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It is central to the Junglekeepers ethos to employ and train local and indigenous community members in the active protection of land that is ultimately theirs.

Forest Rangers monitor our concessions, maintain trails and report any illegal activity occurring on the land being monitored. Rangers also track wildlife to contribute to broader scientific datasets in the region.

For local Peruvians, our Ranger Program also offers an employment alternative to protect the land rather than being forced to participate in harmful activity due to economic pressure. Our current and past rangers tell us this work is a great source of pride as it empowers them in the stewardship of their homeland.

SMART Ranger Program

Our rangers are trained in SMART (Spatial Monitoring and Reporting Tool). This tool is an open-source system of best practices including data collection software created by conservation scientists. The SMART system allows for more efficient and timely response to illegal activity, amongst many other benefits including more comprehensive, integrated data on the condition of land and wildlife.

Our Rangers
Adolfo

Bringing the Shipibo-Conibo knowledge to conservation

Adolfo is from the Shipibo-Conibo indigenous community located along the Ucayali river, a major tributary of the Amazon river. Like other indigenous communities in the Amazon, the Shipibo-Conibo people are being threatened by outside influences such as logging, agriculture and mining. 

With the lack of job opportunities in the area and the influence of the external pressures such as the timber trade, Adolfo worked 4 years with a logging company and 1 year in slash and burn agriculture in the Peruvian jungle. When given the opportunity to become a ranger in February 2020 he left the logging world and deforestation to work in protecting the land along the Las Piedra river. Passed on from his culture, Adolfo brings knowledge in the fauna and flora of the jungle including medicinal plants. He hopes to work and share this knowledge of the forest and conservation with his and other communities.
Dash

Jungle adventurer devoted to protecting biodiversity

Dash loved the jungle adventure since he was 14. He used to help his dad transport wood and wanted to protect the forest. He studied ecotourism and became interested in protecting the forest and conservation. 

He worked in several lodges in the Puerto Maldonado area until he heard about a ranger opening with Junglekeepers in 2018. He hopes to help establish the Junglekeepers Ranger program in Las Piedras as a known organization which protects an important area of biodiversity in the Amazon that affects all of us.
Eliz

A guide dreaming of studying the biology of the rainforest

Being the daughter of a logging dad, Eliz always accompanied her dad on work trips during every school vacation. Seeing what her dad went through to make sure that she could continue her studies, Eliz learned the importance of work. More than anything, she learned to value the forest and that’s where her passion for taking care of the jungle was born. When she finished high school, Eliz decided to study as an official tourist guide since she could not study biology, a career not offered in the schools of Puerto Maldonado. She practiced her trade as guide firstly to show the attractions in her region and secondly to teach others that the jungle in the Madre de Dios area is unique. Eliz still has the dream to study biology and learn more about mammals, birds and plants.  Working with jungle keepers she feels that she is contributing a grain of sand for conservation
Ignacio

Reforestation & animals champion

Ignacio was born in Miaria and is part of the Yine indigenous community found in the Amazon. In 2015, Ignacio went with his uncle to Monte Salvado, a Yine community along the Las Piedras river, just down river from the Reserva Territorial Made de Dios. 

While in Monte Salvado, Ignacio worked primarily in Brazil nut harvesting and transporting wood. In 2019 he worked in the control post to protect the area from possible conflict with people living in voluntary isolation. He has several stories to tell! Ignacio, looking for a different opportunity, joined Junglekeepers in December 2020. He brings with him deep knowledge of the jungle we are protecting. He is interested in reforestation, animal research and working with his community.
Llasmani

From logger to protector of the rainforest

Llasmani Quio Trigozo is 37 years old. He is native to the Ucayali region located in the Peruvian Amazon and close to the district of Madre de Dios, where junglekeepers operates. The Ukayali river is one of the main headwaters of the Amazon river.
His father worked as a farmer, logger and hunter while his mother had to stay home and take care of her 9 children. When Llasmani was 20 he went to Puerto Maldanado for work as a brazil nut harvester and then as a logger.
Before Junglekeepers, Llasmani worked as a wood dispatcher for the Chinese Maderyja, who is seeking the wood from the Madre de Dios region including iron wood trees that are being logged at an increasing rate.
Llasmani started working as a ranger for Junglekeepers in February 2022, where he monitors and protects concessions along the Las Piedras river.  He realizes how important it is to take care of the fuana and flora and maintain nature’s balance and beauty.  He is learning a lot about species in the natural habitat and is grateful to be working towards protecting the jungle.

Manuel

From working in lodge to protect the rainforest

Manuel graduated from tourism and loves to travel and learn about places in the Peruvian Jungle.  He has worked for several years in lodges to gain knowledge in the tourism filed.  For a long time, Manuel’s family was dedicated to logging and that made him become dedicated to conservation.
Yadira

Jennifer Yadira Cuadros Pinedo is 18 years old and is from the indigenous community of Puerto Nuevo, of Yine origin, which is further up on the Las Piedras river, close to the Alto Purus National Park and home of the indigenous peoples in voluntary isolation. From her community she learned about the forest, ancestral traditions, driving boats and the animals in the area. Her grandparents taught her about the ancestra medicines of the area when she was a little girl. She also learned to work with cocoa and brazil nuts from her parents as well as harvest yuca and corn. What Yadira likes the most is walking and being in the jungle and seeing the animals. She loves working as a ranger because she gets to seen the animals, plants and birds on every walk. She wants to eventually give workshops to her community and the rangers about the flora and fauna of the forest so they know more, especially about protecting the animals that are endangered. Yadira wants to be a role model for the young people in her community that there are other possibilities of work in the jungle that are sustainable and also protect the land.
Yoni

From Mahogony logging to protecting the forest

Yoni has been a Jungkekeeper ranger since June 2019. His mom's death when he was 15 led him to Mahogony logging as a way to make ends meet for his family. 

As a logger, you are expected to do many jobs and Yoni learned how to identify trees, read the river and know how to live in the jungle. 

That knowledge is now being used for conservation and protecting the forest. His skills and experience in the jungle have been invaluable to the team.
HOW TO HELP

Ranger Program Costs are largely centered around Ranger compensation (salary, food and board). Additional costs for the program include trail maintenance, communication and reporting systems, boat transport, fuel and other minor expenses. The program also requires a one-time expense of a shelter construction and initial trail clearing per concession.

Our focus is to create an uninterrupted, protected conservation area stretching along the Las Piedras River.

This threatened ecosystem is incredibly diverse, pristine, and home to some of the last isolated tribes on earth.