Report on Indigenous women’s wildcat conservation program sparks international support & funding

12 Aug 2025

In the central Andes of Peru, conflicts between people and predators have shaped life in the highlands for the past few decades. With forests vanishing and wildlife pushed into close contact with rural villages, animals like the endangered Andean cat, the near-threatened Peruvian desert cat, and the puma were increasingly seen as threats. But now, a group of Indigenous Quechua women is changing that narrative, one camera trap and one embroidery at a time.

In August 2024, Mongabay published a feature about the mission of Mujeres Quechua por la Conservación (Quechua Women United for Conservation), a pioneering women-led citizen science conservation project in the Ayacucho region of Central Peru that aims to obtain baseline data on wildcats and mitigate conflict with the cats. First initiated by Quechua conservation biologist Merinia Mendoza Almeida with funding from the Small Wild Cat Conservation Foundation (SWCCF), the women in the community have since made it their own. The group blends field research, traditional knowledge, and women’s leadership to reduce livestock predation by bolstering chicken and guinea pig corrals with new wire and wood to keep small felines at bay, and by finding alternatives to grazing livestock in mountain areas where pumas roam.

At first, the women were bemused by the project, but slowly began to weave it into their lives, finding it an enjoyable community space they could claim ownership of which men don’t dominate. Since the start of the project, there’s been a reduction in puma and wildcat attacks on domestic animals, and attitudes toward wildlife began to improve within the community.

Impact

After the article was published, stakeholders reached out with international support. For instance, after the Board Chair of Panthera, a wild cat conservation organization, read the Mongabay article, he shared with Mongabay CEO and Founder Rhett Butler that “We [Panthera] went on from this article and commissioned the production of 20 Andean cat stuffed animals made by 12 of the women. We are using them as gifts to the Panthera board of directors at a [meeting] connecting cat people from different continents and different walks of life. It’s one of the most inspiring connections I’ve ever made. All because of you and Jim Sanderson.”

The Peruvian desert cat is a near-threatened species and a focus of the conservation project. Camera trap image courtesy of Mujeres Quechua por la Conservación and Alianza Gato Andino.
The Peruvian desert cat is a near-threatened species and a focus of the conservation project. Camera trap image courtesy of Mujeres Quechua por la Conservación and Alianza Gato Andino.

Panthera also then began ordering handicrafts of wildcats from the women’s group, and helped provide new materials the women were missing, like dyes. Likewise, Sanderson, who is also the founding director of SWCCF and a member of the IUCN Cat Specialist Group, decided to fund a workshop for the women to improve their production of stuffed wild cats and fabrics. These stuffed cats are now providing a new source of income for the group’s members.

Women from the project told Mongabay the visibility also increased their confidence to keep going, and that our reporting gave them opportunities to strengthen their work. The group then secured another year of financial support from a foundation that biologist Almeida credits in part to Mongabay’s reporting.

By centering Indigenous women’s leadership and life experiences, this project has become an effective model of grassroots conservation. This case illustrates how independent environmental journalism can amplify community-led conservation and catalyze meaningful, global support.

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Banner image: Licapa resident Alicia Ccaico stands alongside a mural featuring her likeness and an Andean cat. Image courtesy of Mujeres Quechua por la Conservación.