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The Peruvian Amazon is the area of the Amazon jungle that is confined within the territory of Peru, from the east of the Andes to borders with Ecuador, Colombia, Brazil and Bolivia. This region comprises more than half of the country and is an area with great biodiversity and endemism. The Peruvian Amazon is the second largest jungle after the Brazilian Amazon.

[edit] Extension

Contrary to what is commonly believed, most Peruvian territory is covered by dense Amazon forests, although a minority of its population lives in this area. The Amazon rain forest covers more than 60 percent of Peruvian territory, more than in any other country save Brazil.

According to the Research Institute of the Peruvian Amazon (Instituto de Investigaciones de la Amazonía Peruana, IIAP), the spatial delineation of the Peruvian Amazon is as follows:

Ecological criteria: 782,880.55 km² (60.91% of Peruvian territory and approximately 11.05% of the whole Amazon jungle).
Hydrographic criteria or basin criteria: 967,922.47 km² (75.31% of Peruvian territory and approximately 16.13% of the whole Amazon basin).

[edit] Ecoregions and climate

The Peruvian Amazon is traditionally divided into two distinct ecoregions:

The lowland jungle (in Spanish Selva Bafoja) is also known as Omagua region, walla, anti, Amazonian rain forest, or Amazon basin. This ecoregion is the largest of Peru, standing between 80 and 400 meters above sea level (masl). It has very warm weather with an average temperature of 28 °C, high relative humidity (over 75 percent) and large amounts of rainfall. Its soils are very heterogeneous, but almost all have river origins, and due to high temperatures and high rainfall they are poor soils with few nutrients. It contains long and strong rivers such as the Amazon, Ucayali, Marañón, Putumayo, Yavarí, Napo and Pastaza Tigre.

The highland jungle (in Spanish Selva Alta) is also called Rupa-Rupa region, andean jungle, ceja de selva or ceja de montaña. This ecoregion extends into the eastern foothills of the Andes, between 400 to 1000 masl. Temperatures are warm in the lowlands and cold in higher altitudes. There are many endemic fauna because of the isolation caused by the rugged terrain of this area. ^[1]

[edit] Biodiversity

The Peruvian Amazon jungle is one of the most biologically diverse areas on Earth. There is such a variety of species that most of them are probably still not discovered, or at least adequately studied. Peru is the country with largest number of bird species in the world and the third of mammals, with 44 percent and 63 percent respectively inhabiting the Peruvian Amazon. Peru also has a very large number of species of butterflies, orchids, and other organisms. In addition, Peru has 32 species. See: List of Peruvian monkey species

Taxonomy	Species in the World	Species in Peru	Species in the Peruvian Amazon	Peru Vs. World (Percent)	Peruvian Amazon Vs. Peru (Percent)
Amphibians	5 125	403	262	8	65
Birds	9 672	1 816	806	19	44
Flowering plants (Angiosperms)	250 000	17 144	7 372	7	43
Ferns (Pteridophyta)	10 000	1 000	700	10	70
Mammals	4 629	462	293	10	63
butterflies (Lepidoptera)	16 000	3 366	2 500	21	74
Fish (river fish)	8 411	900	697	11	77
Reptiles	7 855	395	180	5	46

This table was elaborated by Edwin Jesús Villacorta Monzón, with data obtained among many sources from years 1997, 2001 and 2006.

[edit] Demography

Although it is the largest region of Peru, the Peruvian Amazon is the least populated. It is home to approximately 11 percent of the country's population. Large numbers of indigenous people, such as the Aguaruna, Cocama-Cocamilla and the Urarina^[2] inhabit the jungle, some in relative isolation from the rest of the world. The primary cities located in the Peruvian Amazon include:

In the lowland jungle:

- Iquitos with 500 000 inhabitants at 104 masl (Loreto region)

- Pucallpa, with 180 000 inhabitants at 154 masl (Ucayali region)

- Yurimaguas with 64 000 inhabitants at 182 masl (Loreto region)

- Puerto Maldonado with 40 000 inhabitants at 139 masl (Madre de Dios region)

- Nauta with 35 914 inhabitants at 111 masl (Loreto region)

In the highland jungle:

- Tarapoto with 181 000 inhabitants at 350 masl (San Martín region)

- Jaén with 68 743 inhabitants at 729 masl (Cajamarca region)

- Moyobamba with 55 000 inhabitants at 860 masl (San Martín region)

- Bagua at 400 masl (Amazonas region)

- Rioja at 848 masl (at San Martín region)

[edit] See also

[edit] References

^ Pulgar Vidal, Javier: Geografía del Perú; Las Ocho Regiones Naturales del Perú. Edit. Universo S.A., Lima 1979. First Edition (his dissertation of 1940): Las ocho regiones naturales del Perú, Boletín del Museo de historia natural „Javier Prado“, n° especial, Lima, 1941, 17, pp. 145-161.
^ Dean, Bartholomew 2009 Urarina Society, Cosmology, and History in Peruvian Amazonia, Gainesville: University Press of Florida ISBN 978-081303378 [1]

[edit] External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Amazon Rainforest

IIAP - Instituto de Investigaciones de la Amazonía Peruana (Peruvian Amazonia Institute for the Investigation)
Siamazonía - Sistema de Información de la Diversidad Biológica y Ambiental de la Amazonía Peruana (Peruvian Amazonia Information Facility)
WWF in the Amazon rainforest
Amazon Alliance Information about the indigenous peoples of the Amazon rainforest and their struggles to protect their homeland.

[0] Pulgar Vidal, Javier: Geografía del Perú; Las Ocho Regiones Naturales del Perú. Edit. Universo S.A., Lima 1979. First Edition (his dissertation of 1940): Las ocho regiones naturales del Perú, Boletín del Museo de historia natural „Javier Prado“, n° especial, Lima, 1941, 17, pp. 145-161.

[1] Dean, Bartholomew 2009 Urarina Society, Cosmology, and History in Peruvian Amazonia, Gainesville: University Press of Florida ISBN 978-081303378 [1]

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