A catalytic small grant by Rainforest Trust, and support from American Bird Conservancy, has helped the Amazon Conservation Association purchase and protect a 7,427-acre property called Hacienda Villa Carmen–an incredibly rich rainforest site at the headwaters of the Amazon River in Peru. This newly protected area lies within the 4.7-million acre Manu Biosphere Reserve, a mixture of private and public lands that stretches over a vast swath of pristine forest in the southwest of that country .

The large Villa Carmen property is bordered by the Pini Pini and Tono rivers and has an elevational gradient that stretches between 1,500 and 3,500 feet. This diverse habitat is renowned for its species richness, with particularly high populations of birds, butterfiles, and mammals.

The new protected area will be managed by the Peruvian NGO, the Asociación para la Conservación de la Cuenca Amazónica (ACCA).

“A large amount of the rainforest at risk of destruction in Latin America lies in private hands,” said Rainforest Trust Executive Director Byron Swift. “With this new purchase we’ve shown once again the power of land purchase as a strategy for biodiversity conservation.”