Peru Creates Huge New Park in Rainforest

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For Immediate Release

Peru Creates Huge New Park in Rainforest

ILLINOIS, CHICAGO, May. 30 -/E-Wire/-- On May 22, 2001, the Peruvian government created a 5,225-square-mile national park, thereby protecting a pristine area of

Andean rainforest that is bigger than Connecticut and extraordinarily rich in

The new Parque Nacional Cordillera Azul â one of the largest parks in the world â

sits in one of the last tracts of virgin rainforest still undeveloped and largely

uninhabited. As such, its creation represents a major victory for conservation and the

Last year, scientists studied the area and inventoried its vascular plants, fishes,

reptiles, amphibians, birds and large mammals. What they found was truly spectacular,

including at least 28 new plant and animal species. They recorded 1,600 plant species

and estimated that there are up to 6,000 plant species in the region. In addition,

they recorded 71 mammal species (13 of which are endangered); 500 bird species; and 82

amphibian and reptilian species.

The land is so remote there some wild animals don't even fear humans, as they do in

developed areas and other parks.

The new park along eastern edge of the Andes is rich in flora and fauna because the

elevation of the area varies so much â from about 650 feet to 7,870 feet above sea

level. This has created a large number of environmental niches to which local plants

and animals have adapted in a remarkable number and variety of ways.

The scientists' findings helped convince the Peruvian government to save the land

from imminent logging, mining and development.

"The rapid biological inventory (RBI) determined that the Cordillera Azul still

offers the rare opportunity to act before habitat fragmentation and degradation

forever transform the landscape," says Debra Moskovits, PhD, director of The Field

Museum's Environmental and Conservation Programs.

In 1999, APECO spearheaded an initiative for the park. To support that effort, Field

Museum scientists and colleagues launched this RBI with funding from the John D. and

Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation. The RBI team drew together experts from: The Field

Museum; APECO; the Museum of Natural History at the University of San Marcos in Lima;

and the Museum of Natural Sciences at Louisiana State University. Conservation

International is investing in long-term management of the park.

The Cordillera Azul RBI represents the ninth (but largest) rapid inventory and field

training on which Field Museum scientists have collaborated.

Especially important is the speed with which an RBI team can accurately survey an

area. For Cordillera Azul, the scientists conducted their fieldwork in just 21 days.

Afterwards, they took only a few months to publish an authoritative, richly

illustrated 230-page bilingual report.

The Field Museum is a collections-based research and educational institution devoted

to studying and preserving natural and cultural diversity. ECP is the branch of the

museum dedicated to translating science into action that creates and sustains lasting

conservation. ECP will now focus on management of this great new natural preserve.

Images and B-roll of the park are available.

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