Workshop on implementation of quality of life plans held in Puerto Bermudez, Peru

In September 2017, the Keller Science Action Center’s Andes-Amazon social science team—Tita Alvira, Alaka Wali, Ashwin Ravikumar, Theresa Miller, Ana Lemos, Mitchel Castro, Alonso Pérez, and Milagros Oblitas, co-organized a workshop on Implementing Quality of Life Plans with the Peruvian National Protected Areas Service (SERNANP) in Puerto Bermudez, Peru. The five-day workshop in the Selva Central region and geodesic center of the country involved over 40 participants from the Amarakaeri, Yanesha, El Sira, and Machiguenga Communal Reserves, and the San Matias-San Carlos Protected Forest. Participants, including those from indigenous federations, indigenous representatives who co-manage the Communal Reserves, and the National Protected Areas Service, learned how to analyze quality of life plans in their regions and created concrete courses of action for implementing them. Speakers from the Indigenous Affairs office from the Municipality of Puerto Bermudez, the Ministry of Culture, the National Center for Strategic Planning, the Ministry of Development and Social Inclusion, and the Instituto del Bien Común also presented their findings on the development, implementation, financing, and monitoring and evaluation of quality of life plans. To conclude the workshop, groups developed action plans for the implementation of quality of life plans in each of the five regions represented. Part of a long-term partnership between the Field Museum and the National Protected Areas Service, the workshop displayed the ways in which promoting community wellbeing based on museum scientific expertise is possible when multiple stakeholders from different levels (from local to national) achieve synergy and collaborate to support environmental and socio-cultural sustainability. Moreover, the workshop provided training and development for stakeholders who are on the ground managing communal reserves, thereby empowering local actors to develop strategies that improve the quality of life and contribute to biodiversity conservation in diverse regions throughout Peru.