ngo work
the amazon center for environmental education and research (aceer)
I currently serve as the Director of Research for ACEER. I previously served as the Executive Director of ACEER from 2021-2022 before coming to Georgetown. ACEER's mission is to promote the professional development of future conservation leaders through transformative experiential learning.
Here are some of the specific projects I am a part of at ACEER!
bringing the amazon home
Bringing the Amazon Home is a collaboration between ACEER, the Delaware Teachers Institute, the Longwood Foundation, and many more partners. There are 16 teachers from Delaware who are Fellows in the program. These top-notch educators are tasked with developing K-12 curricula that connects the ecology and culture of the Amazon to the same in Delaware. The program featured a year of seminars and lectures from experts, a summer excursion in Pennsylvania at Stroud Water Research Center and the lands of the Lenape Indian Tribe of Delaware, and a field program to the Peruvian Amazon. In the Amazon, Fellows gathered all the information and data they needed to craft their multimedia units. Now, they are publishing those units in Spanish and English to be implemented in classrooms around the world to foster conservation awareness and mutual cultural understanding.
Top left image: Fellows learn from Maijuna fishermen and Explorama guide Roldán about local fishing practices on the Sucusari River. Photograph by Patricia Hermance.
Middle left image: Fellows learn traditional weaving techniques from Maijuna elders. Here, they are making a hammock out of chambira fibers. Photograph by Patricia Hermance.
The conservation leaders program
I direct a fellowship program at ACEER called the Conservation Leaders Program. Conservation Leaders come from all over the world, but all are focused on the conservation of biodiversity and culture in the Amazon. We work with Conservation Leaders individually to provide mentoring and professional development that best suits their current needs, from media to grant writing to field skills. Fellows get the opportunity to come to the Peruvian Amazon to conduct research and learn skills in conservation research and ethical engagements with local and Indigenous communities. In January of 2022, Conservation Leaders led the sampling of soils from over 90 mineral licks in the MKRCA, creating the largest database of mineral lick soils ever created in the Amazon. That work has already led to several peer-reviewed publications.
To the right, a few boats of Conservation Leaders wait for the team to clear a tree blocking the river, and learn to set a camera trap to monitor mammal occupancy.
We have many Conservation Leaders! Check out the ACEER program page for details on all of their wonderful work. Here are just four of them, below!
Rut Mottoccanchi
Dylan Francis
Elizabeth Benson
Photograph by Forrest Lewis
Joseph See