The government of Peru's newly created Yaguas National Park encompasses more than two million acres of rainforest and indigenous territory in northeastern Peru.The new park is an important milestone in Peru’s work to create sustainable finance for all of its protected areas.
According to the World Bank, a little less than 15 percent of Earth’s total land area was formally protected as of 2014. In the Andes-Amazon region, despite increased deforestation, the majority of the forest remains intact. Scientists estimate that conserving at least 70 percent of the Amazon forest cover will be necessary to ensure its long-term ecological integrity and climatic function—for the region and for the planet. To this end, our Andes-Amazon Initiative has long supported the creation and strengthening of protected areas and indigenous lands.
A gift for future generations
“The creation of Yaguas National Park marks an important milestone within Peru’s broader efforts to protect critical ecosystems and ensure their sustainable finance and management. Peru will be on the leading edge of securing their parks for future generations.”
- Paulina Arroyo, program officer, Andes-Amazon Initiative
In January, the Peruvian government gave those protected areas another big boost by creating Yaguas National Park. With more than two million acres of rainforest and riverine landscapes, the new park will help protect the ancestral lands of indigenous people living there. “The government has done justice by attending to the requests of the towns to conserve this sacred area,” said Fernando Alvarado, President of the Federation of Indigenous Communities of the Lower Putumayo, “where there are spirits of the forests and where the fauna and flora are our sustenance.”
The park also safeguards the remote region’s exceptional biodiversity and represents a key link within a network of other reserves in Peru and other countries in the Andes-Amazon region. “Nowadays we’re trying to think big,” explained Avecita Chicchón, program director of the Andes-Amazon Initiative, in a recent New York Times feature. “You need these large areas to be connected.”