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URGENT: Amazonian Wildlife in Crisis

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Every day, life in the Amazon faces extreme threats to its existence.  
Today it's facing more than ever. 


Nearly 50 soccer fields worth of trees are being wiped out because of deforestation every minute, and each year thousands of imperiled species are trafficked through the illegal wildlife trade, being sold for parts or as pets. Recent wildfires in the Amazon are making matters worse. These factors combined with population growth and increasing natural resource extraction, there has never been a stronger need for human-nature coexistence in the Amazon. 


Out of all of the life in the Amazon, the one group in particular that is facing immense peril is Amazonian turtles. 


These animals are suffering from the destruction of their habitat and human conflict. Turtle eggs have been hunted and harvested in the Amazon since the 17th century and 300 years of exploitation have alarmingly reduced natural turtle populations in the region. 




Turtles in fact, are among 70% of the majority of confiscated trafficked wildlife as reported by the Peruvian government, and it is estimated that only 10% of the trafficked specimens survive.


The most trafficked and imperiled species of turtles in the Peruvian Amazon include:




Between 2016 to 2018, Peruvian authorities confiscated 1377 live Charapa turtles and 2442 Charapa turtle eggs. Additionally, the Mata Mata is highly valued in the exotic pet trade, making their future unstable at the current rate they're being collected. 


Amazon Forever is the Solution. 


Amazon Forever Conservation and Learning Center, a non-profit conservation organization located amongst the Amazonian White Sand Forests in Iquitos, Peru, is helping to save and rescue Amazonian turtles from habitat destruction and the threatening wildlife trade and give them the chance of a thriving future.


With your help, Amazon Forever will build a pre-release pond for turtles in proximity to their Turtle Rescue Center where rescued turtles will be rehabilitated for release back into natural protected areas. With no other turtle rescue center currently in the Amazon, Amazon Forever is leading the local turtle conservation effort. 


Additionally, Amazon Forever is dedicated to connecting the local children and community back to nature. This is done through Amazon Forever’s educational programs.


Once the pre-release pond is built, Amazon Forever will host programs and tours for the local community and incoming tourists that will provide education on turtle ecology, existing threats to turtles, and will help foster feelings of connectedness to turtles and the Amazon’s natural treasures. Using this strategy, Amazon Forever will promote the importance of education while simultaneously decreasing the public demand for turtles.



We Need Your Help. 

In order for this much needed project to be accomplished, Amazon Forever needs your assistance!


This project will require many components for construction, but the most urgent need is for a water pump, filtration system, and piping system that will fill the rehabilitation pond with clean, fresh water for the turtles. All proceeds will go directly to the project, and the project needs to be completed in two months. Without these components, the project will go unfinished, and local turtles will remain in danger.


Please help keep the Amazon one of the most biodiverse places on earth and support turtle conservation with Amazon Forever. We sincerely appreciate any support you are able to offer. Thank you.



Image credits from left to right (top to bottom): Raul Berenguel, Van Travelers, Raul Berenguel, Aqua Expeditions, Whaldener Endo, Stuart Hamilton, Amazon Forever

Fundraising team: Amazon Forever (2)

Jacqueline Weeks
Organizer
Katy Palfrey
Team member

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