TİKA Supports Wildlife Victims Of Illegal Trafficking In Iquitos, Peru

In cooperation with the Amazon Rescue Center (CREA), Turkish Cooperation and Coordination Agency (TİKA) supported the construction of a veterinary treatment clinic for wildlife victims of illegal trafficking in the city of Iquitos, Peru.

CREA, a foundation that provides inter-institutional support for the rescue, rehabilitation and release of specimens of aquatic mammals and endangered wildlife, presented this project in order to complement its work to rescue injured or orphaned wildlife, and increase the release and the successful monitoring of these animals in their habitats in the Amazon rainforest. It should be noted that Iquitos is part of the Peruvian Amazon, the great tropical jungle of South America.

Currently the Amazon is one of the areas most affected by illegal wildlife trade, an action considered the third international illicit business, preceded by illegal drug and arms trafficking, reason why, for CREA, the implementation of veterinary treatment services of different species, through the creation of a clinic, in order to strengthen the rehabilitation activities that are being carried out.

During the award ceremony, the Director of the Amazon Rescue Center, Mr. Javier Velasquez Varela, offered a few words of gratitude to the Agency, stating: “As Director of the Amazon Rescue Center I want to express my deepest gratitude to the Republic of Turkey for the valuable support to the conservation efforts of threatened species in the Peruvian jungle through the construction of a veterinary clinic and the respective equipment. As a rescue center we have spent 13 years of intense work in the rehabilitation of fauna victims of illegal trafficking and this donation will help enormously to improve our work for the good of hundreds of endangered species.”

This project is a complement to CREA's environmental education program, which initially focused on the preservation of manatees, and where more than 300 thousand children from the Amazon region were trained in issues related to manatee conservation and natural resources in general, generating in them environmental awareness and respect for the Amazon.

Every year CREA receives about 30 thousand visitors, being classified as one of the main tourist destinations in the city of Iquitos, forming part of the "Biodiversity Route" of the Ministry of Tourism and Foreign Affairs of Peru – MINCETUR. It is expected that with the implementation of the clinic, plus a food preparation area and warehouse in the Rescue Center, it will continue to provide care for the treatment of diseases and rehabilitation activities for aquatic mammals and endangered wildlife in the Peruvian Amazon, thus contributing to the conservation of biological diversity, its natural populations and the reduction of illegal traffic.