New protected area furthers conservation of 4 million acres of the Amazon rainforest between Peru and Brazil

April 19, 2006

On April 3, 2006, the Peruvian government declared the Sierra del Divisor Reserve Zone a new protected area, slightly larger than the state of Connecticut, which encompasses the Amazon rainforest in Peru near the Brazil border.

The declaration of the Sierra del Divisor Reserve Zone represents an important step in that it consolidates the mosaic of protected areas that form part of the Sierra del Divisor/Serra do Divisor region spanning the Peruvian and Brazilian Amazon.

The establishment of the Reserve Zone is important because it will provide greater legal protection to the Isconahua indigenous group, who are in voluntary isolation in Peru. It also will support the development of integrated natural resource management on a landscape scale of areas surrounding the reserve, including those in Brazil.

Support for the management of this new area is part of the Sierra del Divisor/Serra do Divisor bi-national conservation project led by the Conservancy’s Amazon Conservation Program, together with local Brazilian and Peruvian partners and funded by the Moore Foundation.

The Sierra del Divisor/Serra do Divisor region encompasses nearly eight million hectares of Amazon rainforest and is recognized for its high cultural and biological diversity. A recent biological survey on the Peruvian side counted 18 primate species — the highest number of primates found in South America and perhaps in the world.

In addition, this area is home to at least 300 species of birds, many of which are endemic and rare. The region is composed of a variety of protected and indigenous areas on the Brazilian side, including the Serra do Divisor National Park. On the Peruvian side, the Reserve Zone represents the first formal protected area, along with a complex of private, public and indigenous lands.

The designation of the Reserve Zone represents several years of work on behalf of the Peruvian government, local communities, NGOs and scientists. After more biological and anthropological studies, the Reserve’s protected area category and use status will be defined. With the Sierra del Divisor Reserve Zone, Peru now has 60 natural protected areas (including 12 reserve zones), which total more than 51 million acres, almost 15 percent of its national territory.

For More Information:

• Where We Work: The Nature Conservancy in Peru and Brazil (versão em Português)
  Here, The Nature Conservancy is working with partners, businesses, governments, local communities, and people like you to protect the extraordinary wildlife and natural wonders of South America.
• Where We Work: Rainforests of the World
  Wild and wondrous, rainforests extend from as far as Alaska and Canada to Latin America, Asia and Africa. They nurture thousands of plants and animals found nowhere else on Earth and provide life's essentials such as our medicines, food and water.
• Places We Protect: Sierra del Divisor
  Its distinct isolated mountain peaks rising up out of a carpet of rainforest across Peru and Brazil, Sierra del Divisor is truly a bi-national wonder. The region has some of the highest indices of biodiversity found in the entire Amazon Basin. It also possesses elevated levels of endemic and rare species, making it a conservation priority.
• Nature Conservancy magazine: Amazon Rainforest Voyage
  Join a first-time visitor to the Amazon, as she travels up the river from the Peruvian town of Iquitos through the Pacaya-Samiria National Reserve, where The Nature Conservancy and its local partners are working to preserve this globally significant region.
• Online Nature Field Guide: Amazon - Brazil
  The Amazon Basin covers an area almost the size of the contiguous United States. Beginning just 100 miles from the Pacific Ocean in the ice fields of the Andes, the Amazon River rolls 4,000 miles eastward to the Atlantic – in volume nearly one-quarter of the world's freshwater flow.
• Our Partners: Indigenous People
  For more than 50 years, The Nature Conservancy has depended upon partnerships with local communities to conserve some of the most biologically critical and threatened ecosystems on Earth.
• Archive of our Saves of the Week and Success Stories
  Read more about The Nature Conservancy's work to save the last great places on Earth.