The Peruvian Amazon provides moisture to all of South America, influences the region’s rainfall, contributes to the stabilization of the global climate, and has the greatest biodiversity in the world.
The jungle is one of the most precious regions that Peru has. The Amazon rainforest is the largest in the world.
It is home to 1,500 species of birds, more than 2 million species of insects, and more than 2,000 species of fish. The Amazon is the lungs of the world because it is thanks to its plants that a large part of the CO2 can be eliminated from the planet, in turn creating oxygen.
Peru is, after Brazil, the second country with the largest Amazonian territory, including the origins and a good part of the Amazon River and a large part of the global biodiversity, all of which makes it a transcendental task to protect it.
The Amazon rainforest produces vast amounts of water, not just for Peru and Brazil, but for all of South America. The so-called “flying rivers”, that is, air masses charged with water vapor produced by evapotranspiration, transport humidity to large parts of Brazil and Peru.
These huge rain clouds also influence precipitation in Bolivia, Paraguay, Argentina, Uruguay and even in the extreme south of Chile.
What are some of the threats facing the Peruvian Amazon?
There are 3 very relevant factors that put the Peru Amazon biodiversity at risk. The illicit wildlife trafficking, illegal logging and illegal mining.
Every year 150,000 hectares of forest are lost, the equivalent of 210,000 soccer fields, while putting the species that inhabit it at risk. An alarming number of these hectares disappear as a consequence of illegal mining or because the ecosystems die when the species that give them life are removed.
The regions of Loreto, Madre de Dios and Ucayali are home to 80% of the Peruvian Amazon and are the source of 86% of the solid wood extracted in the country. Many mahogany and shihuahuanco trees grow in our forests, which are some of the most valued species for the properties of their wood.
In Loreto, the most prevalent environmental crime is timber trafficking and wildlife trafficking across the borders with Ecuador, Colombia, and Brazil.
A new threat in the area are the “pequedragas”, that is, the small gold mining dredges that are made from boats in the Alto Nanay district and contaminate the Nanay River, which flows into the Amazon, with mercury.
On the other hand, there is Madre de Dios, with a high incidence of illegal gold mining, which then smuggles said metal to Brazil and Bolivia, along with wood and wild species.
And finally, there is Ucayali, which also has a very strong illegal logging problem, related to high levels of corruption among regional authorities, such as the case of Cocha Anía, which involves 5 former regional government officials accused of land trafficking and deforestation. of about 3 thousand hectares.