Title
Chapter Title: Impact of Climate Change on Wildlife and Indigenous Communities in Flooded Forests of the Peruvian Amazon
Book Title: The Lima Declaration on Biodiversity and Climate Change: Contributions from Science to Policy for Sustainable Development.
Author(s)
Bodmer, Richard ;Fang, Tula;Antunez, Miguel ;Puertas, Pablo ;Chota, Kimberlyn ;Pittet, Marlini ;Kirkland, Maire ;Walkey, Maire ;Rios, Claudia ;Perez-Peña, Pedro ;Mayor, Pedro ;Zegarra, Joseph ;Docherty, Emma
Published
2017
Abstract
Recent climatic fluctuations in flooded forests of the Peruvian Amazon have impacted both the biodiversity of wildlife and livelihoods of local Cocama people. The drought in 2010 caused decreases in fish, dolphin and wading bird populations. The consecutive intense floods that began in 2011 have resulted in dramatic declines of ground dwelling terrestrial mammals, such as peccaries, deer, large rodents, and edentates. In Loreto, Peru (375,112 km2) an estimated 1,500,000 mammals have died from the impacts of recent extreme floods. This is 100 times greater than other current causes of mammalian mortality and 10 times greater than the historic peak in mortality during unregulated commercial hunting in the 1960’s. The recent mortality of mammals is causing a paradigm shift in the ecology of flooded forests. The livelihoods of Cocama people in flooded forests have changed during the consecutive years of intensive floods, including greater mortality in perennial agricultural plants, leakage of crude oil into rivers from inundations of contained spills, and scarce wild meat. These impacts are resulting in a greater vulnerability in Cocama food security.

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PUB22231