natural La Carranchina as the world’ s first and only protected area for the Dahl’ s Toad-headed Turtle. Last year, we expanded on that success by protecting an additional 252 acres, almost doubling the size of the reserve to a total of 549 acres.
TOP: Dahl’ s Toad-headed Turtle; ABOVE: The reserve site | TURTLE SURVIVAL ALLIANCE
PERU | 33,021 ACRES PROTECTED, WITH ANOTHER 3,790,000 ACRES TO COME Save 3.8 million acres of the Peruvian Amazon
Peru is home to more acres of Amazon rainforest than any other country except Brazil. From Peru’ s eastern border to the foothills of the Andes Mountains, the Peruvian Amazon covers more than 60 percent of the country’ s landscape, is home to more than 12,810 species, safeguards more than 33 gigatonnes of CO2 equivalents, and is the ancestral home for hundreds of Indigenous communities. But pressure from expanding agriculture and large-scale logging is threatening the forest and all that rely upon it.
Since 2002, Rainforest Trust and partner Centro para el Desarrollo del Indígena Amazónico( CEDIA) have safeguarded more than 18.8 million acres of Peruvian Amazon rainforest. This project will add another 3.8 million acres to that total, including 3.2 million acres of highintegrity forest, by assisting Indigenous communities seeking legal land tenure and management rights for their territories. Already, 11 Indigenous and local communities have secured legal titles to their land with assistance from this project, safeguarding a combined total of 33,021 acres. In the coming years, this project will assist another 74 communities with the land titling process, protecting another 3.79 million acres of Peruvian Amazon.
The Amazon River in the area of Loreto, Peru | CHRISTAN VINCES