The Centro Amazónico de Antropología y Aplicación Práctica (Amazon Center of Anthropology and Practical Application) is a non-profit association. It was constituted in 1974 by nine bishops who belonged to the Peruvian forest Catholic church as an institution for the service of the marginalized populations of Amazonas.
The CAAAP preferably concentrates its attention in three of the main South American ethnic groups:
From a perspective of development promotion, the CAAAP collaborates with the improvement of the life conditions of the indigenous populations from the Amazonas. They develop a proposal of creative promotion, articulating the axes of culture and development as an appropriate route for the sustainable development of the region. The promotional work made by the institution complements itself with a critical and permanent reading of the National and Amazonas' reality.
Between its institutional services, the CAAAP stands out for having one of the widest programs of publications and documentation on Amazonas' reality. It edits books written by its members as others written by other researchers. It also publishes the magazine Amazonía Peruana since 1976. This magazine is written for the scientific community.
The documentation centre of the CAAAP in Lima has more than 5 thousand titles, between books, magazines, brochures and maps. The publications include the disciplines of ethnography, anthropology, linguistics, history, geography, economy, ecology, health, botany and zoology. The collection includes not only publications on the Amazonas region of Peru but also on other countries that share this basin.