Our Landscape Level Approach

SBC’s research and long-term monitoring pinpoints the key resources essential for bear survival: feeding sites, water sources, denning sites and connectivity. Then we collaborate with private landowners, communities and government to effectively protect large, connected habitat landscapes.

Private Land Purchase and Enhancement

Through strategic private land purchase, we are safeguarding critical habitats for bears and other biodiversity before they disappear forever.

In northern Peru, endangered spectacled bears make a seasonal journey—from food-scarce mountains down to low-elevation forests where they feed on sapote fruit to survive. Sapote trees are a lifeline for bears, especially for females and their cubs. But nearly all of these vital feeding sites are on private land that is being rapidly developed for agriculture. In just over a decade, more than 50% of their feeding areas have vanished. That’s why we are moving fast to purchase and protect these land parcels before it’s too late.

So far we have purchased and permanently protected 6,900 acres of private land in northern Peru to protect feedings sites and habitat connectivity, including our landmark 5,000-acre Calicantro property. In the future, we will work to designate this land as a government-designated private protected area for maximum conservation impact.

But for now, our land purchase program continues as we identify more parcels of private land with critical habitat in need of rapid protection.

Enhancing and Restoring the Land

To help bears and other wildlife thrive, SBC is not just buying land—we are protecting and reviving it. Our work to secure the land and enhance food and water resources include:

• Anti-poaching protection: Installing gates and fencing and conducting ranger patrols to secure the land
• Increasing food sources: Planting native fruit trees and saplings to revitalize the dry forest, and irrigating existing vegetation to encourage the growth of year-round food sources
• Improving water availability: developing wells and water systems to supply water and constructing additional waterholes

Creating Community Reserves

Communities hold the key to protecting vast areas of bear habitat. SBC partners with Indigenous groups to create community reserves and conservation agreements that safeguard habitat on their communal lands. We provide legal expertise to help communities secure registered land ownership and legally protect their land for conservation, while our research provides the ecological data needed to create a government designated protected area.

Our community empowerment programs are an important piece to protecting bears as they foster coexistence between people and bears and support the community wellbeing that is necessary for lasting conservation success. When communities thrive, bears thrive.

Strengthening Protected Area Management

We collaborate with Peru’s government to strengthen management of existing protected areas and create new ones. In coordination with Peru’s national protected areas, we collect urgently needed data on bear ecology, population health and habitat use to determine the key threats they face and to guide conservation action. SBC has worked with the Laquipampa Wildlife Refuge since 2015, and in 2022, we began collaborating with the Machu Picchu Historic Sanctuary.

We support park authorities by providing scientific recommendations to guide management decisions, and by training rangers on bear monitoring techniques. In 2024, we launched our GPS collaring program, fitting the first collars on bears in Peru’s national protected areas. This technology now tracks real-time bear movements to accelerate our understanding of habitat use and identify areas in need of protection outside park boundaries.

Thanks to science-based conservation action and community collaboration, every acre we protect creates a lasting impact—for wildlife, ecosystems, and future generations.