Peru: Parks and Protected Areas
Report prepared by Allison Hebert and Gabrielle Osswald, students in BCIT's Fish, Wildlife and Recreation Program.
Almost fifteen percent of Peru's land is protected. Peru's parks and protected areas system is split into:
- national parks
- national reserves
- national sanctuaries
- historical sanctuaries
- reserved zones
- wildlife refuges
- scenic reserves
- communal reserves
- protected forest and
- hunting preserves.
The most important designations are the first five.
The objectives of the national parks are to preserve natural environments, allow evolutional processes, and to provide education, research, and recreation opportunities.
The national reserve areas are intended for the conservation of biodiversity, and sustainable use of resources (flora and fauna, aquatic or terrestrial). Commercial exploitation of natural resources is permitted under approved management plans, and supervised and controlled by national authorities.
National sanctuaries protect the habitat of a species, or a community, and geologic formations of scientific interest.
Historical sanctuaries are environments of special national significance.
Reserved zones meet all of the conditions necessary to be considered a protected area.
The Pacaya Samiria National Reserve
Located at the headwaters of the Amazon River, Pacaya Samiria National Reserve is the second largest national reserve in Peru. Occupying more than five million acres, it is twice the size of Yellowstone, and is the world's largest protected flooded rainforest. During the rainy season, the forest floods for four to six months, so it is only accessible by boat.
The Pacaya Samiria National Reserve is home to 102 species of mammal, 449 birds (including eight native macaws), 127 amphibians and reptiles, at least 256 known freshwater fish, and nearly 1,000 plants. Among this incredible biodiversity, more than 42,000 people live within the reserve's boundaries and rely on its resources for subsistence.
Conservation programs are underway to restore the river turtle populations. Both turtles and their eggs are an important source of income and protein in local people's diets. However, local river turtle, or taricaya, populations are declining from over-hunting and poaching. Now, governments and agencies like the Nature Conservancy are asking local people to collect eggs, and place them in artificial nests on protected beaches within the reserve. This initiative has also been supported by local school curriculums.
Funded by TEK