The rapid inventory team conducts surveys of remote wilderness areas and provides social and biological information to decision-makers to help establish effective conservation areas. Based out of The Field Museum—one of the world’s largest natural history museums--our team of biologists and social scientists works in close collaboration with conservation organizations, indigenous and campesino peoples, universities and museums, and national and regional governments. Since launching the program in 1999 we have completed rapid inventories in 28 different locations —20 of them in the Andes-Amazon region of South America—and provided the Peruvian, Bolivian, and Ecuadorian governments with technical support for the creation of 18 new conservation areas. The Conservation Scientist is