May 12, 2026

Community-Led Conservation in Action: Reflections on Our Most Successful Field Season

This past year marked a turning point for ACEER’s Conservation Leaders Program. In partnership with the Maijuna Indigenous community in Peru’s Sucusari region, we completed what may be our most successful field season to date – one that advanced scientific knowledge, strengthened Indigenous advocacy, and trained the next generation of conservation leaders.

A Dataset for the Future

Over three weeks in 2025, a team of 18 international conservation leaders, scientists, and artists worked alongside Maijuna experts to deploy more than 100 camera traps across Maijuna ancestral lands within the Maijuna-Kichwa Regional Conservation Area. These cameras are expected to generate over 200,000 images and videos – the most comprehensive wildlife monitoring dataset we’ve ever collected.

This data represents years of baseline monitoring needed to develop a formal wildlife management plan under Peruvian law. With that plan, the Maijuna will have a pathway to sustainable, legal income based on their conservation stewardship – reducing reliance on extractive industries while protecting the extraordinary biodiversity of their territory.

We’re thrilled to report that the wildlife management plan is now under consideration by regional government officials – a major milestone that reflects the Maijuna’s long-term vision and the technical rigor of this collaborative effort.

Science Meets Advocacy

The Maijuna were facing the prospect of a highway cutting through their ancestral territory, and they needed more than scientific data to make their case – they needed a way to communicate the irreplaceable value of their lands to policymakers, media, and the broader public. Could we help them document not just biodiversity, but the interconnection between ecological health and their traditional ways of life?

Our Artists in Residence program emerged as an unexpected but essential component of this effort. Over the course of the field season, artists worked alongside conservation leaders and Maijuna community members in participatory workshops designed to translate scientific findings and Indigenous knowledge into visual narratives. These were deliberate exercises in goal-setting, storytelling, and determining how the community wanted to represent their vision for a sustainable future on their own terms.

The work culminated in two exhibitions that drew hundreds of visitors. The first, held in Sucusari village itself, allowed the Maijuna to share their story within their own community space. The second, at ACEER’s Art Gallery in Puerto Maldonado, brought that narrative to a wider Peruvian audience. What emerged was striking in its emotional resonance and clarity of purpose: imagery and installations that conveyed both the breathtaking richness of the region’s biodiversity and the profound disruption the proposed highway would inflict on ecosystems and livelihoods alike.

The impact extended well beyond the gallery walls. Our partner NGO OnePlanet drew on photography, video, and artistic works from the program to build a compelling case for long-term intervention, ultimately securing funding from the Ford Foundation specifically dedicated to halting the highway project. It was a tangible demonstration of how rigorous science and thoughtful artistic practice, when guided by Indigenous priorities, can shift the trajectory of conservation policy.

Training Conservation Leaders Where It Matters Most

One of the challenges we set out to address was the lack of fieldwork opportunities for emerging conservationists – particularly those from Amazonian countries and local communities who face the greatest barriers to accessing hands-on training.

Our 2025 cohort was intentionally hyperdiverse, bringing together participants from the US and Amazonian countries, from varied backgrounds and career stages. For three weeks, they lived and worked in remote rainforest conditions, sometimes camping for four days at a time alongside Maijuna leaders. They deployed equipment, collected soil samples for environmental DNA analysis, and learned community-based conservation approaches grounded in real-world challenges.

The Conservation Leaders from the Amazon gained field skills they can immediately apply to projects in their own local ecosystems. They’re already moving into high-impact careers aligned with their conservation goals. And the Maijuna community members received fair compensation for their expertise while building technical capacity in wildlife monitoring – skills that will serve their stewardship for years to come.

Beyond the Original Scope

In addition to our core objectives, the 2025 program piloted innovative research on environmental DNA extracted from mineral lick soil samples. Working in a field-based “jungle lab,” the team explored mammal biodiversity and zoonotic pathogens – work that has already resulted in several peer-reviewed manuscripts currently in preparation, with Conservation Leaders included as co-authors.

This cutting-edge science was made possible by research grants from Georgetown University and Alvernia University, secured because we had a strong funding framework already in place – a framework built on the foundation of support from partners like the Frederick S. Upton Foundation.

Looking Ahead to 2026

As we celebrate these successes, we’re deep into delivering our 2026 projects. With the wildlife management plan under government consideration, we’re shifting focus to the next phase: capacity building for Maijuna hunters to independently monitor wildlife and hunting practices. The goal is to create a fully self-sustaining system that eventually weans NGOs out entirely, leaving conservation stewardship fully in the hands of the Maijuna community.

We’re also continuing to expand our eDNA research, bringing artists back into the field to strengthen science-communication linkages, and training more Conservation Leaders in community-based approaches.

A Heartfelt Thank You

This work would not be possible without the support of the Frederick S. Upton Foundation, Georgetown University, Alvernia University, the National Council for Geographic Education, our NGO partners, and the many individual donors who believe in our mission. Your investment allows us to leverage additional funding and create impact far beyond what any single grant could achieve alone.

Most importantly, thank you to the Maijuna community for your partnership, your expertise, and your leadership. We’re honoured to support your work.

To learn more about supporting the 2026 Conservation Leaders Program or to inquire about partnership opportunities, please contact Lucy Nichols, Director of Philanthropy at lucy@aceer.org