WWF Travel Blog

Pink river dolphin © National Geographic Stock/Norbert Wu/Minden Pictures / WWF

WWF is praising the Peruvian government’s announcement last week that it will increase funding to Amazon conservation efforts and boost its protection of the vital rain forest.

The Peruvian National Park Service is planning to allocate nearly $300,000 to boost protection of an area larger than the nation of El Salvador. This region, called the Purus Conservation Complex, is one that WWF has actively promoted for more than six years.

“This represents a major success [for] the conservation of the Peruvian Amazon and will [help] build long-term conservation strategies for roughly 3 million hectares of the richest forests in the world,” said biologist Jorge Herrera, who is director of WWF´s Amazon Headwaters Initiative.

For years, activities such as illegal logging – mainly mahogany – and poaching had exerted pressure on the forests and their biodiversity, disturbing indigenous communities and impacting isolated populations. In order to put an end to this, in 2004 the government established the national park and communal reserve with the support of WWF-Peru and other conservation groups.

This complex spreads across some of the most pristine forests within the Amazon Conservation Landscape and shelters jaguars, pink dolphins, arapaimas and other endangered species. It also houses at least eight ethnic groups, including an unknown number of indigenous peoples in voluntary isolation.

Travel to the Amazon with WWF November 12-21, 2010