| Fast Facts |
location
Southeast Venezuela, close to the border with Brazil and Guyana
ecoregions
Guianan Savannas, Pantepui, Guianan Highlands Moist Forest, Llanos
project size
36 million acres
public lands
Canaima National Park, Cerro Venamo, Illu Tramen Tepui, Karaurín Tepui, Wadakapiapué Tepui, Yuruaní Tepui and Kukenán (Matawi) Tepui natural monuments
partners
EcoNatura, Venezuelan National Institute of Parks (INPARQUES), National Experimental University of Guayana, National General Directorate of Indigenous Affairs of the Education, Culture and Sports Ministry
natural events
flowering season, late October -- November; migration of more than a million fish, many which congregate at the base of rapids and waterfalls, June - mid-August | |
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| In a landscape larger than Belgium, residents hope that a shift from agriculture to ecotourism will protect their unique homeland and accommodate a growing population. |
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Angel Falls tumbles 3,250 feet from the tepui.
© David Welling |
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Vertical sandstone walls emerge abruptly out of the rolling grasslands of southeastern Venezuela's Gran Sábana. Water drains from the flat and isolated summits of these table mountains, called tepui by the native Pemón, cascading in hundreds of waterfalls. From Auyantepui, Angel Falls drops 3,250 feet, making it the highest waterfall in the world. The legendary tepuis are part of the Guiana Shield, a geological formation extending from Venezuela into Brazil, Guyana and Colombia. Characterized by uplifted igneous and metamorphic rocks, the Guiana Shield formed more than 3 billion years ago, before Africa and the Americas broke apart.
Beneath the ethereal tepuis, the living landscape of Canaima National Park unfolds. Majestic rivers cross open savannas, groves of moriche palm, meadows and dense forest. Exotic wildlife and plants abound, including jaguar, giant anteaters, ocelots, osprey, broad-winged hawk and 500 species of orchids. At Canaima's higher elevations, one-third of the species are endemic, found nowhere else on Earth. |
River guide, Cherun River.
© James Marshall/Corbis |
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Nearly all of the human residents of this region are Pemón, living in small villages where grasslands meet wooded jungle. With no legal claim to land as their property, much of their ancestral lands have been lost to development. Canaima National Park, which prohibits extracting natural resources within its ecologically fragile boundaries, has become a |
| refuge for the Pemón. But here they continue to employ slash-and-burn agriculture, where small plots of forest are cleared and cultivated for a short time before the nutrients released from the scorched vegetation are depleted. Unfortunately, the needs of a growing Pemón population have shortened the fallow periods when forest is left to regenerate, leaving soils unsuitable for agriculture and a fragile ecosystem in jeopardy. | |
The Nature Conservancy and our partners are working to help the Pemón find economic alternatives that will support their growing population and sustain their spectacular landscape. If managed responsibly, ecotourism is one possible solution. We are conducting a study of tourism's impact on Canaima, and training community members in nature- and adventure-tourism as a means of improving their local economy and avoiding overuse of the park's natural resources.
Learn more about The Nature Conservancy's work in Venezuela. |
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| Conservation Profile |
targets
jaguar, giant river otter, giant anteater, giant armadillo, harpy eagle, fiery-shouldered parakeet, tepui parrotlet, moriche palm swamp, riparian and cloud forests
stresses
fire, desertification, depletion of game and fisheries, pollution, mining, logging, unmanaged ecotourism
strategies
encourage conservation management of public lands, engage community in management of natural resources, strengthen local partner organizations, build conservation alliances, promote ecotourism and compatible development
results
conducted training workshops indigenous leaders; published books on Canaima and Pemón oral tradition | | | | |
