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Editor\u2019s note:<\/strong> Despite its protected status, Peru\u2019s Alto Mayo Protected Forest<\/a> \u2014 a swath of Amazonian rainforest twice the size of New York City \u2014 has seen some of the country\u2019s highest rates of deforestation. Since 2012, Conservation International has sought to halt the loss of forests by brokering \u201cconservation agreements<\/a>\u201d with local communities, who agree to stop clearing forests in exchange for technical and financial advice.<\/em><\/p>\n To date, nearly 1,000 agreements have been signed, reducing deforestation and helping create a culture of sustainable development.<\/em><\/p>\n Here, Abd\u00edas V\u00e1squez describes his life in the Alto Mayo and how it has changed since he signed a conservation agreement. Read about other conservation agreements here.<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n I have lived in El Afluente within the Alto Mayo Protected Forest for 14 years. Before that, I lived in Cajamarca, in the mountains, where it rained very little and was very hard to find water and firewood. My mother had to walk for miles to fetch it. It was a huge sacrifice, so I decided to move to the jungle. With a lot of work, I managed to buy a patch of land and bring my family to join me. I grew coffee and harvested it a year later, but then a plague destroyed it completely. I had planted it using mountain techniques and didn\u2019t realize that in the jungle it would have to be planted differently.<\/p>\n Around 2004, the authorities from the government protected-area agency [known as SERNANP, its acronym in Spanish], visited us and led training workshops about the forest and protected areas. We were prohibited from extracting wood, but we were offered nothing in exchange. People disagreed the conservation discourse. \u00a0We thought that they really intended to take our lands.<\/p>\n We first approached SERNANP and told them that we understood that logging was prohibited, but that we needed support or some kind of technical assistance for our farms in return.<\/p>\n I made them understand that if we had come from so far in search of water and resources, we had to make sure to protect them. It was around that time that we began hearing about the conservation agreements. Wow, I thought, this is what we had been asking for.<\/p>\n The first benefit package was the delivery of fertilizers, which I found were effective. SERNANP gave us training on how to plant and how to look after our crops. It\u2019s been three years since I signed, and I\u2019ve been able to acquire a coffee dryer, an ecological toilet in my farm, and a tank-tub where I select my coffee. I\u2019ve also installed plumbing that comes from a ravine in the little forest.<\/p>\n But some friends began to pressure me. Many people still didn\u2019t sympathize with SERNANP\u2019s vision and didn\u2019t understand why it was important to stop using the trees in the forest. They were still very suspicious of the authorities, and even though I\u2019ve received some threats to quit the conservation agreements, I know that I\u2019m not doing anything wrong, but quite the opposite.<\/p>\n I noticed a change in my feeling toward nature. My relationship with nature is good. I feel very happy and calm here. I am very grateful because the engineers work hand in hand with us. I\u2019ve learned which plants attract hummingbirds, and when I sit down to rest here, I see my birds and I stay to watch them, feeling happy. I\u2019m becoming used to being here rather than in the village, but as my children have to go to school they stay there with my wife. I live here away from everything, and when they come to see me, I share with them what I have learned. They also bring their friends: \u201cMy dad lives in a paradise on the riverbank, planting his flowers, surrounded by his butterflies,\u201d they say.<\/p>\n Currently, I\u2019m growing vanilla as part of the agreements, in addition to the coffee. It sells for a good price. Vanilla is a plant that we\u2019ve always mistreated because we didn\u2019t know about its uses, just like the pitahaya<\/em><\/a> [dragon fruit], which besides selling at a good price, has healing properties. For lack of knowledge we didn\u2019t eat the fruit; we considered it a weed. Some even burned it.<\/p>\n Now, I dedicate my life to natural resources. Nobody has convinced me or forced me. I\u2019m in this because I endured shortages when I was in the mountains, and I know very well what it\u2019s like to lose them because we\u2019re not taking care of them. Today, to build my house or my coffee dryer, I look for fallen wood, instead of cutting down a tree.<\/p>\n I want this place to become a tourist attraction. I\u2019ve created a path that is now covered with trees and clear to walk through. I\u2019m also building a staircase to the river where there is a pretty beach. We already have a sanitary landfill and ecological toilet, although we still need to sort things out a little. I\u2019ve talked with the park authorities and Conservation International, and told them that after four years in a conservation agreement, I hope to have this place ready for ecotourism.<\/p>\n That is the dream that started years ago, when I was invited to participate in an internship in tourism at the Ecological Reserve of Chaparr\u00ed<\/a>, a model for ecotourism where the local population benefits from the conservation of its natural resources, in the dry forests of Lambayeque. That beautiful place stayed with me, and I told myself that one day I would have an appropriate area for ecotourism. That dream is close to becoming a reality.<\/p>\n