Fundación Entropika

Apartado Aéreo N. 20, Calle 6 N. 1A - 28, Piso 1, Barrio Gaitán
Leticia, Amazonas
Colombia

Contact person: Thomas Lafon

+57 85926606
+57 85924872
info@entropika.org
tlafon@entropika.org
http://www.entropika.org

Topics

• Environmental organization
• Educational policy/project
• Aid organization

About us

Fundación Entropika was established in 2007 by a group of dedicated conservationists, from varying backgrounds, based in Amacayacu National Park in the south of the Colombian Amazon.

Entropika aims to contribute to the long-term conservation of tropical biodiversity by facilitating local community-led projects, establishing programmes of education and research whilst working closely with the local indigenous people to tackle conservation issues.

Our approach encourages interdisciplinary cooperation regarding the management of biodiversity components, including in-situ conservation, community based research, environmental policies revision and the feasibility analyses of sustainable economic alternatives.

At present, Entropika is working in the following research areas:
• Biodiversity conservation via local-based monitoring of wildlife and plant species. We are building up one of the most complete data sets of wildlife densities in the southern Colombian Amazon.
• Transfer of monitoring methods implemented by Colombian indigenous co-investigators to their neighbouring Peruvian communities involved in intense extraction of wildlife. We expect to improve community-level understanding of monitoring and sustainable use of wildlife throughout mutual training and learning.
• Identification of sustainable economic alternatives that will decrease the involvement of local people in illegal extraction of resources. We are conducting the feasibility study of a lyophilisation (freeze-drying) facility for the use of biodiversity components maximising the use of forest surpluses.
• Preparation of an assessment on the illegal trade in night monkeys to environmental authorities to enforce international wildlife trade regulations (CITES).

Conservation projects
• The Water Cycle Project: The main goal of this project is to provide potable water and basic sanitation to six Tikuna communities located at the Colombian-Peruvian Amazonian border. The WCP is the first bi-national project seeking to implement clean technologies in this Amazonian region.
• The Aotus Project: Campaign against the trade of wildlife at the Colombian – Peruvian border. The illegal trade of primates and other large vertebrates is increasing for the tourism market.
• The Calderon Project: The general aim of the project is to design and implement a conservation strategy for the Calderon basin, buffering zone of Amacayacu National Park (ANP), the only protected area in the trapecio amazonico, using the ecosystem approach combining scientific and traditional knowledge.
• The Woolly Monkey Project: The goal of this project was to develop a biologically and culturally contextualized strategy for the long-term conservation of the primate community (nine species) in Amacayacu, with the involvement of two indigenous communities.
• The UK-Colombia Conservation Exchange: The Entropika team came to the UK to participate in a series of workshops, talks and lectures to interested parties from both the fields of conservation and sustainability and also the wider public to encourage an exchange of ideas on conservation and sustainable development both in the UK and in the Amazon.

Thomas Lafon is an Associate member of Fundación Entropika.

For other net participants we can give an expert opinion in the field of our work (i.e. botany, primatology, anthropology, climatology, veterinary).