The Andes to Amazon Biodiversity Program (AABP) was initiated in June
2003 with the arrival to BRIT of Dr. John Janovec, BRIT research
botanist, and Amanda Neill, BRIT herbarium director. As a postdoctoral
fellow under Dr. Scott Mori at The New York Botanical Garden, with a
support from the Amazon Conservation Association (ACA) and the
Beneficia Foundation, Janovec initiated the Botany of the Los Amigos
Conservation Area project in Madre de Dios, Peru in 2001. This area was
the first conservation concession in the world that is conserved and
managed as an agreement between a non-profit conservation organization
and the Peruvian government. The goal of the Los Amigos Botany project
has been to provide a modern botanical synthesis for the Los Amigos
Conservation Area in Madre de Dios, Peru, including print and digital
botanical field guides for the 140,000 hectare area. Janovec and team
are currently working to complete and publish several field guides,
including, A Guide to the Plants of the Los Amigos Biological Station and Conservation Area, A Guide to the Fungi of Madre de Dios, Peru, and A Guide to the Mosses of Los Amigos River Watershed, Madre de Dios, Peru. A book, The Botany and Ecology of a Lowland Amazonian Rainforest: Amigos River, Madre de Dios, Peru,
is being written by Janovec to document the history and results of the
project, with comparisons to other sites in the region.
The AABP began as an expansion of the Los Amigos Botany project. The
mission of the AABP is focused on the Andes-Amazon region of
southeastern Peru. The Los Amigos Conservation Area and Biological
Station managed by ACA in the Amazonian lowlands of Madre de Dios,
Peru, was previously the main center of field research for the Andes to
Amazon Biodiversity Program.
The Wayqechas Cloud Forest Research and
Conservation Area managed by ACA in the Andean highlands of the
Department of Cuzco, Peru, has been the focus of intensive inventory
and studies of general plant diversity, vegetation ecology, orchid
diversity and ecology, and conservation. Studies have also been carried
out at field sites in the upper Amazon of Madre de Dios and Cusco,
Peru. This region in the Andes-Amazon of southeastern Peru provides an
ideal elevational transect for studying the distribution and variation
of floristic and faunal diversity and ecology of some of the most
biodiverse ecosystems on Earth. The AABP team has been carrying out
intensive and extensive studies of flora and fauna in this region.
Their work also bridges technology development, ornamental plant
horticulture, and organic agriculture. Local communities are directly
involved in basic and applied projects, offering employment, education,
work training, and a new appreciation for the long-term conservation of
ecosystems in the region.
In 2007, the
Andes to Amazon Biodiversity team completed
the third and final year of biodiversity research funded through the $2.3
million grant received in 2004 from the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation in
2004. During this time, the team gave
over 100 presentations to various national and international non-governmental
organizations, foundations, universities, garden clubs, church groups, and
governmental agencies. The team also
produced over 60 publications that are either currently in review or in press
as well as several book manuscripts that are either completed, in review, or
being written.
The team has now begun a new journey of documenting the diversity, ecology, and conservation of the flora and fauna of this unexplored, remote and "pluvial" region of the lower Andes and upper Amazon. John and the team established a new base of operations in the community of Quince Mil in the Department of Cusco , Peru.