1 Uses, cultural significance, and management of peatlands in the Peruvian Amazon: 2 implications for conservation 3 Christopher Schulz a, Manuel Martín Brañas b, Cecilia Núñez Pérez b, Margarita Del Águila 4 Villacorta b, Nina Laurie c, Ian T. Lawson c, Katherine H. Roucoux c 5 a Department of Geography, University of Cambridge, Downing Place, Cambridge CB2 3EN, 6 United Kingdom 7 b Amazonian Cultural Diversity and Economy Research Programme, Peruvian Amazon Research 8 Institute (IIAP), Av. José A. Quiñones km 2.5, Iquitos, Peru 9 c School of Geography and Sustainable Development, University of St Andrews, Irvine Building, 10 North Street, St Andrews KY16 9AL, United Kingdom 11 12 Corresponding author: 13 Christopher Schulz (
[email protected]) 14 Department of Geography, University of Cambridge, Downing Place, Cambridge CB2 3EN, 15 United Kingdom 16 17 E-mail addresses co-authors: 18 Manuel Martín Brañas:
[email protected] 19 Cecilia Núñez Pérez:
[email protected] 20 Margarita Del Águila Villacorta:
[email protected] 21 Nina Laurie:
[email protected] 22 Ian T. Lawson:
[email protected] 23 Katherine H. Roucoux:
[email protected] 24 25 Acknowledgements 26 The authors would like to thank the communities of Nueva York and Nueva Unión, Loreto, Peru, 27 for agreeing to participate in this research. Further thanks are due to Sam Staddon and Mary 28 Menton for advice on community benefits, Michael Gilmore on participatory mapping, Harry 29 Walker on doing research in Urarina communities, Greta Dargie on peat and peatland 30 characteristics, Eurídice Honorio Coronado, Tim Baker, Jhon del Aguila Pasquel, and Ricardo 31 Zárate on the ecology of the area, and Althea Davies for comments on an earlier version of this 32 manuscript.