Víctor Zambrano and his never-ending fight for the rainforest

A childhood with the Ese’eja natives, surrounded by animals and the forest made Victor Zambrano (1949) never forget Puerto Maldonado. After 30 years of service in the Navy, Victor returned to his homeland and set out to recover and care for the jungle that lived in his memories. His work contributed to the formation of the Tambopata National Reserve and the Bahuaja Sonene National Park, in addition to inspiring many people and achieving strategic alliances with institutions such as the Peruvian Society for Environmental Law (SPDA).

Zambrano currently chairs the Management Committee of the Tambopata National Reserve, in Madre de Dios, and the challenge is great: to fight against the illegal mining, logging and drug trafficking mafias that threaten one of the most biodiverse areas on the planet. Threats to environmental defenders are constant, making the work for Víctor and his allies dangerous and requiring greater support from law enforcement, as well as the strengthening of the environmental legal framework.

The work of the Management Committee led by Víctor Zambrano includes the prevention and attention to socio-environmental conflicts, as well as the reception of alerts and constant dialogue with the more than 30 coordinators who carry out surveillance. In 2020, the visit of the High Commissioner for Human Rights will be highlighted, following the deaths of environmental defenders such as Alfredo Ernesto Vracko Neuenschwander and Roberto Carlos Pacheco.

In order to prevent these unfortunate deaths and contribute to the fight for environmental conservation, the SPDA has been working with Zambrano for more than a decade to train environmental defenders, both in terms of personal safety and in the presentation of concrete changes to the legislation to confront illegal miners and loggers. However, these efforts lose strength in the face of situations such as the presentation of bills that could favor the mafias.

Zambrano also stands out for his work in forest recovery, starting with his property, which later became one of the first Private Conservation Areas (ACP) in the region and which seeks to promote environmental education and agro-ecotourism. Visitors to the K’erenda Homet Refuge, named after his daughter, include schoolchildren from the region, many of whom are the children of miners in the area. All this work was recognized with the 2016 National Geographic Conservation Leadership Award.