Established on september 4th, 2001, it covers a total area of 274,690 hectares in the tam,bopata and heath river basins in Madre de Dios. the main purpose for its creation is the conservation of nature, the protection of highland areas at risk for erosion, and the promotion of conservatiog the existing resources on a three pillared basis: ecological processe maintenance, biological diversity preservation, and sustainable ise of the natural resources.
In the Tambopata National Reserve
Within is confines are the famous Macaw Clay Lick plus the Ese` eja and Pukirieri ethnic groups, which respectively belog to the Tacana and Harakmbet6 language families and are organized into four indigenous communities: Palma Real, Sonene, Infierno, and Kotsimba.
Tambopata National Reserve (Spanish: Reserva Nacional Tambopata) is a nature reserve in the Peruvian Amazon Basin south of the Madre de Dios River in Tambopata Province’s Inambari and Tambopata districts. The Tambopata River is one of the exclusive habitat of birds and mammals. Flora in the national reserve is fairly typical of the southwest Amazon Basin. The Heath River and surrounding plains are a unique ecosystem in Peru. The pampas are periodically flooded, and small groves of trees with varied plant life grow in isolated clumps on the plain. The protected area is home of a wide diversity of plants, including exploited forest species such as cedar, mahogany, tornillo, Brazil nut, palm trees such as the pona, aguaje, huasaí and ungurahui.
Researchers have discovered in the protected area large numbers of species that are now rarely found elsewhere in the Amazon jungle due to poaching, particularly tapirs and spider monkeys, but also jaguars, white-lipped peccary, medium-sized and large monkeys and caiman. Within the reserve, the lower elevation zone is dominated mostly by Amazonian bird species, the ones that are at or near their upper elevation limits, and by species that are restricted (or partially restricted) to the narrow band of rain forest found on the lower slopes of the Andes
