In the extreme north of Peru, rivers converge and shape parallel worlds.
Here, along the Colombian border, a Andes career merges with cotton, a serpenting drip of the color of well surpassed tea. These waters feed flood plains, swamps and forests that support species that are not found anywhere else on Earth.
But for years, Illegal felling and mining threatened the unique biodiversity of the regions, including endangered species such as giant otters, pink dolphins and woolly monkeys, and the lives of indigenous people who administer it.
Now, after more than a decade of work led by indigenous communities, this remarkable corner of the Amazon has been officially protected by the Peruvian government.
With the support of Conservation International, on June 6, the Government established the Putumayo-Algodon Regional Conservation Area, protecting 283,000 hectares (700,000 acres), plus four times the size of New York City.
“Each hectare protected here means more space for Jaguares to wander, more clean water for river otters and more security for indigenous communities that defend themselves in this forest,” said Luis Espinel, who directs international conservation conservation. “This would not have a possible leg without collaboration.”
As part of the process, 16 indigenous communities received formal legal recognition, strengthening their territorial rights and ensuring that they can continue fishing the rivers, reaping fruits and collecting medicinal plants as they have done during generations. For the almost 5,000 indigenous people living within the new protected area, protections not only preserve their way of life, but also for future opportunities, such as ecotourism.
“We hope that this protected area brings benefits to our communities,” said Gervinson Perdomo Chávez, former head of the indigenous community of Puerto Franco. “We are going to see about our forest so that foreigners do not enter our territory, so we avoid the illegal extraction of wood and gold that harms us a lot.”
The Putumayo medium is the newest piece in a fixed conservation mosaic that connects three existing protected areas and extends 18,000 square kilometers (7000 square miles), an area approximately twice the size of Puerto Rico. These interconnected protected areas allow wildlife traveling freely, and could act as a bulwark against the extinction of threatened species.
But the benefits of Goyond’s biodiversity. The new protected area contains one of the largest carbon shares in Peru, folding equivalent carbon emissions of 14 million cars conducted for one year. The protection of carbon existences in the world is essential to avoid the worst consequences of change Cliate: In a recent study, international conservation scientists found that protected forests maintain 10 billion additional metric tons of the atmosphere. That is equivalent to one year of world emissions of fossil fuels.
Peru has pledged to protect 30 percent of its natural ecosystems by 2030 in line with the global promise “30 for 30”. The protection of the Putumayo Cotton medium is expected to avoid more than 46,000 hectares of deforestation in the next 20 years, which at the same time approaches the country towards that goal, while maintaining carbon stores on the ground.
“This protection offers indigenous communities what they have required for a long time: the ability to keep this forest standing,” said Yadira Díaz, a conservation scientist International. “Says one of the most unique corners of the Amazon, for the benefit of all of us.”
The initiative was carried out by the Regional Government of Loreto, Peru, the Environmental Protection Agency of Peru and the local indigenous communities, and supported by Andes Amazon Fund, Art in Acres through Re: Wildation Fundun, the Institution Per and the Peruvian Society of the Environmental Law.
Mary Kate McCoy is a writer and Will McCarry is the Conservation International Conservation Director. Why read more stories like this? Register to obtain updates by email. In addition, please support our critical work.
