Megantoni District is one of fourteen districts of

La Convención Province La Convención Province is the largest of thirteen provinces in the Cusco Region in the southern highlands of Peru. As part of the higher-altitude Amazon basin at the foot of the Andes, La Convención is one of three Peruvian provinces that promin ...

in the

Cusco Region Cusco, also spelled Cuzco (; qu, Qusqu suyu ), is a department and region in Peru and is the fourth largest department in the country, after Madre de Dios, Ucayali, and Loreto. It borders the departments of Ucayali on the north; Madre de D ...

Peru , image_flag = Flag of Peru.svg , image_coat = Escudo nacional del Perú.svg , other_symbol = Great Seal of the State , other_symbol_type = Seal (emblem), National seal , national_motto = "Fi ...

. Megantoni occupies the northernmost part of La Convención. The district was created in 2016 from land previously belonging to

Echarate District Echarate District (or Echarati) is one of fourteen districts of the province La Convención in Peru. The town of Echarte, near the Urubamba River, is the capital of the district. In 2016, part of Echarte district was incorporated into the newly-cr ...

. Camisea is the capital of Megantoni and has a population of about 500 people. As of 2017, the district was not connected to the rest of Peru by road. The

Urubamba River The Urubamba River or Vilcamayo River (possibly from Quechua ''Willkamayu'', for "sacred river") is a river in Peru. Upstream it is called Vilcanota River (possibly from Aymara ''Willkanuta'', for "house of the sun"). Within the La Convención Pr ...

bisects the district and is a major avenue of transportation.

Protected and indigenous lands

Ninety-four percent of the land of Megantoni is protected for conservation or allocated to

indigenous people Indigenous peoples are culturally distinct ethnic groups whose members are directly descended from the earliest known inhabitants of a particular geographic region and, to some extent, maintain the language and culture of those original people ...

. The majority of this land is "almost untouched"

tropical rainforest Tropical rainforests are rainforests that occur in areas of tropical rainforest climate in which there is no dry season – all months have an average precipitation of at least 60 mm – and may also be referred to as ''lowland equatori ...

and

Peruvian Yungas The Peruvian Yungas is a tropical and subtropical moist broadleaf forest ecoregion in the Yungas of Peru. Setting The Peruvian Yungas occur on the eastern slopes and valleys of the Peruvian Andes. They form a transition zone between the Southwes ...

characteristic of the

Amazon Basin The Amazon basin is the part of South America drained by the Amazon River and its tributaries. The Amazon drainage basin covers an area of about , or about 35.5 percent of the South American continent. It is located in the countries of Bolivi ...

and the eastern flanks of the

Andes The Andes, Andes Mountains or Andean Mountains (; ) are the longest continental mountain range in the world, forming a continuous highland along the western edge of South America. The range is long, wide (widest between 18°S – 20°S ...

. Protected lands include the

Pongo de Mainique The Pongo de Mainique ('gate' in Quechua) is a ''water gap'' (canyon) of the Urubamba River in Peru. Inside the water gap, the river is constricted to a width of . The Pongo de Mainique is long. The elevation of the river is approximately . T ...

, a scenic

water gap A water gap is a gap that flowing water has carved through a mountain range or mountain ridge and that still carries water today. Such gaps that no longer carry water currents are called wind gaps. Water gaps and wind gaps often offer a prac ...

where the Urubamba River cuts through the

Vilcabamba mountain range The Vilcabamba mountain range is located in the region of Cusco, Peru, in the provinces of Anta, La Convención and Urubamba. It extends between 13°10' and 13°27'S. and 72°30' and 73°15'W for about 85 km.

on the southern border of Megantoni. East of the Pongo, the

Megantoni National Sanctuary Megantoni National Sanctuary (''Santuario Nacional de Megantoni'') is a protected area in Peru situated in the Cusco Region, La Convención Province, Echarate and Megantoni districts. It protects a part of the Peruvian Yungas ecoregion. See als ...

straddles the border with Echarate. The Kugapakari-Nahua-Nanti Indigenous Territorial Reserve covers most of the eastern one-half of the district. The

Otishi National Park Otishi National Park ( es, Parque Nacional Otishi) is a protected area in Peru, located in the regions of Junín and Cusco. It protects part of the Vilcabamba mountain range, preserving the wildlife and geological formations in this area. See al ...

and the

Machiguenga Communal Reserve The Machiguenga Communal Reserve (''Reserva Comunal Machiguenga'') is a protected area in Peru located in the Cusco Region, La Convención Province, Megantoni district. See also * Machiguenga * Natural and Cultural Peruvian Heritage * Meganton ...

straddle the western border of the district. Both the reserves were created to protect the lands and the "voluntary isolation" of some groups of indigenous people.

Geography and climate

Most of Megantoni District consists of hills and lowland plains, but the

on the western border of the district rises to a maximum elevation of . Mountains along the southern boundary reach a maximum elevation of . Elevations from are part of the ecoregion of "high jungle" or

. Below elevations of the vegetation is typical of the

Southwest Amazon moist forests The Southwest Amazon moist forests (NT0166) is an ecoregion located in the Upper Amazon basin. The forest is characterized by a relatively flat landscape with alluvial plains dissected by undulating hills or high terraces. The biota of the so ...

ecoregion. The Pongo de Mainique on the southern border of Megantoni is a global

biodiversity hotspot A biodiversity hotspot is a biogeographic region with significant levels of biodiversity that is threatened by human habitation. Norman Myers wrote about the concept in two articles in ''The Environmentalist'' in 1988 and 1990, after which the co ...

. According to the

Wildlife Conservation Society The Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) is a non-governmental organization headquartered at the Bronx Zoo in New York City, that aims to conserve the world's largest wild places in 14 priority regions. Founded in 1895 as the New York Zoological ...

, "the lowland rainforests and mid-montane

cloud forest A cloud forest, also called a water forest, primas forest, or tropical montane cloud forest (TMCF), is a generally tropical or subtropical, evergreen, montane, moist forest characterized by a persistent, frequent or seasonal low-level cloud c ...

s within a radius of of the Pongo possibly comprise the single most biologically-diverse site on the face of the Earth." Camisea, the capital of Megantoni, has an Am (tropical monsoon) climate according to the

Köppen climate classification The Köppen climate classification is one of the most widely used climate classification systems. It was first published by German-Russian climatologist Wladimir Köppen (1846–1940) in 1884, with several later modifications by Köppen, notabl ...

system. Although there is little temperature variation among months, the austral summer receives much more precipitation than the austral winter. Under the

Trewartha climate classification The Trewartha climate classification (TCC) or the Köppen–Trewartha climate classification (KTC) is a climate classification system first published by American geographer Glenn Thomas Trewartha in 1966. It is a modified version of the Köppen ...

system, the climate is Araa: tropical rain forest with high temperatures year around.

Camisea Gas Field

Megantoni is the location of most of the Camisea Gas Field, a controversial four billion dollar project exploiting

natural gas Natural gas (also called fossil gas or simply gas) is a naturally occurring mixture of gaseous hydrocarbons consisting primarily of methane in addition to various smaller amounts of other higher alkanes. Low levels of trace gases like carbo ...

resources. The Malvinas Gas Processing Plant, south of Camisea, produces natural gas and sends it via a pipeline which crosses the Andes and continues westward to the

Pacific Ocean The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean (or, depending on definition, to Antarctica) in the south, and is bounded by the continen ...

coast. The gas is consumed domestically and exported from the port of

Pisco Pisco is a colorless or yellowish-to-amber colored brandy produced in winemaking regions of Peru and Chile. Made by distilling fermented grape juice into a high-proof spirit, it was developed by 16th-century Spanish settlers as an alternative t ...

. Exploration for natural gas has extended into the protected and indigenous lands of Megantoni posing a risk to the survival and livelihoods of the indigenous people and the tropical forests. "Inevitably," in the opinion of one scholar, a road will be built to connect Megantoni to the rest of Peru and stimulate an influx of farmers, miners, and drug traffickers who will encroach on the forests and indigenous people of the district.Dourojeanni
/ref>

References

{{reflist Districts of the La Convención Province Cusco Region Natural gas fields in Peru Natural gas pipelines in Peru