Manu  National Park

Manú National Park is a biosphere reserve located in Madre de Dios and Paucartambo, Cusco. Before becoming an area protected by the Peruvian government, the Manú National Park was conserved thanks to its inaccessibility. The park remains fairly inaccessible by road to this day. In 1977, UNESCO recognised it as a Reserve of Biosphere and in 1987, it was pronounced a World Heritage Site. It is the largest National Park in Peru, covering an area of 15,328 km². The Biosphere Reserve includes an additional 2,570 km², and a further 914 km² are included in a "Cultural Zone" (which also is afforded a level of protection), bringing the total area up to 18,811 km².

The park protects several ecological zones ranging from as low as 150 meters above sea level in parts of the Amazon Basin to Puna grassland at altitudes of 4200 meters. Because of this topographical range, it has one of highest levels of biodiversity of any park in the world. Overall, more than 15,000 species of plants are found in Manú, and up to 250 varieties of trees have been found in a single hectare. The reserve is a destination for birdwatchers from all over the world, as it is home to over 1000 species of birds, more than the number of bird species found in the United States and Canada combined.

Permanent human habitation is restricted to several small communities of the Matsigenga Amazonian tribal group, largely along the Manú river or one of its main tributaries. Several protected areas adjoining the park allow mixed use including tourism, hunting, logging, and harvesting of other resources. These areas, notably downstream on the Manú River, are included in the broader Manú biosphere reserve, but are not part of the national park.

Visitors within the national park include medical and educational professionals upon invitation by the indigenous community, and researchers with permits from INRENA. The Cocha Cashu Biological Station, under the guidance of renowned Duke University ecologist John Terborgh is the largest and most established research site in the park, and is among the most well-studied sites for biological and ecological research in the tropics.

Flora

More than 20,000 species. 40% of the park is Amazonian lowland tropical rainforest, including varzea, oxbow lakes, Iriartea palm swamps, and upland forest types.

Fauna

Tambopata National Reserve

The intimate Heath River provides the fastest and easiest route to the uninhabited, unhunted core of these parks, a vast 2.5-million-acre (one-million-hectare) wilderness full of the five top predators of the Amazon--Jaguar, Giant Otter, Black Caiman, Harpy Eagle, and Anaconda. The unhunted region of Manu (the other great Peruvian nature reserve) is only 750,000 acres (300,000 hectares) and demands more money and time to visit.
The Heath River features the world's most accessible large macaw lick, which has registered up to 260 large macaws in one day, making it one of the five largest recorded macaw licks in the world. Though all five of these licks are spectacular, the Heath Lick is by far the most economical to visit, making it ideal for a short Amazon itinerary to combine with the Inca sites of Cusco and Machu Picchu. The Heath lick is the only one of the five that can be reached the same day that you fly by jet from Cusco, thus saving one or two nights over other licks.

The biological diversity of the Tambopata-Candamo zone is in itself extraordinary. The area is home to 90% of Peru's species of amphibians, reptiles and fish species living in continental waters, in addition to half the country's known bird and mammal species.

Genetic diversity -the entire genetic heritage of all plant and animal species- is so vast that it guarantees that scientists can improve on species currently in use and the selection of varieties. However, genetic diversity is suffering from genetic erosion and could eventually become a non-renewable resource.

Why is there so much diversity?

The dizzying level of biological diversity in Tambopata could be due to the variety of landscapes, physiography, geological formations, climactic differences and areas where different life zones come together. All this would create diversified eco-systems, both for flora and fauna. It is a kind of self-reproducing natural game of dialectics. The process started in the Pleistocene Era, and its development features the characteristics of the regions that make up the area, and the characteristics of the life forms that exist there.