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COURSE TITLE: Ecosystem services in the wetlands of the central coast of Peru: advances and future prospects

INSTRUCTORS Dr. Héctor Aponte

COURSE DESCRIPTION Ecosystem services in the wetlands of the central coast of Peru: advances and future prospects
By Dr. Héctor Alonso Aponte

ABSTRACT
Nowadays, talking about conservation necessarily implies talking about ecosystem services. We benefit in many ways from the ecosystems that surround us. Those of us who live near wetlands benefit, for example, from the water they provide us, enjoy different aesthetic benefits and enjoy environments properly conserved for education and tourism. Lima is the most populous city in Peru and houses more than 8 million inhabitants; when these people live near wetlands, they enjoy the different benefits that the wetlands offer them. With population growth, lakes and lagoons, as well as river edges have been affected and reduced. To achieve an adequate ecological awareness of how ecosystem services benefit them, it is necessary to study, quantify and evaluate their results. This paper shows the most important results as a result of research related to a) carbon storage, b) of the ecosystem services provided by birds and c) tourism potential in the coastal wetlands of Lima. For the three cases, the techniques used and the way in which they have been applied in these ecosystems of Lima will be explained. The results show that wetlands such as Los Pantanos de Villa store more than 80 thousand tons of CO2, which suggests that Lima wetlands store about one million tons of CO2. It was possible to identify seven potential ecosystem services provided by the 89 bird species (all had at least one reported ecosystem service), the cultural photography / birdwatching service and the provision of feathers / songs / ornaments being the most frequent. The most recent data for Pantanos de Villa indicates that more than 200 thousand tourists have visited this site in the last five years; of these, 98% are national tourists, which shows the importance of this urban ecosystem as a provider of an environment suitable for tourism and educational activities at the local level. The implications of these results and the need for future research to complement the information on the ecosystem services provided by coastal wetlands are discussed.

SHORT BIO
Héctor Alonso Aponte Ubillús, was born in Lima in 1985. He is a biologist, with a Doctorate in Biological Sciences, graduated from the Universidad Nacional Mayor de San Marcos (UNMSM) with a specialty in Botany, and with a Master's Degree in Ecology, Biodiversity and Evolution (EBE) at the University Paris Sud (Orsay - France). He also obtained the Master in Tropical Botany within the mention in Taxonomy and Evolutionary Systematics of the UNMSM. Professor of the Universidad Científica del Sur (UCSUR) since 2009. He currently holds the position of Research Coordinator of the Marine Biology Degree in UCSUR. Associate Researcher of the Floristics Laboratory of the Natural History Museum - UNMSM. Director of Research and Development of the Instituto Peruano para la Sostenibilidad y el Desarrollo. In January 2019 he was appointed president of the Peruvian Botany Society, a position he has held to date. Author of multiple scientific articles and dissemination books of Peruvian flora.

Credit Points: 0.06

SYLLABUS/TOPICAL OUTLINE 1) (10 minutes) The implication of ecosystem services when considering wetland conservation; 2) (15 minutes) Research conducted to identify and quantify ecosystem services of Lima’s urban wetlands; 3) (20 minutes) Evaluation: ecosystem services of Lima’s urban wetlands 4) (15 minutes) Questions and answers.

COURSE CONTACT

Louis Mantini
9225 CR 49, Live Oak, FL 32060
lfm@srwmd.org
P: 386.647.3144
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