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Biodiversity conservation is a complex and transdisciplinary problem that requires engagement and cooperation among scientific, societal, economic, and political institutions. However, historical approaches have often failed to bring together and address the needs of relevant stakeholders in decision-making processes. The Tropical Andes, a biodiversity hotspot where conservation efforts often conflict with socioeconomic issues and policies that prioritize economic development, provides an ideal model to develop and implement more effective approaches. In this study, we present a codesign approach that mainstreams and improves the flow of biodiversity information in the Tropical Andes, while creating tailored outputs that meet the needs of economic and societal stakeholders. We employed a consultative process that brought together biodiversity information users and producers at the local, national, and regional levels through a combination of surveys and workshops. This approach identified priority needs and limitations of the flow of biodiversity information in the region, which led to the co-design of user-relevant biodiversity indicators. By leveraging the existing capacities of biodiversity information users and producers, we were able to co-design multiple biodiversity indicators and prioritize two for full implementation ensuring that the data was findable, accessible, interoperable, and reusable based on the FAIR principles. This approach helped address limitations that were identified in the stakeholder engagement process, including gaps in data availability and the need for more accessible biodiversity information. Additionally, capacity-building workshops were incorporated for all stakeholders involved, which aimed to not only improve the current flow of biodiversity information in the region but also facilitate its future sustainability. Our approach can serve as a valuable blueprint for mainstreaming biodiversity information and making it more inclusive in the future, especially considering the diverse worldviews, values, and knowledge systems between science, policy, and practice.

The harpy eagle (Harpia harpyja) is one of the main predators of arboreal mammals in the neotropics, affecting the ecology and behaviour these species. Knowledge of harpy eagle diets across their geographical range is patchy, the ability of harpy eagles to adapt to changing habitats is still open to question. The three main species in the diet of harpy eagles nesting at Tambopata were porcupines (Coendou sp.) (n = 7) howler monkeys (Alouatta sara) (n = 6) and two-toed sloths (Choloepus didactylus) (n = 4), all species that do well in disturbed forests. We conclude that harpy eagles can reproduce in secondary forests, feeding on abundant disturbance-tolerant species, if they themselves are not hunted and their nesting trees are conserved. Harpy eagle nests have a high value for tourism, and strategies that allow landowners to benefit from harpy eagles nesting on their property through revenues from tourism may be instrumental in incentivising the conservation of forests and emergent trees, and the regeneration of forests in anthropogenic landscapes.

La preferencia por los productos naturales sigue una tendencia creciente en los últimos años, debido al cambio en la mentalidad y en el estilo de vida de los consumidores por lo natural. Esta tendencia promueve cambios en el sector cosmético, puesto que la mayoría de estos productos poseen insumos químicos dentro de su composición los cuáles son nocivos para la piel. Actualmente, factores como el respeto al medio ambiente, el uso de insumos de origen natural y la responsabilidad social corporativa, son determinantes al momento de realizar la elección de algún producto. Según información del Comité Peruano de Cosmética e Higiene (Copecoh), la industria de cosméticos e higiene personal moverá un monto de 22 447 millones de soles en el periodo 2017-2019 con un crecimiento estimado de 6 % y 8 %. Asimismo; una encuesta realizada por la misma entidad (Copecoh) destaca que el 96% de consultados afirmaron que reemplazarían sus productos cosméticos y de higiene personal tradicionales por los orgánicos y naturales. Por todo lo anteriormente expuesto nace “Beautiful S.A.C”, una empresa dedicada a la fabricación de una crema cosmética facial natural a base de moringa con el fin de ofrecer una alternativa natural para el cuidado de la piel. La crema será comercializada en envases de polipropileno de 50 g.

We studied diet choice by a generalist herbivore, the red howler monkey (Alouatta seniculus) under conditions of high and normal population density. Densities equivalent to 800–1000 km−2 (roughly 20–40 times normal) occurred in populations trapped on small, predator-free islands in Lago Guri, Venezuela. For three successive years, we studied one such population, a group of six animals living on a 0.6-ha island and compared its feeding ecology to that of two groups living at normal densities on a 190-ha island. The 0.6-ha island supported a total of 351 trees >10 cm dbh of 46 species, whereas >100 species probably occurred within the 16- and 23-ha home ranges of the two large-island howler troops. Small-island howlers were thus predicted to consume fewer resources, in particular less fruit, and to be less selective in diet choice than large-island howlers. As predicted, small-island howlers consumed fewer resources and obtained a smaller fraction of their intake from rare tree species (those contributing 20 times normal density strongly suggests that food availability does not limit mainland populations.

Predators are a ubiquitous presence in most natural environments. Opportunities to contrast the behaviour of a species in the presence and absence of predators are thus rare. Here we report on the behaviour of howler monkey groups living under radically different conditions on two land-bridge islands in Lago Guri, Venezuela. One group of 6 adults inhabited a 190-ha island (Danto) where they were exposed to multiple potential predators. This group, the control, occupied a home range of 23 ha and contested access to food resources with neighbouring groups in typical fashion. The second group, containing 6 adults, was isolated on a remote, predator-free 0.6 ha islet (Iguana) offering limited food resources. Howlers living on the large island moved, fed and rested in a coherent group, frequently engaged in affiliative activities, rarely displayed agonistic behaviour and maintained intergroup spacing through howling. In contrast, the howlers on Iguana showed repulsion, as individuals spent most of their time spaced widely around the perimeter of the island. Iguana howlers rarely engaged in affiliative behaviour, often chased or fought with one another and were not observed to howl. These behaviors are interpreted as adjustments to the unrelenting deprivation associated with bottom-up limitation in a predator-free environment.

The manner in which terrestrial ecosystems are regulated is controversial. The “top-down” school holds that predators limit herbivores and thereby prevent them from overexploiting vegetation. “Bottom-up” proponents stress the role of plant chemical defenses in limiting plant depredation by herbivores. A set of predator-free islands created by a hydroelectric impoundment in Venezuela allows a test of these competing world views. Limited area restricts the fauna of small (0.25 to 0.9 hectare) islands to predators of invertebrates (birds, lizards, anurans, and spiders), seed predators (rodents), and herbivores (howler monkeys, iguanas, and leaf-cutter ants). Predators of vertebrates are absent, and densities of rodents, howler monkeys, iguanas, and leaf-cutter ants are 10 to 100 times greater than on the nearby mainland, suggesting that predators normally limit their populations. The densities of seedlings and saplings of canopy trees are severely reduced on herbivore-affected islands, providing evidence of a trophic cascade unleashed in the absence of top-down regulation.