Peru

Peru faces a range of challenges that threaten both its natural and cultural environments. In particular, Tambopata Province in the Madre de Dios region—our primary focus in South America—is renowned for its exceptional biodiversity and cultural richness. However, both are increasingly vulnerable. 

Over time, this area of the Peruvian Amazon has undergone significant landscape transformation due to unsustainable and often illegal activities such as agricultural expansion, logging, and mining. Even amid these pressures, Tambopata remains home to several Indigenous ethnic groups and vast, some of the world’s highest concentrations of terrestrial biodiversity and endemism.

Currently hosted by the International Potato Center, our South America Hub is based in Tambopata. From there, we work work with partners to help reverse environmental degradation and support approaches that balance conservation and community needs. Our goal is to develop new models of land use and resource management that offer viable alternatives—helping shift the region toward a more sustainable development path where both nature and people can thrive.