The Alto Mayo Protection Forest (Spanish: ''Bosque de Protección Alto Mayo'') is an area of protected forest land in northern

Peru , image_flag = Flag of Peru.svg , image_coat = Escudo nacional del Perú.svg , other_symbol = Great Seal of the State , other_symbol_type = National seal , national_motto = "Firm and Happy f ...

. It is located in Rioja and

Moyobamba Moyobamba () or Muyupampa ( Quechua ''muyu'' circle, ''pampa'' large plain, "circle plain") is the capital city of the San Martín Region in northern Peru. Called "Santiago of eight valleys of Moyobamba" or "Maynas capital". There are 50,073 inha ...

provinces within the region of San Martin, with a small part in Rodriguez de Mendoza province, in the region of Amazonas. This area preserves a portion of the tropical yungas forest in the upper Mayo River basin, while protecting soil and water from erosion by

deforestation Deforestation or forest clearance is the removal of a forest or stand of trees from land that is then converted to non-forest use. Deforestation can involve conversion of forest land to farms, ranches, or urban use. The most concentrated ...

, as the area is the water supply of populations in the Mayo valley.

History

In 1963, the Peruvian government granted protection over the area declaring it the Alto Mayo National Forest by Law No 442; however, in the 1970s, many people started to occupy the area and clear the pristine forests. Moreover, workers that build a road across the national forest, began to hunt individuals of yellow-tailed woolly monkey for their meat. The government tried to control the situation by modifying the original law, declaring under protection only the forests in the upper part of the valley; the rest of the former national forest was declared land for free agricultural use. The rediscovery of the yellow-tailed woolly monkey in 1974 in nearby areas attracted efforts of research and conservation to the national forest. In 1977, the local office of the Ministry of Agriculture attempts to establish boundaries and a protection category for the forest, but the initiative was forgotten. In 1979, a main road connecting the eastern forest lands with the Pacific coast (Carretera Marginal de la Selva) is opened. The same year, another free use zone is declared in lands proposed for conservation within the national forest. Between 1974 and 1983, several research projects on local fauna and forest ecology were conducted, all reaching the conclusion that the area should be given conservation priority. The initiative for park delimitation and protection was resumed in 1984; however, it was in 1987 that the forest was protected by a decree.

Geography

The protected area covers of forest land along the upper River Mayo basin. The protected area also covers part of

district within the province of

; Rioja, Elias Soplin Vargas,

Nueva Cajamarca Nueva is the Spanish feminine form of the word for "new" and may refer to: * Isla Nueva, an uninhabited island in Chile * The Nueva School The Nueva School is a private school, with two campuses—the lower and middle school in Hillsborough, ...

, Awajun and Pardo Miguel districts within the province of Rioja; and a small part of the Vista Alegre district, within the province of Rodriguez de Mendoza, in the neighboring region of Amazonas. This is a mountainous area, as it is located in the eastern part of the Andes, featuring slope grades greater than 70% in some parts. The area and its surroundings are part of the river Mayo upper watershed and eleven of the Mayo's main tributaries originate within the Alto Mayo Protected Forest.

Ecology

The Alto Mayo Protection Forest protects part of the

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 ...

ecoregion An ecoregion (ecological region) or ecozone (ecological zone) is an ecologically and geographically defined area that is smaller than a bioregion, which in turn is smaller than a biogeographic realm. Ecoregions cover relatively large areas of ...

Fauna

Some of the mammals reported in the area are: the yellow-tailed woolly monkey, the spectacled bear, the

cougar The cougar (''Puma concolor'') is a large cat native to the Americas. Its range spans from the Canadian Yukon to the southern Andes in South America and is the most widespread of any large wild terrestrial mammal in the Western Hemisphere. ...

, the

Peruvian night monkey The Peruvian night monkey (''Aotus miconax''), also known as the Andean night monkey, is a nocturnal New World monkey endemic to northern Peru. Adults weigh around and measure up to in length. Its colour is grey to light brown with characterist ...

, the

Rio Mayo titi The Rio Mayo titi monkey (''Plecturocebus oenanthe'') is a species of titi monkey, a type of New World monkey, endemic to Peru. The Rio Mayo titi, was thought previously to have a small range of origin in the Alto Mayo valley, but research has p ...

and the

giant armadillo The giant armadillo (''Priodontes maximus''), colloquially ''tatu-canastra'', ''tatou'', ''ocarro'' or ''tatú carreta'', is the largest living species of armadillo (although their extinct relatives, the glyptodonts, were much larger). It live ...

. Birds reported in the protection forest are: the

Andean cock-of-the-rock The Andean cock-of-the-rock (''Rupicola peruvianus''), also known as ''tunki'' (Quechua), is a large passerine bird of the cotinga family native to Andean cloud forests in South America. It is widely regarded as the national bird of Peru. It ha ...

, the

oilbird The oilbird (''Steatornis caripensis''), locally known as the , is a bird species found in the northern areas of South America including the Caribbean island of Trinidad. It is the only species in the genus ''Steatornis'', the family Steatornith ...

, the

king vulture The king vulture (''Sarcoramphus papa'') is a large bird found in Central and South America. It is a member of the New World vulture family Cathartidae. This vulture lives predominantly in tropical lowland forests stretching from southern Mexic ...

, the equatorial greytail, the

long-whiskered owlet The long-whiskered owlet (''Xenoglaux loweryi'') is a tiny owl that is endemic to a small area in the Andean mountains in Amazonas and San Martín in northern Peru. It is restricted to cloud forests with dense undergrowth and epiphytes at abou ...

, the

swallow-tailed kite The swallow-tailed kite (''Elanoides forficatus'') is a pernine raptor which breeds from the southeastern United States to eastern Peru and northern Argentina. It is the only species in the genus ''Elanoides''. Most North and Central American b ...

, the

razor-billed curassow The razor-billed curassow (''Mitu tuberosum'') is a species of bird in the family Cracidae, the chachalacas, guans, and curassows. It is found in Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, and Peru.Remsen, J. V., Jr., J. I. Areta, E. Bonaccorso, S. Claramunt ...

, the Andean guan, the

speckled chachalaca The speckled chachalaca (''Ortalis guttata'') is a species of bird in the family Cracidae, the chachalacas, guans, and curassows. It is found in Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, and Peru.Remsen, J. V., Jr., J. I. Areta, E. Bonaccorso, S. Cl ...

, the

blue-grey tanager The blue-gray tanager (''Thraupis episcopus'') is a medium-sized South American songbird of the tanager family, Thraupidae. Its range is from Mexico south to northeast Bolivia and northern Brazil, all of the Amazon Basin, except the very south. I ...

, the

white-throated toucan The white-throated toucan (''Ramphastos tucanus'') is a near-passerine bird in the family Ramphastidae found in South America throughout the Amazon Basin including the adjacent Tocantins and Araguaia River drainage. It prefers tropical hu ...

, etc.

Flora

Among the plant species found in the protected area are trees like: cedro (''

Cedrela odorata ''Cedrela odorata'' is a commercially important species of tree in the chinaberry family, Meliaceae, commonly known as Spanish cedar or Cuban cedar; it is also known as cedro in Spanish. Classification The genus ''Cedrela'' has undergone two m ...

''), requia ('' Guarea trichilioides''), rifari (''

Miconia ''Miconia'' is a genus of flowering plants in the glory bush family, Melastomataceae, native to warm temperate to tropical regions of the Americas. The species are mostly shrubs and small to medium-sized trees up to 15 m tall. The generic name ...

longifolia''), ojé (''

Ficus insipida ''Ficus insipida'' is a common tropical tree in the fig genus of the family Moraceae growing in forest habitats along rivers. It ranges from Mexico to northern South America. Taxonomy The tree was described in 1806 under the scientific name ' ...

''), cetico (''

Cecropia ''Cecropia'' is a Neotropical genus consisting of 61 recognized species with a highly distinctive lineage of dioecious trees. The genus consists of pioneer trees in the more or less humid parts of the Neotropics, with the majority of the speci ...

'' sp.), uvilla (''

Pourouma cecropiifolia ''Pourouma cecropiifolia'' (Amazon grape, Amazon tree-grape or uvilla; syn. ''P. multifida'') is a species of '' Pourouma'', native to tropical South America, in the western Amazon Basin in northern Bolivia, western Brazil, southeastern Colombia ...

''), tornillo ('' Cedrelinga cateniformis''), cascarilla (''

Cinchona pubescens ''Cinchona pubescens'', also known as red cinchona and quina (Kina) ( ''Cascarilla, cinchona''; ''quina-do-amazonas, quineira''), is native to Central and South America. It is known as a medicinal plant for its bark's high quinine content- and ...

''), palo seco ('' Alseis peruviana''), huamansamana (''

Dipteryx alata ''Dipteryx alata'' is a large, undomesticated, edible nut-bearing tree from dryish tropical lowlands in central South America belonging to the legume family, Fabaceae, from the Dipterygeae tribe in the Faboideae subfamily. It is a wild specie ...

''), amasisa (''

Erythrina fusca ''Erythrina fusca'' is a species of flowering tree in the legume family, Fabaceae. It is known by many common names, including purple coraltree, gallito, bois immortelle, bucayo, and the more ambiguous "bucare" and "coral bean". ''E. fusca'' ha ...

''), quinilla ('' Manilkara bidentata''), marupa (''

Simarouba amara ''Simarouba amara'' is a species of tree in the family Simaroubaceae, found in the rainforests and savannahs of South and Central America and the Caribbean. It was first described by Aubl. in French Guiana in 1775 and is one of six species of ...

''), yurac ciprana (''

Guatteria ''Guatteria'' is a genus of flowering plants in the family Annonaceae. It is the largest genus in the family in South America, and the dominant genus in mature forest. The fruits are berries, borne in clusters on short stalks. Species include:

hyposericea''), zapote (''

Quararibea cordata ''Quararibea cordata'', the South American sapote or chupa-chupa, is a large, semi-deciduous, fruit tree (up to 45m in height), native to Amazon rainforest vegetation in Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, and Peru. It bears orange-yellow fruit which ar ...

''), guayacán ('' Tabebuia ochracea''), catahua (''

Hura crepitans ''Hura crepitans'', the sandbox tree, also known as possumwood and jabillo, is an evergreen tree of the spurge family (Euphorbiaceae), native to tropical regions of North and South America including the Amazon rainforest. It is also present in p ...

''), mashonaste ('' Clarisia racemosa''), moena negra (''

Ocotea ''Ocotea'' is a genus of flowering plants belonging to the family Lauraceae. Many are evergreen trees with lauroid leaves. There are over 520 species currently accepted within the genus, distributed mostly in tropical and subtropical areas of ...

'' sp.); orchids like: '' Phragmipedium boisserianum, Masdevallia vargasii,'' etc.

Environmental issues

The main threats to this protected area are: the illegal settlement of farmers inside the forest who clear the land for agriculture; the extraction of wild orchids and animals for sale; timber extraction and unsustainable fishing practices.

References

External links

Profile at parkswatch.org

Alto Mayo Protection Forest. Official site

Alto Mayo Protection Forest. MapProfile at protectedplanet.net
{{Natural and Cultural Peruvian Heritage National forests of Peru Geography of San Martín Region Tourist attractions in San Martín Region Protected areas established in 1987 1987 establishments in Peru