Data di pubblicazione: 12 May 2026 Immagine notizia Immagine Paragrafo Two biology students from the Department of Biotechnology and Life Sciences (DBSV) at Insubria University, Sergio Bellocchi and Viktoria Holinkova, have set off for the Peruvian Amazon, where they will carry out field research for their thesis.Their placement will take place on the large Marankiari agricultural estate, owned by the Amazonian branch Nopoki of the Universidad Católica Sedes Sapientiae (Ucss) in Lima, with which Insubria has had an agreement since 2011, revised and expanded in 2023 to allow, amongst other things, initiatives of this kind. For the duration of their research, they will be accommodated free of charge on the Nopoki campus, alongside the more than 400 indigenous students studying there.“Thanks to this agreement,” explains Professor Paolo Musso of the Department of Human Sciences and Innovation for the Territory (Disuit), the scientific coordinator of the agreement, “several Peruvian nursing students have already come to study and undertake practical training for a semester at Insubria as part of the Magallanes Project, but this is the first time that two students from Insubria are travelling to Peru.” Immagine Sergio will be classifying the vines of the Tamshi group and the plants of the Arecaceae family found on the estate, whilst Viktoria will be studying how to protect the cocoa plants (used to make high-quality chocolate) which are severely damaged by a fungus.“The results of their research,” adds Musso, “could go far beyond those of a standard undergraduate thesis, because the Marankiari estate has the unique feature that its crops coexist with the tropical forest, which has not been cleared, as is usually the case: for this reason, it could become a model of eco-sustainable agriculture for other locations as well.”Accompanying the two students and introducing them to the local academic authorities, both in Lima and Nopoki, was Professor Musso himself, who is also carrying out important work on Amazonian languages which will soon be published in a special issue of the international linguistics journal Expressio, edited by Giulio Facchetti and Paolo Nitti, who are also lecturers at Disuit. The work of the two Insubri undergraduates in Marankiari will conclude on 31 May, whilst their return to Italy is scheduled for 16 June.