Spatial Patterns of Natural Resource Depletion among Rain Forest Communities in the Peruvian Amazon: The Role of Protected Areas and Indigenous Territories in the Conservation of Key Species

Abstract

Human-induced environmental change is not a new phenomenon in biologically rich areas of western Amazonia. Rain forest communities have long modified their environments, pursuing a diverse portfolio of economic activities for subsistence and income generation. Globally, protected areas (PAs) are the chief conservation strategy. While the effectiveness of different PA models continues to be debated, recent research acknowledges the significance of extractive PAs and indigenous territories to the conservation of biodiversity in human-modified landscapes. Using community census data collected from rain forest communities in the data poor region of the Peruvian Amazon (N=919), spatial clustering and regression analyses are applied to evaluate the effect of proximity to extractive PAs and indigenous territories on relative availability of key species. Controlling for important environmental, market, and community characteristics, our research indicates that extractive PAs and indigenous territories have helped to preserve the availability of key species by certain measures that we isolate in the work.