Tambopata Tours

The Tambopata National Reserve is a 275,000 hectare conservation unit created by the Peruvian government in 1990 to protect the watersheds of the Tambopata and Candamo rivers. It is adjacent to the huge 1 million hectare Bahuaja Sonene National Park. Located in Puerto Maldonado, Madre de Dios , Peru .

Whilst the reserve was created with an underlying philosophy of sustainable resource use, the park was created with the purpose of wholeheartedly protecting the forests within. Both units protect some of the last untouched lowland and premontane tropical humid forests in the Amazon. This Connecticut-sized (or Switzerland-sized) area of pristine forest contains 1300 bird species, 32 parrot species (10% of the world’s total), 200 mammal species, 1200 butterfly species and over 10,000 species of vascular plants.

Lake Sandoval at Tambopata Reserva

Less than 5000 people (equivalent to a minor league sports event) inhabit the reserve’s “area of influence” to the north. They make a living off slash and burn agriculture, small scale gold mining, timber extraction, and hunting and fishing. One thousand Ese’ejas live in four titled communities within this area of influence. The undergoing pavement of the Interoceanic highway, joining Brazil’s north Atlantic coast with Peru’s Pacific Coast and access to the Asian markets presents the principal threat over the mid term to this region’s incomparable wilderness.