Bahuaja Sonene National Park

The Bahuaja - Sonene National Park was established on July 17, 1996 through Law (D.S.) N 012-96-AG. The area of Tambopata Candamo was created after it with the participation of the population of Madre de Dios and Puno.

This National Park is located in the departments of Madre de Dios and Puno provinces of Tambopata and Sandia respectively. It has a surface of 537,053.25 hectares corresponding to the National Sanctuary of Pampas del Heath, has a borderline with the National Park of Madidi in Bolivia. We con find several animals in danger of extinction like the giant outter and the river wolf (Pteronura brasiliense), the wild dog (Speothos venaticus), the black alligator (Melanosuchus niger), the aguila harpía (Harpya harpija).

A recently created park in the jungle territories of the Puno and Madre de Dios departments, the Bahuaja-Sonene National Park (names given by the Ese’eja ethnic group to the Tambopata and Ene rivers, respectively) serves to protect what are probably the last inhabited tropical forests of the world.

Its 1,091,416 hectares of rain forests adjoining the Madidi National Park of Bolivia have been expanded with a small area of palm tree savanna (previously protected as part of the Pampas del Heath Sanctuary) to form one of the most biodiverse corners of the planet.

Charles Munn, member of the Zoological Society of New York and ranked by Time Magazine as one of the 100 most influential personalities of the coming century, claims that the forests in this park shelter more plant and animal species that elsewhere in the world: over 20,000 plant species, a thousand bird species and hundreds of mammals, reptiles and fish.