PERU

Years of support 0

HECTARES FUNDED 0 (143,046 acres)

HECTARES CO-FUNDED 0 (49,374 acres)

 

Stretching for 2,400 km (1,500 miles) along the west coast of South America on the Tropical Andes Biodiversity Hotspot, Peru is one of the world’s 17 megadiverse countries and home to 10% of global species.

Peru is divided into three distinct geographic regions running from north to south: the narrow coastal desert region, home to most Peruvians; the Andean highlands, reaching 6,768 m at Mount Huascarán; and the hot and humid Amazonian jungle region. The country’s ecosystems include the carob and mesquite woods, dunes and wetlands of the coastal Sechura Desert; the highland Páramo grasslands and lakes of the Altiplano; the montane Yungas forests; and the moist forests and seasonally flooded várzea forests of the western Amazon.

 
 

Peru’s avian diversity is second only to Colombia, with 1,860 species, including 138 country endemics and 92 globally threatened species such as the diminutive Long-whiskered Owlet (Vulnerable), Marvelous Spatuletail (Endangered) and Sira Curassow (Critically Endangered). Fifth in the world for mammal diversity, the 569 species recorded include the threatened Spectacled Bear and Nancy Ma’s Night Monkey (Vulnerable), Mountain Tapir and Andean Cat (Endangered), while the Andean Night Monkey (Endangered) and Peruvian Yellow-tailed Woolly Monkey (Critically Endangered) are among the 82 country endemics. An incredible 1,064 freshwater fish species, 495 reptile species, 572 amphibians and 19,812 species of vascular plants are found here. Peru also has the highest butterfly diversity in the world with an astonishing 4,000 species.

Rapidly increasing deforestation in the Peruvian Amazon due to illegal logging, unsustainable slash-and-burn agriculture, mining, road building, oil and gas drilling, and oil palm plantations threaten the region’s wildlife and indigenous communities while contributing to half of Peru’s annual greenhouse gas emissions. Additional threats to the country’s ecosystems and biodiversity include hunting, overfishing, dams, and climate change. WLT-funded projects in the northern Peruvian Amazon and Andes are protecting large areas of Peru’s rich terrestrial ecosystems and biological diversity.

 

Our Partners in Peru

Current Projects in Peru

Andean Páramo and Cloud Forest Corridor

Bajo Huallaga

 
Andean Páramo and Cloud Forest Corridor

The Andean Páramo and Cloud Forest Corridor comprises four local community-owed Private Conservation Areas (ACPs) on the eastern slope of the Andes in northern Peru. WLT partner Naturaleza y Cultura Peru (NCP) has been creating these ACPs since 2013, to conserve the ecosystems and biodiversity between the Tabaconas Namballe National Sanctuary in Peru and the Yacuri National Park in Ecuador.

Situated within the Tropical Andes Biodiversity Hotspot, the ACPs protect 51,627 ha (127,573 acres) of the region’s montane cloud forest and Páramo, home to threatened mammals such as the Spectacled Bear (Vulnerable), Andean Night Monkey and Mountain Tapir (Endangered) and more than 160 bird species including Masked Mountain-tanager (Vulnerable), Golden-plumed Parakeet and Neblina Metaltail, as well as the recently described lizard Pholidobolus ulisesi.

Deforestation caused by slash-and-burn agriculture and logging severely threatens the area’s forests and rich biodiversity. With WLT funding, NCP works closely with local communities, local government and municipalities to sustainably manage their ACPs, develop sustainable agricultural practices for coffee, sugar and other products, and increase income for local communities. To protect the ACPs from mining concessions, NCP coordinates with the Peruvian government to gain legal recognition for the reserves as conservation areas.

 
Bajo Huallaga

WLT partnered with Amazónicos por la Amazonía Association (AMPA) in 2022 to conserve and manage the Bajo Huallaga fragile ecosystem—the only flooded ecosystem to include Mauritia flexuosa palm swamps (aguajales) below 180 metres elevation in the San Martín region of northern Peru.

Managed as a conservation concession by a local community association, Agro Bio Forestal El Porvenit Pelejo Association (ABIOFORP), this protected area safeguards 6,892 ha (17,031 acres) of palm swamp, non-flooded forest, floodable alluvial forest, secondary forest and agricultural land. Although poorly studied, Bajo Huallaga’s rich biodiversity is known to include threatened species such as Nancy Ma’s Night Monkey, Giant Anteater, Lowland Tapir, Yellow-footed Tortoise, and Spanish Cedar (Vulnerable), and apex predators including Jaguar and Harpy Eagle.

Without the resources to effectively protect the conservation concession, Bajo Huallaga’s ecosystems and biodiversity remain threatened by unsustainable hunting, fishing, logging and deforestation for agriculture, mainly from local communities. With WLT support, AMPA and ABIOFORP will work with two local communities to increase the protection of the concession, reduce threats by raising awareness, and purchase an additional 97 ha (240 acres), restoring 45 ha (111 acres).

 

Key species protected by WLT projects

 

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