Peru, Natural Wonder

By Charlie Strader, Explorations Inc

Geographically Peru is divided into three regions: The Coast, which features deserts, beautiful beaches and fertile valleys. The Highlands, a mountainous area dominated by the Andes. The Jungle, a vast region of tropical vegetation that contribute to the Amazon River Basin. These regions create an extraordinary variety of ecosystems that shelter a wide diversity of animals and plants.

Peru has 84 of the 103 existing ecosystems and 28 of the 32 climates on the planet, making the country the most ecologically diverse in the world. Peru claims the most diversity of birds, mammals, and butterflies than any other country. Peru is home to approximately 1,750 bird species, 13,000 plant species, and one-quarter of South America’s mammal species. In many parts of the Peruvian Amazon there are between 150 and 300 species of trees within less than three acres of rainforest.

Home to the origin of the mighty Amazon River, the rainforests of Peru are some of the most important in the world, with high concentrations of biodiversity and large intact areas remaining. Ranking only behind Russia, Canada, and Brazil in the size of its frontier forests, Peru has more than 133 million acres of old growth rainforest, representing 57 percent of the country’s original forest cover. More plant species live in the Amazon than anywhere on earth, with over 25,000 identified to date. It has been estimated that the plant life in Amazonia contributes 20% of the earth's atmospheric oxygen.

The Amazon River system harbors the most diverse freshwater fish fauna on earth. Over 2,000 species have been discovered to date. Some ichthyologists believe that there are more fish species in Amazonia than in all of the Atlantic Ocean. At one time, the Amazon basin flowed west into the Pacific Ocean. This "inland sea" is one of the oldest ecosystems on earth. The Amazon River contributes almost one-fifth of the total amount of freshwater discharged into the oceans of the world. Its volume exceeds the combined flow of the next eight largest rivers on earth. It has a water flow 12 times that of the Mississippi. At Iquitos, Peru, over 2,000 miles from its Atlantic mouth, the river is well over a mile wide. The river is navigable by large vessels 2,300 miles inland.

Scientists have named and described about 1.4 million species of all kinds of living organisms worldwide, over half of which are insects. There exist many more as yet undescribed species, and we still don’t know the true number of  species on Earth, even to the nearest order of magnitude. We do know, however, that latitudinal diversity gradients exist, with most taxa increasing in species diversity as one moves away from the poles toward the equator. Tropical rain forests are exceptionally species-rich, containing perhaps more than half of the species in the entire world, even though they cover only about 7% of the world’s surface area.

Although serious taxonomic investigation of the biota of tropical rain forests is still in its infancy, some studies have yielded extraordinary species diversity counts. For example, a one-hectare forest plot near Yanomamo, Peru was found to contain 283 species of trees, 63% of which were represented by a single individual (Gentry 1988). (In contrast, there are only about 700 tree species in all of North America.) In the Tambopata Reserve in Peru, 43 different species of ants belonging to 26 genera were found on a single tree (Wilson 1987). This is about equal to the entire ant fauna of the British Isles.

The tropical rain forest canopy—the uppermost strata of foliage—has been called the last unexplored frontier, and it is here that many organisms new to science await discovery. Many different types of insects, epiphytic plants, lichens, fungi, roundworms, mites, protozoans, bacteria and other small organisms thrive in this environment. We know relatively little about the canopy layer, as it has been neglected in the past due to its inaccessibility. But now, thanks to the use of innovative techniques ranging from rock climbing equipment to hot air balloons, biologists are finally beginning to explore the canopy habitat in detail.

Even though many taxonomists are fervently working at naming and describing new species, we will probably never know the true number of species on Earth, primarily because species are going extinct faster than they can be found and described. This is especially true in tropical forests. It is estimated that 40% of the land that can support tropical forests now lacks it, primarily because of human activities. Deforestation continues at rampant levels in many countries. For example, deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon ranges from 2 to 8 million hectares per year, depending on whom you believe.

Such high rates of deforestation pose a difficult question for tropical biologists: How much biodiversity is being lost? There is no accurate answer to this question for two main reasons. First, we don’t even know how many species there were to begin with. Second, estimates of deforestation rates are difficult to obtain, usually inaccurate, and vary widely depending upon the source (thus the large range in the deforestation rate given for Brazil above).

Over the past two decades many different estimates of species extinction rates have been put forth, based on different estimates of the relevant parameters. A relatively recent, and somewhat conservative estimate is that we are losing about 17,500 species per year, in the tropics alone. That is about 1,000 to 10,000 times higher than extinction rates in the so-called “mass extinction” events of prehistoric times, which wiped out the dinosaurs and many other less well-known taxa.

Unfortunately, the vast majority of the Amazon rainforest in Peru is still threatened. Since the rubber boom of the early 20th century, countless Peruvian politicians have made extracting natural resources from the Amazon a priority.  Current causes of deforestation in Peru include logging, oil extraction, chemical spraying and clearing of vegetation to eradicate coca plants, and colonization leading to the conversion of pristine forest into farms and pastures. Over-hunting also threatens the region’s biodiversity. In many cases, the traditional territories of the Peruvian Amazon’s indigenous peoples have been lost
to the encroachment of the Western world.

The natural world is not the only reason to visit this diverse country. There are also cultural reasons. In addition to world renown archaeological sites such as Machu Picchu and Cuzco, the indigenous peoples still continue age-old traditions, textile weavings and crafts. Cuzco, the ancient capital of the Inca Empire, and its surrounds are a photographer's dreamland with incredible archaeology sites, terraced valleys, mountain vistas of snow capped peaks,  outstanding early colonial architecture and most of all the beauty of the Peruvians themselves. For many, the Quechua Indians and their arts and handicrafts are reason enough to visit this part of the world. There is still much more to see in Peru, such as the mysterious Nazca Lines, Lake Titikaka, Ballestas Islands, Colca Canyon, Arequipa, Trujillo and of course the colonial and modern capital of Lima. Peru has a sophisticated tourist infrastructure with good transportation, great hotels and restaurants. The cuisine of Peru is also amazing, a delicious mix of ancient, local and international influences.