About the Alliance for a Sustainable Amazon
Our mission is to promote the sustainable use of natural resources and the conservation of biodiversity for the benefit of all who live in and depend upon the Amazon rainforest. Our projects are based in Peru’s Madre de Dios Department, in the extreme southwestern corner of the vast Amazon basin that spans several other South American countries. Due to its proximity to the equator and the extremely biodiverse tropical Andes mountains, as well as its expansive tracts of pristine tropical wilderness, the region’s rain forests are home to more species of plants and animals than nearly anywhere else on earth.
Unfortunately, this incredible biological richness is threatened by rapid, uncontrolled development and other human activities, including unsustainable agricultural practices and the extraction of natural resources. We envision a more sustainable Amazon, one in which the region’s great natural wealth sustains local human livelihoods and biodiversity without diminishing the ability of future generations to enjoy its many benefits.
About our logo
The botanical exuberance spilling over the banks of undisturbed Amazonian rivers led the first European explorers in the region to envision a lucrative cultivated paradise—towering, buttressed trees draped in luxuriant layers of lianas, orchids, and bromeliads, as well as an impenetrably thick forest understory, hinted of the new land’s great fertility. Their intuition, however, proved spectacularly wrong, and the great infertility of tropical rainforest soils remains today a great paradox.
Whereas indigenous Amazonian peoples have farmed here for millennia using traditional, ‘slash and burn’ methods, modern, large-scale agriculture has succeeded only through massive inputs of synthetic fertilizers and pesticides, as well as continual deforestation on an unprecedented scale. Why, given the lushness of the rain forest, does it not offer high agricultural productivity? The answer is that tropical plant species are highly adapted to sequester scarce nutrients before they are quickly degraded by heat and humidity, or washed away by frequent, heavy rains.
After learning to cultivate plants for food only about 10,000 years ago, humans have cleared or severely degraded nearly half of the world’s tropical forests, altered the global climate, and imperiled the existence of thousands or even millions of other species of plants and animals. But there is a better way, and that is illustrated by the Amazon’s other leading herbivore. What herbivore is that, you might ask—the tapir, perhaps, which is the largest plant feeder currently found here? In fact, it is the tiny leaf-cutter ant!
Leaf-cutter ants live in massive, underground colonies, their workers foraging constantly, clipping small leaf fragments from the rainforest canopy and carrying them back to the nest. Inside the colony, the leaf material is chewed up and formed into a large, spongy garden, upon which is grown a fungus that serves as the ants’ sole food source. Leaf-cutter ants have been practicing agriculture—fungiculture, to be more precise—in this way for around 50 million years. And although they are capable of harvesting incredible amounts of plant material—20 percent of the rainforest’s entire productivity by some estimates—an unimaginable diversity of life coexists alongside the ants. In fact, under the reign of the leaf-cutters as the rainforest’s humble yet dominant herbivores, the Amazon has become the most biodiverse ecosystem to ever exist on our planet.
Leaf-cutter ants figure prominently in our logo because we feel they embody the spirit of our organization—that, by working together, we can meet our needs and achieve prosperity without diminishing the ability of other species to meet theirs.
The team
The Alliance for a Sustainable Amazon works in partnership with Alianza para una Amazonía Sostenible Perú, a Peruvian non-profit organization. The following people work together as part of our international team to conduct research, education, and conservation at our main field site Finca Las Piedras, as well as throughout the Cusco and Madre de Dios regions in
Geoff Gallice, Ph. D.
Founding Member & President of the Board, ASA
Geoff received his Ph.D. in entomology from the University of Florida, where he studied Neotropical butterfly ecology and conservation. In particular, he explored rarity among Amazonian butterflies and the factors that might cause a species to become threatened. Since then he has continued to conduct ecological research and applied conservation projects mostly in the Peruvian Amazon, where he directs the Alliance for a Sustainable Amazon. He is also a professor at the Pontifical Catholic University in Lima, Peru, where he teaches courses on natural resource management and conservation. Geoff is very passionate about nature in southeastern Peru and is working hard to promote effective, science-based solutions to the region's daunting environmental challenges.
View Geoff's CV here.
Johana Reyes, M.A.
Founding Member and President of the Board, Alianza para una Amazonía Sostenible Perú
Johana Reyes is a community social psychologist from Lima, Peru. She has worked for 15+ years in Peru’s most disadvantaged communities along the coast, in the Andes and, most recently, as the co-founder and director of ASA Peru in the country’s Amazon region. Her work has focused on education, human rights, and capacity building in both urban and rural communities, and she is especially passionate about creating significant learning experiences that empower people to take charge of protecting their environment. Johana directs the ASA’s education and community outreach efforts in Peru, where she works to protect the Amazon alongside those who are its current and future leaders.
Timothy Perez, Ph.D.
Founding Member of the Board & Secretary, ASA
Timothy is currently a postdoctoral scholar at the University of British Columbia researching biomass production in forests and their responses to climate change. Timothy holds a B.Sc. in botany from the University of Vermont and earned his Ph.D. in biology from the University of Miami. Tim’s dissertation focused on the heat tolerance of tropical plants and how they can be used to predict the high-temperature limits of species ranges and growth responses of tropical trees. Tim is broadly interested in understanding how ecophysiological adaptations of tropical plants influence patterns in plant diversity, biogeography, and their responses to climate change. He has participated in research projects throughout the US, Canada and Latin America including Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Panama, and Peru. Aside from being a hopeless plant nerd, Timothy is also interested in promoting science through experiential education and teaching others about important conservation issues that threaten tropical biodiversity.
Bhavik Pathak
Founding Member of the Board & Treasurer, ASA
Bhavik became interested in biodiversity as a high school student, when he had to collect insects for his freshman biology class. Today, although during his day job he's something of a computer geek, he remains committed to the protection of wild nature through his work with the Alliance for a Sustainable Amazon. Bhavik has developed a wanderlust, and enjoys exploring new, exotic places, including in the Amazon rainforest of southeastern Peru.
Science Advisory Board
The ASA's Science Advisory Board is made up of leading academics in the fields of tropical biology and conservation. In addition to conducting research on Amazonian biodiversity in collaboration with ASA researchers, the board helps to steer our scientific agenda to maximize impact both in the academia and on the ground in Peru.
Erik Iverson, Ph.D.
Founding Member
Erik Iverson is a PhD student at the University of Texas at Austin. Erik has a background in ornithology, landscape ecology, and animal behavior, and has worked for the US National Park Service, the Bureau of Land Management, and the Nature Conservancy, among other organizations. Through research in Ecuador, Australia, and South Africa, Erik gained an understanding of tropical ecology and conservation issues and a diverse set of field skills. He joined ASA in Peru in 2017 as the first Academic Programs Coordinator, helping to establish the internship and volunteer programs as well as monitoring protocols for plant phenology and animal abundance. His current research investigates the adaptive significance of genetic variation among animals, explaining how the functions of different genes have contributed to patterns of speciation, hybridization, and specialization for different habitats. Study systems of interest include Andean and Amazonian birds as well as swordtail fishes from the Mexican highlands. He has a master's degree in Environmental Biology from Tulane University.
Dave Klinges, Ph.D.
Founding Member
As a “full-stack” ecologist, Dave's work ranges from tropical fieldwork to building data curation pipelines, hierarchical modeling, and ecological forecasting. His research program is an exploration of how land use and climate change influences the ecological structure, biodiversity, and microclimate of complex tropical landscapes. Current projects include measuring community shifts of canopy-dwelling amphibians due to forest degradation in Madagascar, quantifying uncertainties in carbon stocks of coastal wetlands, and modelling thermal connectivity in space and time globally. Dave’s first involvement with ASA was as a Resident Naturalist in 2017, during which he helped develop biodiversity monitoring (specializing in herpetofauna) at Finca las Piedras. Now as a member of the Scientific Advisory board, Dave is excited to help advance the growth of ASA’s research and conservation work in Madre de Dios.
Riley Fortier, Ph.D.
Member
Neque porro quisquam est qui dolorem ipsum quia dolor sit amet, consectetur, adipisci velit
The crew in Peru
The Alliance for a Sustainable Amazon works in partnership with Alianza para una Amazonía Sostenible Perú, a Peruvian non-profit organization. The following people work together as part of our international team to conduct research, education, and conservation at our main field site Finca Las Piedras, as well as throughout the Cusco and Madre de Dios regions in
Katherine Garcia
Field Molecular Biologist
Neque porro quisquam est qui dolorem ipsum quia dolor sit amet, consectetur, adipisci velit
Ariel Raizman
Field Software Engineer
Ariel is a Master's student in Computer Science at the University of California, Santa Cruz, where he focuses on the intersection of engineering and the natural world. At ASA, he developed and maintains our Lepidoptera records database, streamlining the organization and accessibility of specimen data to serve as a robust and accessible resource for researchers. His current research explores the use of edge AI in bioacoustic monitoring to create scalable ways to understand complex ecosystems. Ariel is passionate about bridging the gap between technical innovation and biological conservation to better protect biodiversity in the field.
Jona Scholtes
Web Developer
Jona is an undergraduate student of Environmental Sciences on a joint programme between Leuphana University in Lüneburg, Germany and PUCP in Lima. His studies focus on sustainability, sustainable management and environmental policy, as well as the decision-making processes that drive systemic improvements towards a more sustainable future. At ASA, he helped develop this website to raise public awareness of conservation work. Passionate about rainforest ecosystems and wildlife photography, Jona hopes to contribute meaningfully to conservation efforts by combining his creative and scientific interests.
José Cueva
Lead Naturalist
Neque porro quisquam est qui dolorem ipsum quia dolor sit amet, consectetur, adipisci velit
Zunilda Escalante
Lepidoptera Diversity & Biology Project Coordinator
Neque porro quisquam est qui dolorem ipsum quia dolor sit amet, consectetur, adipisci velit
Yeison Vega
Lead Research Assistant, Lepidoptera Diversity & Biology Project
Neque porro quisquam est qui dolorem ipsum quia dolor sit amet, consectetur, adipisci velit
Karla Fiallos
Research Assistant, Lepidoptera Diversity & Biology Project
Neque porro quisquam est qui dolorem ipsum quia dolor sit amet, consectetur, adipisci velit
Rutt Pizarro
XXXX
Neque porro quisquam est qui dolorem ipsum quia dolor sit amet, consectetur, adipisci velit
Joana Duran
XXXX
Neque porro quisquam est qui dolorem ipsum quia dolor sit amet, consectetur, adipisci velit