Ceiba Pentandra

CTC
Center for
Tropical
Conservation

DUKE IN AMAZONIA

Nicholas School scientists’ book spurs the creation of the largest block of strictly protected forest in Amazonia

Since its establishment 30 years ago, Peru’s Manu National Park has grown from a scarcely-known tropical wilderness to a world-famous destination for Amazonian ecotourists and researchers -- and Nicholas School professor Dr. John Terborgh has been there every step of the way.  In 2003, his research team turned their sights on the even larger wilderness area to the north of Manu -- a sprawling, unexplored expanse the size of Massachusetts, then under study by the Peruvian parks service.

Terborgh and his research group at the NSOEE’s Center for Tropical Conservation -- Dr. Renata Leite, Dr. Nigel Pitman, Lisa Davenport, and Chris Fagan -- led a reconnaissance expedition to Alto Purús, in cooperation with Parkswatch and Dr. James Graham of Florida International University.  In late 2003, the CTC team released its findings and recommendations in a 350-page edited volume in Spanish, aimed at providing a scientific basis for management of the area.  The team recommended the creation of a vast new national park in Alto Purús, which, together with Manu and other contiguous protected areas in Peru and Brazil, would create a stretch of protected forest larger than the country of Costa Rica.

The plan met with resistance from the illegal loggers active in the region, but won support from Peru’s parks service, local indigenous communities, and other conservationists.  In November 2004, the Peruvian government declared the 6.3-million acre Alto Purús National Park, the second-largest strictly protected area in the Amazon basin, and the half-million acre Alto Purús Communal Reserve.

As the new protected areas are implemented, CTC researchers are continuing their work in the southern buffer zone -- studying the ecology of giant otters, jaguars, white-lipped peccaries, and tree communities, and exploring new ways to help strengthen Peru’s growing protected areas network.

The Purús book is out of print. But you can read the entire book Alto Purús: Conservación, biodiversidad y manejo, by clicking HERE.