Mnioes poncei a new species of scorpion wasp for the Tambopata National Reserve that honors the hard work of Eng. Carlos Ponce del Prado in the Amazon basin.
Mnioes poncei a new species of scorpion wasp
On the Peruvian Day of Protected Natural Areas, from the Wired Amazon and Rainforest Expeditions SAC team, we want to honor the work of Eng. Carlos Ponce del Prado who was a prominent Peruvian agronomist, zootechnist, forester, biologist, and conservationist, promoter of the establishment of a national system of protected natural areas in Peru and the creation of natural reserves for the protection of biological diversity in various parts of the world.
Discovering New Species is a project in charge of the specialist entomologist Juan Grados Arauco, associate researcher at the Natural History Museum of the Universidad Nacional Mayor de San Marcos, which has been developing in the Tambopata National Reserve specifically in the vicinity of the Refugio Amazonas ecotourism lodge since 2016 and the Tambopata Research Center since last year. The project has been discovering more than 20 species new to science with the support of the National Service of Protected Natural Areas - SERNANP, the Natural History Museum of the Universidad Mayor de San Marcos and has been fully funded by ecotourism and dedicated to the COVID19 pandemic, in June 2020, it has received the support of the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation.
In Peru, Carlos Ponce del Prado worked in the conservation of the vicuña in the Andes stands out, with the Pampa Galeras Reserve, the implementation of the protected natural areas of the Manu National Park, the Tambopata National Reserve, the Bahuaja-Sonene National Park, Las Lomas of Lachay, Paracas, the Abiseo River, Machu Picchu, the Mangroves in Tumbes, Pacaya Samiria, the Cordillera del Cóndor and the bi-border Natural Parks, the Amazon Basin, the Vilcabamba -Amboró Corridor, among others.
Together with Rudolf Hofmann in 1976, he discovered for science, in the Heath River, Madre de Dios-Peru, the maned wolf and the swamp deer, species not previously recorded in the area adding great value to the Tambopata National Reserve.
He was a notable activist in forums related to the environmental impact of hydrocarbon exploitation and the execution of infrastructure works such as the Interoceanic Highways.
The Carlos F. Ponce del Prado Conservation Award, organized in his honor, has annually honored several long-time conservationists, outstanding young professionals, and Peruvian park rangers.
Discovering New Species is a project of the Wired Amazon program developed by Rainforest Expeditions, where travelers from all over the world become citizen scientists in the Tambopata National Reserve since they firmly believe that you cannot take care of what you don't know and with this promote the preservation of the Peruvian Amazon forests.
Throughout Wired Amazon's different collections of projects, thousands of travelers onsite and online users have become allies for the conservation of the Tambopata National Reserve.
