Peru has set aside over 2 million acres of rainforest and river econsystem along the Yaguas River as a national park, aimed at conserving biodiversity and ancestral lands of indigenous people.
The park, in the country’s northern region, is home to a number of indigenous peoples, as well as being one of the richest fish faunas in the world. Pioneering scientific work by the Field Museum of Chicago and Peruvian scientific counterparts revealed that the diverse Yaguas watershed includes a large number of unique aquatic environments that contain more types of freshwater fish than anywhere else in the country – approximately 550 species.
In addition to government funding, the Andes Amazon Fund, a private charity, has contributed $1 million toward the project, which has been under pressure from illegal loggin and mining over the past 20 years.
