A new national park has been declared in the Loreto region of northern Peru, covering approximately 868,927 hectares of rainforest in the Amazon valley. This is roughly about the size of USA’s Yellowstone National Park and has been named Yaguas National Park, Peru. More than 3000 species of plants, 500 species of birds, 160 species of mammals, 100 species of reptiles, 110 species of amphibians and 550 species of fish find abode in this newly minted protected region of a mega-diverse ecosystem. The Minister of Environment and President of the Republic signed the declaration and order to create the national park in a Ministry Council meeting held last week. This decision was hailed by the leaders of the Federation of Native Communities in the Ampiyacu River basin and the Federation of Native Border communities of the Putamayo.

Photo: Yaguas National Park comprises 870,000 hectares of Amazon rainforest in Peru’s northern Loreto Region. As deforestation has expanded and approached from the south, Yagua has remained relatively intact. Stakeholders hope its upgrade to a national park will help keep it that way. Data source: GLAD/UMD, accessed through Global Forest Watch

As reported by Mongabay, 12 JANUARY 2018