The Amazon is more than a mile wide in Iquitos. Like the ocean itself, this river makes its own course, swallows up islands, turns oxbow bends into miniature lakes, and sweeps away riverfront settlements. Yet the lar-gest city in the Peruvian Amazon has survived nature's indifferent forces, the booms and busts of rubber and oil, the rough-and-ready tourists, to settle into an immutable rhythm of timelessness.

In port, knots of fishermen mill about, women wash clothes and mop their brows. Rusting gasoline pumps stand forlorn and rickety houses built on stilts crowd around the dock. The jungle behind holds capybara, tapir, snakes, monkeys, and some 400 species of birds. In the water lives the feared piranha. Iquitos teems with life. Only humans seem out of place under the scorching sun and the suffocating heat.

We squeeze into the small boat that dips and bounces with our weight, welcomed aboard by a boisterous captain. Our destination: Padre Island, the site of an innovative primate conservation project, about an hour east. As we leave the pier behind, we notice a small building with faded paint and a cardboard sign nailed over the door. "Dental Surgeon: All Types of Emer-gencies" it announces in jumbled letters.

As the overcrowded vessel rolls over the swells, the boat starts to collect water. But no one seems too concerned, least of all the captain with his white cap and sunburned face, who regales us with tales of the high sea and adventure until we reach the island.

The jungle meets us at the shore. As we climb out of the boat, our feet sink into the clay-like mud. A lone fisherman's shack peers out of the wilderness. In front of it are several nets spread out to dry and the dying embers of a small bonfire. A hammock sways in the breeze.

The expedition's guide is Dr. Enrique Montoya González. He motions for us to follow him along a serpentine path, all but swallowed up by the foliage. Soon we come to a clearing and hear the animals. Overhead, the tree bran-ches stir with their movement. Fruit trees circle the perimeter of the building. Close by are gardens where yucca, rice, cucumbers, tomatoes, squash, sweet ají peppers, and oregano have been planted.

Renewing Nature's Resources

Montoya is Executive Director of the Center for Reproduction and Conserva-tion of Primates, the headquarters of the Manuel Moro Sommo Peruvian Prima-tology Project in Iquitos. We are at one of the project's three natural habitats. The others are Muyuy and Iquitos Islands-the latter so-called because at the times of the year when the river is low, part of Iquitos forms a natural bridge with Padre Island. Together, there are some 25 square miles of jungle habitat for both free-roaming and colony-reared nonhuman primate populations, who are cared for by a staff of veterinarians, biologists, naturalists, and other technical support personnel. To-gether, they oversee a wildlife census program that monitors the taxonomy, biodiversity, geographical distribution, and population density of the 34 nonhuman primate species indigenous to Peru.

The project currently is celebrating its 25th anniversary, following the signing of an agreement on 10 March 1975 between the Peruvian Government and the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) for the "conservation, reproduction, and management of neotropical nonhuman primates as a renewable natural resource in captivity, semi-captivity, and natural habitat." Since its inception, the project also has worked closely with Peru's Ministries of Public Health, Agriculture, and Foreign Affairs, as well as the Veterinary Institute of Tropical and Highlands Research of the Universidad Nacional Mayor de San Marcos, the Research Institute of Peruvian Amazonia, and the U.S. National Institutes of Health.

Contributions to Human Health

"Nonhuman primates serve as invaluable scientific models for a variety of human health studies, including cardiovascular, genetic, dental, nutritional, ophthalmologic, viral, and behavioral issues," says Dr. Primo Arámbulo, Co-ordinator of PAHO's Veterinary Public Health Program. They also play a key role in the understanding and prevention of a variety of diseases, including tuberculosis, measles, dengue, yellow fever, malaria, diabetes, hepatitis, poliomye-litis, AIDS, cancer, enteric infections, and herpes.

Because of the scope of these activities, the project "requires an extensive and efficient infrastructure," and serves as a source of community employment for residents who might otherwise leave the islands in search of income opportunities elsewhere, he says. By supporting the proj-ect, local populations also gain a singular awareness of the importance of protecting animal and plant life in fragile ecosystems.

In the Beginning

"The groundwork for the project's creation was laid in 1972, when the first field studies were conducted on the distribution of primate populations in the Peruvian Amazon," Montoya says. "Support for this research came from San Marcos University and PAHO. Then, in 1975, the First International Conference on the Conser-vation of Nonhuman Primates of the New World and Their Utilization in Biomedical Research was held in Lima, providing the parameters and scope for the work of the Peruvian Primatology Project. The U.S. National Institutes of Health helped us with the construction of the facilities, which opened in 1976.

"Between 1977 and 1980, we introduced 87 nonhuman primates to Padre Island. By 1988, we had 153, and currently we have 255," he says. "Our censuses allow us to offer the scientific community well-defined animals with complete health and development records." The free-roaming populations are used for ecological, reproductive, and behavioral studies conducted under natural conditions. Padre Island also serves as a site for breeding in semi-captivity. "The goal in this case is to reproduce species that are of biomedical interest and to study them in a controlled natural environment," according to Montoya. "We began this strategy in 1978 with the freeing of almost 90 white-mouth tamarins." The most recent census indicates a population of around 250, or the equivalent of some 20 groups.

"We began breeding in captivity with six species and have had good results with four: two species each of nocturnal monkeys and squirrel monkeys, for a total population of 650 animals," Montoya says. Six shelters house the colony-reared populations. Two have been reserved for quarantine purposes, and one houses a collection of the country's rarest and most endangered species. To date, there have been more than 1,000 births. The controlled conditions and large numbers ensure a continual supply of well-socialized, high-quality animals of known health status that may be utilized for biomedical research.

At the same time, "the enrichment of the natural gene pool obtained by these breeding efforts serves to propagate the species through repopulation trials," Arámbulo says.

Islands with a Future

Wálter Vásquez Reina has lived on Padre Island for 19 years. "I support my family with what I plant and the fish I catch. I work for the project eight hours a day. When I go into the jungle, the monkeys recognize me. I watch them as they eat and jump and communicate with each other. I had never seen little animals like these until I came here. I don't see myself as much as a worker as I do a simple villager with the opportunity to support something that is important to people and research." "We wouldn't be able to carry out the project's work without the cooperation of the islanders," Montoya says. "Padre Island has two small villages with about 300 people. From the beginning, we've wanted them to feel a part of this project. So we have involved them in environmental protection activities and supported them in health and education issues. We work with schoolteachers and community leaders who share our desire to make life better here."

During the 1980s, there were mass vaccination campaigns for infants and children in Iquitos, but the islands were excluded, Montoya recalls. Seeing the problem as largely one of logistics, "we offered the health authorities use of the small motorized boats we use to get from one island to the other, as well as some of our staff. This extended vaccination coverage, and in the 1990s, the health sector took over this responsibility, utilizing the expertise we had provided." The project's presence also has enriched the previously degraded forests on Padre Island. In the 1980s native fruit and lumber trees were planted and tested for their resistance to flooding during rainy season. Not only have the trees survived and prospered, but a star has been born: the camu-camu, a small citric fruit with up to 30 times the vitamin C concentration of some of its better-known relatives, is now being exported by the Peruvian Government in pulp form to Japan. "These experiments have helped people reevaluate the importance of their land," says Montoya. "Before, slash-and-burn agriculture was practiced here. People exploited the land for two, maybe three, years and then moved on. The planting of trees has provided a permanent, sustainable form of production." This blend of agroforestry and appropriate technologies has served to increase food supply and improve nutrition for monkeys and humans alike.

Muyuy Island

Muyuy Island, about 45 minutes away by motorboat, is larger than Padre Island and more populated, playing host to scientists, researchers, and students wishing to study the dynamics of Amazonian ecosystems. One project involved a study of the Saguinus labiatus, a variety of tamarin that lives in the mountainous forest region of Madre de Dios in southeastern Peru. "With the support of PAHO and Merck & Co. in the United States, we evaluated the population dynamics and geographic distribution of this group and found their numbers to be dwindling in the interior as well as along the Bolivian and Brazilian borders," explains Montoya. "We transported 31 back to Muyuy, where they live in semi-captivity and the population now is being replenished. This species is of great interest in hepatitis vaccine development."

Protective Legislation

Since 1970, the Peruvian Government has adopted a series of conservation measures prohibiting the indiscriminate hunting, capture, and marketing of all species of nonhuman primates in the country. Since the founding of the Peruvian Primatology Project, the only primates exported from the country are those from the project's center in Iquitos. Further-more, these animals are transferred exclusively for the purpose of biomedical research, principally in the United States.

The National Institutes of Health serves as official conduit for receiving requests from research facilities for the use of primates and has vast experience in dealing with a variety of government agencies, universities, and research institutions throughout the United States, as well as in Europe, Russia, and Asia. Following re-view, the requests are forwarded to PAHO's Veterinary Health Program, which coordinates implementation with the project's Iquitos headquarters.

Comprehensive medical and clinical histories on file at the center enable the staff to determine availability and suitability-based on age, sex, weight, genetic characteristics, and other specified requirements-of the type of animals requested. If these conditions are met, the exportation of the animals then must receive the authorization of the Ministry of Agricul-ture and meet the requirements of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Flora and Fauna (CITES).

The animals travel-usually on direct commercial flights-to the U.S. port of entry at Miami International Airport, where they are transferred to facilities at the University of Miami. Here the animals are quarantined according to regulations of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for a minimum of 30 days prior to their release to the requesting organization.

Among the institutions that have collaborated with the project are Walter Reed Army Medical Center, Harvard Medical School, Columbia University, Yale Uni-versity, Hoffman-LaRoche, Merck Sharpe & Dohme, Institute Merieux, the Institute of Poliomyelitis (Russia), Zoologische Station Eichber (Switzerland), Deutsches Primazentrum (Germany), and TNO-Primate Center (Netherlands).

Thinking Ahead

"The Peruvian Amazon is a very rich and diverse ecosystem," Montoya says. "Although it is green, if all the jungle's oldest and tallest trees are cut at once, the area virtually becomes a desert." He refers to studies by the Research Institute of Peruvian Amazonia indicating that recovery and renewal of forest lost to large-scale clearing for crops, livestock, and industrial pursuits can take between 30 and 50 years. Yet managed development based on smaller, more sustainable projects, is not detrimental to the environment and can benefit both human and wildlife populations. "Tighter controls, based on respect for the plant, animal, and aquatic life here encourage a process of natural replenishment. We're also instilling a spirit of conservation and preservation for future generations," he says.

"The Peruvian Primatology Project was initially created by environmentally concerned organizations to halt the depletion of Peru's wild primate population," says Arámbulo, adding that the animals' rapidly disappearing natural habitat, uncontrolled poaching and trade, and lack of national and international regulations to protect this valuable and renewable resource not only threatened the survival of primate populations, but affected the region's overall ecological stability, as well.

By providing the area's inhabitants with incentives to protect the well-being of the monkeys and teaching people the inter-relationship among all life forms, over time they develop a vested interest in protecting the ecosystem, he says. Furthermore, the direct participation of the community can be transformed into a model for other types of projects, such as the cultivation of medicinal plants for pharmacological study. Already, the field stations on Padre and Muyuy Islands provide housing and study areas for scientists who work with the local population in carrying out research in ecology, zoology, botany, mixed agriculture, silviculture, and anthropology.

"The Peruvian Primatology Project has supported the construction of local schools, implemented health care and agricultural training programs, and established vaccination campaigns to improve the overall quality of life in these inaccessible jungle areas," says Arámbulo, who adds that there is no better place to find answers to the questions of science and medicine than in the Amazon.

---

Eugenio Gutiérrez is a journalist in PAHO's Office of Public Information and former foreign correspondent for various Latin American newspapers and magazines.