Big News and A Bigger Impact for Spectacled Bears and Conservation in Peru

After 15 years of studying and protecting spectacled bears in northern Peru. Spectacled Bear Conservation (SBC) is expanding our conservation efforts to help bears in another key area of their habitat range that is threatened by human impact, habitat fragmentation and climate change.

Machu Picchu is located at the mystical heights of the Andes mountains. It preserves spectacular culture and biodiversity in southern Peru and hosts a wide range of ecosystems – snow-capped alpine glaciers to dense, mist-shrouded cloud forest of the Amazon basin to lower elevation dry forest. The area also has an incredible diversity of species, including some that aren’t found anywhere else in the world. Countless birds, mammals, amphibians, orchids, and of course spectacled bears, inhabit and rely on the landscapes of Machu Picchu.

Currently very little is known about the ecology and health of spectacled bears who live in and around the park. We urgently need more data to understand how bears use their habitat.

This is where SBC comes in.

Over the next two years we will work closely with Machu Picchu’s park guards on an extensive camera trap study, a bear collaring program and continued monitoring to collect the data needed to make effective conservation decisions.

With more information we can evaluate how bears may be impacted by the increasing pressure of more visitors and the encroachment of tourism operations closer to Machu Picchu. 

Because bears share their large habitat range with so many other species, by protecting bears we are also protecting the precious biodiversity of Machu Picchu.

This is a high-profile study that will set a precedent in Peru for balancing the preservation of culture, biodiversity, and economic opportunities. But most importantly, together with the Peruvian government we will be taking a major step forward to develop science-based conservation actions to protect flora and fauna in Machu Picchu.