00:00Indigenous communities lead tapir conservation in Colombia's Amazon region.
00:05Deep in Colombia's Putumayo region, protecting the lowland tapir is becoming about more than
00:11saving one animal.
00:13The indigenous community of Musuyuyay lives near the meeting point of the Andes and Amazon
00:18Basin, an area rich in wildlife and cultural history.
00:22There, the lowland tapir is being used as a landscape species whose protection can help
00:27conserve a much larger ecosystem.
00:30Musuyuyay has declared its land a territory of life, also known as an indigenous and community
00:35conserved area.
00:37The approach recognizes that conservation is not only about biological surveys or government
00:42boundaries.
00:43Traditional knowledge, cultural values, community authority, and relationships with wildlife
00:49can be equally important.
00:52The community already has agreements to protect tapirs and their habitat.
00:56But hunting pressure from neighboring territories can still threaten the animals.
01:02A conservation project led with local participation aims to strengthen self-governance, monitor tapir
01:08populations, and work with neighboring communities to reduce hunting.
01:13The goal is also to understand how human activity and environmental conditions influence where tapirs
01:18can survive.
01:20Tapirs play an important ecological role in tropical forests by moving across large areas
01:25and dispersing seeds.
01:28Protecting them can therefore help protect forests beyond a single animal's home range.
01:33The project hopes neighboring communities may eventually create their own conservation agreements.
01:39In Putumayo, the tapir's future may depend on something science cannot accomplish alone, communities
01:45choosing to protect wildlife as part of their living cultural landscape.
01:48Happy countryside.
01:49Thank you for watching!
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