Peru
Hoja Nueva is a non-profit that is based in an open-air research lodge set in the remote Las Piedras region of Madre De Dios, Peru. At Hoja, students focus primarily on wildlife and forestry conservation, agroforestry research, and sustainable development. During nearly three weeks of living in the jungle, students will work in groups to actively become a part of research regarding mammals, herpetofauna, cacao, tropical permaculture, sustainable development, and public health, to name a few.
While researching mammals at Hoja Nueva, students focus on monitoring animals in a non-invasive way through line transects, footprint traps, and trail cameras. Trail systems are walked each morning before breakfast, checking for mammals and recording sightings. Mammal footprint traps are set in specified locations and checked daily to record any animal occurrence. Our primary method is camera trapping – Hoja Nueva has caught every terrestrial and semi-aquatic mammal on trail cameras.
Hoja Nueva’s herpetofauna team consists of experienced reptile and amphibian researchers. As part of the team, students will participate in both day and night surveys using line-transects and searching specific habitats, such as swamps and bamboo thickets.
Hoja Nueva practices sustainable agroforestry and cacao production on two of our sixty hectares, providing a framework for other farms in the area. Both Lucerna and the Rio Piedras Agricultural Association grow cacao and help facilitate collaboration between three groups and buyers in the United States. Hoja is working to simultaneously create a sustainable system focused on the direct relationship between the farmer, buyer, and consumer, but also that provides livable wages to those in participating communities. Our efforts are only possible with the on-the-ground research in Hoja’s chacras, and we make sure to acknowledge this.
*All above information provided by Hoja Nueva, see more information on their site here.
Students assist in co-creating and/or participating in development plans with Hoja Nueva and the surrounding communities in sustainable development research. Projects in this sector can include the installment and maintenance of rainwater systems, slow sand and charcoal filtration, household biodigesters, composting toilets, biochar, ecobricks, and much more.