When I flew into Pullcapa Peru last month, I got a bird's eye view of deforestation of the Peruvian Amazon. I wrote then that my first thought was, "The Amazon is gone. Get over it." It turns out that Peru is actually trying to do something to preserve at least part of the Amazon rain forest. Here's an excerpt from an article from the
WWF website.
(The) Peruvian government has allocated significant funds to
help protect a large swathe of the Amazon, home to several endangered
species and indigenous groups.
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| Pink dolphins |
The Peruvian National Protected Areas Service has pledged USD 280,000
to boost surveillance activities in the Alto Purus National Park and
the Purus Communal Reserve – a total area larger than El Salvador. It
covers some of the most pristine forests in the southwestern Amazon
and shelters jaguars, pink dolphins, arapaimas (large freshwater fish)
and other endangered species. It’s also home to at least eight ethnic
groups, including an unknown number of indigenous peoples in voluntary
isolation.
The director of
WWF’s Amazon Headwaters Initiative, Jorge Herrera, says:
“This represents a major success for all Peruvians. The government’s
commitment to safeguard the Peruvian Amazon will help us build long-term
conservation strategies for roughly three million hectares of some of
the richest forests in the world.”
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