Belén is the largest, most important open market selling wildlife in the Peruvian Amazon and the key point where poached wildlife converged in Iquitos is illegally traded, threatening the survival of species and the wellbeing of the region’s poorest citizens. Based on findings from previous research at Belén Market, and in collaboration with local partners, World Animal Protection designed a project to help understand and tackle this illegal trade.

“Building evidence to reduce demand for wildlife products in Peru” is a two-year project financed by the UK government as part of their Illegal Wildlife Trade Challenge Fund. Using innovative approaches, this project will build the evidence needed to design a behaviour change campaign that reduces illegal wildlife trade in Belén and provide robust national/regional guidance to support sustainable, legal livelihood transitions for low-income communities currently dependent on this type of trade.

The evidence and knowledge gathered from this project will be incorporated into a National Action Plan and our vision is for this project to be scaled up and replicated so that iconic Amazon species are no longer killed and sold in urban markets across Peru.